Before the Echo combines elements of both rhythm and role-playing games to create an entirely unique experience.
Very Positive
1,447 Steam reviews
| LANGUAGE | AUDIO | SUBTITLES | INTERFACE |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | — | — | Y |
I don’t usually enjoy dunking on clearly low-budget indie games, but this one is tough to recommend.
Let’s start with the positives: the core idea is genuinely interesting. It’s a 4-key rhythm game wrapped in a campaign with a story and full RPG-style progression: level-ups, gear, spells, items, the whole package.
Unfortunately, that’s kind of where the praise ends.
- The visuals (graphics, art style, UI, effects) all feel cheap.
- The writing comes across as pretty juvenile: shallow characters, awkward dialogue, inconsistent buildup, and humor that rarely lands.
More importantly, though, it also falls short where a rhythm game really matters:
- The music is weak. It lacks impact and sounds amateurish. Out of roughly 10 playable songs, I only genuinely liked one, and even that wasn’t anything special. If anything, it felt better suited as background music for a different kind of game.
- The main mechanic of switching between three lanes to defend, attack, or gather mana, is interesting on paper and works mechanically. But constantly shifting to different beats completely disrupts the flow, which is a big problem in a rhythm game.
- The game leans heavily on grinding to pad playtime, but replaying the same song multiple times just to get an item isn’t a great fit for the genre.
- Timing precision doesn’t seem to matter much, which makes spamming inputs a surprisingly viable strategy.
- There are also smaller issues like: limited gameplay customization, red notes doing disproportionate damage, floors making navigation clunky, and some noticeable balance problems.
In the end, Before the Echo isn’t just rough around the edges, it misses some of the core fundamentals of a good rhythm game. The central idea has potential, but it’s not enough to make the game worth recommending.
Before the Echo is a genuinely clever mashup of rhythm gameplay and RPG mechanics that I wasn't expecting to enjoy nearly as much as I did — the three-field combat system where you're juggling defense, mana, and spell casting simultaneously is surprisingly deep and keeps battles engaging throughout. Ronald Jenkees' soundtrack is a highlight, though hearing the same tracks loop during grinding sessions does wear on you after a while. The story pulled me along more than I anticipated, with some fun banter between the protagonists and enough twists to stay interesting. The main caveat is the grind: certain item drops have painfully low percentages, and since each item only drops from one specific monster, you'll be replaying the same fight — and the same song — more times than you'd like. At its typical sale price of a dollar or two, it's an easy recommendation for anyone who's enjoyed DDR, Stepmania, or just wants to see something genuinely fresh in the RPG space.
A thought-provoking puzzle adventure with intriguing storylines, atmospheric visuals, and engaging gameplay that takes players on a memorable journey through time.
Got this on sale for $0.99 and it was definitely worth it. I didn't get all the achievements but I did get the hidden ending. There's definitely a difficulty spike as you get to the last 2 floors or so, but you can overcome it by grinding a little bit and focusing on improving your equipment and recipes.
Speaking of grinding, I would say that's definitely the wildcard aspect of the game. Requiring items to progress and having those drop by chance means that you can be stuck for awhile trying to get something you need, and a specific item you need for the hidden ending only has a 14% drop rate.
However, if you like the music and gameplay, it's not too bad. It's a solid gameplay loop and progression is satisfying. Definitely recommend it if you like rhythm games and it's a no-brainer if it goes on sale for sure.
The Good
- Concept
- Music
The Bad
- Art style mismatch. Assets look like they're from different games and lack cohesion.
- Tutorial gives the controls but difficulty ramp to get your brain used to the new format is a little off.
And The Ugly
- Where the beats hit and where the arrows line up are not in the same place which is the bread and butter to producing a game like this.
- The dialogue feels like it was written by 13 year old wanna-be edge lords, I can't even blame the voice actors because the dialogue is so bad.
Я начал играть и не смог остановиться, пока не дошёл до конца.
Didn't really work last time I tried it. For some reason there was input delay/recognition issues even when setting things up correctly.
I applaud the attempt to come up with new game mechanics and new playstyles and such, but the gameplay in this game just falls flat on its face. There’s no logic to this combination of elements.
