[MacBlayne]

ECHO NIGHT

Echo Night is a first person Japanese game on the PS1. That means you’re in for a weird premise, clunky controls, and even clunkier presentation. However, it is a game from From Software, the mad lads behind Dark Souls, and offers us an early example of how they’ve always been unconventional.

Resident Evil and its many clones pretty much set in stone how PS1 horror would be presented, so it is odd to see Echo Night adopt the first person perspective. However, those games were survival horror, whereas Echo Night is a horror-adventure, with a strong focus on the adventure part.

You play the part of Richard Osmond, well before his stint on Pointless, as his attempts to unravel his father’s disappearance lands him on an abandoned ship. I say abandoned, but more haunted by tormented spirits. Only a few ghosts seem to possess the ability to commit violence. The other lost souls are mostly benign, muttering about something they left unfinished before dying.

This sets up the gameplay loop. Encountering an entity transports you to their memories, and you must unlock an item that gives the spirit closure. These puzzles are rarely taxing, and excepting a tedious game of blackjack, they never frustrate. Said closure is not always happy, and it’s fair to say that an overwhelming sense of melancholia hangs over the ship.

It's this tragic atmosphere that pushes you further, unlocking more sad stories that hint towards what happened. The origin of this madness is rather silly (magic stones and knives), but helping each ghost move on feels rewarding. Even the antagonist is confused and lost, not knowing what has occurred, but remembering something very bad has happened.

I’m not likely to revisit Echo Night. The very weird control scheme was always difficult to adapt to, and the snail-like walking pace bordered on exhausting. But I did find myself being enraptured by the odd atmosphere the game provided, and I eventually was able to navigate the ship without a map. Echo Night represents an era of gaming in which 3D opened up new possibilities. Many designers were unsure how exactly to do this, and experimentation flourished. Their methods may not have always succeeded, as is true here, but it’s a much better concept than shoehorning a shooter onto it.