Let me just say that the people who made this game are geniuses for creating a game that is unique and different than the rest. In my opinion these endings and mature themes is what make this game powerful and memorable, without the bad experiences we've seen in this game it wouldn't be the same. This was my second visual novel right next to adastra and this one struck a chord within me I love echo and their games!
This game has become one of my no.1 fave games of all time, been about 2 months since I finished it and it is not going to be forgotten by me anytime soon, never have I read a game with characters and story so incredible they leave me staring at nothing for 20 minutes on the menu scaring trying to process what I just read in the end. Or crying for 2 hours straight over these characters.
In short, Leo's 2 endings are unsatisfactory if you're a big fan of the Leo × chase chip because regardless of your choices Leo will be taken by hysteria and from there everything that was built between them starts to fall apart like a old house
This is obviously lies. Chase and Leo get a flat together. Chase changes his major and becomes a novelist and Leo goes back to college and gains a qualification in electric car maintenance. Leo opens his own mechanic shop outside of echo and them and all their family and friends vow never to return to Echo ever again. Echo's dam malfunctions and floods the town.
I recently finished TJ's route and I feel an indescribable feeling of ¿numb entropy? this is one of the games where I need to do every route but at the same time with each step, it chips away at my soul. I had a hard time in the very beginning when everything was mostly fine and I didn't know what was really to come that I would regret playing the game or just general dread and foreboding.
Just finished the good and bad Leo endings. it's a shame that they could not get things to work out but the good ending is a lot better then the bad ending. I hope that the other endings shed more light on what the ___________ keeping you from leaving was or what was the ___________ that attacked the bear guy in the mine. also the route left me questioning if it was Chase that killed Sidney or was that only part of the TJ route but it seems like it was.
Oh man, i cant remember how many years ago i first tried this out, so hyped when i heard it got completed!!
Edit: So i just completed my first playthrough expecting a kinda dark yiffy vn like Blackgate, instead i got a super dark story about the absolute horros of serial killers, demons and mass psychosis.
So I actually played this VN for the first time over 6 months ago now. I came back to play some routes bc I love the story so much. Anyway, a weird issue I've had on my Mac (even when I first played it) is that it will overheat like crazy if I leave it sitting for a minute without changing the page. Does anyone else have this problem? (Probably just my computer being dumb, but I figured I'd ask)
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I have never connected to a piece of literature as much as this one. It could just be my imagination, but regardless, the story feels incredibly nostalgic for me and really hits home. I love all of the characters and routes, and I cannot thank the Echo Project enough for bringing this chilling but beautiful piece of art to life. <3
this game is so amazing. if youre wanting a story with a "happy ending", or a normal dating sim, this is not the game for you. its a horror game! but more importantly, it's a story about trauma. ive played every route, gotten every ending, and have recommend it to all my friends. i went into this thinking it was a dating sim that just had more of a backstory for the characters then most ive played, but the reality is it is a deeply unsettling, beautiful story that uses its medium in a way that is so unique, ive never read a visual novel and considered it "perfect" until reading echo. its going to be something i think about for years and years to come.
Eh. I dunno, after Carl's "good" ending I just feel I was teased and lead on the entire time. Super demotivating to play the rest, I guess. Not sure what I was expecting from that warning but eh... I'll lump this entirely into the horror category and move on I guess.
Flynn's hallucination is best described as that, a hallucination. He is trapped in an endless purgatory after killing himself in the mines. The talk with Sydney was a dream and part of his hallucination, more how he wishes things with Sydney would have turned out if he lived. The monster is more a manifestation of Echo's curse or the traumas of the town. Not any sort of, folk-lore monster.
Exactly, it's a trauma demon, created by Echo as a means to curse the residents and basically feast on the traumas of it's residents, and it doesn't help that this demon is literally Flynn from another timeline-
No one truly knows what the monster is, sometimes it's a protector, sometimes it will be an aggressor. It's best to call it 'the embodiment of Echos curse' and yes Leos route is hella dark.
