In Carl's route after chase almost drowned he never wore his cloths after he woke up so he was naked for like half the game and no one questioned it ??
Actually I thought about this exactly but he went back to the car with carl and then drove him home so im sure he put his clothes back on inbetween that
I don't think so , raven didn't question why chase was naked when he came back to the house also chase never mentioned getting his cloths before going to the car and if he did get them he followed carl in the Crawlspace with no time to put back his Cloths
I just finished the game with Flynn's route and I am so impressed with just how impactful this game has been to me. I will be thinking about these characters for the rest of my life. Thank you to the writers and everyone who worked on this game. You made a unique work of art that blew me away. When I write my own book, this will be the story I come back to for inspiration. Thank you.
i know you've got thoughts about putting TSR on Steam once development finishes, ever think about putting Echo on Steam? The biggest hurdle would probably just be setting up the storepage and ponying up the 100 bucks to upload.
Also, reporting on a typo, line 673 of Saturday reads 'unawares' instead of 'unaware'. though I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you're not updating a finished VN after 2 years because of one singular typo
Im a little sad with how Carl's route ended because him and chase seemed happy together, and yet at the same time I cant be upset. Beautiful piece of art this novel is, i'm so glad I finally decided to read it. Really made me feel warm and fuzzy inside after this first ending, and hearing the menu music while typing this out is just so out of this world. I feel like i'm on clouds watching a horizon.
Ive been wakeing up every morning and crying for the past week because i had a dream about echo (and I dint Remeber any if it either witch makes it worse) , this game was so good i just hope a little bit of thearapy will help lol
Looking at the apptime in my setting i can see that ive been reading echo for longer then ive slept in the past few days. This is the best vn i've ever played, I sobbed, I cheered, I jumped, and much more. I love every single charecter, but now that the stories over I'm sad :,(. But I'm moving on to arches in the hopes that il see a few cast members again! Thank you Soo much to the wonderful people who made this game because it made me appreciate the freinds I have and the memories I've made that much more!
Whoever wrote the turtoure scene chase has to endure during Leo's route needs one of two things: a promotion for writing the most engaging, realistic, terrifying and psychotic scene ever. Or, they need some therapy
Accidentally posted an unmarked spoiler and my friends went "What the FUCK happens in this game? I thought it was just a gay furry romance visual novel" and then they got into it themselves
I think this Furry VN is so good that it can compete and be talked about outside of the furry community. Arguably the most impactful and best-written FVN of all time. Thank you for making this piece of art for free :)
played this (along with adastra) because patricia taxxon mentioned it, and by god is this one of my favorite pieces of writing i've ever read. each route has so much going on and so much to love about them!!! its one of the few things that i've experienced where there are barely any low points, its all peak front to back. such a good game.
I cried over leos route sm.. to cope i had to read a fanfic of him getting an actual happy ending, my heart really aches if i get reminded of leo for some reason 😭😭 still a 10/10 tho i love leo sm yall i can change him 😭😭😭
Finished Leo's route, cool story. I'm going to uninstall this game now and have regrets of ever playing this for the rest of my life. Great plot, mental disorders, PTSD inducing, what more could you ask for?
I don't know what to say but I love this game and will love it for the rest of my life. So I will try my best to help your team by get as many people I can to play the game and sport your as well. Thank you so much for making this game.(sorry of the wall of text)
The download hasn't even finished, and I'm excited
Question, how, and why is the average play session a few seconds
*edit, just finished TJs route.
I hate myself. I hate Chase. HOW COULD CHASE DO THAT TO TJ!!!!
Also, that ending was actually messed up. Not spoiling, but HOLY CRAP WHEN READ WHAT WAS ON THAT LAST NOTE I WAS IN SHOCK. Really sad, I really liked TJ, so I'm very sad there wasn't a very non-messed up route. I love VNs, especially FVNs and horror VNs, but man this mashed them up and I hate it. Not getting over what chase did to TJ.
Wow this route is horny, missed this kinda content after not seeing it till Leo and a bit of Carl's route. Flynn has always been a character I wanted to learn more about though out the novel and I'm so happy I ended it with this one. We learn who Flynn really is in this route and how he really feels about everything, making TJ's route so much more sad. Although this route might have ended in the most confusing way this has got to be tired with TJ's for the best route easily.
SPOILERS
ADASTRA MENTION WOOOOOO!!!! Fucking love Daxton for this and only this reason, I thought it was goanna be a one off thing but they really made it feel like Adastra WAS an old TV show. Also the perspective change I did NOT see coming holy shit that was cool, also seeing OLDER SYDNEY??? The fact this route only has one ending even after ALL the chooses you are given is a little annoying but forgive because while we are close to the end, the bad ending music starts playing EVEN THOUGH we aren't done that was so fucking cool. And after we end, we get the choice to look into the future where we see "Arches" that place! Lot's of SEX happened so I like that :3 but this route made me re-think the WHOLE GAME.