The game is like, you start on the floor of a tower where you select a monster to fight out of a list of three of however many monsters. Then you fight that monster with a rhythm game that requires you to time buttons to symbols with techno music. But this is incoherent because there isn’t even a pretense as to what some random monster drawings have to do with the music or a rhythm game.
Unfortunately the combination of these things ends up being uninteresting and incoherent.
Difficulty isn’t the problem. You’re just left wondering what the point of all this random overly simplistic stuff is.
[code]If you enjoyed this review, please consider following my Curator Page [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33864135/]Nep's Gaming Paradise (Nepiki Gaming)[/url] for more reviews![/code]
[h1]Nepiki's Stats[/h1]
[table]
[tr]
[td]Overall length[/td]
[td]Around 9 hours for beat, and 12 for completion[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Overall difficulty[/td]
[td]Normal difficulty[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Overall score[/td]
[td]★★★☆☆[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
[h1]Summary[/h1]
For the time this released, the concept of having a Rhythm RPG was really cool and overall well handled. Sadly some parts of the genres just aren't compatible, as grinding the same songs for RNG-based drops got tiresome real quick.
[table]
[tr]
[td]--Positives--[/td]
[td]--Negatives--[/td]
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[tr]
[td][/td]
[td][/td]
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[tr]
[td]The plot setup was mysterious enough to keep me hooked with good (albeit perhaps outdated) dialogue.[/td]
[td]The resolved mystery was... unique, but didn't do it for me.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Enough difficulty options to make this more than manageable for a DDR rookie like me.[/td]
[td]Too much grinding on the same songs for experience and drops.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Interesting method of handling combat by having three different playing fields, with enough different spells to cast.[/td]
[td]Everything from drops- to crafting is based on RNG that extends grinding even futher.[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
[hr]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/200910/Before_the_Echo/
Arrows don't always line up with either song rhythm or visuals consistently. Additionally would simultaneously press combo keys and it would only register one keypress some times.
[i]What a shame...[/i]
What could have been a decent attempt at making a somewhat gimmicky multifield rhythm game that tests not only your VSRG skills but your ability to make quick decisions and readapt your strategy on the fly, became victim to its own developers obsession with playtime. Before the ECHO has an insane amount of grind when you approach its later stages and it gets really obnoxious with how little XP you earn vs how much time you have to spend to not just 'outmatch' you enemy, but merely have the stats that let you progress if you do everything perfectly. What's worse, the difficulty doesn't really affect your XP stats, it just makes the charts harder but the fundamental problem remains the same.
The game has decent OST, intriguing story but none of that matters when you have to fight the same enemies 5, then 10, then 20 and then over 30 times just to move to the next stage. An enemy here means listening to an entire track (2-5 minutes) and as you can guess, you get tired of hearing the same music over and over again. You'll breeze through the first 4-5 levels in a couple of hours or so but its final stages will drive you insane because progression will slow down to a halt. This was the first time in my life that I was not willing to put up with this non-sense and just used CheatEngine to give me more XP to just 'be done with it', it's that bad. You see that playtime? That's way too much time for the amount of content the game has to offer. In reality, in should have been a 4-5 hour game at MAX.
Pretty cool.
it's sick
[h2]Mechanically unsatisying[/h2]
Awful note detection, also the patterns feel like they are in no way connected to the music. Very repetetive gameplay loop with a couple of questionable design choices that not only encourage, but downright necessitate mindless grinding thanks to the needless inclusion of RNG.
[h2]Youthspeak[/h2]
The writing feels somewhat juvenile and too forced with all the "hip" vibe, although with my limited playtime I can't say for sure how it unfolds later in the game. As for the voice acting, for a game as focused on sound as this one claims to be, the quality of recording itself as well as it's mixing is terrible.
[h2]Beep boop[/h2]
I have a soft spot for Ronald Jenkees' music, but do yourself a favour and just listen to it on it's own. No need to suffer through the gameplay loop for it.
aburrido
Good story and great gameplay.
Entretenido aunque no es para tirar cohetes.
Neat, fun, and relaxing game. It has a slower pace menu system more akin to Puzzle Quest, which I like. The gameplay was very unique at the time, one of the first games to put rhythm and rpg together. I really enjoyed my time with it.
You'll probably like Before the Echo (previously named "Sequence") if (but not only if!):You'd like a mashup of Dance Dance Revolution like rhythm gameplay (using your controller instead of a dance pad) with real-time RPG battles.