UUUUUUGH my heartstrings!!!! This vn i swear has me feeling so many things, such an amazing story, the characters, everything! Especially Leos story line
you know you're down bad when you change the species of one of your fursonae to better suit the romantic interest's tastes [hiding a mustelid fursona behind my back]
so, i furst heard abt this gaem when i was chatting with a furriend of mine about furry visual novels we were playing- and he told me about echo! and oh gosh, i finished it about a week ago and i just... dont wanna let go of all these characters and the world they live it, it all just feels so real and believable and well written!! (even tho it did make me anxious a few times ehehe but i just stepped away when it was too meowch fur me)
This game is soooo good. I can't put it into words how dedicated I felt to all the characters and wanted the main gang to do well. On my first route I went for TJ and I'm not entirely sure how I felt about the ending and was gonna delete until I read a comment about how heart breaking Leo's route was and had to play again. I was kinda expecting a simular experience but it's completely different and there's just so much effort put into this game that I had to experience everything. Now I think I've seen pretty much everything there is to see (There's one for each character exept Leo who has two I think but if there's somehow more please tell) and now I'm probably gonna obsess about them all an unhealthy amount. I loved the references to Adastra btw and this game has inpired me to try and get back into art again (definitely tons of Leo fan art). Sorry for this long ass rant but it comes from the heart.
I would say Carls was good for Chase and Carl, but noone else, Jenna's route is the best ending IMO, Leo and Chase end their relationship for good, Jenna is moving on, Flynn is moving on, Carl is struggling but will move on with the help of Flynn, TJ is moving on.
the feelings are hitting again, i love leo so much, fuck chase and fuck both leo's endings for breaking him in different ways, i feel like i was meant to be his just as he is
obvi great game tho im not saying its not and objectively his route is good it just makes my heart hurt
I wish he got a better ending. Leo has problems but I don't think its anything a therapist couldn't fix. I wish they gave you a option to talk Leo just getting Leo to jump on the train
i don't know where else to put this so i will put as little spoilers as possible....... in "Carl-Mansion2.rpy:0291 there is a spelling error "I looks up in time..."
if there is a better place to send these kind of things lmk but i couldn't find anything
MAAAAAAN it's so well done, the music, the drawings, de characters. It's everything so well used for creating tense atmosphere(and destroying it lol). I still didn't finished my first go, but hell there are so many mixed feelings in my brain. 10/10 One of the best visual novels I ever played (if not the best). PD: if you didn't play it yet, be careful with this comments section for spoilers ;)
i think i might go after tj next but i'll wait a week. i need to recover from getting my legs chopped off by a train.
i also want to try and forget the feeling of wanting to reach through the screen and slap chase across the face when he lied to lynn but eh whatever i suppose.
Oh yeah, that ending. That one got me depressed and disturbed. And don't think about why you have feelings for the lizard. You will end up having feelings for everyone.
ya well... it wasn't really the ending the disturbed me too much. ending of leo's route... it was mainly all the lying that chase has done, at least relatively speaking that is mostly what was disturbing to me.
i swear he couldn't have gone 3 seconds XD without either straight up lying or lying by omission, it just happened to be particularly annoying to me when he lied there to lynn though that isn't really a major point where things could have been different.
From my experience with Echo I went into it with this impression that felt as though people were saying things about one particular character or another. But the more time I spent with it, the more I realised how the town itself ... the darkness that pervades it, like an indelible mark, manipulating and taunting all of the characters in various ways, it really was the one in the driver's seat. I came to end up pitying and empathising with all of the characters and what they went through. So many terrible scenarios and situations beating them down over and over. It's a wonder they did as well as they did for so long.
I don't really blame any of them, I know if it were me I'd have left as soon as anything freaky or terrible happened. Echo seems like a nightmare to live. One way too many never escape.
Hi guys! I just finished all routes (this took a few sleepless nights, energy drinks and missing assignments in college but I guess it's worth it??). I wanna make sure I understand the story completely so I have some questions. If someone could explain a few things to me - would be great! Spoilers, obvi.
So, first of all. Did TJ actually remember Chase drowning Sydney but decided not to tell anyone... or did he really "forget" that because of how traumatic this experience was for him? I just find it weird that he never mentions this except for Flynn's route.