Flynn's route: 10/10 might be better then TJ's and a great way to end off this amazing story
This game hits really hard... Second visual novel I play and I think I shouldn't have but I don't regret it, like Adastra this game really changed my way of seeing things and probably fucked me up in other things, thank you Echo Project for making the best visual novels
Echo is the second VN I play after Adastra and is the game that sent me into FVN rabbit hole. I finish this game about a month ago now and it's still on my mind; what a wonderfully written world and character we got here and apparently this game has been in development since 2019 finished in 2021, what and old game. It's a real shame most people will never get to read this becasue of how niche it is but I doubt it will ever be forgotten by the community anyday soon either.
Without spoiler what I say about the game is that it's set out to do what it's want really well. This is a horror game and it's been a while I feel scare going to a bathroom when the light is turn off especially when you play past midnight, You might also learn something about trama love and red flag. At first I was only going to play TJ and Leo route when the brance come up because who have time to play every route right? but then I finish TJ and feel bad for Flynn so I play him next and oh boy, before even half way through I said to my self "Oh no, I'm going to have to play every route now isn't it."
Each route is different and that is not what I expected at all and in each you learn more and more about echo and your friend, a part out of corner in one route but will smack you in the face this route with different context and perpective.
My order is TJ>Flynn>Jenna>Carl>Leo
I heard you're not suppose to play TJ first from some comment later but you know it happen and I think you should still play whatever character you care about most when that brance come since you will actully care about what happening to chase and that character. And after the first two I'm glad I play Jenna and got happy ending lol.
I think TJ is the best route because TJ is the best boi. Leo, Flynn, Jenna and Carl follow. Not that Carl route is badly written but I connect with him the least despite understand him since his route go to place a bit far from many other main character but I get why this happen. Also having one not very useful side character is not help while in other route the side character is all wonderful.
One day I'll be back to play TJ route again and maybe more if I feel like it. The only reget I have is a habit of mine to read too fast sometime and go through a scene before I can feel all the emotion. If you're about to play this game take your time, stop between the line and listen to music and reflect on what you are feeling. There won't be many game with story like this and trust me you don't want to hurry along to the finish line and I can't forget to mention the music, it's simple beautiful and add to overall feeling and tone when you finish this game and come back to listen to a song it's just cathartic.
I do believed the best story is the one that can evoke feeling of love Joy and sorrow at the same time. And that for me make this one of the great game that I ever got a chance of experiencing.
Her good ending has different implications, as well as some other scenes in the story that happen only if you choose this option. Thats the most i can say without spoiling too much.
I really wanted to like this one more, dont get me wrong this is EASILY one of the Top 3 routes (haven't finished Flynn yet tho) but i just never felt like we spend that much time with Jenna. At least not by herself, its here and there sure but with all the other route we often spend more time with the character of said route, so in the end I never really got any sort of feelings for her in anyway. Now with that being said, everything else about route is some of the best in this novel. The most I have cried easily is this one just cuz of how many kinda of emotions im feeling all at ones, and this novel has done thing i have NEVER seen in any other VN. Sadly, the ending felt a little rushed (both good and especially bad) which is upsetting cuz it really felt it was going somewhere and then it kinda jut stops.
SPOILERS
HOLY SHIT THAT MOVING SHADOW OF OURSELF IS NOT OK! I have never seen this in ANY other FVN and as soon as it started fucking walking, my eyes were full of tears. Not to mention the return of fucking BRIAN prob one of the scariest characters ever, just the thought of him makes me want to cry. Everything to do with Leo and Brian in this route was top tier and made me cry so many times over, plus all the route 65 stuff was so JUICEY. I didn't exactly get the whole HUM thing to well, but I might just be stupid, i understood it for the most part but I wish they went a little more in depth, tho that might happen on a different route. Also the BODY WE DIG UP!? OMG that was good, the dream of us knowing where the body was as well was really good.
Jenna's route: 9.5/10 so close to 10/10 but there is just something that I dont like as much about it
I really hope that Leo's route the bad ending has some sort of continueation or atleast a way to be with him while still having a good ending because i didnt like it at all. i mean dont get me wrong i LOVED the story but its just i hated how bad i felt and i really wish there was a way to save leo somehow
This one felt the most tame (at first) and I was starting to wonder if everyone in this novel is gay lol. We get cut TJ hitting at maybe liking us though never fully saying it to our face, which is prob why this one worked so goddamn well for me. Lots of stuff about Sydney, I fell like the most we are gonna get and spending more times with all our friends which I liked!
SPOILERS
Holy fucking shit this one made me cry, that ending is not fucking ok. Through the novel I was almost certain we were the killer all along but I also thought; "NOOO they wouldn't make the MAIN CHARATER do something like that!?" should have remembered that this is FUCKINGN ECHO. The fact we don't even TRY to hear Flynn out or let him talk just lets us know what kind of person we really are, and we saw glimpses of it through out the novel. But seeing it and confirming it is something else. Also how are we so FUCKED UP to do that shit to TJ! THE BABYYY. I Actually hate Chase SO MUCH and I will be smiling next time I get a death screen cuz we FUCKING DESERVE IT!
