omg the part where my charter kills flynn its was scary at the same time thinking he needed that but i wish i was able to see me and TJ date and kiss some more BUT IN JEN I LOVE IT ALL
I don't really ever comment on anything I play, but I have to comment on this. I played this for the first time just now, finished Leo's route and wow. This was so beautifully written, I never thought I would get so drawn in, get so scared, and actually cry (I'm a pushover anyway) all in one characters story in a visual novel... I can not wait to start Flynn's route next, after a good week emotionally recovering. Great job on this. Much love!
I recommend saving Flynn's route for last. It is the wildest ride, and pays off the most if you've played all the other routes first <3 Since you finished Leo's, I recommend Jenna's since it closely relates to Leo's. This is all according to the recommended order by the developers btw.
That said, it's really up to you, but the dev's order gives the most cohesive story experience as a whole.
It's been a few days now and Leo's route is still playing with me, I saw both ending and obviously one was very... rough to see and the good ending was so emotionally draining for me, still feel a bit empty now lol. Very scared to see how the others play out but looking forward nevertheless <3 T_T
I don't think I've ever felt the need to comment on something before, but damn... Finally got around to joining the TSR/Echo craze, and finished the last of the routes in Echo today. I did a recommended route I found of Carl-Leo-Jenna-TJ-Flynn, and I'm really glad I took that route. Heavy stories are kinda my thing, and this absolutely did not disappoint. This is actually my first VN, and I loved how they were able to use the format to push the horror aspect of the stories.
I think one of the big reasons this story dragged me in so much is the parallels with my own childhood friend group. Hell my rich friend's name was Karl, even haha. The only one that didn't have a parallel in my group was Leo. For this reason, reading about their dynamic gave me a LOT of nostalgia, since my group didn't stay in touch really.
HIGHLY suggest. I've even suggested it to my non-furry friends.
Mild Spoilers follow:
I'd have to say that while I loved each route, and I don't think the story works nearly as well without reading all of them, my favorites are probably Carl's and Leo's. Carl's mainly for the twisty surrealist story, I really enjoyed that. Leo's route, to me, had the most satisfying ending of them all and I really enjoyed the obsession plotline - I thought that was really well done.
TJ/Flynn routes really drove home the heaviness, which I thought was a great way to end my reading experience. I know a lot of people say Jenna's route for the end due to the happier ending, but I liked not knowing the truth until the end. All-in-all such a good story and I can't wait to start Arches.
P.S. - As the Flynn of my group growing up (and I was definitely Flynn in my 20s), screw you guys (j/k)
Well I finally finished. I have only finished Leo's route but .. I kept having to take breaks. By the end, I just cried my eyes out. I guess I some of my own emotions that I didn't realize. I don't know if I can even through the other routes. It's just something that got me with dread etc. But thank you Echo Project for this. It has been an amazing ride. I don't know how you guys did it .. but thank you for the experience.
I've seen my fair share of "dark, heavy themes" but this game does not hold back the punches. Remember to take a break if it gets too much for you (Mild spoilers: Especially in TJ's/Flynn's route).
Right off the bat I have to say that I am very much biased with my review of this VN. I had been part of this VN's fandom since 2018 and only recently fell out of love with the fandom's complete saturation of man-children who can't seem to understand basic narrative threads.
However, I will attempt to avoid mentioning that further within this review. I will now start the review proper.
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Echo. What can be said about this absolutely amazing horror experience? The way the creators use the VN format to effectively scare the player is damn genius and one of the reasons this story could never be told outside of that format.
The set-up is simple: You are Chase Hunter. A otter who grew up in Echo and are coming back for spring break to do a school project and a chance to reunite with your childhood friends: Flynn, Carl, TJ, Jenna, and Leo. You get to Echo and everything seems fine for the first 2 days of your trip. On Monday however, you and your friends go to a river near Lake Emma, the place where your friend, Sydney was found dead. This sparks an argument between Flynn and the rest of you. After said argument is over, all but you and Carl have left the area and you must make a choice: Which one of your friends will you go after?
This is where the route choice presents itself. And I must say, it is an excellent set-up. I will review each route individually and give my opinions on each.
Carl's Route:
Carl's route is the one I played first. Before I get into the nitty gritty of the route, I must mention how you begin his route. You sit down. That's it. You just click his name and sit down next to him. It's a very passive way to begin a route and matches Carl to a T. You see, Carl lives a very sedentary life. He plays video games, eats, smokes weed, and sleeps. But beneath that exterior of laziness is a great character who I fell in love with.
This route consists of Chase attempting to mediate between Carl/James Hendricks I and Jenna/John Begay. The nightmare dimension part of the route is expertly written and I seriously love it to bits. Except for one detail: Raven. Raven is a useless "character" who also ends up in the nightmare dimension with Chase, Carl and Jenna. His contribution to the route essentially boils down to: be a plot device and help Chase separate Carl and Jenna. That's it. For this reason, Carl's route is my least favorite of the routes in the game.
Overall, Carl's route is well written and intense, but is taken down a few notches by the presence of Raven.
Leo's Route:
Oh boi. Leo Alvarez. A character I greatly despise and am sick of seeing everywhere. Anyway, Leo's route was the second one I played. I fell for the trick of thinking Leo was buff wolf husbando and was quickly proven wrong by his actions before and after the hysteria starts. He manipulates Chase into believing that the rest of their friends know they are together when in actuality Leo lied to them as well. He behaves like an absolute fuckin' psycho for the majority of the hysteria. And he's just overall not a good choice for husbando. We'll get to who is soon, don't worry.
Leo's route has some of the most terrifying moments in the game for me. Brian's torture of Chase, the mine scene, the bad ending. All of these moments gave me legit fuckin' nightmares and I'm still scared of Brian. The writing in this route, as usual, is amazing. Howly and McSkinny utilize the visual novel format to great effect here. This is also the first route where we get a hint that we're actually playing as Samuel Ayers from The Smoke Room.
Overall, I think this route is quite good. It's better than Carl's by a long shot, that's for sure.
TJ's Route:
Fuck man. I don't even know where to start with this one. This is my second favorite route in the game. Solely for the emotional impact that the ending had on me. This is one of the only routes in the game that has a single ending. And it's a banger, lemme tell you.