Another thing. That pinkish flat-faced monster with holes for eyes and mouth?? I just don't know how to call it. Is it actually Flynn? Near the end of his route he gets burned alive in the cave... And both TJ and Jenna mention that this monster looks like a burned person. And because we basically see "through monsters eyes" during Flynn's route it makes it kinda obvious, but still... How is that even possible? Why is he still "alive"? What's even his purpose?
And one last thing. The most important one for me, I think. When TJ finally tells the story about how Sydney drowned, he mentions this "burned man". Well, our monster. And if I understand it correctly, the monster appears and prevents the murder of someone who's dying unjustly. Like, when Brian tries to kill Chase in the cave, or when Brian tries to hang Micha. Pretty sure there're more examples but I can't remember. So. If it actually appeared while Chase was drowning Sydney... Why didn't it kill Chase? It killed no one, so why did it even appear? Why was it necessary to mention it's apperance if it did nothing?
So so sorry for my awful grammar, my first language is Russian. Hope you didn't have a stroke reading this. Thank you in advance for replies.
I highly recomend you either replay the game or look back on scenes that confuse you or both because that shit helped me a lot and i recommend you try to come up with your own conclusions as well.
1. the thing with TJ is MOSTLY ambiguous wether or not he remeber what happened or not since the game is well know for letting the reader put the peices together themselves, I think he doesn't remember what happened to sydney but he knows the version of it he told wasnt true. In flynn and (especially)Leo's route after he almost drowns and chase saves him (which he doesn't in flynns route) he begins remembering what happened and starts looking at chase weird. In flynns route his reason why he didn't tell what he actually remembers was because he saw the socketman ( thats what the fanbase calls the monster) and he did tell people what happened but no one beleived him because of him seeing this monster so he never bothers. In TJ's route I think an incident that happens to TJ off screen that not only causes him to make the scavenger hunt but also seems to make him remember what happen (most likely a possesion of some sort).
2. so the whole flynn thing is still tough the explain, the gist of it is that flynns going through what could be interpreted as time travel or a eternal vision/limbo like state that isn't actually real or a combanation of both where he's seeing all of these fucked up things that happened in the town and the significance of this is his desire to know what happened gets taken advantage of and he get into this situation where he's now able to see everything about the horrors of echo and esentially becomes appart of the hystaria in the town but is denied seeing what actually happened to sydney, the whole reason why he went this far in the first place. I say it's tough to explain because both possibilitys of flynn being or not being socketman have contradictions and it's intentionly not supose to be fully understood since even flynn himself has no clue what's going on but just goes with the ride hoping to get to the truth.
3. socket mans motive is never understood or mentioned if it has one. I think that socket man is a amalgamation of all or most the people who have ties with echo and died in the town (flynn becoming one of them at the end of his route) and some times random people control it. What seems to be the biggest idea with the fans is that every time the gang gets there asses saved by socketman is that it's flynn from the end his route.
1.- TJ remembers, but decides to keep quiet to "prevent more troubles". Remember that he is just against any sort of violence. That and the fact that Sydney was basically killing him and Chase saved him.
2.- Yeah Socket man is Flynn, there is not really a purpose of his own, although he do regains control every now and then. But the "evil of echo" is mainly in control. (There are theories that this evil might be "the other" mentioned in Adastra series.)
3.- And no, I don't think he is there to prevent someone to be unjustly killed, he did not prevented Carl's predecessor to kill his lover, and in Leo's route he does not prevent Chase's death. He exists to protect Echo secrets, the evil and curse of Echo exists because of them, and as long as those exists, the evil can feed.
At least that is my understanding of things. If I misunderstood something please correct me.
You should acknowledge the fact, that Echo is not a dating sim, even though Chase is gay it doesn't define anything. We are here for the plot, not horny furry husbandos (well, most of us, Leo fanclub, lets connect ourselves!)
btw spoiler for others
I think Carl is not gay, he is the most probably straight or eventually BI. Sex with Flynn and make out with Chase is only his experimenting / seeking his sexuality / pure curiosity, idk tbh ;)
I'm not playing the game for the sex or love, this was pure humor-
I'm just saying I got surprised by his ending is all
Also I remembering him saying he wouldn't want to label his sexuality, so I guess he just doesn't give a shit about it (Which definitely sounds like Carl xD)
I greatly enjoyed playing this VN. I think this game was well-made. Each of the different routes does a good job of providing a different plotline and experience for the player. Every route sheds light on a different aspect of the town, the characters involved, their pasts, and their relationship to one another, leaving the reader engaged and wanting to play each route to learn more.
