Echo Generation Review: A Monster Mash
Cococucumber's Echo Generation’s focus lies on a rural child's sci-fi drama akin to Stranger Things. It contains a conglomerate of references ranging from giant mutant worms to serial killers that somehow all feel at home. All these combined greatest hits don't overpopulate or drudge the overall theme. It enhances it.
Echo Generation features stunning voxel art, a killer soundtrack, pleasant turn-based combat, and a compelling yet bonkers supernatural tale. The game attempts to be the total package and nearly succeeds. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lack of overall progression mapping and inconsistencies while blocking in combat, leaving the overall product narrowly missing a perfect score.
Presentation
I would be remiss not to begin with the game's stunning 3D voxel art style in terms of its overall presentation. I've seen both pixel and voxel art styles in my day, but maybe with Octopath Traveler being the only exception, Echo Generation's voxel art sets it apart. Characters and combat alike do more than enough to grab your eye, but it's the combination of the art style and its backdrops that make it so picturesque. As someone who doesn't often stop to take in the scenery in games, Cococucumber's vision brought me back to my Ghost of Tsushima playing days last year. To put it cleanly, I couldn't compliment this game's look enough. It rivals some of my favorite art styles I've ever laid my eyes on.
Now, at nobody's fault but my own, I assumed pursuing this type of style, while beautiful, would take a bit of variety away from the overall product. Considering how bonkers and jam packed the game ended up being, it felt like a safe bet. However, thanks to a few instances, I realized how wrong I was. The game isn't trying to touch your heart necessarily, but it has a few power-intending moments and tackles nostalgia very well. But, most of all, absolutely nothing pertaining to the game's suspense or stakes were sacrificed. I know this because Echo Generation gave me a jump scare. Was it intended? I couldn't tell you. As someone who doesn't scare easily, I let my guard down, and let's just say I almost dropped my controller to the extent that my dog, Yoshi, felt the need to check in on me after.
Challenging even the praise I hold for the voxel art, Echo Generation features a feat of an original soundtrack. If you like retro-inspired synthwave, look no further. When first booting up the game and hearing a few different tracks, I knew the game's soundtrack was going to deliver. Luckily, I was right, and the soundtrack is so, so good. I find myself saying this a lot already in this review, but as someone who doesn't look for a game's soundtrack after playing and to the game's credit, Echo Generation's tracks are the exception.
You can discover new tracks in the form of cassette tapes, because of course, as you explore and eventually progress. The cassette tapes don't add or do much beyond that in gameplay, but I was never bummed out when receiving one over a combat item as a reward. Even when my fingers weren't at the sticks, I would catch myself whistling tunes from the game. So much so that my partner had to shush me. Thanks, Cococucumber.
Story
Echo Generation is listed to take you on a supernatural adventure through the scope of a couple of kids. The scope is accurate, but saying you go on merely a supernatural adventure, doesn't do it justice. Your quest, or a variety of them, comes off as a sort of Spielbergian acid trip. It feels more like the greatest hits of supernatural drama in the best way.
I mean it, they're all here. Without spoiling too much, we've got aliens, giant worms, transformers, serial killers, irradiated critters, a paranormal werewolf, animatronics, mechs, and even a terrifying ethereal being that may or may not be what scared the profanity out of me. Amazingly, none of these beings or characters feel out of place. Not a single one feels like a fish out of water due to the tone this world encompasses. I never once questioned it. I didn't need to.
You play as the older sibling in a family of four. You have a lonely stay-at-home mother, an absent father, and a spunky little sister. You eventually recruit your younger sister to join your party, but you don't stop there. Your next party member happens to be your very own house cat, Meowsy. There are other cute and fantastical companions to acquire as you play. Not a real knock, but most characters' names are significantly on the nose and basic. I wasn't a fan of them, but they do seem intentional.
Your party sets out like they would any given day but quickly discover something about their father. Throughout your time in-game, whether it be fighting giant creatures or solving mad puzzles, you and your sister do not hesitate, focusing on one thing and thing only; finding their dad or information about him. It's respectable.
Quickly paced with no need for subtlety, this tale takes you to a myriad of places but does so in merely two days. The game moves from narrative beat to narrative beat or boss fight to boss fight so quickly that I ended up beating an intriguing side story that I expected to persist much longer very early on. Initially, this made me question the overall pacing, but the more I played, I realized what this game was going for. They weave a very bonkers game-friendly narrative loosely, but it helped me recognize the greatest-hits fashion that would soon be on full display. What could be seen as lousy pacing is just story beat after story beat done differently than I am used to. I dug it overall.
The game will not pull at your heartstrings, but a poignant lesson is present by the end. Somehow it's one I vibed with, even coupled with the narrative. By the time I reached this point and credits rolled, the lesson and ending as a whole, powerful or not, felt right.
