Developed by Mega Cat Studios, Echoes of the Unread is a new NES title that follows the player character, Rhapsody, as she wanders a library in search of the exit. With brain fog from too much revision (I’ve been there), Rhapsody is having problems exiting the library and gets sucked into the worlds that exist within the pages of the books. That is an interpretation of the general premise of Echoes of the Unread. It is a novel and interesting premise to be sure, but does the gameplay live up to the premise? The game is still in development, and I’ve had some hands-on time with the demo.
The great pixel art and animation is what you’d expect from a modern NES game. The art looks inspired by Earthbound and other role-playing games that are set in the modern Western world. The world is sprawling, and you explore from a side-scrolling perspective. The way you progress through finding items (and musical notes) that allow access to new areas evokes metroidvania vibes, although the game is more complex than a simple metroidvania. You could describe the gameplay as a music-based platformer. I’m informed that there will be multiple endings.
There are also three difficulty settings to choose from when you start a new game. Again, this is similar to new and old role-playing games. I’ve noticed a few annoying features within the gameplay. These could be glitches or errors. When starting after pausing (and saving), my character would fall through the floor and die, causing me to lose some progress. I don’t know why this was happening, and if it was something that was intentional, was a glitch, or was a problem with my hardware. Despite this, I managed to finish the demo. Upon finishing the player is told that in the full game, there will be more themed worlds to explore, multiple endings, and 50 pages to find. The gameplay is really strong in terms of exploration and platforming. I hope the cheap deaths will be minimal with the full game.
In Echoes of the Unread, you collect pages of books and can open other books to enter themed worlds. I accessed a ‘Wild West’ themed world. The art was reminiscent of cowboy-themed worlds in other games. Jumping on some enemies will kill them, but not all. Early on, the player learns the ability to shoot musical notes. This can trigger switches and create platforms. This allows the player to access previously out-of-bounds areas. There is some platforming involved. Enemies appear and are diverse in form. However, the combat can get frustrating, especially when you feel you are not progressing and have come across multiple dead ends. Despite this, the concept is so alluring and novel that the fascination with discovering new themed worlds will drive you on. The art, narrative, and premise are all interesting enough to compensate for the game’s annoying combat.
Echoes of the Unread has a lot of potential. There is a growing library of new Game Boy and NES games that include quality-of-life features but also remind us of past classics. Games like Zephyr’s Pass, Infinity, and Dragonbourne prove that 8-bit systems aren’t dead. Whether Echoes of the Unread will deliver a good gaming experience is yet to be decided, but the demo is definitely encouraging and worth giving a go if you like Metroidvania-style platformers. The demo has left me wanting to play more of the game. Hopefully, the full game can live up to the interesting premise of being stuck in a library and being sucked into the stories within the pages of the books.
