PS4 offerings will also see expansion, with the addition of Monster Hunter Stories (PS4) and Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin (PS4) just a month before the release of Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. Other games coming to the subscription service are racing game Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown (PS5), narrative action adventure games Neva (PS5) and Season: A Letter to the Future (PS4, PS5), indie title Venba (PS5), and sports game Rugby 25 (PS4, PS5). These games will be available for PlayStation Extra and Premium tier subscribers. The PlayStation Classics catalog will see the addition of Disney Pixar Wall-E (PS4, PS5), which was originally released on PS2 in 2008.

Along with this, Sony has also confirmed new additions to its PlayStation Plus Classics catalog for next month. The line-up, only available to Premium tier subscribers, includes PSP fighting game Tekken Dark Resurrection, and PlayStation classic rail shooter Time Crisis, as caught by Gematsu.

This announcement comes just a few days after rumors first popped up of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 coming to the subscription service. The 2023 action-adventure title revolves around Peter Parker and Miles Morales taking on a host of new foes from Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery. A key element of the story is the presence of the Symbiote.

While Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 coming to the service makes sense given its 2023 release date, Monster Hunter Stories and its sequel coming to PlayStation Plus is especially interesting since the third game in the turn-based RPG franchise is slated for release on March 13th.

While the Stories series has largely focused on telling their own standalone stories (no pun intended), they tend to have a throughline in the form of their combat systems that blend the traditional Monster Hunter gameplay loop with turn-based action with an emphasis on befriending monsters as well as fighting them.

For those looking to check out Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection before release, a demo was released earlier this month offering some early-game sections. Capcom has also confirmed that players will be able to carry over their progress into the full game when it finally comes out.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection also got a trailer earlier this week, offering an overview of the story and the history of the Riders. The trailer features narration by Elizabeth Rose Bloodblame of Hololive English, and focuses quite a bit on the bonds between Riders and their Monsties (Monster Besties). Along with the wide roster of monsters that the series is known for, Stories 3 will also feature newer ones from Monster Hunter Wilds, like Rey Dau and Arkveld. Among the returning monsters, Monster Hunters 2‘s Yama Tsukami has also been confirmed for the game.

But, beneath the surface lies hidden depth. Its Icelandic-influenced setting isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a personal world, crafted by a studio that genuinely cares. And now – with the arrival of Echoes’ Enhanced Edition – the rough edges have been rebuilt or transformed outright. Finally, it’s a game which showcases the contemplation behind its features. The Enhanced Edition proves Echoes of the End isn’t underrated because it was mediocre, but because the version you played never fully reflected what the developers were aiming for.

At a glance, it’s easy to see why Echoes of the End struggled to stand out. Yes, its marketing reads like template fantasy-adventure copy, but early reviews also framed it as a restrained, AA spin on modern action games: tight corridors, linear-based progression, and the occasional boat ride, punctuated by cinematic cutscenes. Sure, Echoes is very much in the vein of various other action adventure games, but it’s without the AAA sheen that makes those odysseys sing.

Throw in reports of unresponsive inputs, missing assets, crashes, and awkward traversal stuttering – issues the base version suffered from far too often – and a picture quickly forms. What you saw was another mid-budget game chasing blockbuster ambitions. If you dove in anyway, you were swiftly kneecapped by its unattainable scope and lack of polish. Echoes was more than playable, even promising in places, but it couldn’t shake free of its shortcomings. Its ideas were sound – they just needed steadier execution.

Yet, the base version didn’t communicate how these ideas actually fit together. Easily missed is that Echoes of the End wasn’t attempting the same mythic sweep as its AAA contemporaries. Its scope was intentionally smaller, its narrative more intimate, its world built with the kind of regional specificity rarely seen outside of AA passion projects. Even the most derivative-sounding ingredients – its swords, magic, vestiges, rope swings, and air-dashes – were part of a framework intended to embed you into your character’s world, not just to induce wide-eyed spectacle.