Extremely unique concept, and for me, just very much incoprehensible. I do not have the mental capability to juggle between three screens doing a dance dance revolution kind of minigame. If you have three brains and three pairs of eyes, perhaps this will appeal to you.
It's a decent and experimental little rhythm game, but ultimately lacks polish.
Not recommending due to the devs no longer supporting the binary puzzle solution. You won't be able to decipher the puzzle anymore unless you cheat and look it up. Additionally, there are similar and better indie titles out now, some for free.
Very much an indy title. Mixes a bit of RPG elements into a ddr-esque rhythm game. If you have a dance mat, probably something to consider.
Runs fine on steam deck.
Yes
müziğin ritmiyle tuşlara basıp ritmi kaçırmamaya çalışıyoruz çerezlik fena değil
This game is amazing
Really loved this game, the music still sticks with me, and the last few levels are quite a fun challenge!
Mag eine sehr unpopuläre Meinung sein, aber mir hat "Before the Echo" nicht gefallen.
Die Aufmachung des Spiels mit kleinen RPG-Elementen wie Loot, Craft, EXP etc. wirkt vielversprechend. Die Oberfläche, die Zeichnungen, die "Story" bzw. die Vertonung, ja, selbst so etwas wie der Hauptpunkt dieses Spiels, die Musik (obwohl ich mir etwas anderes erwartet habe. Die Elektro-Sounds sind gefällig, aber keine "Hits"), alles in allem ist sehr interessant/positiv.
Leider bleibt das Hauptelement des Spiels das, nun ja, Spielelement. Ich weiß nicht, ob der Einsatz eines Controllers gegenüber Tastatur wirklich viel ausmacht oder ob man tatsächlich den 1. von 4 Schwierigkeitsgraden wählen muss, aber auch im 2. von 4 habe ich mich völlig überfordert gefühlt.
Das Feld für die Tasten ist so schmal, die Parallelität der 3 Felder (jaja, Mana kann man ignorieren, ich hab das Tutorial gespielt!) so unfair, aber vor allem das Tempo und die Gleichzeitigkeit der Pfeiltasten, es führt zu sehr viel Frust. Entweder bekommt man Panik und switcht in völlig falsche Felder oder man macht Flüchtigkeitsfehler im Spellmenü, wodurch der Spell direkt nutzlos wird. Gleichzeitig läuft auch noch eine Uhr gegen dich. Und dann wären da noch die Farben der Pfeile... das ist ne sensorische Überladung. Wie man im Rhythmus der Musik, quasi mit geschlossenen Augen, die Felder erkennen soll...? keine Ahnung. Für mich ist das Spiel ne reine Augendynamik, die mir zu schnell geht. Die Musik verschwimmt durch die Anspannung und wird zu Hintergrundgedudel.
Fazit: Tolle Ansätze, aber das Hauptelement, das nun mal 99% des Spiels und das Vorankommen ausmacht, kann ich leider nicht empfehlen. Schon sehr früh, quasi direkt nach dem Tutorial, wird das Spiel sehr stressreich und schlicht niederschmetternd. Ich würde das Spiel gerne grinden, also quasi roguelike immer bessere Ausrüstung farmen, EXP und Level farmen, dann werden die Gegner sicher Stück für Stück leichter, aber ein Spiel, das mir selbst die einfachsten Dienerkämpfe unmöglich auszuhalten macht, da lasse ich lieber schnell die Finger von.
💋
I'm reviewing all my 600+ gamed. This is 18th.
As a game designer, I've seen a lot of people trying to make fighting rhythm games. This is the only one I've played that did it well enough. It's not perfect, the art is a bit janky, but the gameplay is original and pretty well done. A very nice curiosity.
Also did you know, it was called Sequence before.
DDR but it's an rpg
Before the Echo is a game that struggles to define its audience. Marketed as a rhythm game, it falls short of delivering on that promise. The gameplay revolves around managing three different screens: one for gaining mana via directional inputs tied to a beat, another for avoiding damage by inputting directions, and a third for casting spells based on specific inputs. The problem is that only the mana-gathering screen has any rhythmic elements, while the others lack any designed rhythm, making it feel disjointed and unconvincing as a rhythm game.
