Echoes of the Past is an homage to some of the best memories of my past, packed in with a lot of heart. Bright and quirky interface, check. Cutesy charm, check. Dark and disturbing character stories, checkity check. If these images look familiar, no worries! I was recently working the same game under a different name, previously known as Project Infinite Odyssey. A slight shift in the team, and an official name, and we are back in business! Let’s skip the formalities for now, and get to the fun stuff—
Story
“Fifty years have passed since you and I left for Valorfel. You—you haven’t aged a day. I suppose it’s comforting to at least know I became a “silver fox.” Still… when we got separated in the mists, I never thought that I would see you again. Valorfel is not the sanctuary it was supposed to be, but perhaps with your help it can be.”
The war between the dwarves and the humans may be over, but that does not mean peace has filled the land. Valorfel, one of the last remaining human settlements is a town full of promise. On route to the settlement, a strange mist rolls through the mountains. Despite a desperate attempt for shelter, the mists consume you. Fifty years have passed and your name falters like an echo. A new life is yours to create, or leave behind.
While there is a story line, I will leave that to a later date. There’s a lot of lore detailing the world before your arrival, and you can go as far into depth as you like as you play along. The real story here, is your story as a character you choose to play.
Gameplay
After the tutorial area is completed and you get your house, the options for gameplay are entirely open ended. A few days after you get your house you can start the story. You can build up a farm on your property if you want, you can go fishing, you can craft furniture and weapons/armor, explosives, trinkets, and a variety of other objects. You can bond with the NPCs who all have different schedules and different story archs depending on the choices you make/don’t make. You can explore around town as different events occur at different time periods, including 3am midweek. Think Majora’s Mask where there was always something going on at any given time. Help build up the village (Valorfel is just a default name), so more villagers can move in. The more you do, the more the settlement will evolve around you. Tired of farming crops, no problem! Grab your sword and go wreck a few dungeons with branching paths and grab some monster parts. There’s a level of depth and thoughtfulness in the world and our goal is to immerse you in our world to escape yours.
Your character is free to explore, provided you remember to sleep within 72 hours. After 48 hours of no sleep, things tend to get a little….weird. This is a love hybrid between the inspiration from Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and Zelda, with some MMORPG elements tied in. Things will make sense as we go along and if we don’t feel a feature is going to give you the best experience, we’re going to change it until it does.
Combat
There are four different weapons you can choose from, each with their own combos and moves. Sword, axe, lance, and bow. In addition to having those abilities to choose from, there are 4 heroes and 4 deities you can follow. Each hero and deity comes with their own benefits, which allows you to flex your character however you want. Want to be a bow using paladin with a shield ability for when enemies get in range? Go for it. Axe wielding Druid style character? The Lorax would call you a hypocrite, but sure. Just want to use a rusty spear to stab things because of undisclosed childhood issues? Stab away! The idea is to give you the freedom to use whatever is fun, or whatever maximizes your DPS. There’s going to be players who want to be pure glass cannons, and others who want builds that make you facepalm but have fun doing it.
Developer Details
There is a massive two people developing this, and like many, we both work full time jobs outside of this. That being said, I promised heart and we’re going to make sure that we deliver that. Wind blows through the town, and you can see the trees and the crops blow with the wind. Leaves fall from trees. The jerk racoon on your property doubles as a mailman. Balloon packages sent airmail can be shot down, however there will be repercussions for your actions. There are plenty of collections to pursue, animals to raise, and characters who have stories to tell you. Some of your decisions will have adverse effects and certain villagers will not move in because of those actions.
TLDR: Stab things with pointy weapons, and shoot things with the non-pointy weapon.
Go through the story, or not. Whatever.
Do things around town except for when you’re not doing things around town.
Get face rolled by dungeon bosses.
Convince villagers you’re not useless.
Don’t trust the raccoon.
Build a farm unless you don’t want to build up a farm.
Try to bribe the raccoon with treats until you realize he’s never going to love you.
Make the raccoon love you.
-Eden Aeternum
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