But, as is often the case, first impressions take root. Once that perception sets in, revision gets locked out. Conversation stagnates – the game now must work hard to prove itself.

But, before we detail what Echoes’ Enhanced Edition brings in, let’s outline what the game nailed the first time around.

Swimming beneath the familiarity, Echoes’ storytelling kicked the game to more interesting shores. Multiple reviewers flagged the game’s writing as its unexpected strength, but even that undersells how character-driven it actually is. Beneath the sweeping landscapes and magical setpieces lies a human story built on grief, trauma, fear, trust, and the burden of power – all conveyed with subtlety that many players never realised was there.

At the centre is Ryn, whose attitude became a point of contention in online discussion. Some players saw her as unnecessarily abrasive, while others praised her emotional arc. But the more forthright introduction of the Enhanced Edition – plus a closer reading of the game’s themes – makes clear her persona isn’t bravado but armour. Ryn is a vestige – someone born with barely controllable magic power, with her volatility causing an accidental injury to someone she cared about. But, instead of leaning into cliché empowerment tropes, Echoes’ takes a measured approach. Ryn’s bluntness isn’t standoffishness for its own sake, but a defence mechanism. She keeps others at arm’s length so she doesn’t hurt them again. And flipping this around, Echoes establishes clearly that society has grown wary of vestiges, perhaps precisely because of Ryn’s miscontrol.

Ryn’s foundational persona epitomises Echoes’ restrained emotional language, wherein characters carry weight without melodrama. Their inner turmoil shows in ambivalent tones of voice, guarded body language, and expressive facial animations that are noticeable in trailers and footage if you pay attention. Echoes does a prime job of establishing its lore, but its personal silence demands you peek through its veneer.

And then there’s Ryn’s ever-present companion Abram, whose presence is as a genuine counterpart rather than glorified quest giver. He’s reactive, adaptive, and someone you’ll build trust with throughout Ryn’s journey. Their partnership is the spine of the story, and the friction between their goals – her search for her brother, his unspoken agenda – grounds the narrative into something tense, dynamic, and relatable. Strip away the fantasy aesthetic, and Echoes is a story about learning to trust again, and discovering that power – both in the magical and emotional sense – is only dangerous when wielded alone.

Then we have the combat which, in Echoes of the End’s original release, imbues the game’s ambition. Yet, while it was widely praised as enjoyable it lacked sharpness: lightweight hit detection, loose lock-ons, and spasmodic combos left skirmishes feeling tiringly ornamental rather than tirelessly engaging. Echoes’ Enhanced Edition re-works combat with retimed animations, while remixed sound and visuals add incisive force. Combos now continue through dodges and parries, with lock-ons moving fluidly between targets. Sure, these tweaks are subtle rather than radical, but Echoes’ fight scenes now feel authored; finally, they’re bouts of precision, not approximation.

Where these combat fixes steady the ship, the Enhanced Edition’s new content strengthens Echoes’ trajectory. Redesigned progression – a leaner, more readable Gear System – expands customisation, where unique playstyles can be cultivated at a pace which matches the story. Retooled difficulty options massage the challenge to meet a broader spectrum of newcomers, while veterans can access New Game+, where elite enemies meet new abilities, with outfits and relics retained from earlier playthroughs. Fresh dialogue options, environmental hazards, and accessibility options widen the experience further.

Developer Myrkur Games insist Echoes of the End is not patched-up, but clarified. They haven’t just sanded down the rough edges, but confronted the base version’s shortcomings with honesty and humility – an increasingly prevalent characteristic of the AA space. The Enhanced Edition coming a mere two-and-a-half months after the original release is a sign of their commitment. Likewise, the game’s environment reflects their connection to Iceland, where its distinct cultural overtone sits comfortably with other ambitious, mid-budget AA titles – Clair Obscur: Expedition, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, or Eternal Strands. These games are made by nimble teams not defined by constraints, but a willingness to explore deep meaning; in their systems, in the beat of their worlds, in tone, pace, and how it all speaks to you as a player.

