Chained Echoes takes the best parts from classic JRPGs and creates something new and full of love. The combat system combines traditional choose-your-ability combat found in most JRPGs, and makes you balance it and think about your moves in a new way. While there is a small learning curve, once you figure out the minutiae of combat, it opens up into an engaging system.
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There are two types of skill within the game: innate skills a character has that are unique to them, and those that are learned from Class Emblems that, once mastered, can be mixed and matched with all characters. It’s both fun and challenging to find the right moves to customize your party with, so here are some suggestions that might make your decision a little easier.
8 Contagion
With the number of enemies you encounter in battle, crowd control is not only a good strategy but essential if you want to keep yourself in the fights longer. Robb, the overprotective and somewhat rude right hand of Lenne, comes equipped with both Contagion and Poison within his bow and arrow arsenal right at the beginning. It almost makes up for that attitude of his.
Contagion acts as a spreader of poison. When you target an opponent infected with the poison, it will spread to all other enemies on the field for four turns. The amount of damage is negligible at first, but once you start leveling your skills, it’ll start melting them down fast.
7 Shadowstep
Sienna is our resident thief/assassin in the party, and she comes equipped with skills you’d imagine come naturally with a thief. Pilfer is what comes to mind. This doesn’t change much as you unlock more of her move set, but it instead refines her play experience as a powerful and nimble thief.
Shadowstep is a skill that she unlocks later in the game that gives the caster the ability to dodge three physical attacks, giving you heightened reflexes beyond that of mere mortals. Buying yourself time to breathe and plan is never a bad thing, and this will give you three turns worth of air to rethink your plan of action.
6 Heal All
Yes, this is a skill you get very early and there are stronger versions of it once you advance further into the story, but it's essential for progression, and that isn’t hyperbole. Aside from the fact they put it right in your face, you aren’t going to get far without any type of healing spell.
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Items will keep you going for a while, but eventually, you will end up running out of disposable income for snacks and sweets. At that point, you’re left helpless and stuck with an eventual boss. You’re going to want to find out what happens, right?
5 Elemental Pact
This move is evidence of having to sometimes think on your feet in these fights. Sometimes, it’s better to ride out a fight until you find the right moment to use a weakness. Other times, you’ll want to end the fight as quickly as possible. Elemental Pact gives you a significant boost of strength to three of your magic attacks. This high reward doesn’t come without risk, however.
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The cost of this power comes at all of your TP. So you’ll have to be strategic when you utilize Elemental Pact to avoid leaving yourself vulnerable and unable to cast magic. It’s a gamble, but you can write the endings of a battle that much faster.
4 Uncanny Encounter
Similar to Quina from Final Fantasy 9, the character Tomke has the ability to can his enemies and learn new skills to use in battle, with the bonus of items sometimes dropping as well. Some of the moves you receive can be something similar to what another character already has, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything worthwhile to gain from canning who and what you can.
You can gain Sailor’s Song, which raises your Ultra Move bar significantly once per fight, Freak Wave, a powerful water AOE attack, and Sacrifice, which revives everyone from K.O. status while sacrificing the user.
3 All Break
Early in the game, you take longer turns to apply each debuff one at a time, which takes more turns than it should, and you have to worry about the debuffs running out before being able to stack them. It is inefficient and prevents you from maximizing the potential of each of them.
Enter All Break. This move combines strength, defense, mind, and magic by a percentage at once, letting you be able to take more hits. Although, there is always a cost. While you’re able to cast all debuffs at once, they don’t last as long as the individual debuffs do. It’s a minute cost for a quick boost in damage, and worth the trade-off.
2 Lightning Rod
This is one move the damage mitigation crowd can get behind. Lightning Rod casts a protective spell that gives you another chance to dodge an attack after successfully dodging the first. It’s simple, but very effective in keeping the caster alive, which comes in handy for the endgame and beyond.
Sienna is the one who’s mastered it. She is the agility queen and can become almost invincible if you boost this stat high enough. Combining her innate agility with this dodge mechanic is overpowered and can feel like you can break the game with her. Meaning, you should go for it.
1 Know Your Limits
Yes, this move is a high-risk move, once again leaving you TP-less after everything is said and cast. But by the time you get this move, you are more than prepared to make up for the momentary lack of TP, so the cost isn’t as daunting.
When you cast it, all of your moves, whether they be magic or physical, will cost nothing for three turns. Meaning, you can use the strongest moves you have without limits for three turns. So, cast that giant fire spell, or summon a being who can refill your TP, and go all out! Conserving TP is fine, but the game is built for you to take full advantage of your moves.
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