#yes i used my selector on the dapper dog boy in a pinstriped suit

[ruakichan]

A bit late to the party, but I started Ash Echoes last night. In general, a fairly solid game in a genre I normally dislike.

I really don't like RTS or sRPGs, mostly because I find them way too slow paced and sometimes too punishing for a single mistake. Ash being RTS helps a lot with the slow pace; being gacha generally means that, for the most part, the difficulty level is lower. I've been enjoying myself, especially since the combat does make me think of Kings Raid or Grand Chase DC.

The story is pretty dense from the start, but I didn't find it particularly difficult to follow along if you pay even a little bit of attention. I appreciated that the world is already embroiled in many problems and the MC--not an amnesiac for once lol--is thrust into a new position trying to deal with it. There are questions about the responsibility the MC has as a leader both to the people and the organization they work for and the groups they're allied with, all which often have conflicting goals and interests. I feel like so much of this story is what I expected and wanted Wuthering Waves to be. The characters also have a lot of opportunities to shine and interact with each other.

Speaking of which, the character spread is solid: pretty good on the men-women parity split, which is becoming so rare these days from CN games, with some interesting and attractive designs all around. From what I understand, this is a spin off game of an established CN franchise, so the characters feel less "gacha oriented" in terms that they don't have the usual tropes designed to make people pull, and the in-game lore that this world is literally a multiverse nexus allows for a variety of designs. It's pretty refreshing. I've enjoyed most of the cast so far.

There is a lot to do, which can be pretty overwhelming for people used to barebones launches. It seems best to follow the new player checklist, which lists goals and thus introduces the new systems and game progression as you go. The main mode seems to be the roguelite called Nexus, which serves as a faux equipment building mode. There's a lot of side story and lore buried in here as well.

In fact, the game is really story heavy; there's an event out right now, and it reminded me of FGO or R/1999 in terms of how long and involved the event story is. If reading isn't your thing, this game will be a skip.

As for the rest of it, a lot of the game can be auto or sweep/skip, if you're not particularly good or you're busy. Bosses seem to have the most difficulty spike.

There are a few casual modes, including dorm building and character affection building.

The graphics are... The 2D art is pretty good and I like the approach to the VN style in the main story, as I found it visually engaging. The battle graphics are fine. The 3D models can be oddly hit or miss; I'm reminded of early Xenoblade models? I don't know, the 3D models can be off-putting for some characters due to the style, especially in the eyes.

Nearly all text is voice acted. CN or JP only. Music is fine. Monetization seems standard. There's two banners: characters and traces, which are like CE in FGO or artifacts in Epic Seven. Traces are only worn by the leader and they are buffed in the aforementioned Nexus mode. More 50/50 again, but this is the new standard and I'll always hate mhy for it.

I'm sticking around at the moment. I dropped some gacha--Wuthering Waves and Love and Deepspace--so I have some free space to see if this game is a keeper for the long haul. Currently it's more appealing to me than a lot of other stuff on the market--having a good gender ratio with strong character interactions is super high on my needs--but I'm still early game and sometimes RTS can hit a hard difficulty wall if you're not good at them.