The fact Echoes’ Enhanced Edition is a free upgrade is icing – Myrkur Games is a studio whose ambition is matched by genuine artistic and cultural pursuit. What began as a broad sketch is now sculpted into an experience the studio always meant to release. Its first wave didn’t find an audience – many players didn’t even know of its existence – but now, in a year dominated by mid-budget giants, it’s a small Icelandic studio that is delivering one of 2025’s most heartfelt adventures. In an industry where first impressions matter, Echoes of the End: Enhanced Edition proves reinvention isn’t always necessary – just a second chance to show what was already there.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

When it comes to actually playing the game, however, in many ways, Echoes of the End ends up feeling like a throwback to an older style of action RPGs that we often saw during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, and by no means is this a bad thing.

"As far as stories go, Echoes of the End doesn’t really do anything mind-blowing."

The story setup is quite simple; you – in the shoes of powerful magic user Ryn – along with your sibling Cor, are out in the countryside on a routine quest to make sure that the Wards that protect the borders of their country are safe and functional. After mopping up a few of the local threats, however, things start getting out of hand when you come across soldiers from the neighbouring kingdom Reigendal. Once you actually get to the main Ward, this invading army is also revealed as having a character named Ryn among them, who has figured out a way to destroy these Wards from within.

As you might expect, a showdown takes place and in a series of events, Cor ends up getting kidnapped by the invading forces. We know he’s safe because they need a local guide to wage a stealthy war of conquest against your country. Things aren’t completely hopeless, however, since Ryn is rescued by a friendly scholar who just happens to be in the area – Abram Finley. After discovering that Abram also happened to be an acquaintance of Ryn’s deceased father, the two then set off to try and warn the nearby military camp of the incoming invasion before it’s too late.

As far as stories go, Echoes of the End doesn’t really do anything mind-blowing. However, what it does quite well is set up some appropriate stakes that melds a personal quest, getting Cor back, with the larger threat of the incoming invasion of Reigendal looming on the horizon.

"Abram also acts as an excellent sounding board for Ryn."

Considering the character-focused nature of the game, it is worth noting that some of the most interesting writing in Echoes of the End comes from Ryn’s interactions with her travelling companions. You get a great look at the relationship she has with Cor in the early chapters of the game, as well as a decent idea of how the two got estranged, how their father treated both of them, and how Cor’s mother was a contentious person in their lives. While Ryn comes off as a bit cold in the beginning, with acts like refusing to hold her brother’s hands, reasons for this are quickly explored, and it largely just comes down to Ryn’s desire to protect her brother.

Abram also acts as an excellent sounding board for Ryn. Since he knew her late father, he tends to have some interesting insight into the man. At the same time, we get to see Ryn warming up to Abram and seeing him as a friend in real time thanks to both of them coming to terms with the horror of an invasion making them realise exactly what’s at stake. The character writing is pretty great, and while some characters might feel like they’re one note, they start getting plenty of depth. The only downside here is that we don’t get to see the antagonists as often as we should, and instead, we only really get to fight faceless and nameless soldiers.

While the story might be a great setup, the gameplay feels like the glue holding everything together. The moment-to-moment gameplay feels like a pretty bog standard take on a Souls-like action system that has been toned down quite a bit in terms of difficulty. You’re often facing between 2 and 5 enemies in levels that feel like they were built for fights to break out, and you’re also given plenty of tools to let you deal with them in smarter ways than just slowly drawing them closer one attack at a time.

"Enemy encounters in the game are often separated by various environmental puzzles that Ryn and Abram must often work together to solve."

Abram also plays a vital role in the combat, since; you can have him attack your target, stunning them for a short duration and leaving them open for a big attack or two. Abram will also occasionally help you out in fights by holding an enemy down, leaving them vulnerable for a quick kill. Much like Ryn, Abram’s abilities can also be upgraded through the skill tree, giving him access to more attacks and more varied ways of supporting you in battle.