The main reason you would pick TJ's route is to comfort him after Flynn yelled at him. I should know, this is why I picked it! But the game skillfully turns this desire against you over the course of the route. The way the writing slowly turns your own desire to protect TJ against over the course of six hours is nothing short of fucking incredible. I went from enjoying TJ's company, to being unsettled by the intrusive thoughts choice, to being freaked out by the diner bathroom scene, to being horrified by the hotel bathroom scene, and finally to crying my fuckin' eyes out by the end. I will never experience this route for the first time ever again. And that fact makes me very sad.
TJ's route is fucking amazing. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk!
Flynn's Route:
Flynn Moore. The black sheep of the Echo fandom. It would seem Flynn ignites rage in the majority of the fandom for simply having trauma. But that is neither here nor there. I shall simply say that Flynn's route is my favorite in the game.
This route is the only one with overt sex scenes. I was surprised when I experienced this because I had thought Echo to be a mature game that knew senseless NSFW content ruined good stories. But I was proven wrong! The sex scenes in this route serve the purpose of showing Flynn's main coping mechanism: Sex. Flynn was the closest in the group to Sydney before he died. Syd's death greatly effected him because of said closeness. However, he was never able to express his grief over his best friend because his other friends made him bury it deep down to avoid hurting TJ. This lead to an embittered man with deep-seated issues that were never resolved.
These issues fuel the main conflict of his route: he wants to find out how Syd died all those years ago but he's unable to because of his trauma. He spends his nights trying to wash away his problems in the arms of strangers but nothing works. Even The Smoke Room isn't enough (Speaking of The Smoke Room, that scene made me extremely uncomfortable.) Eventually, he does discover the truth and the POV switches from Chase to Flynn. And here is where I realized this route was my favorite. Everything after the POV switch is 10 times better than what came before solely because we, the readers, get to know Flynn quite well, but the in-universe characters still just see his emotional shield. It's a genius way to get the audience to empathize with Flynn while at the same time not ruining the story's continuity.
The scene in "The Smoke Room" with "Sydney" is still one of my favorite moments of the entire game. The monologue that the Echo entity gives to Flynn and us is nothing short of masterful writing. And the ending happens. Flynn becomes the very monster that haunted his friends as children. He becomes part of The Amalgamation as I call it. A collection of all the souls that died violent deaths in Echo. The final part of Flynn's route is surrealistic writing done to amazing effect. The final line made shivers go up my spine.
I love Flynn Moore. He is an extremely well-written character and his fate in both this route and TJ's left me feeling empty inside. I love this fucking route so damn much.
Jenna's Route:
This was the final route to be completed. Therefore, it was the one I played the last. I really like this route. It tied a lot of stuff together. Jenna is a character who I personally dislike. She is a manipulative cunt who uses her traumatic family life as an excuse to talk down to all the other characters and I just found her to be insufferable.
However, playing this route gave me a new perspective on her. This route focuses the most on the Tetanus Alley gang: Micha, Heather, and Jeremy. Thus this route also focuses the most on Jenna's traumatic family life. The writing of this route is, as expected, amazing. Howly and McSkinny never disappoint, well Adastra sucked ass, but they still can write good shit.
I now must talk about THAT scene.
Lemme me set the scene: You've been playing this game since 2018 and you're slowly realizing the fact that you're almost done reading the entirety of it. You start reading the latest update and get to the hotel scene where Jenna and Leo argue over Chase. You get caught up in the moment and then HE appears: Chulpa. He just FUCKING WALKS ONTO THE SCREEN IN THE ONLY CASE OF ANIMATION IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING GAME! I shat my fuckin' pants and screamed like a banshee.
And from there Brian enters the scene again and tortures Chase and Leo in quite possibly the most graphic scene in the game. But then Brian is killed by The Amalgamation and Chase and Co. leave his trailer only to find the truck that killed Samuel Ayers in the '60s.
Here Leo delivers a speech that semi-redeemed him in my eyes. Not fully. But I sympathized with him at the very least. And yes, there is a distinction between "empathize" and "sympathize". Maybe look it up yourself, you dolts lmao.
Overall, Jenna's route was a perfect conclusion to a 6 year in the making visual novel that changed me in ways I never thought possible: I'm a furry now! *le gasp*
Thanks for reading my review of Echo the visual novel.
Have you tried Arches? By far the weakest story in the "Echo Universe" but it's good. Theres alot of Brian action though. (Not as bad as the Leo Chase 'bonding' scene. Yet.)
Edit: Nevermind, just read your comment on Arches.
Hi, please disregard everything this nut says, we watched him have a breakdown in another furry VN server after he insulted basically everyone and called the things people enjoyed trash.
Finish all routes last night. Must say first I wasn’t really sure if I’d like Echo at all since I’m not really into horror movies and such….
After finishing the first path, which ended up to be TJ’s, I was completely hooked with the story and the characters and just had to finish all paths. Must say some parts where hard to read. I had to stand up to get some fresh air multipel times…
AS an note for anyone who is going to read Echo, you should definitely read Jenna’s path last. The ending of her path lets you look back at the whole story in an way lass dark and sad way as any other path. It’s probably the best way to end/close Echo…..
(Spoilers) Isn't it better to play Flynn's route last? It literally reveals the entire truth about everything Imo Flynn's route should be locked until all the others are finished
Just finished my first route --TJ's--which I was gonna say happened by accident since this is just my second ever VN, but I get the sense there aren't many true accidents in Echo.
*Spoilers Ahead*
I don't have many regrets, if at all. In hindsight, I can see how my instincts to protect TJ at *all* costs led to Chase doing exactly that. What I didn't count on was the town counting on that, and so here I thought I was the player when I was getting played. Very well done, and hauntingly reflective.
It's a shame what happened to Flynn, but given the influence of the supernatural, it was nothing (too) personal. Chase gave him what he asked for; shame it wasn't what he wanted. This does seem to be the route that gives Flynn the most closure, though, compared to what the other comments are saying about his own route at least.
It was also a fascinating portrait of an otter as a predator animal, which is something it seems we don't see as often, even though they do fill that role IRL.
