at last. release. (see my first, second, third, and fourth posts about Echo to get up to speed. this is the last chance for you to play the game yourself... totally unspoilered, that is. (i will still keep any and all spoilers below minor ones at best.) either way, time for the final entry in this series.
this was Flynn's route. per the recommend from Patricia Taxxon all that long ago, i saved this one for last.
a bitter final route to swallow, this one. mostly just leaving me clamoring for more. i suppose that's why the other games in the echo universe are there.
being able to pull knowledge from the whole game now, i can see the cyclical bits masterfully written, very well lined up. does an excellent job of inducing horror when you are able to see shit coming due to not just foreshadowing from the current route, but all the other routes as well. some elements appear and disappear without much cross-route elaboration, but there are few enough of these so as to not be too disappointing.
however, i don't feel this was the strongest writing of the game. to elaborate i have to be a heck of a lot more spoilery, so...
spoilers for major themes of literally all of echo
okay! so, with a lot of routes we have the exploration of different characters tightly interwoven with the "plot", so to speak. for example, Carl's depression manifesting as being trapped "in the house", or Leo's obsession over Chase *literally* manifesting into a echo of Chase that affects other characters. this route... i didn't really feel like i got to experience a Flynn character arc *or* plot movement in the rest of Echo. while some of that *is* being presented, such as Flynn's compulsion to reveal the truth of what happened to Sydney, or the history rhymes of the town vengeance against Chase/John Begay, i didn't really feel like they culminate to anything in particular? subjectively, it feels like both elements stop at about the same time when the gang takes off from town hall. we get to explore Flynn and Sydney a bit in the end, but i didn't feel it went the places it could have gone if we had had the *actual* Flynn/Chase conflict pay off.game overall thoughts: someone once praised Adastra for its highly efficient storytelling, able to take disparate story themes, character arcs, and plot beats and blend them together, often writing in multiple "layers" of engagement at the same time. a single scene can press themes, develop characters, and in Echo, be spooky, all at the same time. it never quite lets you disengage with any one story line or character arc because it will almost always swing back around.
i'm usually not one for horror, usually, but i feel that Echo really did benefit from never taking the easy route and giving the sappy slice-of-life stuff, even though that's what everyone draws. and in doing so, it can paint an emotionally honest picture of how stuff like abusive relationships, depression, poverty, drugs, and queerphobia affect, traumatize, and yes, echo out to other people, if not literally honest (because demon ghosts aren't real).
good game. only cried once though, so it's clearly inferior to Adastra (cried 4+ times, and more than that if you count all the times i cried to the soundtrack), BAD game i wanted to see the OTTER and the WOLF do a SMOOCH