Hey, unfortunately, this is a compatibility issue. I've had this same problem before when i downloaded, but it didn't happen when I tried to play on a better device. Still, this game is coded with Ren'py, sometimes the mobile version doesn't work properly on some devices, but the game itself still works when you try to run the windows version using an emulator (like joiplay - download the app and ren'py extension via their patreon). Try and see if it runs the game for you. I must advise it can be a little time consuming so be patient
Not at ALL what i thought it was going to be, just a waring for this one it dose take a while to get really good. Love the gay stuff happening in this one and you can really feel the relationship Carl and Chase have had through the years. Really weird stuff happening in this rout making me feel like the story of Echo was getting lazy...but oh BOY was it not!
SPOILERS This rout was very good for the lore parts with 2 specific characters and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the only rout where we actually finish our project lol. The bad ending of this one is so fucked up in so many ways, us getting manipulated into having sex with this discussing person only to later that night have a dream about a child wondering into the crawl space?! (which I'm almost certain is a way of saying that what just happened with us, is what he did to the kids) And the very ending part where we pull him out of the fire and learn our head agents his legs (Mirroring what he with us at the very start of the rout) to him to just look up with no expression. We didn't save Carl, we saved James.
Carls rout: 9/10 have a feeling this is the "worst" one
Im am so happy that i started with Leo because he's the hot ex! And I want to get back with him cuz hes hot and cute...Imma have trust issues forever now thx game really cool 👍
SPOILER: It's so fucked up that through ALL the terrible things we went through in this rout from terrible people from psychopathic muders and rapist, the worst of them all ended up being the one we stayed the closest too.
it started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this...
its so weird and hard to try and explain whats good about echo because its surface level is equally ridden with humble shortcomings and overwhelming power...the prose is not anything special, the presentation is often in the novice land of weird sprites and endless kevin macleod music (though the cgs tend to be wonderful at least) theres a couple route-specific flaws, and maybe a couple ideas or plot beats have been Done Before if u care about that stuff. but its just so clearly one of the greatest things ive ever experienced in any medium, and could only exist in this specific form as a visibly amateurish gay furry itch.io cult classic...a sprawling, ambitious, colorful, comforting, gutting, endlessly fascinating generator of Thoughts and Feelings stepped in the kind of emotional truth you can only get from a niche product whos very conception will grant it the safety of probably not penetrating beyond its niche. but maybe thats a shame...echo is difficult to recommend, but i Do want more people to know about it, if for no other reason then its going to inspire at least one of them to take its lessons and go back something possibly even better...tho nothing could ever replace this
i am under no illusions that i will write a definitive review of echo, especially in the spoiler-free fashion i keep my stuff in, but after having spent literal years now reading this (i read my first route in late 2021, and took massive gap breaks between all the times i slowly returned to chip away at it), starting in one of the most tumultuous times of my life and ending it what has been one of the most peaceful times of my life, there are some things is especially have to commend...i owe it that much for its companionship
for me, echo's greatest strength, and its greatest thematic idea, is its commitment to the long-term effect...a relative de-emphasis on the individual moment-to-moment reading experience as anything amazing in isolation, and ability to weave these seemingly non-amazing scenes into something unspeakably identifiable and powerful. identity , for the game, for its routes, for its characters, is rich and multifaceted because it exists less in any big gestures and more in an increasingly dense personal history spent interacting with them. part of why the game took so damn long for me to playthru is that it has a kind of naturally rising emotional difficulty...the more routes u do, the more emotional baggage u have with the characters, the more u have to reckon with when they are onscreen , consciously and subconsciously. its not the the innocuous becomes massive in hindsight, it mostly stays innocuous...but it takes on a different color and flavor, becomes more specific and distinct
none of this is unique to echo, hopefully it could be applied to most good longform storytelling. but i do think echo has a uniquely powerful and steady hand in this department that resonates in myriad ways...its characters overwhelmingly traumatized queers with varying backgrounds of abuse, attempting to not be defined by the dry and brittle embrace of the town they spent their whole lives in...a struggle that often fails because the past cannot be truly left behind, and when actively denied manifests in secret subtle horrible ways that are now beyond your understanding because you have refused to reckon with it. the characters are their experiences, every moment of their lives enabled by every previous moment of their lives...there is no way to un-form themselves, who were formed in great pain and a deeply unjust world.
it is in this way that this being not just a gay game but a Gay Furry game is so fucking important. being queer is inherently traumatic in the cishetero patriarchal world, inherently abusive...even if not overtly, then internally, raised in an abnormality in a world that doesnt even teach u to recognize urself as one, leading to potentially years and years of ur identity and attractions being isolated from urself as u subconsciously recognize they are not yours. furries are overwhelmingly queer, and why not? u spend so long separated from urself, that u have to look in unexpected places to find it in a comforting and authentic way...why not cute animal people?