Ryn has a few magical abilities of her own to wield. These largely revolve around gravitational forces; the most basic ability you start out with, for example, is Shift, which lets you pull or push enemies in specific directions. This move can be used to great effect by, for instance, pulling an enemy into another one, knocking both of them down in the process and leaving them open for a few swings of your sword. More powers are unlocked over time, greatly expanding Ryn’s capabilities especially when it comes to dealing with multiple enemies at the same time. However, it is also worth noting that many of these abilities are also simply upgraded versions of your base abilities.

You also have a few defensive options that you can make use of to better manage the multiple enemies that are often thrown your way. Aside from the standard blocking and dodging, Ryn can also time her block perfectly to execute a parry, leaving the enemy open for a counter attack. These defensive options can also be further expanded upon through the skill tree by giving you new follow-ups. A parry, for example, can be followed-up with a magical blast that throws your opponent away. Similarly, well-timed dodges can be followed-up with a ground smash that damages the enemies surrounding you.

"Ryn’s capabilities also play into things outside of combat."

Despite the moment-to-moment combat having incredible potential for being fun, unfortunately, we don’t really get to see much of this depth explored thanks to enemies often feeling one-note. You’re not going to see regular soldiers pulling off some new moves, and even the ones that are equipped with more unique weapons seldom use them in interesting ways. Rather, the game’s idea of introducing more variety in fights largely boils down to throwing multiple archers in your way. Even more encounters where the soldiers are equipped with the grappling hook-styled tool Abrams would be welcome. Instead, you’re largely stuck with standard enemies and sometimes-interesting boss fights.

Speaking of which, abilities are unlocked through a simple leveling system where fighting enemies and finding collectibles gives you experience points. Getting a certain amount of experience points, in turn, rewards you with a skill point that can then be spent on new abilities, improvements to existing abilities, and even more mundane upgrades like getting more health or regenerating mana to cast your spells at a faster rate. While this might sound like a bit of a let down, especially when compared to action RPGs with much larger skill trees, it certainly helps the overall gameplay pacing of Echoes of the End and helps keep the focus on the narrative and strong character writing between Ryn and Abram.

Ryn’s capabilities also play into things outside of combat. Enemy encounters in the game are often separated by various environmental puzzles that Ryn and Abram must often work together to solve. Some of the game design chops at developer Myrkur Games are on clear display with these puzzles and how they’re designed to gradually introduce new mechanics to the player before they’re thrown into progressively more and more complex puzzles to solve using a combination of platforming and making use of Ryn’s abilities to manipulate the environment. While there are a few places where you’re going to get into back-to-back fights, the game also tends to give you plenty of breaks by introducing simple platforming challenges along the way, or even a puzzle that might involve manipulating a series of bridges and pulleys. This also helps give Ryn and Abram more time to talk, further diving into the strong character writing of the game.

"It’s a downright gorgeous game, and Myrkur definitely knows this since there are also plenty of scenic vistas peppered throughout the game to let you appreciate the landscape."

The overall gameplay structure of Echoes of the End harkens back to a much older era of gaming, where fights took place in specific arenas that were often separated with puzzles or platforming challenges. In many ways, the DNA of the design can go as far back as the PS2 era. However, Echoes of the End is a much more polished affair, and platforming isn’t nearly as core of a gameplay mechanic for it as it used to be for action-adventure titles of the past.

One of the key areas where Echoes of the End excels at is visuals. It’s a downright gorgeous game, and Myrkur definitely knows this since there are also plenty of scenic vistas peppered throughout the game to let you appreciate the landscape. Along with some of the more idyllic beauty captured by the title, there are also some solid depictions of more gruesome things, like a burning village, or even a cavern that was thought to have been long abandoned but is currently occupied by a mythical creature that feasts on the dead.

All of these visuals were also quite well optimized, and while I did see a couple of frame drops here and there, they largely disappeared once I was beyond the first chapter of the story. For context, I reviewed this game on a PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, 32 GB of RAM, and an AMD Radeon RX 7800XT GPU. Throughout my time with the game, with all of the visuals set to max and motion blur disabled, I was getting stable frame rates of between 80 and 90 FPS.

