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Echoes of the End has the ingredients of a compelling fantasy adventure: sword-and-magic combat, environmental puzzles, platforming, and a striking world inspired by Iceland. But the clunky combat and punishing encounters highlighted in its launch-era review need an important qualifier: the game later received a free Enhanced Edition that substantially revised combat, movement, controls, difficulty, and pacing. Those changes make the original criticism relevant, not conclusive about how the updated game feels today.
What kind of game is Echoes of the End?
Echoes of the End is a third-person fantasy action-adventure set in Aema, a world drawing on Iceland’s landscapes. You play Ryn, a warrior known as a Vestige, who has destructive magical abilities. She sets out to rescue her captured brother and prevent a looming conflict, with her companion Abram alongside her.
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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PS5) | $41.74 | Buy on Amazon |
The adventure combines melee swordplay and magic with platforming, traversal, and environmental puzzles. Its settings include glaciers, volcanic regions, ruins, and ruined cities. Xbox Wire says the developer used photogrammetry for much of the environment work and scanned Icelandic locations; that is the studio’s account of its process, not an independent assessment of the game’s visual fidelity. Xbox Wire’s feature on the game’s Icelandic inspiration describes the approach.
Why did the original review call the combat clunky?
In a review updated August 23, 2025, PCGamesN’s Khee Hoon Chan rated Echoes of the End 5/10. Chan found promise in the inventive puzzles and focused combat early on, but said the game became a slog as battles grew more demanding. The specific combat complaints—including a narrow parry window, attacks interrupting heavier or chained moves, and limited magic reserves—refer to the version assessed in that review. They should not be treated as firsthand findings about the later Enhanced Edition.
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- MASTER DYNAMIC COMBAT - Customize your fighting style with deep skill trees, combo-based action, and powerful equipment.
- HARNESS DIVINE POWER - Awaken the Creator Saga’s legendary power, unlock powerful transformation, and unleash devastating abilities in epic encounters.
- EXPLORE A VAST ANCIENT WORLD - Travel through diverse biomes — from snowy mountains to toxic swamps — packed with secrets.
- CHALLENGE THE RUINS - Enter ancient temples filled with traps, brain-teasing puzzles, and danger to earn rare treasures.
- BOND WITH PIGGY - Your trusty flying pig isn’t just comic relief — Piggy helps in puzzles, combat, and exploration, adding charm and heart to your journey.
Chan also criticized fights that combine enemy roles in groups, arguing that the encounter pressure made the combat less satisfying. Beyond combat, the review described traversal and puzzles that demanded precise timing, with climbable surfaces that were not always clear and failures that could be punishing. These are useful details behind the review’s verdict: the concern was not simply that combat exists, but that precision demands and interruptions could make difficult encounters feel exhausting.
Read PCGamesN’s review, updated August 23, 2025 for the full launch-era assessment.
Rank #2
- Includes Ruin Rising Pack - Be a true champion of mankind with a new exclusive Ruin Rising Armor Dyes and master the power of the sand with the Nyaal’s Wrath Gauntlet bonus skin
- Master the sands to explore a unique fantasy world teeming with secrets, locales and dangers
- Hunt legendary creatures alone or with a friend in heroic, super-powered combat
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- Rise as the ultimate champion with unique custom skills and abilities
What changed in the Enhanced Edition?
The Enhanced Edition is presented by the official platform listings as a free update, not just a new label. Steam lists overhauled combat, reworked animations, equipment customization, new difficulty modes, New Game+, and pacing improvements. Xbox Wire and the PlayStation Store also describe a combat overhaul, faster early progression, and improvements to movement and controls.
| Area | Launch-era review concern | Enhanced Edition change listed by official sources |
|---|---|---|
| Combat and animations | PCGamesN criticized the parry window, interruptions to heavier or chained attacks, and demanding group fights. | Steam lists overhauled combat and reworked animations; Xbox Wire and PlayStation also describe a combat overhaul. |
| Difficulty | PCGamesN described demanding, punishing battles. | Steam lists new difficulty modes. |
| Movement and controls | PCGamesN described traversal requiring precise timing and unclear climbable surfaces. | Xbox Wire and PlayStation describe improved movement and controls. |
| Early pacing and progression | PCGamesN said the game began promisingly but became a slog. | Steam lists pacing improvements; Xbox Wire and PlayStation describe faster early progression. |
| Customization and replay | Not a specific criticism in the cited review. | Steam lists equipment customization and New Game+. |
The update’s stated scope directly addresses several areas raised by the older review. But the available sources do not provide controlled before-and-after testing, so they establish what the Enhanced Edition changed—not whether those changes fully resolve the original complaints in play. The launch-era criticism remains a fair account of that review’s version; it is not a reliable stand-in for an independent assessment of every later revision.