The gameplay loop is highly repetitive. Players progress through floors, fighting enemies that drop items needed to craft better equipment and increase stats. This setup turns the game into a grind-heavy experience, reminiscent of mobile games with endless repetition and incremental upgrades.
While some may find value in the story, I found the dialogue excessive, and it didn't hold my interest. For those who enjoy a strong narrative focus, it may be more appealing, but the gameplay's repetitive nature and lack of cohesive rhythm make it hard to recommend.
Hidden gem of a game for fans of quick time oriented rpgs. Combat system is like if Dance Dance Revolution was an rpg, but it also has some serious depth as well. Story is surprisingly captivating. 100% worth the cost.
Unique rhythm game with a clear vision, innovative gameplay and engrossing story
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Bejewled combined with a VN.
Played this on the steam deck and the game runs super well mechanically. At first glance the concept appears verrry daunting to even fathom (3 screens of DDR/beatmania that you have to juggle between? Preposterous), but the game did an excellent job about teaching the player and guiding them to become better slowly through gradually rising difficulties
While the crafting and gear system were simple and easy to understand, I did find the drop rates for items occasionally frustrating. But in this day and age with the advent of abysmal gacha drop rates, this is nothing (14% drop rate? practically free)
The voice acting was wonderful and the writing was so early 2000's and I love it
The art style, the music just adds to the whole, making this game feel refreshing to play even today amongst the myriad of other indie and even AAA titles
The ending credits were a great touch
For a game of this price and calibre, I whole-heartedly recommend this game
Got this hidden gem from a bundle long ago. This was the first game I played that combined rhythm gaming with RPG and they nailed it. The music is great, and the gameplay is fun. If you've never played a rhythm game this could be a good game to start with.
No idea of the state of the game these days. You have to remember, this game came out in 2011 and anyone expecting support for a game that got released that time ago and is not a 'live service' game. You're going to have a bad time.
I just wanted to leave a review for this as I heard a song from the soundtrack recently and it made me want to track down the entire soundtrack as it was one of my most enjoyable base soundtracks in any rhythm game.
♥♥♥♥ this game, it's stupid
DDR with a story about being an incel. Play if you enjoy repeating the same 6 or so songs about 70 times through the campaign.
this game is going into my suicide note
so good though, the mechanics are complex and interesting but can get very challenging and its not often rhythm games have interesting/unique stories, if any at all. also its way too good to be so cheap !
fyi dont pick the harder game levels youll lose your sanity
This game is hugely nostalgic for me - I played it back when it was called "Sequence" and it was on the Xbox 360's XBLA service. It's a really creative concept, though in execution the progression can feel pretty padded with reliance on grinding RNG items by playing the same songs over and over again.
Absolutely worth a play if you're looking for an original take on a rhythm game.
Decided to try and play the game after years of not touching it, will not start and unable to find a fix for it. Cannot recommend due to the lack of support and no real fixes (as the only fix I could find does not work anymore). Is a real shame because I remember having fun playing it for the short time I was able to in the past. Will update review if this issue ever gets fixed though it seems it is almost abandonware in the eyes of the dev.
For the first time, I played a rhythm game for the story... and the music are great. Awesome work! :3 <3
I am having way too much fun with this game! It's not really a one-session thing, so I get to enjoy it in little pieces of an hour or two each. It's a very interesting combat system and great music! If you love music, arrows, cute monsters and some tactical magic, this definetly is for you! It can be a lil bit grindy at times, but not too much!
Before the Echo combines rhythm and strategy in a way that is extremely clever and novel. On the whole I found the game to be very well-balanced and the progression is satisfying. Sadly the story and writing is a little lacklustre, and some floors can become a real grind due to the low drop rates. Nonetheless, I had a blast playing this, and for £3.99 it's an absolute steal.
1/10
Game won't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ start, even after doing the single fix I could find.
Honestly this is one of the best rhythm games of all times although a bit short on content if you like to multitask, grind and RPG mechanics. One of my fav games ever
:)
Fun game would recommend
if you enjoyed DDR, it's for you.
⠛⠕⠕⠙
Good pacing, nice storytelling, difficulties are reasonably spread apart and you can adjust in the beginning if you went too low/high without restarting, and you don't have to use all the spells/equip available, but even collecting them all didn't feel like arduous grinding.
Solid game, definitely recommend.