"Echoes of the End feels like a great first stab for a studio’s debut outing."

The visuals pair excellently with the soundtrack which tends to largely stay out of the way. While there are grand, sweeping orchestral tracks in Echoes of the End, most of the time, the music is much more understated, with the game focusing more on providing a quiet atmosphere to match the idyllic mountain paths or the melancholy of the brutal sight of a village getting destroyed. Even in gameplay terms, the sound effects do a great job to depict the impact of Ryn’s swords, and even the force of her enemies getting flung into each other.

Echoes of the End feels like a great first stab for a studio’s debut outing. The story hints at grander things happening in the background while still keeping things relatively personal for protagonist Ryn, and the gameplay is well paced, with epic fights punctuating environmental platforming and puzzle solving. Generally speaking, the title never really feels like it’s overstaying its roughly 14 hours of runtime. The combat, while not too deep, still feels quite fun when you can pull off the perfect use of Ryn’s abilities and Abram’s ability to stun foes. The quieter times afforded by the platforming and puzzle segments also help elevate the game’s pacing quite well.

Ultimately, Echoes of the End is a pretty fun action adventure game with some light RPG elements that is easy to play through over the course of a weekend thanks to its strong presentation, compelling writing, and fun combat.

This game was reviewed on PC.

The studio has published a post stating that it wants player feedback for the performance issues they might be facing, along with more details like where in the game they faced these issues, what the game’s graphics settings are set at, and the player’s PC hardware specs. Using these details along with the feedback, the studio hopes to fix up the technical issues that the game might be facing.

“The game has been live for around five hours now, and as expected we’re seeing user feedback pouring in,” wrote the studio. “We’re thrilled to see you all finally be able to enjoy Ryn’s story, but unfortunately we are seeing that some of you are experiencing some performance issues, particularly in the game’s earlier chapters.“

“We want to assure you that we are actively looking into these reports and will be moving forward with patches to address this rapidly.”

Echoes of the End was released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S earlier today. Leading up to its release, Myrkur Games had released a behind-the-scenes video where it discussed its philosophy on what makes a compelling protagonist for a game. “That was the thing we knew about [protagonist] Ryn before we knew anything else,” said performance director Dadi Einars in the video. “That was the game we wanted to make.”

“Before she was a person, she was, well, a warrior with magical abilities. Over time, that description evolved. She wasn’t just a warrior, she was a ranger on a solitary posting expected to be able to fend for herself in the dangerous wilderness. She didn’t just have magical abilities, she was a Vestige, born with an affinity for destructive magic that most people feared and shunned. Her solitary posting became less about faith in her abilities, and more an expression of the fear her people felt for her.”

The video also featured the voice actor for protagonist Ryn, Aldis Amah Hamilton, who spoke about her experience with the game’s script, and how much she started loving the character the moment she saw the story.

“For me, the most helpful thing when I get to know a character is, of course reading the script, and their responses and reactions to whatever is going on,” said Hamilton. “But I also am just inherently curious about why people do the things they do and how people tick.”

Echoes of the End isn’t slated to be a long game, with the studio having confirmed that it will take players somewhere between 14 and 15 hours to finish if they focus on its 10-chapter story. Special attention, however, was paid to ensure that the game felt like an adventure for players.

The response, at least on PC via Steam, is fairly tepid thus far, with only 558 peak concurrent players at launch. It also has a “Mixed” rating with only 54 percent of its currently 105 user reviews giving it the thumbs-up due to performance issues.

Echoes of the End offers ten story chapters and lasts about 14 to 15 hours. Combat is somewhat akin to a Souls-like and 2018’s God of War, as players control Ryn directly while Abram assists. There’s melee combat and spell-casting, with Ryn capable of manipulating gravity to gain an advantage on foes.

