114) Echo Generation (2021)

Beginning development in 2018, the team at Cococucumber wanted to capture the nostalgic feel of childhood in a small town with the active turn-based gameplay of the early Paper Mario games. Using the same voxel-based visuals the team had previously used on the game Riverbound, the game has a unique blend of retro style graphics that still allows for the freedom provided by a fully three dimensional world. This helps the game feel fresh and new while helping to establish the early 90's setting of the story.

Set in the fictional land of Canada, our story follows our teenage protagonist and their younger sister as they make preparations to film a horror movie with their friends. Learning of a mysterious crashed object at the outskirts of town, the pair do what any kids would do in the early days of the internet and set out to investigate. It soon becomes apparent that things aren't quite what they would seem in this small town, as we find ourselves fighting against talking raccoons with attitude and encounter a puppet that surely isn't planning on killing the human race. Arriving at the crash site, the pair find evidence of their father who was last known to have worked for a military research company on the edge of town.

What follows is a fun and humorous adventure as we explore the small town, alternating between small and lighthearted escapades involving breaking into school and stealing from the local bookstore and dealing with a shadowy government agency and Lovecraftian horrors. Along the way, our intrepid siblings can find and befriend some of the local animals as well as a few more eccentric allies that we can add to our team. Combined with an amazing soundtrack and some truly breathtaking artwork, the game has a unique atmosphere and vibe all its own.

The story does a phenomenal job of balancing otherworldly horror with brilliantly absurd humor. At the heart of the experience is a combat system that is as deep as the player allows it to be. While you can certainly mash your way through, there are layers of strategy to the combat that reward the player for learning its ins and outs, and the array of animal companions we can recruit to act as our third party member bring a much needed variety to the mix.

While it would be easy to criticize the smaller scale of the town we explore, which necessitates a certain amount of backtracking and fetch questing, I personally never felt the experience to be tedious nor did it feel as though there was excessive padding for the run time. Echo Generation is, admittedly, on the shorter side, lasting around 8-10 hours, but I found myself instantly hooked on the experience. I expected to sit down and play for a couple of hours, then found myself playing the whole way through in one extended sitting.

Echo Generation is a game that initially flew under my radar. Lost in the sea of larger and more anticipated releases, even its unique visual style didn't truly help it stand out at the time of release. It doesn't help that the key art has an oddly AI look to it and the concept and setting elicits thoughts of Netflix's Stranger Things. However, likely more than most other games I've played this year, I'm so glad that I sat down and gave it a chance. As I said, I played through the entirety of the game in a single sitting, and I can't recommend the game more highly for RPG fans or for those with a soft spot for early 90's small town nostalgia.