To me, the true horror of TJ's route comes from what's left unsaid but almost certainly will happen after the end: (1) the hysteria apparently gets delayed by two years after the end of TJ's route (Flynn dies in 2015, epilogue notes hysteria that was the final blow for the town happened in 2017?) so this means Jenna, TJ, and Chase aren't likely to be there to save Carl and Leo, who presumably then die isolated in the ensuing chaos; and (2) if Chase continues as he was with TJ then he'll likely end up killing the object of his affection, TJ (similar to what seems to be Leo's "bad ending" per the other comments). It's pretty clear Chase is the source of most of TJ's trauma, at least as the avatar of the town's intentions towards the lynx/the rest of the group, so even if TJ facilely reciprocated Chase's affections, it would still strike me as a case of really unhealthy attachment behavior on a lot of axes. Eventually the lynx would try to leave (or a paranoid Chase would perceive his behavior as such), and for his (TJ's and/or Chase's) "own good" the otter would likely attempt to kill the lynx, and would probably succeed.
All that said, this hurt real good. The kind of knife you keep wanting to walk into. Impressively done!
PS: I never quite trusted Julian. I kept being worried he was possessed like Janice, but I'm not so sure he ever was. It seems the town still managed to use those two to make me perceive threats to TJ, specifically, and therefore become even more protective of him. I mention it because it caught me blindsighted and I only realized it hours after the route was done. But what was the deal with Janice and Julian?
Just finished all the routes for the first time (Route 65 and Benefits as well) and it was just absolutely brilliant. So much character depth, amazing writing, great story, nice use of music/ambience. Also it handles its themes so well and the romances all felt believable (and very adorable).
Flynn became a part of the monster because he wanted to see the "truth." By seeing the truth, he saw every killing/murder in Echo where the murderer got away, literally everything. Because of this, his "soul" is able to see all of the truth/every death in all possible timelines. The monster represents the "truth", and Flynn became a part of the monster, and he is stuck in a loop to see the truth repeat itself over and over. He is living all timelines all at once.
As DanyiFri said there, Flynn wanted to know the truth about the death of his friend (and probably lover if they had grow up together?), he GAZED into the abyss and the abyss gazed back at him, his death is literally that. Now Flynn souls is stuck inside a time loop watching everything again and again, not only him, but all of the other's "people/monsters" before him, like a amalgamation of souls combined (But I hope he gets out somehow, maybe in arches since the title is "breaking the cycle" I haven't played arches, I'm waiting for it to be completed first.)
The good thing of a multiverse is that there's one timeline where he frees himself, one here he never became a monster, but those aren't """really""" inside the VN, the sad part of the multiverse, is that the Echo Dev's don't really want to make a real happy ending for a horror-terror story (I'm ok with that, terror/horror is about that..).
However, I would love to see something like "supernatural" series around Echo city, maybe a traveler fixing the stuff around the time lines, connecting all the stories somehow? Maybe Flynn and the monster would be the protagonists? I thought of doing that myself with different stories from other VNs, a traveler visiting the worlds and trying to fix stuff, but copyright is a thing I want to avoid for now, maybe a fan-story-tribute..
But that's it, he gazed into the abyss, the abyss gazed back, now he is stuck inside a time loop watching all the deaths again and again, lost technically inside the multiverse, at least a version of himself.
I just played my first route on the game, straight to Flynn's one, then it hit me hard at the end, so fucking hard that I'm still shaking, a friend of mine is helping me overcome that, he loves horror and he did played the whole novel before me, so technically he is helping me get over with that bad feeling.
At this point I don't know if I have courage to play the other's routes to figure the whole big picture, because in horror stories there's no happy ending, just endings where the characters survive with some limbs missing, broken hearts or something.
So I guess that my friend will have to spoil every route for me, and since some comments says (devs kinda said that too? I'm not in the mood to look for right now..) that every route happens in cannon, and there's a multiverse for it that mixes everything together (something like that), I guess I can imagine, at least, that there's a unwrite route where everything went fine and everyone had a happy ending together, but this is unlikely to be made into a game since this is a horror story, but I guess if there was a short vn telling the good endings would be cool. (At least for me)
So yeah, that's it, Flynn route broke me too much to play it by myself again, well done Echo project! xD
so, not only did Chase kill Sydney, but suppressed the memory of his death? I'm still not completely sure why the hysteria was focused on Chase alone, but maybe it had something to do with the fact that, he was embracing the events of that day, if that makes sense? also I'm 100% sold on the fact that after what happened to Flynn on his route, that he became a time-jumping ghost lizard, which is probably why Cameron saw him at the lake. oh, and then the towns hysteria happens two years later? maybe it was on Chase's return trip that he talked about with Leo. still no idea who "Sam" is and why he's a ghost voice in Chase's head. this definitely answered my question about Chase's relation to Sydney's death so maybe Carl's will answer who Sam is.
side note: maybe I'm fucked in the brain, and while these are horrifying, I can't help myself but feel so intrigued and fascinated by the horror shit.
Well, potential spoilers, but Carl's route actually has nothing to do with the "main" storyline. It's mostly just an info dump on the past, what's already happened. That said, it's still a great route.
Also, the backstory of the "voice" is explained in Jenna's route, not Carl. I recommend doing Jenna's route last because her good/happy ending is the best note to end the game on, and wraps up Echo nicely.
Well, maybe. The situation is definitely far from ordinary, and it is difficult to guess how everything would have happened if the characters behaved differently.
However, they did what they did, I just...
SPOILERS!
... I just hope that Leo was able to overcome his obsession with Chase, because the saddest fact for me was that he was left alone. He simply refused to move on with the others, and although he survived, leaving him behind was extremely painful.
I also thought that everything could be settled, maybe that's why my first ending was tragic...
Ok, that ending had me more intrigued than shocked or devastated. it took me a second to realize that Flynn was being transformed into the weird monster thing until he was noticed by Tj, which also implies the fact that whatever being was in his head, whoever "sam" was, has some sort of temporal abilities, as he also appeared to the young Jenna. I'm still confused on how Chase had any part in Sydneys death, yet doesn't remember it, or just refuses to. also love how that just randomly put Adastra in there. tell me if Flynn had another ending, because from what I saw, there wasn't a lot of space to get to another one. also, does this mean Flynns route is the cannon ending, as it starts Arches and has influence on the past, before there is any choice for endings? I'm doing Tj's route next so, hopefully can't get that much worse, right?
not really, people just over complicate the timeline shit and that isn't entirely the fanbase's fault since this game encourages using context clues and deep analysis to understand certain aspects better (especially the characters).