Most annoying tutorial I have played in a while...
I played a little bit of Before the Echo years ago and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd come back and give it another try. As others have said, it's kind of like DDR/Guitar Hero but with some RPG elements. You're battling through enemies in this tower to try and get materials to craft items (including the key to proceed to the next floor each time). At the end of every floor you unlock the door and face a boss before moving on.
Battles are almost like playing 3 mini DDR games at once, because you have 3 screens you need to rotate between:
[list]
[*]Defensive (hitting notes prevents damage from enemy)
[*]Spell (you cast spells to do damage, have to hit all of the notes or it fails)
[*]Mana (to regain mana for more spells).
[/list]
Successfully winning battles requires you to triage what notes on what screens are most important to hit, and balance going on the offensive with maintaining your mana levels and not taking too much damage. It's a neat little system that I haven't seen in any other game before or since.
Unfortunately, there are way too many sources of irritation in this game for me to want to continue playing or to recommend to anyone. The TL;DR of it is that there aren't enough songs, the game is too grindy, and the writing is incredibly cringey. For more details, read on:
[list]
[*] There seem to be about three enemies per floor. Each enemy has a song associated with it that you'll be battling them on. Each enemy also has 3 drops of differing rarity levels that you will want/need to collect to craft things like the key, new items, new spells, etc. In order to get everything, you'll have to battle enemies multiple times and thus repeat the same song multiple times - particularly if you aren't getting the drop you need.
[*] It's extremely uninteresting to fight the same enemy a bunch of times, particularly if you are able to defeat them relatively quickly and are just hearing the beginning of the same song over and over again
[*] I got to the second floor and the one enemy is using the same song as the boss I just fought, which isn't too bad because I had only heard it once so far. But the other 2/3 enemies have recycled songs from the first floor that I probably already heard like 10 times each. That was a big disappointment.
[*] To craft items, you need to get the requisite materials and spend exp. The amount of exp you spend increases the success rate, up to a maximum of 95%. Thankfully you don't lose the materials if it fails, but you do lose the exp you spent, further contributing to the grind.
[*] It sucks that at the start of battles all of your spells have to finish charging up (they have a cooldown at the start of battle and between uses). You're often not even really having to defend much in this time, so it's just dead time where you can't really do anything.
[*] I think I would've preferred it if the spell system was slightly more forgiving/rewarding than it is. After you start a spell you either successfully clear all the notes and cast the spell or you don't. I wish there were more nuance to it where maybe you could crit or have a chance of some special effect for getting it perfect but that if you missed 1 note it didn't necessarily fail the entire thing, because then you're just on cooldown. Especially early on in the game you just might not have that many other offensive options so you're just sitting around waiting again.
[*] The game tries way too hard to be funny but just makes me cringe. I'm not against vulgarity for the sake of humor but it just goes way over the top constantly in a way that's incredibly unfunny. One of the first things said is that your character's head is pounding like you were stabbed by a hobo. Shortly after there's a joke about date rape. Believe me, it just goes on and on.
[*] The story is not that interesting from what I saw of it.
[/list]
tomahawk missile bears
A fun little rhythm adventure / RPG game!
Understanding that the game isn't maintained and some users are having issues running it, the review is focused on the gameplay, and what awesome gameplay. In a weird way, reminds me to TWEWY, where you need to balance playing multiple games at once. You are looking at the enemy, responding and predicting their attacks, while casting your own, all while running through DDR patterns to successfully attack and defend. Story is serviceable, but that's not really the point. One of my favorite rhythm games, and fused the genres is a way nobody had before. Hoping we get further expansion on this idea in the future.
I like rhythm games, despite not being good at them, and RPG is one of my favorite genres so of course I had to try this. It took me maybe 10 years to do it but still, it was a pleasant surprise. I loved some of the ideas, especially how the combat works, with the three different panels. The story is interesting as well, and the ending was good. The achievements are also quite fair and fun, if a bit grindy. The only thing I didn't like that much was most of the dialog, although a few lines made me chuckle. Overall, I'd say It's an unique indie gem from 2011 that held up pretty well.
abandoned by developer, doesn't work unless you make modifications to the game. I like this game, but no, can't actually recommend it in this state.