I think that the plotlines of each route were well-written. The routes each have their "WHAM" moments where something is revealed that totally changes one's perception of the characters, or things go from 0-100 real quick. TJ's route is an example of this, and the last few scenes were shocking due to how quickly things escalated. I did not expect that. These revelations also help keep the reader engaged, and definitely left an impression with me.
This VN deals with some heavier themes such as trauma, abuse, drug use, and suicide. It does not pull punches in that regard.
Echo does a good job of creating a tense atmosphere when needed through the use of music, dialogue, and its art. One part that really stood out to me was when Dark Chase just walks onto the screen, all animated and such, in contrast to how characters in Ren'Py usually come and go. That was pretty unsettling, well done.
Although there is a fair share of romance in Echo and there are a few sex scenes that are written out, but not shown, I think that this game can be enjoyed both by furries and non-furries alike.
I liked the game's soundtrack, particularly circles3 and the theme that plays whenever action takes place.
As far as things I didn't like go, there are a couple. In Jenna's route, Flynn and TJ stumbling upon the characters towards the end and the train that the group boards at the end of Leo's route just happening to be the last of 3 trains that were being moved to a museum seem like a plot contrivance, though, to be fair, that one is foreshadowed throughout Leo's and other routes. However, these things occur towards the very end of their respective routes, so they don't ruin the reader's engagement with the story that much. One MIGHT argue that the monster saving the characters in Jenna's route was a Deus Ex Machina, but, given what is revealed about it in other routes, it makes sense from a story perspective. The part where Chase is saved from the mines as he was about to get shot by Brian is a bit iffy in that regard. Maybe it's something that is going to be explored in The Smoke Room or Arches?
TL;DR: Great VN. There are a couple minor things I didn't like, but overall, I would recommend this.
It's been almost a year since I read it now. I had a breakdown afterwards. Sure, there were a couple of other things in play as well, but Echo was a big part of it. I'm still digesting what happened to me, tbh. I was seriously forever changed by reading a VN. It's for real.
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Let me just say that the people who made this game are geniuses for creating a game that is unique and different than the rest. In my opinion these endings and mature themes is what make this game powerful and memorable, without the bad experiences we've seen in this game it wouldn't be the same. This was my second visual novel right next to adastra and this one struck a chord within me I love echo and their games!
CW: Echo can be an emotionally intense experience - no joke this shit hits different.
;-;
This game has become one of my no.1 fave games of all time, been about 2 months since I finished it and it is not going to be forgotten by me anytime soon, never have I read a game with characters and story so incredible they leave me staring at nothing for 20 minutes on the menu scaring trying to process what I just read in the end. Or crying for 2 hours straight over these characters.
Can someone tell me about Leo's ending?
Just curious before I play his route
You're going to lose your soul, that's all I can tell you
Yep your right , I am traumatized by the ending.
Spoilers though
This is obviously lies. Chase and Leo get a flat together. Chase changes his major and becomes a novelist and Leo goes back to college and gains a qualification in electric car maintenance. Leo opens his own mechanic shop outside of echo and them and all their family and friends vow never to return to Echo ever again. Echo's dam malfunctions and floods the town.
I recently finished TJ's route and I feel an indescribable feeling of ¿numb entropy? this is one of the games where I need to do every route but at the same time with each step, it chips away at my soul. I had a hard time in the very beginning when everything was mostly fine and I didn't know what was really to come that I would regret playing the game or just general dread and foreboding.
Just finished the good and bad Leo endings. it's a shame that they could not get things to work out but the good ending is a lot better then the bad ending. I hope that the other endings shed more light on what the ___________ keeping you from leaving was or what was the ___________ that attacked the bear guy in the mine. also the route left me questioning if it was Chase that killed Sidney or was that only part of the TJ route but it seems like it was.
Oh man, i cant remember how many years ago i first tried this out, so hyped when i heard it got completed!!
Edit: So i just completed my first playthrough expecting a kinda dark yiffy vn like Blackgate, instead i got a super dark story about the absolute horros of serial killers, demons and mass psychosis.