The way timelines work in this game is the same as any other vn with multiple routes but no cannon one. There's no cannon route in echo, they work together to tell a single story and arches decided to tell a story that takes place in neither of them. The devs confirmed that the events of echo did happen before arches with the crew and all, but not in the way it did in any of the routes.
wait a minute, haven't creators themself said that Echo and TSR are multiverse and every route indeed happened?
That is why there is no "true ending", because every single one and none at the same time are those true endings?
Edit: so, I looked a little in discord q & a and actually I had asked this very question about Echo's multiverse. George said that every ending is canon and happens ;)
TJ's route was the only route that completely shattered me the first time, though maybe it's because I have a thing for TJ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It might hit even harder if you've played Flynn's before, so you're in for a treat!
Fair warning, don't expect the game to get any better, I had to take a water break because the TJ's ending was getting too much for me. Also, you might come to hate a certain character afterwards...
man, both of Leo's endings really mess me up. on one hand, its a good thing that kudzu and chase get together, but I feel like there should've been more said between them. but with the other one, I don't know where to start. its clear that the hysteria of Echo was hitting him harder than the rest of the group, and I have no idea what duke did to him in the basement, but the fact that Leo would take it to the extreme of having chase's legs cut off, then shooting kudzu point blank just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, that makes me unsure if I want Leo to talk to chase again. Also, Fuck Brian, that shit heads only redeeming quality is the mindfucking shit that happens before he tries to kill Chase. kinda a deus ex machina that Flynn knew exactly where chase was. I'm going to do Flynns route tomorrow and I only hope that I dont get anymore mentally damaged. otherwise its an amazing fucking game.
What a game! i have completed Leo's, Carls route which i will say Carl is my favourite character, if you do a romantic VN please have Carl as the main guy, love to have more on Carl going forward. But just completed Flynns route and its heart breaking, don't really understand why Flynn only has one bad route while the others seam to get a slightly better alternative ending.
Will need to do TJ and Jenna route but need a break from it as Flynn story ending just destroyed me, he did not deserve to have just that ending. He deserves an alt happier route just like the rest.
I finally finished this game completely, and i gotta say, one of my favorite visual novels by far. The story simply struck me like a lightning, and all the tension that i was feeling was just one of the best ive ever had. Overall, i strongly recommend playing this game, one of the best experiences while playing a VN. Congrats Echo Devs, really loved your work.
I came upon this visual novel by mistake and had never considered myself a furry but down the rabbit hole I went. The characters felt real, and I rapidly became connected to them, not to mention the writing. The first few sentences grabbed me in, and I knew this would be my favorite visual novel. If you haven't already, I strongly advise you to play it!! I've been forcing my friends to play it, and they've been attached to it as well.
I completely understand this sentiment! I found this novel around July of last year, and quickly fell in love with it. I've been getting my friends to read through it as a group as well and so far all of them like it. I hope more people will give this novel a chance.
Playing Echo was such a metaphorical mental roller coaster. The LOOOREEEE (lol), characters, setting, and music all fits together so perfectly. Fitting for the type of story that it is, this game has so many secrets that I wish I had time to figure out all of them. However, that's the beauty of Echo. Like the town itself, the game has an aura of mysteriousness that constantly makes you question "What the **** is going on right now and who's gonna die??"
The storyline is such a joy to read. It's such an intricate web of tragedy and misfortune that you end up getting pulled into wanting to read more just to understand the ill clouds that surround Echo and the cast. The characters as well in this novel are very well done and fleshed out. Each character has their own issues (surprise surprise!) and development that makes them even more likeable (or less depending on who you are) and interesting to read. Echo as a town is ominous and quite dread-inducing. You never quite know how far the metaphorical rabbit hole goes and even how far the town itself will go to corrupt whatever character it wishes. This is one of the most enjoyable elements in Echo since you're always left feeling vulnerable to it's control and the many dark forces that are at play. The use of music is easily one of it's strong points. A lot of the music has emotion and fits well with whatever message the game is trying to send. From old-timey deserted town, to local otter goes insane in real-time, the music chosen by McSkinny and Howly really turns it up a notch. Especially the pieces created by Abyuse. They are one of the best I've heard for a visual novel.
Echo is one of, if not, the favorite visual novel I've ever played. I even got merch to prove it! hahaha
a normal bathroom has a sink, a toilet, and either a shower or a bath or both (i don't know what part you're talking about specifically but i hope this helps)
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"her headfur flutters in front of her face, then slips right off- falling on the pool table. a wig.
I realize now that the fennec isn't actually a girl at all, at least not physically"
YEOUCH that line didn't age well
yea chase is a bit of a lib, what of it? lol
omg the part where my charter kills flynn its was scary at the same time thinking he needed that but i wish i was able to see me and TJ date and kiss some more BUT IN JEN I LOVE IT ALL
I don't really ever comment on anything I play, but I have to comment on this. I played this for the first time just now, finished Leo's route and wow. This was so beautifully written, I never thought I would get so drawn in, get so scared, and actually cry (I'm a pushover anyway) all in one characters story in a visual novel... I can not wait to start Flynn's route next, after a good week emotionally recovering. Great job on this. Much love!
I recommend saving Flynn's route for last. It is the wildest ride, and pays off the most if you've played all the other routes first <3 Since you finished Leo's, I recommend Jenna's since it closely relates to Leo's. This is all according to the recommended order by the developers btw.
That said, it's really up to you, but the dev's order gives the most cohesive story experience as a whole.
Oh thank you! I'll check out Jenna's next :)
It's been a few days now and Leo's route is still playing with me, I saw both ending and obviously one was very... rough to see and the good ending was so emotionally draining for me, still feel a bit empty now lol. Very scared to see how the others play out but looking forward nevertheless <3 T_T
Welcome to the Echo rabbit hole. Prepare yourself is all I'll say... :)
Thank you for having me aha :)
Jesus was a skunk
I can't play it, it ended crashing whenever I open it
Is this Completed???
I'm pretty sure it is.
I don't think I've ever felt the need to comment on something before, but damn... Finally got around to joining the TSR/Echo craze, and finished the last of the routes in Echo today. I did a recommended route I found of Carl-Leo-Jenna-TJ-Flynn, and I'm really glad I took that route. Heavy stories are kinda my thing, and this absolutely did not disappoint. This is actually my first VN, and I loved how they were able to use the format to push the horror aspect of the stories.
