The first Echo Generation was announced back ID@Xbox showcase It’s 2020 and I remember reading that Cococumber’s Writer and Producer and Co-Founder Vanessa Chia wanted the game to be a reflection of many players’ childhoods growing up, nostalgia was a theme with a small town vibe prevalent in the media of the time. Stranger ThingsGhostbusters: Afterlife or The Goonies. Gameplay-wise, it would be remiss not to feel nostalgic for games like Paper Mario or Super Mario RPG, feeling that RPG mechanics are familiar with a lack of mechanical bloat.
It was no surprise that Echo Generation continued this nostalgia trip with Echo Generation 2, giving the player a cold sense of familiarity, like watching a Saturday morning cartoon with a bowl of cereal. What surprised me was how invested I was in the characters and world created by the Cococumber team.
To begin with, you follow the game through the perspectives of two characters: Sister M and Jack, two completely different characters who unknowingly share the same story. From the start, you can choose where you want to start, which is a nice addition if you think you’ll prefer one, although I’m having a hard time deciding. As with some games with multiple playable characters that feel like a re-hash of each other, the stories are different and somehow different, if that makes sense, while keeping the same vibe.
Sister M begins her story by escaping from the research facility where she and the other children were raised and tested. Where are all your friends and who is “The Commander”?
Jack’s story begins with him and his family spending the weekend in a cabin when an explosion occurs at Jack’s workplace, a local science facility. Jack must get his family to safety before he is called back to work to save the day.
Is it the same object? You’ll have to play the game yourself, but I played the first 3 chapters for this preview, and I also had the opportunity to play two other chapters, each with a completely new character: Annata Z, a zombie with no memories other than missing her daughter, and Nolivia, a bounty hunter from the future.
The game’s art style begins with a retro pixel art 3D extravaganza for your eyes, with each screen you enter as beautiful as the last. In Jacks chapter, the game opens with a shot of a sunset across the lake, but it’s the guest bedroom that I keep coming back to.
The cleanliness of the room with how the light shines through the window on either side of the bed allows the greens and reds around the room to be highlighted, adding a higher level of 3D space to the already 3D pixel art. I don’t think I can think of a screen I’ve walked into that has let it down.
The gameplay is a simple nostalgic game of a turn-based RPG battle system, where good guys and bad guys politely take turns trying to beat each other with one move.
The difference this time is a redesigned battle system that works on a card collecting system, where glowing trading cards will be hidden around the world for the player to find, each giving you a new attack, defense or support card. Each refers to a specific type of card, such as diamonds, spades, or hearts. Each enemy will have a position bar above their health; using cards with matching symbols will remove their status bar and make your next attacks do more damage.
Cococumber’s choice to separate the two stories is to cast Sister M as a solo character fighting to escape the tyranny of her masters, and Jack as a typical father who teams up with his babies to fight with knives and axes. This is a great way to keep the player engaged with your game as you vary your tactics from one or two attacks to 3-6 per turn.
Echo Generations 2 is short and sweet, with a completion time of around 9 hours if you want to see the whole game, giving you a massive game to pick up and play before you tackle your next RPG mammoth, or if you want to take a trip down memory lane and play a game that you think could be a console from your childhood.
Echo Generations 2 is available now Xbox Series X| S, Xbox on PC, Xbox One, Steam and compatible handsets. The game is also available in Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass Subscription and features support for Xbox Cloud Game and the Xbox Play Anywhere app, making it the perfect game to play wherever you are, whenever you have 5 minutes to spare.
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