Gameplay
In Echo Generation, you choose from a diverse pool of character models and quickly jump into the games' turn-based combat utilizing what they refer to as minigames. I would push back on that note a bit for a more accurate representation of what it is when you launch an attack. Rather than referring to attacks as minigames, I would use the term micro game akin to Warioware. For instance, all attacks are quick and straightforward timing prompts to do max damage, but most are single button presses or one sequence of presses. Like most rhythm games, some attacks have face or directional buttons falling from top to bottom for the player to time said presses when they reach the threshold. Yet, it's only one frame of button prompts. If an attack featured several typical rhythm frames, I could see the argument for coining them, but none are quite that complex.
Players can collect items for health and buff purposes and a few that do a fixed amount of damage. There is one vendor-like character as well as vending machines. I may have discovered a vendor exploit of a kind, but it's too hard to say. If I bought an item then immediately backed out, that same item would remain in the vendor's inventory as well as mine. Yet, as I assume is intended, if you buy several items and then leave, the things disappear from their list. I was able to buy a ton of health items way before I needed them, but it did still take my currency, so take that as you will.
Combat also includes:
Comics that act as learning new moves regardless of level.
Status effects.
Three total weapon types per party member.
Leveling up health, strength, or skill.
An inconsistent blocking mechanic.
Blocking in combat was way too complicated at times. It honestly felt a bit broken. Like attacking, blocking is timing your prompt. However, depending on the character you are facing, their prompt will pop up in different locations at varying times depending on the attack they choose. Some give an adequate time to press the button once you manage to spot the prompt, but specific characters do not. I did not investigate whether or not you can turn them off, but each attack has its own cinematic. At times, the block prompt will pop up immediately after an attack cinematic and genuinely doesn't allow you to block it. When failing an attack prompt, it feels at the fault of the player. That isn't always the case for blocking. As frustrating as blocking could be from time to time, it didn't overpower the quality of the combat overall.
Enemies you combat never feel like another. They are unique and add a sense of variety to your fights. That said, the very first fight isn't with a radiated mutant worm, a giant mech, or God; it's with a measly raccoon of all things. The raccoon deserved it, I swear. They are a bunch of bullies. PETA, chill.
Early on, the combat can prove challenging. The moves themselves may be overly simplistic, but if you fail a few attacks or blocks, you could find yourself dealing with a game over. It simply doesn't leave a lot of room for error when you are lower level. So, logically I jumped to grinding. However, the more I played, I realized that you would be perfectly fine if you got your attacks down, which is so much better in the grand scheme of things. Grinding is rarely ideal, but if you wanted to, you really can't, except for one area that I didn't get to until the middle of my playthrough. I did utilize this area in one instance, but it was to get some cash, not to level up.
Enough on the combat. Let's talk quests and exploration. Being able to sprint but not jump or fast travel, you explore Maple Town and the surrounding locales as you embark on quests. The game consists of way more areas than I initially expected. Each one felt grounded and fantastical as they added to the overall experience rather than drudge it down. I was stoked to explore these areas regardless of the difficulty of unlocking them.
The quests, on the other hand, are never very forward. For instance, calling them quests may be a bit much. You don't have a journal of any kind or a tab titled as such. You only have the items you collect and the inventory they are in. Some items will come with hints in their description, but the hints aren't always helpful. That's it. That is your only form of direction, and even then, some of them don't pan out right away.
For example, I got one item within my first hour that listed where to take it and who to give it to, but I couldn't use it until my final hours. This had me constantly questioning if there was something I was missing. I did miss something. I missed that a particular character was crucial to acquiring a separate item to couple with this item. I could only use this item if I had both of them to give to the appropriate character. Since I missed a crucial detail that I'm not entirely sure was said, I held this item for much longer than intended.
This sort of lack in tracking your progression persists throughout the entire game. The puzzles are very random in their solutions, akin to point and clicks. I am familiar with these types of puzzles and how the answers can be a stretch, but I still struggled to decipher whether I was progressing or not accurately. I backtracked a lot from this, but implementing fast travel could have saved a lot of time.
Breakdown
Game: Echo Generation
Developer: Cococucumber
Availability: Xbox Series X | S, PC
Reviewed on Xbox Series S
Playtime: 10-15 Hours
Pros:
+ Stunning Voxel Art
+ Great Original Soundtrack
+ Nostalgia
+ Supernatural Greatest Hits
Cons:
- Lack of Progression Tracking
- Blocking
Final Thoughts
All of the good in Echo Generation, whether it be the nostalgic themes, the voxel art, the soundtrack, the greatest hits palette, or the no chill characters, heavily outweighs the bad. Yes, I got frustrated with the blocking and lack of progression, but I never once questioned whether I wanted to continue playing or not. If the lack of progression is a game-breaker for you, I get that. But with the help of a guide, I can see many garnering a fun experience from Echo Generation. It's clear that Cococucumber realized their vision, and I was so along for the ride. From here on out, I would personally play anything Cococucumber releases, and you should too. With a bit of fine-tuning on future titles, the sky really is the limit.
Reviewed by Austin Ernst