Its, beautifully written, but damn dude D:
Blackgate... oh no
woe, woe, it is valentines day and there isn't a big red velvet cake-colored wolf in my home to spend it with
😳
👉👈
no wait..is it really the sexy Leo? the hum is ringing loud where i am.
So I actually played this VN for the first time over 6 months ago now. I came back to play some routes bc I love the story so much. Anyway, a weird issue I've had on my Mac (even when I first played it) is that it will overheat like crazy if I leave it sitting for a minute without changing the page. Does anyone else have this problem? (Probably just my computer being dumb, but I figured I'd ask)
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I have never connected to a piece of literature as much as this one. It could just be my imagination, but regardless, the story feels incredibly nostalgic for me and really hits home. I love all of the characters and routes, and I cannot thank the Echo Project enough for bringing this chilling but beautiful piece of art to life. <3
my macbook gets very hot while i play too :(
this game is so amazing. if youre wanting a story with a "happy ending", or a normal dating sim, this is not the game for you. its a horror game! but more importantly, it's a story about trauma. ive played every route, gotten every ending, and have recommend it to all my friends. i went into this thinking it was a dating sim that just had more of a backstory for the characters then most ive played, but the reality is it is a deeply unsettling, beautiful story that uses its medium in a way that is so unique, ive never read a visual novel and considered it "perfect" until reading echo. its going to be something i think about for years and years to come.
Eh. I dunno, after Carl's "good" ending I just feel I was teased and lead on the entire time. Super demotivating to play the rest, I guess. Not sure what I was expecting from that warning but eh... I'll lump this entirely into the horror category and move on I guess.
I mean, Carl's route is not the best route, it's a good one but not the best imho, there are far more intense routes
Is there a happy ending with Leo or no
(I Badly wanna know🥺)
Spoiler.
The best ending for Leo is actually Jenna's good ending, so no not really I think...
Leo's route gave me emotional damage
Why Leo, why?
Leo route is the second saddest for me, number one is Flynn....
I downloaded this and it says the software isn't compatible with my Chromebook what is going on
well, that isn't a pc, linux, mac, or android machine, sooo...
it is an Android that’s how I have been playing the other VNs I play
Try using crossover trough linux,or on a phone
umm just finish flynn story and i'm not really strong eng but i think i got some understand there but not clearly
question below + some spoile?
is he turn in to vindigo?
how ?
is this bad end?
what that talk with syd it's dream or real?
who is he? like is he real syd or both side is vindigo?
Wow TJ story...... wow....
SPOILERS
Flynn's hallucination is best described as that, a hallucination. He is trapped in an endless purgatory after killing himself in the mines. The talk with Sydney was a dream and part of his hallucination, more how he wishes things with Sydney would have turned out if he lived. The monster is more a manifestation of Echo's curse or the traumas of the town. Not any sort of, folk-lore monster.
Exactly, it's a trauma demon, created by Echo as a means to curse the residents and basically feast on the traumas of it's residents, and it doesn't help that this demon is literally Flynn from another timeline-
Hi! I'm new here just want to ask what the monster really is i thought it a chupacabra
Ohh and just saw the comments that there was routes just done reading leo's route damn the ending it turn's dark but the other one kinda sting so much
No one truly knows what the monster is, sometimes it's a protector, sometimes it will be an aggressor. It's best to call it 'the embodiment of Echos curse' and yes Leos route is hella dark.
ohhh okay thank for the info
UUUUUUGH my heartstrings!!!! This vn i swear has me feeling so many things, such an amazing story, the characters, everything! Especially Leos story line
you know you're down bad when you change the species of one of your fursonae to better suit the romantic interest's tastes [hiding a mustelid fursona behind my back]
I wasn't an Otter type, but Chase really connects with me and is by far my favorite character.
THIS GAME AAAAAAA where do i even start???? /pos
so, i furst heard abt this gaem when i was chatting with a furriend of mine about furry visual novels we were playing- and he told me about echo! and oh gosh, i finished it about a week ago and i just... dont wanna let go of all these characters and the world they live it, it all just feels so real and believable and well written!! (even tho it did make me anxious a few times ehehe but i just stepped away when it was too meowch fur me)
i swear, i'm never going to forget this vn <3
I did TJ's route first.
