Echo (Horror Visual Novel)
I'm sure most gaming nerds have heard of Doki Doki Literature Club. It's a horror-styled satire of dating sims. The problem is that its dating sim and horror sides sorta don't work together, even though each side works on its own. They're too disjointed and the horror really only works if you're not expecting it. The horror isn't incorporated into the world or the characters. If anything, it detracts from the characters and de-immerses you by making the characters feel less real.
Echo is very different. It does not bury its lead at all. The first few lines already hint at its horror edge before you even get an idea of even the basic elements of the premise, and while it's clear they will be important later on, those hints at the horror don't immediately affect anything for a long time. The horror is also incorporated into the world better, as Echo's horror primarily works by taking characters you get attached to and makes you worry about what will happen to them. It's also a better satire as the subversions of tropes are used to inform characters. Rather than presenting normal tropey characters and then adding on a ton of disturbing stuff with very little buildup, Echo ops to take some common dating sim tropes and interrogate what a person who fits those tropes would be like on a deeper level. I wish I could be more specific and give examples, but many of them are spoilers.
But really we should know, what is Echo about? Well, Chase is a journalism student who's planning a trip to his hometown of Echo, picking up his childhood friends who have since moved away, Jenna and TJ, to visit his childhood friends who still live there, Leo, Flynn, and Carl, for a little reunion. He's also going there to do a project about the town, in particular on a mysterious supernatural hysteria that happened over a hundred years prior, which definitely won't return during the game, I promise. At first, they hang out a few days. They eat some sandwiches, go to an amusement park, etc. Leo confesses that he still has feelings for Chase, revealing they used to date in the first place, and wants some closure to the messy breakup they had when Chase left for college. Later on, Chase suggests going to Lake Emma, the local lake, for some footage. But Leo says Flynn would have a lot of major problems with that, so they settle on a stream that's near the lake. However, Flynn is nonetheless pissed and when Chase comes back from getting his footage, you find out why. You see, there was a 7th member of their friend group, Sydney, who died in a mysterious drowning incident at the lake. Flynn seems to be the one who was closest to him, and TJ was the only one who witnessed the incident, but he refuses to say what happened. Eventually, the confrontation escalates to the point that Leo violently hits Flynn, which causes TJ to run and hide, Jenna to scold Leo over resorting to violence as he storms off, and Flynn to just bail. And this is the moment you pick your route. Fortunately, Flynn gives you an overview of each character besides himself, particularly their problems. Leo is obsessed with Chase, Jenna thinks she's better than everyone else, Carl is a spoiled fat kid mooching off his rich parents, and TJ is definitely hiding something about Sydney's death.
Now this does unfortunately bring us to some issues with Echo. The most relevant one here is route order. This game was built primarily one route at a time and some of the routes have major reveals that can affect how a player will perceive other routes. The common consensus for the ideal route order is:
Carl > Leo > Jenna > TJ > Flynn
However, when the route selection screen pops up, they're in the reverse order, with TJ and Flynn at the top even though they're intended as the two last routes of the game.
There's also a lot of jank as well. Echo had a very long and turbulent development due to technical issues, art overhauls, issues with proofreading, and growing pains with just learning to write for VNs. This was the first VN of the main writer, Howly, and he left the project to another pretty inexperienced VN writer, McSkinny, midway through, who only wrote a few side stories and a side game of Echo, Route 65.
Still, despite that, I highly recommend it. Although there's some jank to wade through, the underlying appeal is strong. The characters are written fantastically and even in the worst routes, they can make it all worth it. Carl is a great example as his route is really bad compared to the others, but that's because it was the first one written. And despite that, Howly's strength at character writing still shines through and the horror is still really effective, even if it is campier and less psychological. Carl is also really well written and his arc as well as the themes of his route are really well done. He's the most realistically written character and his romance with Chase is probably the closest it gets to real, sincere chemistry with any of the love interests. I could still easily recommend his route on its own and there are still 4 other routes better than it.
That said, if you're not sure if you wanna play 5 entire routes of this game, then please play TJ's route. It's the most gut wrenching and masterfully written route of the game. It was actually so emotionally intense that its ending, on top of overwork, caused its writer to suffer an emotional breakdown so intense that he left the project for his own health. If you want to see a truly masterful deconstruction of the toxic nature of dating sims, TJ's route is one of the best.
Regardless, even though the game is janky, it is still important for helping to start the rise of more dramatic furry visual novels that's still ongoing, which I think makes it worth trying out. And on top of that, there's still a lot to love despite its jank. It's why I consider it my favorite game of all time even though I know there are plenty of technically better video games and even other furry VNs, because it has this amateurish charm and drive to it. It was a huge creative risk to make and even when it did finally wrap up, it was such an achievement, especially since only a small handful of the VNs created in its wake have ever accomplished that, one of which was made by the same creator. I plan on talking about more of those projects too as they are very numerous. Until then, keep on yiffing (I wish I had a sign-off catchphrase)