Rank #3
- SURVIVE THE SURFACE: Rise from the underground to a surface world infested with hostile Enders, toxic rains, and other enemies, as you fight to loot for resources. Ride your CRADLECOFFIN, cooperate with your Magus, and stay alert around other players. One false move is all it takes to lose both your mecha and precious supplies, left to be scavenged by the remaining survivors.
- THE MAGUS - YOUR PERSONAL PARTNER TO KEEP: This humanoid AI supports in exploration, scavenging, and combat. Each model type has a different personality, and its appearance can be extensively customized. They operate by giving tailored feedback on the objective based on analysis of your previous performance in sorties so you don’t make the same mistakes twice. Keep them close, as Magus can also unleash unique abilities when you are in a tough spot!
- THE CRADLEDOFFIN - YOUR VEHICLE TO RIDE: The CRADLECOFFIN is an all-weather bipod developed for the harsh terrain of the surface. Each mecha has a different endurance level, load capacity, operation time, and can be further customized with many body parts and weapons to suit each sortie and try new playstyles. Craft new parts by collecting resources and upgrading the garage and discover how powerful a CRADLECOFFIN can become!
Steam identifies the PC version and lists August 12, 2025 as the release date. The PlayStation Store lists a PS5 edition with that date, while Xbox Wire identifies an Xbox Series X|S launch. Availability and release details here are limited to those listed editions and sources. Steam’s Enhanced Edition listing, the PlayStation Store product page, and Xbox Wire’s launch feature describe the editions and update.
How much progression and customization does it offer?
The PlayStation Store describes more than 40 upgrades, 13 outfits, and 20 relics. Xbox Wire also lists 13 unlockable outfits and describes over 20 relics. These are official feature counts; they do not, by themselves, show how varied or well-balanced character builds are, or how meaningful each customization choice feels during play. The PlayStation Store listing provides the counts, while Xbox Wire corroborates the outfit figure and uses the wording “over 20 relics.”
Rank #4
- The power of words - Words have power. Like, actual power. Fight with Shouts and use Vox in conversations to ma¬nipulate people and talk your way out of hairy situations. Craft new words, and learn to wield a lingual arsenal against enemies...and friends.
- A road-trip across a divided continent - On the road across an alternate history America, you’ll stop at iconic lo¬cations, take on unexpected assignments, meet a colorful cast of characters, enlist new crew members, and evade (or fight) your pursuers. See beautiful sights along the highway, rendered in a colorful graphic-novel-inspired art style that brings stunning 2D illustrations to 3D life.
- A diverse cast of characters - Your crew is your (found) family. Round up, manage and lean on a motley mob of mis¬fits with peculiar powers, compelling stories and clashing personalities. Branching dialogues lead to choices that shape relationships and change how your crew feels about themselves and others.
- Gameplay as varied as the landscape - In each location you’ll explore, investigate and chat with the people you meet, use the crew to overcome challenges, craft new Shouts and Vox, and rehearse with your band. You might also find yourself throwing Molotov cocktails from a motorbike, swing a baseball bat to take down helicopters…and more. You know, just normal everyday stuff.
- Dustborn Limited Retail Edition also includes: Dustborn Game, 32 Page Prequel Comic Book, Map of the American Republic, 2 Postcards, Stickers, Carton Box
Is Echoes of the End worth considering?
For players drawn to a fantasy journey built around a distinctive Iceland-inspired setting, puzzles, traversal, and a mix of swordplay and magic, Echoes of the End has a promising foundation. The main caution is version-specific: PCGamesN’s 2025 review found the earlier combat and encounter demands frustrating, while the later Enhanced Edition lists substantial revisions to combat, movement, controls, difficulty, and pacing.
That makes the Enhanced Edition the version to judge on its own merits rather than assume it retains—or has definitively fixed—the launch-era feel. The sources establish meaningful changes but do not independently settle their effectiveness. If combat responsiveness is your deciding factor, the key question is how the revised feel works for you, not whether the older review’s criticism can simply be carried forward unchanged.
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- European/ UK version
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