Those same powers come into play during exploration, and Myrkur Games touts unique mechanics in each chapter that players must solve to progress. For more details on its combat, check out this developer video. You can also learn more about the process of creating its characters here.

In the video, performance director Dadi Einars takes the lead in talking about how the studio started its development of Echoes of the End with a simple concept – “A warrior with magical abilities”.

“That was the thing we knew about [protagonist] Ryn before we knew anything else,” said Einars in the video. “That was the game we wanted to make.”

“Before she was a person, she was, well, a warrior with magical abilities. Over time, that description evolved. She wasn’t just a warrior, she was a ranger on a solitary posting expected to be able to fend for herself in the dangerous wilderness. She didn’t just have magical abilities, she was a Vestige, born with an affinity for destructive magic that most people feared and shunned. Her solitary posting became less about faith in her abilities, and more an expression of the fear her people felt for her.”

We also get the developers discussing how they see Ryn themselves, and how they could relate to her character and the backstory that was eventually developed for her. Aldis Amah Hamilton, who voices Ryn, for instance, spoke about how much she loved her as a character right from the get go.

“For me, the most helpful thing when I get to know a character is, of course reading the script, and their responses and reactions to whatever is going on,” said Hamilton. “But I also am just inherently curious about why people do the things they do and how people tick.”

Einars and Hamilton also talk about the other characters in Echoes of the End, including Ryn’s brother Cor, the rest of her family, and her main travelling companion for the game, Abram Finlay.

Myrkur Games had released another behind-the-scenes video for Echoes of the End earlier this month focusing on the game’s cinematic approach to its combat, and how the studio took player feedback from the previous trailers into account as the game got closer to release.

“When we started making Echoes of the End, we already had some pillars in mind for the combat system,” said Einars in that previous video. “First, Ryn is both a trained warrior and a vestige; someone born with an affinity for ancient destructive magic. She is powerful, and playing as her, you should feel powerful too. Second, we wanted the interplay of melee combat and magic to be central to the experience. It’s about mobility and precision, weaving in and out of range, and using your abilities to control the battlefield.”

Echoes of the End is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S later today. Game director Halldór Snær Kristjánsson has also confirmed that it will have a runtime of between 14 and 15 hours for the main story.

However, you shouldn’t expect a God of War or Ragnarok-length adventure. Speaking to WCCF Tech, game director Halldór Snær Kristjánsson revealed that it’s about 14 to 15 hours long if you focus on the story.

“The game length is generally, I would say, 14 to 15 hours during our playtests when we get people in to try the game out. It’s longer than we set out to do. One of the reasons we offer for that as well is that we have 10 main chapters in the game, and each chapter in the game actually has a distinct environment and visuals.

“But we really wanted this game to feel like an adventure, like you’re traveling throughout the different biomes and seeing different parts of the world, and that’s exciting on a visual level, but also on top of that, each level will have its own kind of key mechanic in the game. So, as Ryn and Abram are going throughout the game, once you get into a new level, we’re gonna throw a new kind of mechanic at you to interface with, and that’s a promise that we give out to players.

“Once they play the first two chapters, they’ll start to realize, okay, they’re switching it up every so often. The way that we talk about this internally is that Ryn is a hammer and Abram is a screw, and they’re solving problems together or dealing with different things. We always throw completely different problems, and those are usually tied to the biome that you’re in and the story of the biome that you step into.”

Some of those mechanics are teased in the initial announcement trailer, says Kristjánsson. Each chapter will introduce and then expand upon these mechanics, making them “more complex.” You can also look forward to about 20 unique enemies. “Then, of course, the bosses on top, and those are also quite tied to the themes of the chapters. So you might see an enemy in one chapter and not in any other.”

Echoes of the End launches on August 12th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. The story follows Ryn, who teams up with explorer Abram Finley to save her brother. Venturing through the Iceland-inspired Aema, the former utilizes swordplay and magic to topple enemies while the latter can assist in various ways. Head here for more details on the combat system.

