It has been three years since the release of celebrated RPG Chained Echoes. Now we have a new DLC, Chained Echoes: Ashes of Erlant. I myself was a huge fan of the original title. It was full of so much of that old school charm that made 80s and 90s RPGs so great. Combine that with a compelling combat system and mythic story and well you’ve got one of the best games of the year.
Chained Echoes: Ashes of Erlant has a lot to live up to. As I stated before, Chained Echoes had so much going for it, how could Ashes of Erlant live up to it? Simple, give us the next chapter in the story, but don’t try and stuff it down our throats. Matthias Linda understood the assignment. What can happen with many sequels/DLCs is that they try too hard. One such example hat comes to mind is The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II. The team at Falcom believed that bigger was better, more characters, more mini-games, etc. What they missed though was that all of this drowned out the story that fans were interested in.
On top of that the game felt like a glorified DLC, the mechanics weren’t changed much, the characters we did get were that interesting, and the length of the game was padded with unnecessary elements. This is exactly the opposite within Chained Echoes: Ashes of Erlant. Within this DLC we get just the right amount of what we need to push the exceptional narrative further, while expanding the world and learning more about our characters.
Welcome to Erlant – What’s new?
Within Chained Echoes: Ashes of Erlant there is a lot to do. When Glenn, Lenne and the gang are thrust into the past they have to contend with old enemies and join up with new allies. One such ally is Leonar, the new playable character. Leonar is a beast of a character, literally. This wolf king is the best boy and once I unlocked him he was in my party for the entirety of the game. He’s a monster in battle, with devastating physical attacks coupled with a unique debuff that does outstanding damage upon enemies.
The new areas and people within Ashes of Erlant are brilliantly bizarre, with their own unique and devasting stories. There is so much going on in Erlant and the surrounding locales and I was deeply invested in it all. I wouldn’t expect anything less from this world though. The gameplay hasn’t changed that much, which honestly I don’t mind. If it’s not broke don’t fix it, plus it is a DLC, it doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are one or two new debuffs and buffs you’ve to worry about. However, they were easily handled.
The score is once again outstanding, equal parts soothing and dramatic when the need calls for it. Technically the only isssue I found came in the shape of one shopkeep who when I interacted with him my game constantly glitch and freeze. He is in Erlant castle and every time I would glitch without fail. Thankfully the game autosaves often so I didn’t lose too much progress. I would avoid him though, if you can.
This DLC is just right
Apart from that blemish this is an otherwise spotless DLC. The world within Ashes of Erlant is teeming with activity. With new, challenging mini-games to unlock, new optional bosses, as well as further expanding on some of the characters that didn’t get enough time to shine in the original title this has something for every fan. If I had to guess, the game took approximately 15 hours for me to complete and it was a thrilling experience.
This is a template a lot of other studios could learn from. Chained Echoes: Ashes of Erlant is a brilliant DLC, easily one of the best out there thanks to its creator. If you’re a fan of Chained Echoes and you want to see the next chapter in this journey I highly recommend picking this up. And if you’ve not had the pleasure of playing Chained Echoes, you should definitely hop on board, you won’t regret it.
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