I think one of the big reasons this story dragged me in so much is the parallels with my own childhood friend group. Hell my rich friend's name was Karl, even haha. The only one that didn't have a parallel in my group was Leo. For this reason, reading about their dynamic gave me a LOT of nostalgia, since my group didn't stay in touch really.
HIGHLY suggest. I've even suggested it to my non-furry friends.
Mild Spoilers follow:
I'd have to say that while I loved each route, and I don't think the story works nearly as well without reading all of them, my favorites are probably Carl's and Leo's. Carl's mainly for the twisty surrealist story, I really enjoyed that. Leo's route, to me, had the most satisfying ending of them all and I really enjoyed the obsession plotline - I thought that was really well done.
TJ/Flynn routes really drove home the heaviness, which I thought was a great way to end my reading experience. I know a lot of people say Jenna's route for the end due to the happier ending, but I liked not knowing the truth until the end. All-in-all such a good story and I can't wait to start Arches.
P.S. - As the Flynn of my group growing up (and I was definitely Flynn in my 20s), screw you guys (j/k)
Well I finally finished. I have only finished Leo's route but .. I kept having to take breaks. By the end, I just cried my eyes out. I guess I some of my own emotions that I didn't realize. I don't know if I can even through the other routes. It's just something that got me with dread etc. But thank you Echo Project for this. It has been an amazing ride. I don't know how you guys did it .. but thank you for the experience.
Take the CW as you will. Personally, I'd highly recommend reading it because of the characters, atmosphere and horror.
If you are a psychological horrors fans then go for it!
I've seen my fair share of "dark, heavy themes" but this game does not hold back the punches. Remember to take a break if it gets too much for you (Mild spoilers: Especially in TJ's/Flynn's route).
This game broke me
Esse jogo terá uma continuação
Na verdade já tem e se chama Arches https://echoproject.itch.io/arches
E também tem outro jogo chamado The Smoke Room que se passa 100 anos antes de Echo https://echoproject.itch.io/the-smoke-room
Os dois jogos estão em desenvolvimento mas o que ja tem disponível é incrivel
I'm convinced my echo brain rot is terminal. This game has a fucking vice grip on me and it's been a bit over a year now holy hell
Right off the bat I have to say that I am very much biased with my review of this VN. I had been part of this VN's fandom since 2018 and only recently fell out of love with the fandom's complete saturation of man-children who can't seem to understand basic narrative threads.
However, I will attempt to avoid mentioning that further within this review. I will now start the review proper.
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Echo. What can be said about this absolutely amazing horror experience? The way the creators use the VN format to effectively scare the player is damn genius and one of the reasons this story could never be told outside of that format.
The set-up is simple: You are Chase Hunter. A otter who grew up in Echo and are coming back for spring break to do a school project and a chance to reunite with your childhood friends: Flynn, Carl, TJ, Jenna, and Leo. You get to Echo and everything seems fine for the first 2 days of your trip. On Monday however, you and your friends go to a river near Lake Emma, the place where your friend, Sydney was found dead. This sparks an argument between Flynn and the rest of you. After said argument is over, all but you and Carl have left the area and you must make a choice: Which one of your friends will you go after?
This is where the route choice presents itself. And I must say, it is an excellent set-up. I will review each route individually and give my opinions on each.
Carl's Route:
Carl's route is the one I played first. Before I get into the nitty gritty of the route, I must mention how you begin his route. You sit down. That's it. You just click his name and sit down next to him. It's a very passive way to begin a route and matches Carl to a T. You see, Carl lives a very sedentary life. He plays video games, eats, smokes weed, and sleeps. But beneath that exterior of laziness is a great character who I fell in love with.
This route consists of Chase attempting to mediate between Carl/James Hendricks I and Jenna/John Begay. The nightmare dimension part of the route is expertly written and I seriously love it to bits. Except for one detail: Raven. Raven is a useless "character" who also ends up in the nightmare dimension with Chase, Carl and Jenna. His contribution to the route essentially boils down to: be a plot device and help Chase separate Carl and Jenna. That's it. For this reason, Carl's route is my least favorite of the routes in the game.
Overall, Carl's route is well written and intense, but is taken down a few notches by the presence of Raven.
Leo's Route:
Oh boi. Leo Alvarez. A character I greatly despise and am sick of seeing everywhere. Anyway, Leo's route was the second one I played. I fell for the trick of thinking Leo was buff wolf husbando and was quickly proven wrong by his actions before and after the hysteria starts. He manipulates Chase into believing that the rest of their friends know they are together when in actuality Leo lied to them as well. He behaves like an absolute fuckin' psycho for the majority of the hysteria. And he's just overall not a good choice for husbando. We'll get to who is soon, don't worry.
Leo's route has some of the most terrifying moments in the game for me. Brian's torture of Chase, the mine scene, the bad ending. All of these moments gave me legit fuckin' nightmares and I'm still scared of Brian. The writing in this route, as usual, is amazing. Howly and McSkinny utilize the visual novel format to great effect here. This is also the first route where we get a hint that we're actually playing as Samuel Ayers from The Smoke Room.
Overall, I think this route is quite good. It's better than Carl's by a long shot, that's for sure.
TJ's Route:
Fuck man. I don't even know where to start with this one. This is my second favorite route in the game. Solely for the emotional impact that the ending had on me. This is one of the only routes in the game that has a single ending. And it's a banger, lemme tell you.
The main reason you would pick TJ's route is to comfort him after Flynn yelled at him. I should know, this is why I picked it! But the game skillfully turns this desire against you over the course of the route. The way the writing slowly turns your own desire to protect TJ against over the course of six hours is nothing short of fucking incredible. I went from enjoying TJ's company, to being unsettled by the intrusive thoughts choice, to being freaked out by the diner bathroom scene, to being horrified by the hotel bathroom scene, and finally to crying my fuckin' eyes out by the end. I will never experience this route for the first time ever again. And that fact makes me very sad.
TJ's route is fucking amazing. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk!
Flynn's Route:
Flynn Moore. The black sheep of the Echo fandom. It would seem Flynn ignites rage in the majority of the fandom for simply having trauma. But that is neither here nor there. I shall simply say that Flynn's route is my favorite in the game.