This game has RPG-like gameplay but it used a whole other system that just comes up on your screen as you are playing..I can't really describe it. It's like this whole Dance Dance revolution thing and you defeat the enemies by not missing beats, but there is more to it than just that.
Rating: 10/10 I never in a million years thought I would play this, nor like it. But here we are. 100% completion.
Bastante increíble
This game rocks! Usually I'm not that much into rythm games and I truely was sceptical about an RPG with this genre but damn, it was so nice!
Fun overall game that was worth the investment. Comes with lots of original music. If you like rhythm games with other elements (RPG in this case), you won't be disappointed.
I got this game years ago and forgot about it, and when I came back to it just a week ago, I was pretty surprised how interesting it was. I was never the best at rhythm games, or RPGs, but both of them together worked perfectly. The dialogue can leave much to be desired but it had me hooked until the very end and secret ending. The guardians at the end of each floor were interesting characters on their own as well, Concerning the plot and ending, [spoiler] I don't think Ky and Naia really got together by the end, they seemed more like siblings to me than lovers, and it really isn't a battle worth dying for so at least nothing was really at stake and nothing was bad. So at the end of the day it was a win. It didn't leave me wondering too much. [/spoiler]
So go check this game out, for both the RPG and the rhythm game, a great story, and it's incredibly made for a crowdfunded passion project.
Remembered a song from this game and decided to give it another play after not touching it for 10 years. I recalled this game having some Reddit writing but boy howdy does it have some [i]Reddit writing[/i]. This game has aged like milk in a swamp. Whether it's the memes that were dated when this was new or the incredibly unfunny Reddit-/v/ hybrid jokes. Cool idea for a rhythm-based RPG that has you juggle multiple charts, but good ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lord is every other textbox questionable. Would not be surprised if I ran into outright slurs if I progressed any further.
Excellent music game.
10/10 if you like rhythm games, voice acting, storytelling, and a mix of fantasy/reality.
A really cool take on using DDR mechanics in a RPG game. One track follows the musical beat, one track is used to cast your own spells to fight the enemy, and the other track is used to defend yourself from enemy spells. This forces you to navigate three rhythm charts all at once to win fights and progress through the game. There's also equipment and upgrades as you move forward. Really unique and cool.
A brilliant gem with amazing gameplay, great music and interesting story.
I used to like it. I was gonna play again, but it can't be played on Windows 11 due to the lack of Windows Media Player. That's the only reason why I don't recommend it.
Occasionally charming writing; terrible gameplay.
I can't believe I haven't reviewed this game yet...if you like any sort of rhythm game then I highly recommend this. Is it old at this point...yes. But you know what is old? Yo Mama! So give this game a chance and also let it introduce you to the wonderful world of Ronald Jenkes keyboard music!
Well, quite neat and sassy. I don't even know what that means as much as I couldn't figured out what am I supposed to do in the game. Well, beat the game with your arrow-keys-pressing-skills and rest, just enjoy the dialogues. I might mention this, if you don't like in-game conversations with narrator, there's a lot of that stuff in here. Almost entire game. But, i still kinda enjoy those dialogues as those were not as cheesy and dumb as the other games centered around the same feature offers. So , good for the price.
What an absolute little gem this is!
Fantastic rhythm game with a gripping plot plus some amazing soundtracks. A must grab!
The gameplay is extremely good and unique as a combo of rpg style real-time-turn-based esque fighting and falling arrow rhythm game. The writing is delightful and funny without being too goofy and while telling an interesting story. The music is great, and all the artwork is great to see as well.
Unfortunately, there is a bit of eugenics apologetics included. It's the "what if there was a way to encourage Good Stock to breed that didn't involve killing at all" kind, and it's the antagonists that are doing it, but it's presented as gray morality and at least successful in getting the desired people together.
I think they realized they ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up with that bit of writing, because they heavily walk it back in the sequel, which is why I'm still recommending the game.
Jogo muito legal! Um jogo de música/ritmo criativo e desafiador.
I really love the rhythm-RPG mechanics here. That almost saved the game from the rest of itself... but not quite. There's the awkward grindiness, there's the story being edgily-written garbage. The voice acting is wooden and inconsistent and sometimes badly recorded. But I was willing to bypass a lot of that. (Also the 2D art isn't bad! Even if it gets repetitive with the palette-swap enemy designs. Much like some of the music.)