echo's niche is not tangential to its power (tho it is refreshingly un-exhausting about the logistics of its animal people world, leading by almost entirely intuition with a couple moments of playfully leaning on the unmovable concession that is the central aesthetic identity), it is Exactly Why i dont care if another vn ten years ago did similar things with anime girls or whatever. this is a frank and harrowing and emotionally complex discussion of internal and external queer trauma for an audience that will inherently understand it, without having to do any pandering or explanations to those who dont. this is why the game constantly blurs the line between romanticism/eroticism and horror, rather then being a DDLC style bait and switch where one becomes the other. this is why every single one of the deeply lovable incredible main characters could be convincingly argued to be a terrible person, and why theres no contradiction in that when the game asks u to love and accept them anyway. this is why every route has revelations that re-contextualize the entire game, with a full workable picture denied until the very end (and even then, in a world so vast, whos to say what we're still missing?). this is why the shit with sydney's dad is the way it is.
because if queerness is beautiful, yet also inherently traumatic, then that trauma can be, from some specific angle and trick of the light, beautiful as well...or at least, it can still produce a beautiful being, of which i have known countless...we are our experiences, especially our ugliest and most unjust ones. we cannot undo it, and yet we are worth something anyway. this is the revelation, and reorientation of how i see myself, that has allowed me to like myself for the first time in my life
i hadnt had this realization when i started echo, finishing it now id say its been the dominant pattern in my thought for the past year or so. echo is a space where i have returned like an intellectual checkpoint. am i being as kind and understanding to my younger self and their mistakes as i am to sydney? am i keeping a good holistic view of all of this enlightened traumaqueery to make sure im not making any excuses for genuine abuse, from or against or outside myself? has my acceptance turned to passivity? has my fear of passivity overturned my acceptance? have i been remembering that my worth and energy comes not from easily listenable or observable traits but something far more ephemeral built up by individual points of view choosing to spend time with me? echo has been equal parts challenging and comforting, realist and idealist, indulgent and thoughtful, spiraling and perceptive. at least in this stage of my life, its difficult to imagine being "done" with it , or having learned all i can from it. but even if i move on eventually, it, like everything, will remain within me. i could not be happier to have it here
i had to make an account just to answer this incredible essay, this game changed my brain chemistry so fucking hard i couldn't express what i thought about it with any kind of words. thank you for this amazing "review" (i think) of the game.
Echo is one of the best visual novels for furries. Awesome writing, awesome stories. (It reminded me a lot of Higurashi: When They Cry).
The characters here feel like real people, unlike most games where the characters feel more like well-written character. Chase, Leo, Jenna, Flynn, TJ, and Carl all are relatable in some way (to me), and you got really good dynamics between some of the side characters (especially Daxton with his dynamic with the group). I strongly recommend trying out this game!
I especially think Jenna and Leo's routes are the best. The symbolic ending of Leo's route I could go on about! Definitely play this game! There is much to love.
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Why is it impossible to find this game on Itch.io when I search for it? Why do I have to use Google to even know it exists?
In Carl's route after chase almost drowned he never wore his cloths after he woke up so he was naked for like half the game and no one questioned it ??
Actually I thought about this exactly but he went back to the car with carl and then drove him home so im sure he put his clothes back on inbetween that
I don't think so , raven didn't question why chase was naked when he came back to the house also chase never mentioned getting his cloths before going to the car and if he did get them he followed carl in the Crawlspace with no time to put back his Cloths
I think the writers just forget about it
Maybe it was all part of the Hysteria?
I just finished the game with Flynn's route and I am so impressed with just how impactful this game has been to me. I will be thinking about these characters for the rest of my life. Thank you to the writers and everyone who worked on this game. You made a unique work of art that blew me away. When I write my own book, this will be the story I come back to for inspiration. Thank you.
i know you've got thoughts about putting TSR on Steam once development finishes, ever think about putting Echo on Steam? The biggest hurdle would probably just be setting up the storepage and ponying up the 100 bucks to upload.
Also, reporting on a typo, line 673 of Saturday reads 'unawares' instead of 'unaware'. though I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you're not updating a finished VN after 2 years because of one singular typo
(Minor Spoiler)
Im a little sad with how Carl's route ended because him and chase seemed happy together, and yet at the same time I cant be upset. Beautiful piece of art this novel is, i'm so glad I finally decided to read it. Really made me feel warm and fuzzy inside after this first ending, and hearing the menu music while typing this out is just so out of this world. I feel like i'm on clouds watching a horizon.
Thank you Echo Project for a wonderful story <3
could we get a confirmation on Duke's last name?
and Mr. Bronson''s first name?
I think Duke is a descendant of Cliff Tibbits, so last name is probably Tibbits too, BUT I am not sure if it's confirmed
that's why I'm asking for confirmation, is a 50/50 guess if Cliff is Duke's paternal or maternal grandfather
Just downloaded, but since route 65 is a thing, which should be played first?