This route is the only one with overt sex scenes. I was surprised when I experienced this because I had thought Echo to be a mature game that knew senseless NSFW content ruined good stories. But I was proven wrong! The sex scenes in this route serve the purpose of showing Flynn's main coping mechanism: Sex. Flynn was the closest in the group to Sydney before he died. Syd's death greatly effected him because of said closeness. However, he was never able to express his grief over his best friend because his other friends made him bury it deep down to avoid hurting TJ. This lead to an embittered man with deep-seated issues that were never resolved.
These issues fuel the main conflict of his route: he wants to find out how Syd died all those years ago but he's unable to because of his trauma. He spends his nights trying to wash away his problems in the arms of strangers but nothing works. Even The Smoke Room isn't enough (Speaking of The Smoke Room, that scene made me extremely uncomfortable.) Eventually, he does discover the truth and the POV switches from Chase to Flynn. And here is where I realized this route was my favorite. Everything after the POV switch is 10 times better than what came before solely because we, the readers, get to know Flynn quite well, but the in-universe characters still just see his emotional shield. It's a genius way to get the audience to empathize with Flynn while at the same time not ruining the story's continuity.
The scene in "The Smoke Room" with "Sydney" is still one of my favorite moments of the entire game. The monologue that the Echo entity gives to Flynn and us is nothing short of masterful writing. And the ending happens. Flynn becomes the very monster that haunted his friends as children. He becomes part of The Amalgamation as I call it. A collection of all the souls that died violent deaths in Echo. The final part of Flynn's route is surrealistic writing done to amazing effect. The final line made shivers go up my spine.
I love Flynn Moore. He is an extremely well-written character and his fate in both this route and TJ's left me feeling empty inside. I love this fucking route so damn much.
Jenna's Route:
This was the final route to be completed. Therefore, it was the one I played the last. I really like this route. It tied a lot of stuff together. Jenna is a character who I personally dislike. She is a manipulative cunt who uses her traumatic family life as an excuse to talk down to all the other characters and I just found her to be insufferable.
However, playing this route gave me a new perspective on her. This route focuses the most on the Tetanus Alley gang: Micha, Heather, and Jeremy. Thus this route also focuses the most on Jenna's traumatic family life. The writing of this route is, as expected, amazing. Howly and McSkinny never disappoint, well Adastra sucked ass, but they still can write good shit.
I now must talk about THAT scene.
Lemme me set the scene: You've been playing this game since 2018 and you're slowly realizing the fact that you're almost done reading the entirety of it. You start reading the latest update and get to the hotel scene where Jenna and Leo argue over Chase. You get caught up in the moment and then HE appears: Chulpa. He just FUCKING WALKS ONTO THE SCREEN IN THE ONLY CASE OF ANIMATION IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING GAME! I shat my fuckin' pants and screamed like a banshee.
And from there Brian enters the scene again and tortures Chase and Leo in quite possibly the most graphic scene in the game. But then Brian is killed by The Amalgamation and Chase and Co. leave his trailer only to find the truck that killed Samuel Ayers in the '60s.
Here Leo delivers a speech that semi-redeemed him in my eyes. Not fully. But I sympathized with him at the very least. And yes, there is a distinction between "empathize" and "sympathize". Maybe look it up yourself, you dolts lmao.
Overall, Jenna's route was a perfect conclusion to a 6 year in the making visual novel that changed me in ways I never thought possible: I'm a furry now! *le gasp*
Thanks for reading my review of Echo the visual novel.
-Kallier
P.S.
If you want to watch me experience the game for the second time, here's my 37 part, 48 hour long series I did on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs_BZI-CHxZwiWUQYaahpfPKj2aF5-7DI
Have you tried Arches? By far the weakest story in the "Echo Universe" but it's good. Theres alot of Brian action though. (Not as bad as the Leo Chase 'bonding' scene. Yet.)
Edit: Nevermind, just read your comment on Arches.
Go to hell please! They will "love" you there!
what the fuck
Hi, please disregard everything this nut says, we watched him have a breakdown in another furry VN server after he insulted basically everyone and called the things people enjoyed trash.
Finish all routes last night. Must say first I wasn’t really sure if I’d like Echo at all since I’m not really into horror movies and such….
After finishing the first path, which ended up to be TJ’s, I was completely hooked with the story and the characters and just had to finish all paths. Must say some parts where hard to read. I had to stand up to get some fresh air multipel times…
AS an note for anyone who is going to read Echo, you should definitely read Jenna’s path last. The ending of her path lets you look back at the whole story in an way lass dark and sad way as any other path. It’s probably the best way to end/close Echo…..
(Spoilers) Isn't it better to play Flynn's route last? It literally reveals the entire truth about everything
Imo Flynn's route should be locked until all the others are finished
From story perspective I agree. Flynn’s or TJ’s route should be played last, since both reveal important parts/secrets of the story.
Just finished my first route --TJ's--which I was gonna say happened by accident since this is just my second ever VN, but I get the sense there aren't many true accidents in Echo.
*Spoilers Ahead*
I don't have many regrets, if at all. In hindsight, I can see how my instincts to protect TJ at *all* costs led to Chase doing exactly that. What I didn't count on was the town counting on that, and so here I thought I was the player when I was getting played. Very well done, and hauntingly reflective.
It's a shame what happened to Flynn, but given the influence of the supernatural, it was nothing (too) personal. Chase gave him what he asked for; shame it wasn't what he wanted. This does seem to be the route that gives Flynn the most closure, though, compared to what the other comments are saying about his own route at least.
It was also a fascinating portrait of an otter as a predator animal, which is something it seems we don't see as often, even though they do fill that role IRL.
To me, the true horror of TJ's route comes from what's left unsaid but almost certainly will happen after the end: (1) the hysteria apparently gets delayed by two years after the end of TJ's route (Flynn dies in 2015, epilogue notes hysteria that was the final blow for the town happened in 2017?) so this means Jenna, TJ, and Chase aren't likely to be there to save Carl and Leo, who presumably then die isolated in the ensuing chaos; and (2) if Chase continues as he was with TJ then he'll likely end up killing the object of his affection, TJ (similar to what seems to be Leo's "bad ending" per the other comments). It's pretty clear Chase is the source of most of TJ's trauma, at least as the avatar of the town's intentions towards the lynx/the rest of the group, so even if TJ facilely reciprocated Chase's affections, it would still strike me as a case of really unhealthy attachment behavior on a lot of axes. Eventually the lynx would try to leave (or a paranoid Chase would perceive his behavior as such), and for his (TJ's and/or Chase's) "own good" the otter would likely attempt to kill the lynx, and would probably succeed.