When I tell you T R A U M A, I mean it.
What a fantastic VN.
I’ve just finished my first playthrough. I don’t think I’ll be going again. That was a lot, I just wanted him to be happy
FLYNN, OH FLYNN
I'm so sorry! I played with your emotions, and I feel so bad right now
This game, it broke me and i feel like a fail this people
im not into visual novels or atlist wasnt given this is my first, im without words how good this is.
i finish flynn story, my reptile man needs more love that ending hurt emotionaly and phisically
I did Leo's route first. Of course! Poignant.
I'm in Jenna's route. WTF?!?!!?!?!?!
I think I'll do Flynn next. Edit: Oh...oh,my. Such...feelings. i cried. Hard.
It just keeps getting worse!
Carl is next.
This game is soooo good. I can't put it into words how dedicated I felt to all the characters and wanted the main gang to do well. On my first route I went for TJ and I'm not entirely sure how I felt about the ending and was gonna delete until I read a comment about how heart breaking Leo's route was and had to play again. I was kinda expecting a simular experience but it's completely different and there's just so much effort put into this game that I had to experience everything. Now I think I've seen pretty much everything there is to see (There's one for each character exept Leo who has two I think but if there's somehow more please tell) and now I'm probably gonna obsess about them all an unhealthy amount. I loved the references to Adastra btw and this game has inpired me to try and get back into art again (definitely tons of Leo fan art). Sorry for this long ass rant but it comes from the heart.
jenna and carl both also have two endings
i'm new to Echo and i'm wondering: is there an ending where you can get out madness-free of this horrible town
The closest to that is in Leo's good ending and by what others say (haven't done it myself) Jenna's good ending.
SPOILERS
========
Carl's is pretty 'good', I mean, like, no one's dead, crazy, missing, and there's generally a positive mood.
SPOILERS (duh)
I would say Carls was good for Chase and Carl, but noone else, Jenna's route is the best ending IMO, Leo and Chase end their relationship for good, Jenna is moving on, Flynn is moving on, Carl is struggling but will move on with the help of Flynn, TJ is moving on.
I guess Jenna's ending is the best one. Leo's good ending can make you feel like sh$t if unprepared
What is this game screen size?
Is it really a square or my pc is broken?
Square with black to the left and right? That's normal i think.
the town of echo reminds me of a combination of Oklahoma, big bend national park, and Arizona.
the feelings are hitting again, i love leo so much, fuck chase and fuck both leo's endings for breaking him in different ways, i feel like i was meant to be his just as he is
obvi great game tho im not saying its not and objectively his route is good it just makes my heart hurt
I wish he got a better ending. Leo has problems but I don't think its anything a therapist couldn't fix. I wish they gave you a option to talk Leo just getting Leo to jump on the train
i understand the thematic reasons why the didnt, but it doesn't make it any less upsetting
i don't know where else to put this so i will put as little spoilers as possible....... in "Carl-Mansion2.rpy:0291 there is a spelling error "I looks up in time..."
if there is a better place to send these kind of things lmk but i couldn't find anything
MAAAAAAN it's so well done, the music, the drawings, de characters. It's everything so well used for creating tense atmosphere(and destroying it lol). I still didn't finished my first go, but hell there are so many mixed feelings in my brain. 10/10 One of the best visual novels I ever played (if not the best).
PD: if you didn't play it yet, be careful with this comments section for spoilers ;)
holy fuck that intro. that sense of mystery has gripped on me like a leach holy fuck
It's been a long time since reading something has griped me as hard as this has, holy shit. 10/10 I think I need to rest my mind.
i thought my first time through was bad.
well second time through is bad in a different way i guess.
eh, why do i have to have feelings for that damn lizard :(
anyways... i suppose i should take a break while i think about who my next target should be.
i think i might go after tj next but i'll wait a week. i need to recover from getting my legs chopped off by a train.
i also want to try and forget the feeling of wanting to reach through the screen and slap chase across the face when he lied to lynn but eh whatever i suppose.