Echo first.
Ive been wakeing up every morning and crying for the past week because i had a dream about echo (and I dint Remeber any if it either witch makes it worse) , this game was so good i just hope a little bit of thearapy will help lol
Looking at the apptime in my setting i can see that ive been reading echo for longer then ive slept in the past few days. This is the best vn i've ever played, I sobbed, I cheered, I jumped, and much more. I love every single charecter, but now that the stories over I'm sad :,(. But I'm moving on to arches in the hopes that il see a few cast members again! Thank you Soo much to the wonderful people who made this game because it made me appreciate the freinds I have and the memories I've made that much more!
SPOILERS
Whoever wrote the turtoure scene chase has to endure during Leo's route needs one of two things: a promotion for writing the most engaging, realistic, terrifying and psychotic scene ever. Or, they need some therapy
Well shit guess im in for a ride then. (Haven't gotten to that scene yet.)
Honestly i would unsee it if i could, everything else was... managable in the book, but that seen... i get chills thinking about i
I didn't think this game would get to me like it did. The writing is so good, but now I need a hug lol
🫂
Accidentally posted an unmarked spoiler and my friends went "What the FUCK happens in this game? I thought it was just a gay furry romance visual novel" and then they got into it themselves
I just finished Flynn's route (now I've done all but Jenna's) and DAMN, I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT AT ALL!
Flynn, I will never forget what you sacrificed.
Someone hold me before I start crying again
I think this Furry VN is so good that it can compete and be talked about outside of the furry community. Arguably the most impactful and best-written FVN of all time. Thank you for making this piece of art for free :)
Chase Hunter: agreeable INTP with developed Ne and Si
Tobias Jedidiah “TJ” Hess: ISFP
Flynn Moore: ENTJ with developed Ni and Se
Jenna Begay: ENTJ with developed Se
Leonardo “Leo” Alvarez: disagreeable ESFJ with developed Si
Carl Hendricks: ENFP with developed Fi
Sydney “Syd” Bronson: disagreeable ENFJ
Julian: INFP
Daxton: ENFP
Micha: disagreeable ESFP
Kudzu Téngwàn: INTP
Raven: ENFP
Janice Adler: agreeable ISTJ
Clint: ENTP
Duke: INTJ with developed Te
Brian Dubois: disagreeable ESFP
Mayor Moore: ESTJ with developed Si
Jeremy Begay: ESTP
Heather: ENFP with developed Fi
played this (along with adastra) because patricia taxxon mentioned it, and by god is this one of my favorite pieces of writing i've ever read. each route has so much going on and so much to love about them!!! its one of the few things that i've experienced where there are barely any low points, its all peak front to back. such a good game.
I cried over leos route sm.. to cope i had to read a fanfic of him getting an actual happy ending, my heart really aches if i get reminded of leo for some reason 😭😭 still a 10/10 tho i love leo sm yall i can change him 😭😭😭
He's perfect the way he is tho?
i got the game like 3 days ago, finished tj's route and just now i finished leo's.
jesus christ, i don't know what else to write but i'm just shocked.
Finished Leo's route, cool story. I'm going to uninstall this game now and have regrets of ever playing this for the rest of my life. Great plot, mental disorders, PTSD inducing, what more could you ask for?
I don't know what to say but I love this game and will love it for the rest of my life. So I will try my best to help your team by get as many people I can to play the game and sport your as well. Thank you so much for making this game.(sorry of the wall of text)
The download hasn't even finished, and I'm excited
Question, how, and why is the average play session a few seconds
*edit, just finished TJs route.
I hate myself. I hate Chase. HOW COULD CHASE DO THAT TO TJ!!!!
Also, that ending was actually messed up. Not spoiling, but HOLY CRAP WHEN READ WHAT WAS ON THAT LAST NOTE I WAS IN SHOCK. Really sad, I really liked TJ, so I'm very sad there wasn't a very non-messed up route. I love VNs, especially FVNs and horror VNs, but man this mashed them up and I hate it. Not getting over what chase did to TJ.
Me too
I'd like it if Chase did that to me
this comment thread is literally the ''there's two types of people'' meme lol.
SAME, I went TJ route first and I can't believe it, this game is so fucked up but soooo fun.
EVERYTHING BAD ABOUT ECHO 😡😡😡
1. The music doesn't loop well most time's and song's I'm not as big as a fan of play more often then others.
2. Some things aren't answered ever.
3. Not enough Adastra
What's not answered? I'll try to see if i know anything
just more the why's and how's, im guessing (hopping ) they will be answered in the next 2 games
Is it confirmed that Chase killed Sydney?
i mean basically yeah. could've been Janice ig
Finished Flynn's route
Wow this route is horny, missed this kinda content after not seeing it till Leo and a bit of Carl's route. Flynn has always been a character I wanted to learn more about though out the novel and I'm so happy I ended it with this one. We learn who Flynn really is in this route and how he really feels about everything, making TJ's route so much more sad. Although this route might have ended in the most confusing way this has got to be tired with TJ's for the best route easily.