All that said, this hurt real good. The kind of knife you keep wanting to walk into. Impressively done!
PS: I never quite trusted Julian. I kept being worried he was possessed like Janice, but I'm not so sure he ever was. It seems the town still managed to use those two to make me perceive threats to TJ, specifically, and therefore become even more protective of him. I mention it because it caught me blindsighted and I only realized it hours after the route was done. But what was the deal with Janice and Julian?
What's the Help button in Configuration for? I clicked on it and nothing happened.
Just finished all the routes for the first time (Route 65 and Benefits as well) and it was just absolutely brilliant. So much character depth, amazing writing, great story, nice use of music/ambience. Also it handles its themes so well and the romances all felt believable (and very adorable).
LEO IS THE CUTEST.
Step 1 : finish Leo's route
Step2:cry and cry some more
Step3:think about how this vn related to smoke room
Step 4:realises that it won't have a happy ending
Step5:jump off a cliff
Yep basically my experience with the vn
Why is Nik in this vn 😭
as soon as I saw that mine scene I knew exactly where they were heading I love the similarly between this vn and smoke room
Not me ignoring all of Leo's red flags just because I think his cute and huggable
not me loving leo specifically for his red flags
this game made me hungry, 10/10
Can anyone explain me Flynn route final? I didn't understand nothing (probably because of my bad english). Amazing VN btw.
Flynn became a part of the monster because he wanted to see the "truth." By seeing the truth, he saw every killing/murder in Echo where the murderer got away, literally everything. Because of this, his "soul" is able to see all of the truth/every death in all possible timelines. The monster represents the "truth", and Flynn became a part of the monster, and he is stuck in a loop to see the truth repeat itself over and over. He is living all timelines all at once.
Basically, multiverse.
As DanyiFri said there, Flynn wanted to know the truth about the death of his friend (and probably lover if they had grow up together?), he GAZED into the abyss and the abyss gazed back at him, his death is literally that. Now Flynn souls is stuck inside a time loop watching everything again and again, not only him, but all of the other's "people/monsters" before him, like a amalgamation of souls combined (But I hope he gets out somehow, maybe in arches since the title is "breaking the cycle" I haven't played arches, I'm waiting for it to be completed first.)
The good thing of a multiverse is that there's one timeline where he frees himself, one here he never became a monster, but those aren't """really""" inside the VN, the sad part of the multiverse, is that the Echo Dev's don't really want to make a real happy ending for a horror-terror story (I'm ok with that, terror/horror is about that..).
However, I would love to see something like "supernatural" series around Echo city, maybe a traveler fixing the stuff around the time lines, connecting all the stories somehow? Maybe Flynn and the monster would be the protagonists? I thought of doing that myself with different stories from other VNs, a traveler visiting the worlds and trying to fix stuff, but copyright is a thing I want to avoid for now, maybe a fan-story-tribute..
But that's it, he gazed into the abyss, the abyss gazed back, now he is stuck inside a time loop watching all the deaths again and again, lost technically inside the multiverse, at least a version of himself.
I just played my first route on the game, straight to Flynn's one, then it hit me hard at the end, so fucking hard that I'm still shaking, a friend of mine is helping me overcome that, he loves horror and he did played the whole novel before me, so technically he is helping me get over with that bad feeling.
At this point I don't know if I have courage to play the other's routes to figure the whole big picture, because in horror stories there's no happy ending, just endings where the characters survive with some limbs missing, broken hearts or something.
So I guess that my friend will have to spoil every route for me, and since some comments says (devs kinda said that too? I'm not in the mood to look for right now..) that every route happens in cannon, and there's a multiverse for it that mixes everything together (something like that), I guess I can imagine, at least, that there's a unwrite route where everything went fine and everyone had a happy ending together, but this is unlikely to be made into a game since this is a horror story, but I guess if there was a short vn telling the good endings would be cool. (At least for me)
So yeah, that's it, Flynn route broke me too much to play it by myself again, well done Echo project! xD
The most potent piece of fiction I have ever had the pleasure of engaging with
I’ve just finished Tj’s route. Its an great story and I’m definitely gonna read the other paths soon to.
I think I’m depressed for the next few days though. So up to watch some @TheClick videos to get back in an good mood :P
TJ's route made me want to punch Chase, holy shit
spoilers for Tj's route
so, not only did Chase kill Sydney, but suppressed the memory of his death? I'm still not completely sure why the hysteria was focused on Chase alone, but maybe it had something to do with the fact that, he was embracing the events of that day, if that makes sense? also I'm 100% sold on the fact that after what happened to Flynn on his route, that he became a time-jumping ghost lizard, which is probably why Cameron saw him at the lake. oh, and then the towns hysteria happens two years later? maybe it was on Chase's return trip that he talked about with Leo. still no idea who "Sam" is and why he's a ghost voice in Chase's head. this definitely answered my question about Chase's relation to Sydney's death so maybe Carl's will answer who Sam is.
side note: maybe I'm fucked in the brain, and while these are horrifying, I can't help myself but feel so intrigued and fascinated by the horror shit.
Well, potential spoilers, but Carl's route actually has nothing to do with the "main" storyline. It's mostly just an info dump on the past, what's already happened. That said, it's still a great route.
Also, the backstory of the "voice" is explained in Jenna's route, not Carl. I recommend doing Jenna's route last because her good/happy ending is the best note to end the game on, and wraps up Echo nicely.
I... completed Leo's route about a year ago.
I'm still scared to go back there. It hurt so much. I have to go back, this is a great story!
But I still remember... and I'm still scared.
.... poor Leo...
Poor Chase
/whine/
They could have been happy together if they just talked it out
Well, maybe. The situation is definitely far from ordinary, and it is difficult to guess how everything would have happened if the characters behaved differently.
However, they did what they did, I just...
SPOILERS!
... I just hope that Leo was able to overcome his obsession with Chase, because the saddest fact for me was that he was left alone. He simply refused to move on with the others, and although he survived, leaving him behind was extremely painful.
