TLDR: Not really.
50 years ago, towers appeared all over the world. Inside them are weird monster-thingy called Jammers, and they attack people (ooh, scary). Those who got too close ‘crystallizes’ into a stone-gem thingy… except for ‘Scepters’, people who can enter and destroy these towers. It’s said that if you reach the top of a tower, you get one wish granted (I think, didn’t fully understand that part).
Hoshinari Academy is a place where Scepter cadets are trained. The player joined this academy as a teacher because s/he has the ability to increase the resonance between different Scepters, which will make them stronger. Aaaand the story begins.
I played this game just to practice my Japanese, but I kind of got addicted to the gameplay, and I am kind of sad it has to go.
What’s the game like now?
Hoshinari Echoes ‘was’ a tower busting game with addictive gameplay and very cute minigames. The characters are very endearing and a lot of work and details went into the game. However, the offline version lacks a lot of what makes the game what it is. The game is now just a long, long visual novel without an actual ending.
What used to be live 2D is now replaced by not even a sprite, but just a wall of text. CGs just pop up in the middle and not even in full screen. Thankfully, the voices are still there. Not so thankfully, this game is actually partially voiced.
The ‘room’ function was pretty cool since the character animations are super personalized and detailed, but that aspect is missing in the offline version. You could also listen to each team’s theme song and the OST of the game here. There are some nice songs, but not so catchy.
Why did the game go under?
I guess, like a multitude of other gacha games before it, financials.
These are based on my own opinion, by the way, not anything official about the game.
One of the game’s issue is that it doesn’t really have a clear target audience. The MC/self-insert is a woman perhaps in her early twenties, which is the same as in GCREST’s other game, Yume100. This would suit recent trends where people call themselves the ‘mommy’ of the characters they like. However, it would feel strange if you’re a high schooler playing this game and the same age as the character, wouldn’t it? By the gameplay and the super shounen actiony story, I’d say the storyline itself is geared towards a younger audience. Yume100 worked because most of the characters are in their early twenties as well, and the game’s story is heavy on romance, as well as the MC’s age not being brought up very much.
Making HoshiEcho’s MC a teacher also kind of backfired, because *whisper* suggestions forbidden relationships. Another similar game, Alternative Girls (which is also going offline, sadly), did not have this issue because the MC was their ‘captain’, not a teacher. HoshiEcho could’ve gone for that, but because it’s in Japanese I didn’t fully understand what MC’s stance was but it did mention that she was to be a teacher. Hmm.
The game actually has many story formats. Most of the main story, the MC is just there as an observer, hence why it’s so shonen. There are bond stories, where MC spends some enjoyable time getting to know each student’s invidual storyline. And the most interesting and fun part is actually the character interaction stories, where you see how the students interact with each other in and outside of class. I enjoyed them even more than the bond stories.
I’m not against having a mixed cast. Heck, the girls in this game are cute as hell. Mei and Taki, especially. I know some people have issues because they want the guys but they keep pulling girls from gacha. It wasn’t an issue for me because I never pull the characters I want anyway.
Oh, that’s another issue. The huge cast! I barely get to know some of them, and most I don’t really care for. Maybe art style is part of it. This game is actually one of those very rare occasions that I like the chibi art more than the actual sprite art in the game. CG art is beautiful though, not gonna argue.
I really wanted either Zuiun, Maya, or Yuto cards, but I never actually got one that I actually wanted. Gacha rotation takes way too long because of how many teams there are in the cast.
(One of the things I forgot to mention is that it takes forever to load between screens, which was super annoying. Why is it still an issue in the offline version?)
All of these issues culminated in two possible issues: their target audience being too niche, and people not investing enough in the game to spend.
Finally, Hoshinari Echoes was an addictive and enjoyable game, however, it was wayyy to grindy for its own good. You have to grind for materials, resonance, etc. and the game did not have (as far as I’m aware) a full-auto option. Getting to read whichever character story I want without having to grind hours for it is the best thing that came out of the offline version. Other than that, I’m kind of sad this game had to go.
bonutzuu 