Starting things off, Einars spoke about the feedback the studio got after it released the gameplay trailer last week. Noting that some of the feedback revolved around the game’s combat looking slow, Einars has said that changes have already been made to the game, and more improvements are constantly being worked on. He noted that the gameplay footage in the new video is from an earlier build of Echoes of the End. This means that the gameplay improvements that have been made to the game since then aren’t reflected in the new footage.

“When we started making Echoes of the End, we already had some pillars in mind for the combat system,” said Einars. “First, Ryn is both a trained warrior and a vestige; someone born with an affinity for ancient destructive magic. She is powerful, and playing as her, you should feel powerful too. Second, we wanted the interplay of melee combat and magic to be central to the experience. It’s about mobility and precision, weaving in and out of range, and using your abilities to control the battlefield.”

“Third, we didn’t want it to be a cakewalk. Ryn is powerful, but it’s that power that makes it even remotely possible for her to emerge victorious against the enemies she’s going to face on her journey.”

We then also get a look at how some of Ryn’s combat abilities will work, featuring gameplay programmer Oksar Emanuelsson. Ryn will have quite a few abilities right from the start of the game, including standard attacks and dodges. “More uniquely, my favourite ability in the game by far is the shift, which allows you to take an enemy and shift it over in another location,” explained Emanuelsson, who went on to note that the ability allows for unique ways to take out enemies, like shifting them off cliffs and letting gravity handle the rest.

Quite a bit of the rest of the video features various analyses by Emanuelsson of some of the combat that we got to see in last week’s trailer. He also provided some insight into some of the encounter design that was shown off in the trailer, such as Ryn having to manage multiple enemies while her partner in combat, Abran, is making use of his own abilities to help out.

Echoes of the End is slated for release on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on August 12. The release date was announced through a trailer that gave us a good look at the game’s combat as well as the various magical abilities that Ryn and Abran will be able to use in their adventure together.

The trailer, clocking in at around 17 minutes long, gives us a deep look at not only the combat of the upcoming title, but also its world, how its magic works, and its character-driven narrative. The trailer shows off earlier parts of the game, and there is a focus on showcasing the core pillars of Echoes of the End.

Kicking things off with a routine border patrol, things quickly turn to chaos when siblings Ryn and Cor are ambushed by the forces of neighbouring kingdom, Reigendal. Things come to a head when the duo discover that one of their attackers—Zara—is a vestige like Ryn. This means that, like Ryn, she can also use ancient, volatile magic.

The battle between Ryn and Zara ultimately ends with a stalemate before being interrupted by scholar and explorer Abran Finlay. After being separated from her brother, Ryn must team up with Abram to find him and figure out why Reigendal suddenly attacked.

Along with this core story taking place, Echoes of the End will also involve the hidden history of Aema that will be explored through the bonds that its characters have with each other. The character-driven narrative will also be complemented with motion-captured performances that allow for a wider range of emotional expression for its characters

Echoes of the End was originally announced all the way back in 2021. The title features melee combat that melds standard attacking and defensive options along with magical abilities that meld seamlessly with your attacks. The studio has also stated that players will be able to create “creative combos and interactions” by having Ryn team up with Abram for some of her attacks.

Along with action, Echoes of the End will also feature plenty of puzzle solving that revolves around Ryn’s magical abilities. These can range from simply pushing blocks around to even manipulating gravity to open up new paths forward.

While it was announced quite some time ago, the first time we actually got to see the game was at this year’s Future Games Show Summer Showcase, where a trailer was released.

Echoes of the End will see players engaging in aggressive melee combat that will blend melee mechanics with high flying magical abilities. As mentioned at the top of this story, there’s clearly a strong God of War influence here, from the environments and the visual design to the combat and more. How successfully Echoes of the End will be able to replicate that style of gameplay, but it definitely seems to have some solid elements in place. Check out the trailer below.

Echoes of the End is due out sometime this summer for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. A specific release date hasn’t yet been announced, though presumably that’ll change soon. Stay tuned for more details on the title in the coming weeks and months.