But just now I've reached a point late in the game (I think) where the badly-written story gets *much* more annoying, and uh. I may still go through the rest of this, but I can't say I actually like it anymore after that.
Bleh. I really wanted this game to be good.
I forgot to add the first time: the lag calibration only gives audiovisual feedback rather than taking a tempo tap input (though there's a bit that lights up if you push the controller button), and it seems to be kind of not enough. But then, that could just be bad calibration of the charts themselves? I'm not sure, but unless I adjust it to minus 50 or so, in a way which doesn't quite match the audiovisual, the beats don't quite line up in the actual game, which gets to be much more of a problem later. (Yeah, I know, DDR did that too, but.)
Oh, and it seems like if you hit a note, then are still holding the button when you switch boards, which is easy to do when you get to the harder levels because you will be switching boards a *lot*, then the original note doesn't count anymore? I'm not sure about this either. So many whiffed spells due to that.
(I really wanted this game to be good.)
Fun narrative spin and progression onto rhythm games like in the groove.
Fun gameplay loop but really grind heavy, if your into that the combat is pretty interesting and fun to get the hang off and the game is pretty funny to its credit
Очень интересная и недооцененная игра.
loved it
It has certain Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) elements, you need to slay enemies by playing through songs with pressing the cursor buttons to the beat. All this packed inside a story -> success.
Ok, so, the game is funny, and apart from that has very little to "give" -
but the DDR - elements make this a really good game.
Simpatico, ma dopo un po' non sono riuscito ad andare avanti e quindi l'ho disinstallato.
Non so se fosse colpa della mia build o della mia capacità come giocatore, ma non sono più andato avanti. Più o meno ero arrivato al punto in cui scopri che aspetto ha la ragazza dell'intercom, tipo due livelli dopo non sono riuscito più a fare niente.
An original mix of RPG and rhythmic game. The gameplay is fun and fairly fresh, and surprisingly managable even for me (on easy difficulty). There is only very limited set (3) of enemies on each level and fighting might get a bit grindy, especially if you want to unlock all craftable items (and bonus boss and ending). The art is beatiful, although static. Music is overall excellent and fitting well with the combat. Special mention goes to the music in the final boss encounter, which is at the same time great and deviously frustrating to try to sync with it. The story is interesting and there are some clues that foreshadow events in the sequel.
I wanted to like Before The Echo, but while initially showing promise, the game starts to drag the more you play it.
First off, the writing is... not good. It is clearly someone’s earlier work and it detracts more than adds to the story. The protagonist is unlikable, his personality is 'snark' and 'blows up at people for little to no reason', and he is treated as the smartest being in existence by the story. Not the mention he sort-of supports eugenics. His ally only differs from him in the fact that she has her anger issues under control. The first boss is racist and the second is a quasi-racial stereotype. both are played for laughs, but both fall flat. There is this weird out of place rant against astrology that has more development than some of the characters.
The art is tolerable, but some of the characters look weird, like in proportions. the music is alright, at least the first few times you hear each song.
Onto the gameplay. It starts decently enough. When you start the game, you are presented with three enemies and each one has a different soundtrack associated with it, then you get to the next floor, and find that some of the enemies there share music with enemies, and that really sets the tone for the rest of the game.
The game feels stretched. The reused music, the forced grinding, the chance-based crafting, some of the enemy models are just reused and recoloured, to learn spells you need to play music that you have already heard many times before. The designer sat down and thought about how he could squeeze more hours out of the players.
If you strip away all padding, the bad crafting system, everything that necessitates grind, any enemy that reuses assets, there are some good bones there. But unfortunately, everything that builds on the foundations makes it worse.
I love this game. The voice acting, the songs, the story, I just love it. I really do. It's pretty simple, and I love the gameplay. It's a nice way for me to just sit down, vibe, and have a good time. I love the characters, and I love the designs of everything. I highly, highly recommend it. Worth every penny.
Definitely worth a try for fans of rhythm games who are looking for a extra technical complexity and a bit of story to add spice to their styling. Something like a meeting between Elite Beat Agents and The World Ends with You with a lower budget and killer chiptune electronica.
The primary gameplay - having to watch multiple Dance Dance Revolution screens and switch between them to attack, defend, and heal - feels extremely empowering once you get into the flow of it. I haven't found this combination before anywhere, and planning a sequence of attacks and trying to adjust on the fly to enemy attacks within the context of a rhythm game was an awesome challenge.