I also thought that everything could be settled, maybe that's why my first ending was tragic...
spoilers for flynns route
Ok, that ending had me more intrigued than shocked or devastated. it took me a second to realize that Flynn was being transformed into the weird monster thing until he was noticed by Tj, which also implies the fact that whatever being was in his head, whoever "sam" was, has some sort of temporal abilities, as he also appeared to the young Jenna. I'm still confused on how Chase had any part in Sydneys death, yet doesn't remember it, or just refuses to. also love how that just randomly put Adastra in there. tell me if Flynn had another ending, because from what I saw, there wasn't a lot of space to get to another one. also, does this mean Flynns route is the cannon ending, as it starts Arches and has influence on the past, before there is any choice for endings? I'm doing Tj's route next so, hopefully can't get that much worse, right?
arches doesn't take place after any of the echo routes
Also TJ and Flynn have one ending
ok, so there's some sort of multiverse shit going on then.
also thanks for the heads up.
not really, people just over complicate the timeline shit and that isn't entirely the fanbase's fault since this game encourages using context clues and deep analysis to understand certain aspects better (especially the characters).
The way timelines work in this game is the same as any other vn with multiple routes but no cannon one. There's no cannon route in echo, they work together to tell a single story and arches decided to tell a story that takes place in neither of them. The devs confirmed that the events of echo did happen before arches with the crew and all, but not in the way it did in any of the routes.
wait a minute, haven't creators themself said that Echo and TSR are multiverse and every route indeed happened?
That is why there is no "true ending", because every single one and none at the same time are those true endings?
Edit: so, I looked a little in discord q & a and actually I had asked this very question about Echo's multiverse. George said that every ending is canon and happens ;)
TJ's route was the only route that completely shattered me the first time, though maybe it's because I have a thing for TJ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It might hit even harder if you've played Flynn's before, so you're in for a treat!
Fair warning, don't expect the game to get any better, I had to take a water break because the TJ's ending was getting too much for me. Also, you might come to hate a certain character afterwards...
Happy reading!
i can really relate to this comment same first route same reactions and same motivations lol
spoilers for Leos route.
man, both of Leo's endings really mess me up. on one hand, its a good thing that kudzu and chase get together, but I feel like there should've been more said between them. but with the other one, I don't know where to start. its clear that the hysteria of Echo was hitting him harder than the rest of the group, and I have no idea what duke did to him in the basement, but the fact that Leo would take it to the extreme of having chase's legs cut off, then shooting kudzu point blank just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, that makes me unsure if I want Leo to talk to chase again. Also, Fuck Brian, that shit heads only redeeming quality is the mindfucking shit that happens before he tries to kill Chase. kinda a deus ex machina that Flynn knew exactly where chase was. I'm going to do Flynns route tomorrow and I only hope that I dont get anymore mentally damaged. otherwise its an amazing fucking game.
Oh... oh boy... he is gonna do Flynn's route tomorrow/ today...
Guys, do we tell him?
"I only hope that I don't get anymore mentally damaged." Oh you poor soul you have no idea...
This statement probably will age/have aged like milk lmao.
I'll just wait for your response in a few days time....
Leo is cute idc what anyone says
I know, like slay but not like Chase
Spoiler...........
What a game! i have completed Leo's, Carls route which i will say Carl is my favourite character, if you do a romantic VN please have Carl as the main guy, love to have more on Carl going forward. But just completed Flynns route and its heart breaking, don't really understand why Flynn only has one bad route while the others seam to get a slightly better alternative ending.
Will need to do TJ and Jenna route but need a break from it as Flynn story ending just destroyed me, he did not deserve to have just that ending. He deserves an alt happier route just like the rest.
I am having trouble joining the Discord server through the invite, are there any restrictions and/or is it still up-to-date?
I finally finished this game completely, and i gotta say, one of my favorite visual novels by far. The story simply struck me like a lightning, and all the tension that i was feeling was just one of the best ive ever had. Overall, i strongly recommend playing this game, one of the best experiences while playing a VN. Congrats Echo Devs, really loved your work.
I came upon this visual novel by mistake and had never considered myself a furry but down the rabbit hole I went. The characters felt real, and I rapidly became connected to them, not to mention the writing. The first few sentences grabbed me in, and I knew this would be my favorite visual novel. If you haven't already, I strongly advise you to play it!! I've been forcing my friends to play it, and they've been attached to it as well.
I completely understand this sentiment! I found this novel around July of last year, and quickly fell in love with it. I've been getting my friends to read through it as a group as well and so far all of them like it. I hope more people will give this novel a chance.
Having a friend group to play this with is a literal dream of mine. I can't wait to be traumatized again with friends!
Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow wow... wow.
Playing Echo was such a metaphorical mental roller coaster. The LOOOREEEE (lol), characters, setting, and music all fits together so perfectly. Fitting for the type of story that it is, this game has so many secrets that I wish I had time to figure out all of them. However, that's the beauty of Echo. Like the town itself, the game has an aura of mysteriousness that constantly makes you question "What the **** is going on right now and who's gonna die??"
The storyline is such a joy to read. It's such an intricate web of tragedy and misfortune that you end up getting pulled into wanting to read more just to understand the ill clouds that surround Echo and the cast. The characters as well in this novel are very well done and fleshed out. Each character has their own issues (surprise surprise!) and development that makes them even more likeable (or less depending on who you are) and interesting to read. Echo as a town is ominous and quite dread-inducing. You never quite know how far the metaphorical rabbit hole goes and even how far the town itself will go to corrupt whatever character it wishes. This is one of the most enjoyable elements in Echo since you're always left feeling vulnerable to it's control and the many dark forces that are at play. The use of music is easily one of it's strong points. A lot of the music has emotion and fits well with whatever message the game is trying to send. From old-timey deserted town, to local otter goes insane in real-time, the music chosen by McSkinny and Howly really turns it up a notch. Especially the pieces created by Abyuse. They are one of the best I've heard for a visual novel.
Echo is one of, if not, the favorite visual novel I've ever played. I even got merch to prove it! hahaha
Just gotta say one of the best visual novels out there!
Why is it called powder room when the word “powder room” means bathroom? From what I see it most definitely is not a bathroom
a normal bathroom has a sink, a toilet, and either a shower or a bath or both (i don't know what part you're talking about specifically but i hope this helps)