SPOILERS
ADASTRA MENTION WOOOOOO!!!! Fucking love Daxton for this and only this reason, I thought it was goanna be a one off thing but they really made it feel like Adastra WAS an old TV show. Also the perspective change I did NOT see coming holy shit that was cool, also seeing OLDER SYDNEY??? The fact this route only has one ending even after ALL the chooses you are given is a little annoying but forgive because while we are close to the end, the bad ending music starts playing EVEN THOUGH we aren't done that was so fucking cool. And after we end, we get the choice to look into the future where we see "Arches" that place!
Lot's of SEX happened so I like that :3 but this route made me re-think the WHOLE GAME.
Flynn's route: 10/10 might be better then TJ's and a great way to end off this amazing story
Well…that was sad as fuck. Guess I shouldn't have expected a happy ending but…damn.
Waiting for the Dub Version to replay all over again this amazing VN.
This game hits really hard... Second visual novel I play and I think I shouldn't have but I don't regret it, like Adastra this game really changed my way of seeing things and probably fucked me up in other things, thank you Echo Project for making the best visual novels
Echo is the second VN I play after Adastra and is the game that sent me into FVN rabbit hole. I finish this game about a month ago now and it's still on my mind; what a wonderfully written world and character we got here and apparently this game has been in development since 2019 finished in 2021, what and old game. It's a real shame most people will never get to read this becasue of how niche it is but I doubt it will ever be forgotten by the community anyday soon either.
Without spoiler what I say about the game is that it's set out to do what it's want really well. This is a horror game and it's been a while I feel scare going to a bathroom when the light is turn off especially when you play past midnight, You might also learn something about trama love and red flag. At first I was only going to play TJ and Leo route when the brance come up because who have time to play every route right? but then I finish TJ and feel bad for Flynn so I play him next and oh boy, before even half way through I said to my self "Oh no, I'm going to have to play every route now isn't it." Each route is different and that is not what I expected at all and in each you learn more and more about echo and your friend, a part out of corner in one route but will smack you in the face this route with different context and perpective. My order is TJ>Flynn>Jenna>Carl>Leo I heard you're not suppose to play TJ first from some comment later but you know it happen and I think you should still play whatever character you care about most when that brance come since you will actully care about what happening to chase and that character. And after the first two I'm glad I play Jenna and got happy ending lol.
I think TJ is the best route because TJ is the best boi. Leo, Flynn, Jenna and Carl follow. Not that Carl route is badly written but I connect with him the least despite understand him since his route go to place a bit far from many other main character but I get why this happen. Also having one not very useful side character is not help while in other route the side character is all wonderful. One day I'll be back to play TJ route again and maybe more if I feel like it. The only reget I have is a habit of mine to read too fast sometime and go through a scene before I can feel all the emotion. If you're about to play this game take your time, stop between the line and listen to music and reflect on what you are feeling. There won't be many game with story like this and trust me you don't want to hurry along to the finish line and I can't forget to mention the music, it's simple beautiful and add to overall feeling and tone when you finish this game and come back to listen to a song it's just cathartic.
I do believed the best story is the one that can evoke feeling of love Joy and sorrow at the same time. And that for me make this one of the great game that I ever got a chance of experiencing.
The hardest question to answer
how different is the games if u pick bi?
Her good ending has different implications, as well as some other scenes in the story that happen only if you choose this option. Thats the most i can say without spoiling too much.
u can spoil idc
Finished Jenna's route
I really wanted to like this one more, dont get me wrong this is EASILY one of the Top 3 routes (haven't finished Flynn yet tho) but i just never felt like we spend that much time with Jenna. At least not by herself, its here and there sure but with all the other route we often spend more time with the character of said route, so in the end I never really got any sort of feelings for her in anyway. Now with that being said, everything else about route is some of the best in this novel. The most I have cried easily is this one just cuz of how many kinda of emotions im feeling all at ones, and this novel has done thing i have NEVER seen in any other VN. Sadly, the ending felt a little rushed (both good and especially bad) which is upsetting cuz it really felt it was going somewhere and then it kinda jut stops.
SPOILERS
HOLY SHIT THAT MOVING SHADOW OF OURSELF IS NOT OK! I have never seen this in ANY other FVN and as soon as it started fucking walking, my eyes were full of tears. Not to mention the return of fucking BRIAN prob one of the scariest characters ever, just the thought of him makes me want to cry. Everything to do with Leo and Brian in this route was top tier and made me cry so many times over, plus all the route 65 stuff was so JUICEY. I didn't exactly get the whole HUM thing to well, but I might just be stupid, i understood it for the most part but I wish they went a little more in depth, tho that might happen on a different route. Also the BODY WE DIG UP!? OMG that was good, the dream of us knowing where the body was as well was really good.