This isn't a perfect game by any means - I'd knock the writing, which leans into the indulgent or discourteous at times, and some of the less fun design elements such as the artificial challenge of the final boss track and the reliance on random drops - but these elements weren't enough to completely cloud my enjoyment of the game.
I'm not an extreme challenge seeker, so I can't vouch for playing through on harder difficulties or hunting for achievements. Playing through once on normal mode satisfied me.
Everything about this game is amazing. It merges (dungeon crawler) and rhythm game beautifully, great music tracks, and hilarious bosses and item descriptions. Not to mention the main characters are great too. I love everything about this game. Definitely worth it.
Gave the game another try after years left it on the backburner, but it did not got better.
The game is a rhythm-based RPG which mixes a puzzle-like rhythm game and a very generic and base RPG system with loot, equips and stats, and the oh-so mandatory crafting system.
The game offers you a safe room from which you can explore The Tower and fight enemies of your choice to grind resources, to craft equipment and spells (Generic attack also comes from a spell) and then make a key to open a door and get to a higher level.
The combat is spent on a 3-window screen, you change between them with the Q and E buttons. Directional arrows fall from the windows, each doing different things - defense window's arrows damage you if not pressed at the proper time, mana window's arrows recharge mana on hit, and you cast your spells by pressing all the correct arrows of the selected spell in the spell window.
One of my main problems was that the game tries to be "hip". Or "radical". By being so clever and sleek that it plays the self-awareness card, and the "lame hero who got transported into world, and who has a woman sidekick who constantly mocks him".
Conveniently, she is the narrator as well, who has a varied amount of knowledge, based on what the tutorial or plot requires. And she talks through only an "intercom" I think? I wouldn't be surprised if there'd be a reveal-surprise-twist later on the line.
Anyway, it was a bit jarring how many times various drugs were mentioned even before the tutorial, at one point the protagonist accusing the narrator of being a date rapist, which is a very, very weird tone one wants to set in a rhythm RPG with colourful and silly characters.
The final nail in the coffin was how tediously stupid menus are, and how often button presses do not get recognised in battles. Not super often, more like 1/10-20 times, but it adds up, and makes the game feel really sloppy.
Likely there's an okay, tolerable game under the surface, but it's just not fun to play for me.
I recently started replaying this game again, the first time I played and completed it was back in 2011/2012. It has a lot of charm, is witty, and has an interesting concept. I would also suggest just playing through it without the use of a guide that shows you everything, it's much better that way. Right now I still cannot play on the hardest difficulty, Spasmodic, but I can get through Hard just fine. It offers a decent challenge and has an interesting story with secrets to be found throughout. It has a pretty deep battle system that allows for many different types of play, which you may just find yourself constantly tweaking as you go. Which I enjoy, it doesn't trap you into one set role.
That being said it isn't perfect. It does have a bit of a grind and there aren't an overabundance of enemies, but that's something hard to really fault it on. Given the time it came out and the small team behind it. It is impressive none-the-less.
I've been having a great time playing this again, it took me around 30 hours to fully complete initially. If a rhythm RPG sounds like something you'd be interested in I'd suggest picking it up. With the sale prices it's a steal in all honesty.
8.5/10
I think maybe this doesn't work right anymore. Either that or I can't hit a button, I'll take either reason.
game and concept is great but its not responsive to arrows sometimes and thats annoying
It's a pretty fun game.
holy cow this is bad!
the game we aren't expect. so much fun.
Music: 80's synth
This is one of my favorite rhythm games. Although it's not exceptionally well polished It has a great concept, and the music is beyond dope as hell. I'd only wish the stepcharts were a little better synced; I know there's not really any judgment timings like in DDR or ITG so it's not a fundamental issue here, but as a seasoned rhythm game player over the last decade I could definitely feel which song's beats were early, and which ones were late. Again it's not a huge issue, but I could feel it.
Still though this is a fantastic game, and if the developers have any interest I would definitely encourage a 2nd game that polishes the mechanics as a whole and adds a whole new perspective to the world that this game built. I think it would be a great endeavor to consider.
The music is good and the battle system is fun. Story are characters are terrible. Only worth it for gameplay/music.