Oh yeah, that ending. That one got me depressed and disturbed. And don't think about why you have feelings for the lizard. You will end up having feelings for everyone.
ya well... it wasn't really the ending the disturbed me too much. ending of leo's route...
it was mainly all the lying that chase has done, at least relatively speaking that is mostly what was disturbing to me.
i swear he couldn't have gone 3 seconds XD without either straight up lying or lying by omission,
it just happened to be particularly annoying to me when he lied there to lynn though that isn't really a major point where things could have been different.
From my experience with Echo I went into it with this impression that felt as though people were saying things about one particular character or another. But the more time I spent with it, the more I realised how the town itself ... the darkness that pervades it, like an indelible mark, manipulating and taunting all of the characters in various ways, it really was the one in the driver's seat. I came to end up pitying and empathising with all of the characters and what they went through. So many terrible scenarios and situations beating them down over and over. It's a wonder they did as well as they did for so long.
I don't really blame any of them, I know if it were me I'd have left as soon as anything freaky or terrible happened. Echo seems like a nightmare to live. One way too many never escape.
Hi guys! I just finished all routes (this took a few sleepless nights, energy drinks and missing assignments in college but I guess it's worth it??). I wanna make sure I understand the story completely so I have some questions. If someone could explain a few things to me - would be great! Spoilers, obvi.
So, first of all. Did TJ actually remember Chase drowning Sydney but decided not to tell anyone... or did he really "forget" that because of how traumatic this experience was for him? I just find it weird that he never mentions this except for Flynn's route.
Another thing. That pinkish flat-faced monster with holes for eyes and mouth?? I just don't know how to call it. Is it actually Flynn? Near the end of his route he gets burned alive in the cave... And both TJ and Jenna mention that this monster looks like a burned person. And because we basically see "through monsters eyes" during Flynn's route it makes it kinda obvious, but still... How is that even possible? Why is he still "alive"? What's even his purpose?
And one last thing. The most important one for me, I think. When TJ finally tells the story about how Sydney drowned, he mentions this "burned man". Well, our monster. And if I understand it correctly, the monster appears and prevents the murder of someone who's dying unjustly. Like, when Brian tries to kill Chase in the cave, or when Brian tries to hang Micha. Pretty sure there're more examples but I can't remember. So. If it actually appeared while Chase was drowning Sydney... Why didn't it kill Chase? It killed no one, so why did it even appear? Why was it necessary to mention it's apperance if it did nothing?
So so sorry for my awful grammar, my first language is Russian. Hope you didn't have a stroke reading this. Thank you in advance for replies.
I highly recomend you either replay the game or look back on scenes that confuse you or both because that shit helped me a lot and i recommend you try to come up with your own conclusions as well.
1. the thing with TJ is MOSTLY ambiguous wether or not he remeber what happened or not since the game is well know for letting the reader put the peices together themselves, I think he doesn't remember what happened to sydney but he knows the version of it he told wasnt true. In flynn and (especially)Leo's route after he almost drowns and chase saves him (which he doesn't in flynns route) he begins remembering what happened and starts looking at chase weird. In flynns route his reason why he didn't tell what he actually remembers was because he saw the socketman ( thats what the fanbase calls the monster) and he did tell people what happened but no one beleived him because of him seeing this monster so he never bothers. In TJ's route I think an incident that happens to TJ off screen that not only causes him to make the scavenger hunt but also seems to make him remember what happen (most likely a possesion of some sort).
2. so the whole flynn thing is still tough the explain, the gist of it is that flynns going through what could be interpreted as time travel or a eternal vision/limbo like state that isn't actually real or a combanation of both where he's seeing all of these fucked up things that happened in the town and the significance of this is his desire to know what happened gets taken advantage of and he get into this situation where he's now able to see everything about the horrors of echo and esentially becomes appart of the hystaria in the town but is denied seeing what actually happened to sydney, the whole reason why he went this far in the first place. I say it's tough to explain because both possibilitys of flynn being or not being socketman have contradictions and it's intentionly not supose to be fully understood since even flynn himself has no clue what's going on but just goes with the ride hoping to get to the truth.
3. socket mans motive is never understood or mentioned if it has one. I think that socket man is a amalgamation of all or most the people who have ties with echo and died in the town (flynn becoming one of them at the end of his route) and some times random people control it. What seems to be the biggest idea with the fans is that every time the gang gets there asses saved by socketman is that it's flynn from the end his route.