Jenna's route: 9.5/10 so close to 10/10 but there is just something that I dont like as much about it
I really hope that Leo's route the bad ending has some sort of continueation or atleast a way to be with him while still having a good ending because i didnt like it at all.
i mean dont get me wrong i LOVED the story but its just i hated how bad i felt and i really wish there was a way to save leo somehow
Spoiler alert, there isn't :c
I found out the hard way...
Yeah, I honestly really hated that. Felt like such a downer. It really spoiled the entire thing for me.
Does anyone know if The Echo Project titles will ever come to switch?
what do you mean?
Like, will any of the games be playable on switch one day
Ooooh! Ok ok. I severely dout it, cuz its NSFW and its also a Visual novel which i dont think counts tho i could be wrong
Finished TJs route
This one felt the most tame (at first) and I was starting to wonder if everyone in this novel is gay lol. We get cut TJ hitting at maybe liking us though never fully saying it to our face, which is prob why this one worked so goddamn well for me. Lots of stuff about Sydney, I fell like the most we are gonna get and spending more times with all our friends which I liked!
SPOILERS
Holy fucking shit this one made me cry, that ending is not fucking ok. Through the novel I was almost certain we were the killer all along but I also thought; "NOOO they wouldn't make the MAIN CHARATER do something like that!?" should have remembered that this is FUCKINGN ECHO. The fact we don't even TRY to hear Flynn out or let him talk just lets us know what kind of person we really are, and we saw glimpses of it through out the novel. But seeing it and confirming it is something else. Also how are we so FUCKED UP to do that shit to TJ! THE BABYYY. I Actually hate Chase SO MUCH and I will be smiling next time I get a death screen cuz we FUCKING DESERVE IT!
TJs route: 10/10 this might be my favorite
For some reason it crashes on Android. When I press new game it crashes. Anyone know how to fix this?
Hey, unfortunately, this is a compatibility issue. I've had this same problem before when i downloaded, but it didn't happen when I tried to play on a better device. Still, this game is coded with Ren'py, sometimes the mobile version doesn't work properly on some devices, but the game itself still works when you try to run the windows version using an emulator (like joiplay - download the app and ren'py extension via their patreon). Try and see if it runs the game for you. I must advise it can be a little time consuming so be patient
Finished Carl's rout
Not at ALL what i thought it was going to be, just a waring for this one it dose take a while to get really good. Love the gay stuff happening in this one and you can really feel the relationship Carl and Chase have had through the years. Really weird stuff happening in this rout making me feel like the story of Echo was getting lazy...but oh BOY was it not!
SPOILERS This rout was very good for the lore parts with 2 specific characters and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the only rout where we actually finish our project lol. The bad ending of this one is so fucked up in so many ways, us getting manipulated into having sex with this discussing person only to later that night have a dream about a child wondering into the crawl space?! (which I'm almost certain is a way of saying that what just happened with us, is what he did to the kids) And the very ending part where we pull him out of the fire and learn our head agents his legs (Mirroring what he with us at the very start of the rout) to him to just look up with no expression. We didn't save Carl, we saved James.
Carls rout: 9/10 have a feeling this is the "worst" one
Finished Leos rout
Im am so happy that i started with Leo because he's the hot ex! And I want to get back with him cuz hes hot and cute...Imma have trust issues forever now thx game really cool 👍
SPOILER:
It's so fucked up that through ALL the terrible things we went through in this rout from terrible people from psychopathic muders and rapist, the worst of them all ended up being the one we stayed the closest too.
Leo rout: 10/10
it started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this...
its so weird and hard to try and explain whats good about echo because its surface level is equally ridden with humble shortcomings and overwhelming power...the prose is not anything special, the presentation is often in the novice land of weird sprites and endless kevin macleod music (though the cgs tend to be wonderful at least) theres a couple route-specific flaws, and maybe a couple ideas or plot beats have been Done Before if u care about that stuff. but its just so clearly one of the greatest things ive ever experienced in any medium, and could only exist in this specific form as a visibly amateurish gay furry itch.io cult classic...a sprawling, ambitious, colorful, comforting, gutting, endlessly fascinating generator of Thoughts and Feelings stepped in the kind of emotional truth you can only get from a niche product whos very conception will grant it the safety of probably not penetrating beyond its niche. but maybe thats a shame...echo is difficult to recommend, but i Do want more people to know about it, if for no other reason then its going to inspire at least one of them to take its lessons and go back something possibly even better...tho nothing could ever replace this
i am under no illusions that i will write a definitive review of echo, especially in the spoiler-free fashion i keep my stuff in, but after having spent literal years now reading this (i read my first route in late 2021, and took massive gap breaks between all the times i slowly returned to chip away at it), starting in one of the most tumultuous times of my life and ending it what has been one of the most peaceful times of my life, there are some things is especially have to commend...i owe it that much for its companionship
for me, echo's greatest strength, and its greatest thematic idea, is its commitment to the long-term effect...a relative de-emphasis on the individual moment-to-moment reading experience as anything amazing in isolation, and ability to weave these seemingly non-amazing scenes into something unspeakably identifiable and powerful. identity , for the game, for its routes, for its characters, is rich and multifaceted because it exists less in any big gestures and more in an increasingly dense personal history spent interacting with them. part of why the game took so damn long for me to playthru is that it has a kind of naturally rising emotional difficulty...the more routes u do, the more emotional baggage u have with the characters, the more u have to reckon with when they are onscreen , consciously and subconsciously. its not the the innocuous becomes massive in hindsight, it mostly stays innocuous...but it takes on a different color and flavor, becomes more specific and distinct
none of this is unique to echo, hopefully it could be applied to most good longform storytelling. but i do think echo has a uniquely powerful and steady hand in this department that resonates in myriad ways...its characters overwhelmingly traumatized queers with varying backgrounds of abuse, attempting to not be defined by the dry and brittle embrace of the town they spent their whole lives in...a struggle that often fails because the past cannot be truly left behind, and when actively denied manifests in secret subtle horrible ways that are now beyond your understanding because you have refused to reckon with it. the characters are their experiences, every moment of their lives enabled by every previous moment of their lives...there is no way to un-form themselves, who were formed in great pain and a deeply unjust world.
