Before the Echo

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Flagship title from Iridium Studios, Before the Echo (previously known as Sequence) is a RPG-rhythm game hybrid that pits players in a struggle for survival against hordes of monsters, all the while to the beat of a catchy and often rock worthy soundtrack.

You are Ky, drugged and left to die on the main floor of a large tower with no means of escape except to follow the guidance of a helpful voice on the intercom (whose help has yet to be determined, since she could very well be alongside those responsible). You are jumped by a monster and without any knowledge on how to fight, saved by your new friend Naia when she uses one of her three 'saving grace' spells which pulls Ky out of the battle. After a brief introduction on how to fight, Naia sends you on a quest for the top of the tower with the only other option to wait and die.

Before the Echo offers players a unique take on the two genres by wrapping the main elements of an RPG in a sea of falling arrows. During a battle, the player takes control of three different beat fields representing spells, mana and enemy damage which they are free to swap between at will:

• Defeating an enemy requires you to cast a variety of spells, all of which cost mana taken from your reserve. When a spell is cast, a pattern of arrows falls into the spell field. Successfully hitting, or 'clearing' the arrows will cast the spell in question. Different spells may be learned outside of combat and swapped into quick access slots in battles. Some will do damage to enemies, leech hp and return it to you, boost the power of the next spell cast or shield you from incoming damage. Depending on the effectiveness of the spell, the sequence of arrows that fall will become longer and more complex whereas simple spells may only require a few arrows. Fail the sequence and the spell's effect will be lost as well as the mana required to cast it.

• Since casting spells costs mana, the only way to regain it is to move into the mana field. Here, arrows are constantly dropping and each successful beat will net you mana points. Failing to hit an arrow is not punished.

• You're facing off against any manner of abomination so self-defense is certainly encouraged. In this field, falling arrows represent your enemy's attacks. Every arrow which makes it by will damage your overall HP but may be repelled. The severity of the attack is represented by the colour of the arrow, gray dealing the least and red dealing the most.

Tropes used in Before the Echo include:

• Absurdly High Level Cap - The game can be comfortably 100% completed at around the mid twenty level range. The actual technical level cap is thirty four, this takes ten billion experience points to reach.
• Ascended Extra - Jane, the fourth floor guardian takes Naia's place as Mission Control after she was abducted.
• Awesome but Impractical - The final offensive spell you acquire from beating the final boss, Luminary Storm, is the most powerful, most expensive to cast, and has the longest cooldown time of any direct damage spell in the game. Unfortunately, on Hard/Spasmodic difficulty the casting pattern is very complicated, has no breaks, and takes a full 5 seconds from start to finish.
• Bonus Boss - Virtual Ky
• Boring but Practical - Arclight is the very first offensive spell you learn with low damage but a low mana cost, a short cool down time and simple arrow pattern. Above the third floor, the time limit for each battle becomes much more dangerous as the hp of your foes grows faster than the damage output of your new spells, and so Arclight becomes very useful as a backup spell that can be fired off between more damaging spells with little consequence. There is an achievement in the game for beating an enemy on the 7th Floor with ONLY Arclight.
• Dangerously Genre Savvy
• Deadpan Snarker - Both Ky and Naia.
• Damsel in Distress - Naia becomes this for a while on floor 5.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty - Jane
• Expospeak Gag: Percival introduces himself with these.
• Failure Is the Only Option - The first two fights where Naia uses a saving grace.
• Genre Savvy
• Hopeless Boss Fight - Aaron, the guardian of the Floor the Seventh, appears when you first get to Floor the Fourth. He has over 200 HP, and sends a constant stream of red gems in the defense field. Luckily, Naia uses her second Saving Grace to stop the fight.
• Hurricane of Puns - Almost every item contains a horrid pun in the description.
• Incredibly Lame Pun - The Item descriptions often contain these.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels - Easy, Medium, Hard, Spasmodic
• Interface Screw - Guardian Effects. Ranging from rendering you unable to switch fields to swapping the position of your left/right and up/down arrows, these limited-time effects are either mildly annoying or your worst nightmare.
• Lampshade Hanging: Several typical RPG tropes have this done to them throughout the course of the dialogue.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Frequently.
• Level Grinding
• Lotus Eater Machine - Ky and Naia are actually prisoners in a computer simulation designed to pair up intellectually superior humans to further the human race.
• Mirror Match - The post-game boss.
• Mission Control - Naia, again.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad
• Randomly Drops - The source of your synthesis materials and likely the most prevalent enemy in the game. Equipment exists to boost the odds in your favor, though it physically cripples you in exchange. Barring the Imaginary Number Pod of course. Being able to desynth the excess materials found in your wanton farming for extra EXP takes away some of the sting.
• Sequel Hook - Combined with The Stinger.
  • Though it's unclear if we'll ever actually get a sequel. When asked, Jason (the lead dev) said simply "What's a sequel?" Though he was probably just being sarcastic.
• Shout-Out - Item descriptions, once again often contain these.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat - Ky and Naia during most of their dialog.
• The Bad Guy Wins - Even after learning about the true purpose of the tower, Ky and Naia decide to get together.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech - Ky and Naia give a rather brutal one to the Sixth Guardian about how and why Astrology is a load of crap.
• The Smart Guy - Ky has an undergrad in computer engineering, and it definitely shows in his dialogue.
• The Stinger - If you beat the secret boss, then there's one after the credits.
• Voice with an Internet Connection - Naia.
• X Meets Y - RPG meets rhythm game.
• Your Mind Makes It Real