Jeez, ok here it goes
1.- TJ remembers, but decides to keep quiet to "prevent more troubles". Remember that he is just against any sort of violence. That and the fact that Sydney was basically killing him and Chase saved him.
2.- Yeah Socket man is Flynn, there is not really a purpose of his own, although he do regains control every now and then. But the "evil of echo" is mainly in control. (There are theories that this evil might be "the other" mentioned in Adastra series.)
3.- And no, I don't think he is there to prevent someone to be unjustly killed, he did not prevented Carl's predecessor to kill his lover, and in Leo's route he does not prevent Chase's death. He exists to protect Echo secrets, the evil and curse of Echo exists because of them, and as long as those exists, the evil can feed.
At least that is my understanding of things. If I misunderstood something please correct me.
Considering you can see Adastra's palace on a TV screen (I don't remember when or where exactly), it would be fun if the Socketman was the Other xD
WAIT A GOD DAMN MINUTE
You can't actually date Carl, even if you finish his route with the good ending?
You should acknowledge the fact, that Echo is not a dating sim, even though Chase is gay it doesn't define anything. We are here for the plot, not horny furry husbandos (well, most of us, Leo fanclub, lets connect ourselves!)
btw spoiler for others
I think Carl is not gay, he is the most probably straight or eventually BI. Sex with Flynn and make out with Chase is only his experimenting / seeking his sexuality / pure curiosity, idk tbh ;)
Carl definitely seems bi, however, I'm pretty confident that TJ is asexual so I think that's the most "straight" you can get.
I'm not playing the game for the sex or love, this was pure humor-
I'm just saying I got surprised by his ending is all
Also I remembering him saying he wouldn't want to label his sexuality, so I guess he just doesn't give a shit about it (Which definitely sounds like Carl xD)
I greatly enjoyed playing this VN. I think this game was well-made. Each of the different routes does a good job of providing a different plotline and experience for the player. Every route sheds light on a different aspect of the town, the characters involved, their pasts, and their relationship to one another, leaving the reader engaged and wanting to play each route to learn more.
I think that the plotlines of each route were well-written. The routes each have their "WHAM" moments where something is revealed that totally changes one's perception of the characters, or things go from 0-100 real quick. TJ's route is an example of this, and the last few scenes were shocking due to how quickly things escalated. I did not expect that. These revelations also help keep the reader engaged, and definitely left an impression with me.
This VN deals with some heavier themes such as trauma, abuse, drug use, and suicide. It does not pull punches in that regard.
Echo does a good job of creating a tense atmosphere when needed through the use of music, dialogue, and its art. One part that really stood out to me was when Dark Chase just walks onto the screen, all animated and such, in contrast to how characters in Ren'Py usually come and go. That was pretty unsettling, well done.
Although there is a fair share of romance in Echo and there are a few sex scenes that are written out, but not shown, I think that this game can be enjoyed both by furries and non-furries alike.
I liked the game's soundtrack, particularly circles3 and the theme that plays whenever action takes place.
As far as things I didn't like go, there are a couple. In Jenna's route, Flynn and TJ stumbling upon the characters towards the end and the train that the group boards at the end of Leo's route just happening to be the last of 3 trains that were being moved to a museum seem like a plot contrivance, though, to be fair, that one is foreshadowed throughout Leo's and other routes. However, these things occur towards the very end of their respective routes, so they don't ruin the reader's engagement with the story that much. One MIGHT argue that the monster saving the characters in Jenna's route was a Deus Ex Machina, but, given what is revealed about it in other routes, it makes sense from a story perspective. The part where Chase is saved from the mines as he was about to get shot by Brian is a bit iffy in that regard. Maybe it's something that is going to be explored in The Smoke Room or Arches?
TL;DR: Great VN. There are a couple minor things I didn't like, but overall, I would recommend this.
I know this is just a joke, but is it for real? I mean, I don't want to ruin my feelings
It's been almost a year since I read it now. I had a breakdown afterwards. Sure, there were a couple of other things in play as well, but Echo was a big part of it. I'm still digesting what happened to me, tbh. I was seriously forever changed by reading a VN. It's for real.
Honestly, yes it is true!