it is in this way that this being not just a gay game but a Gay Furry game is so fucking important. being queer is inherently traumatic in the cishetero patriarchal world, inherently abusive...even if not overtly, then internally, raised in an abnormality in a world that doesnt even teach u to recognize urself as one, leading to potentially years and years of ur identity and attractions being isolated from urself as u subconsciously recognize they are not yours. furries are overwhelmingly queer, and why not? u spend so long separated from urself, that u have to look in unexpected places to find it in a comforting and authentic way...why not cute animal people?
echo's niche is not tangential to its power (tho it is refreshingly un-exhausting about the logistics of its animal people world, leading by almost entirely intuition with a couple moments of playfully leaning on the unmovable concession that is the central aesthetic identity), it is Exactly Why i dont care if another vn ten years ago did similar things with anime girls or whatever. this is a frank and harrowing and emotionally complex discussion of internal and external queer trauma for an audience that will inherently understand it, without having to do any pandering or explanations to those who dont. this is why the game constantly blurs the line between romanticism/eroticism and horror, rather then being a DDLC style bait and switch where one becomes the other. this is why every single one of the deeply lovable incredible main characters could be convincingly argued to be a terrible person, and why theres no contradiction in that when the game asks u to love and accept them anyway. this is why every route has revelations that re-contextualize the entire game, with a full workable picture denied until the very end (and even then, in a world so vast, whos to say what we're still missing?). this is why the shit with sydney's dad is the way it is.
because if queerness is beautiful, yet also inherently traumatic, then that trauma can be, from some specific angle and trick of the light, beautiful as well...or at least, it can still produce a beautiful being, of which i have known countless...we are our experiences, especially our ugliest and most unjust ones. we cannot undo it, and yet we are worth something anyway. this is the revelation, and reorientation of how i see myself, that has allowed me to like myself for the first time in my life
i hadnt had this realization when i started echo, finishing it now id say its been the dominant pattern in my thought for the past year or so. echo is a space where i have returned like an intellectual checkpoint. am i being as kind and understanding to my younger self and their mistakes as i am to sydney? am i keeping a good holistic view of all of this enlightened traumaqueery to make sure im not making any excuses for genuine abuse, from or against or outside myself? has my acceptance turned to passivity? has my fear of passivity overturned my acceptance? have i been remembering that my worth and energy comes not from easily listenable or observable traits but something far more ephemeral built up by individual points of view choosing to spend time with me? echo has been equal parts challenging and comforting, realist and idealist, indulgent and thoughtful, spiraling and perceptive. at least in this stage of my life, its difficult to imagine being "done" with it , or having learned all i can from it. but even if i move on eventually, it, like everything, will remain within me. i could not be happier to have it here
I have never once cried to an essay about anything, but that seems to have changed today. Thank you.
This game has genuinely changed me, and I couldn't put into words how it did better than you just have, so I thank you for that as well.
i had to make an account just to answer this incredible essay, this game changed my brain chemistry so fucking hard i couldn't express what i thought about it with any kind of words. thank you for this amazing "review" (i think) of the game.
Echo is one of the best visual novels for furries. Awesome writing, awesome stories. (It reminded me a lot of Higurashi: When They Cry).
The characters here feel like real people, unlike most games where the characters feel more like well-written character. Chase, Leo, Jenna, Flynn, TJ, and Carl all are relatable in some way (to me), and you got really good dynamics between some of the side characters (especially Daxton with his dynamic with the group). I strongly recommend trying out this game!
I especially think Jenna and Leo's routes are the best. The symbolic ending of Leo's route I could go on about! Definitely play this game! There is much to love.