Echovn - Tumblr Posts
finally some sydleo where they're not going thru the horrors
Echo is an amazing novel but I’ve never gone back to re-read its routes.
A lot of the time when I really enjoy a piece of fiction I’ll read it over and over again to ferret out all the little details or just enjoy the story that it depicts but for this game I can’t bring myself to read it again in its entirety. Its an expertly crafted narrative with such fully fleshed multidimensional characters and it even utilizes the medium its written in to contribute to its themes but despite all that I haven’t gone back to read it again despite the fact it lives rent free in my head.
And I think its because the entire story is just so damn bleak. Once you go through all the routes you just know that nothing good can come from here so why would I ever re-visit it in its entirety. Sure there are some nice moments here and there but they are all tainted by the knowledge that you the player has about how totally fucked each and every character is. Sure there is a veneer of polite friendless at times but in a different timeline, if you made a few different choices, these characters might hate each other, they might even kill each other. This ‘friend group, has so much history and so many unresolved issues that seeing them interact normally feels almost more weird then seeing them at each others throats.
Echo is an stunning game with a thrilling narrative, but I don’t know if I’m ever going to read it again myself.
Jenna looks Rio Romeo lmao
echo dudes fleshsonas idk
chase hunter, the troubled ex-boyfriend of leo alvarez.
leo, a college student visiting his hometown of echo for a few days to catch up with his childhood friends.
some echoswap character interactions.. leo helps chase with his spanish homework. he got a c
mtf tj hess has been on my mind for ages..
Chase stuff + his friends 😁
ohhh the shit im cooking with my sydleo bro
"Well, gotta refuel before I make my way to Prescott Valley. I didn't see this town on my map, but gas is gas." He doesn't realize he's about to enter just as the hysteria hits.
Decided to make a fun little art piece about Echo, my current reading material. However, I kinda have a lot of thoughts about it so far.
I'll keep my dialogue here spoiler-light, and will avoid giving anything important away.
Echo is one of those stories that, as much as I typically detest horror, has completely enthralled me. Not to get to philosophical, but its use of foreshadowing reminds me of a few strong mystery and sci-fi points:
The overall foreshadowing reminds me of solid Arthur Conan Doyle-style. ACD was known for his novels having given you everything you need to solve the mystery long before the characters can. While the mystery isn't solved in each ending, there is a heavy amount of this foreshadowing that is just like ACD. Things mentioned early on that feel like minor statements become important later. For example, swimming is heavily mentioned by Chase early on in TJ's route, and to those who have done the route, they realize why. With Leo, its the trainyard. These are the only routes I've completed so far, but I will be watching for these now when I do the rest.
Another neat note is how each story gives a bit of foreshadowing to each other. In Flynn's route, its mentioned that the railing by Lake Emma wouldn't stop a car from going in. Though I haven't finished Flynn's route yet to see if this is direct foreshadowing, I do remember the car doing exactly this in Leo's route, and it's never mentioned there.
Second is the push for "Man is the Monster", akin to Frankenstein. So far, TJ's route was heavily this (Chase you heathen), and Leo's was from Leo. The use of the monster physically in Leo's is almost unnecessary, as the monster's been with them the whole time. It's a great dive into man is the monster that reminds me of the common scifi tropes that aim to point that out instead of just putting a monster in the way (See Alien and how though the monster is a very real threat, the true monster is the company that keeps sacrificing people to study the alien).
This story is so well written and uses a lot of very-strong scifi writing traits, and I'm excited to continue and analyze these more. Props to The Echo Project for really having some great writers so far!
It feels really weird (and even moreso enthralling!) because I don't live that far from the approximate location Echo should be, not to far away from Prescott. I've even located Lake Alamo, which has a lot of similarities to Lake Emma, though there isn't a nearby settlement that matches Echo's description. I'm tempted to do a quick study of the area, take a weekend and hike around after doing like a week of local research to see what I could find that matches the descriptions of Echo. Maybe make some kind of literary analysis out of the photos and the story itself once I complete all the routes.
Note: I noticed a render error and re-uploaded the fixed version.
Also here's another angle of the Echo Sign piece that I wasn't really happy with as much, but I spent way too much time messing with geometry nodes to make this look at least somewhat passable to not post it.
Note: I realized that there was a render error and the rocks were missing, so I've updated it to fix it.
No new renders today, though I thought I'd let yall know about an update. In those last two Echo render pieces, there was a render error and the larger shot didn't render the rocks. They've both been updated to fix those issues. Enjoy!
The Railroad Tracks
"I heard there was an accident here where a guy got his legs cut off by a train here. And apparently it happened like a hundred years ago, too!" said Civil
"The only accident I'm about to see is you accidentally getting tetanus. Get down from there." replied Lye.
Character-less render and minor spoilers below.
Well, this week I was sick with something like the flu so I had the time to make this render. A couldn't find the image from Echo that inspired me, but I remember it being there.
This scene from Leo's ending was absolutely just heart-stopping for a multitude of reasons. Can't imagine that specific variety of pain and agony, from the event to the next several hours of suffering.
However, I do have to say that the foreshadowing was on point. The novel almost made me think they were about to escape after all the trial and tribulation they had gone through, and then...yikes.
Anyways, I've neglected continuing through Flynn's path, so hopefully I'll soon figure out what horrible thing happens in that one!
Here's the render without Lye and Civ. It makes an okay screensaver.
So how is echo, is it scorching? did you know there a lake? Did you also know that the town had a hysteric past? did you? did you know that?! Did you?!?!
What, next you're gonna tell me that hysteria caused drownings in this lake?
Also as a desert rat (figuratively) that lives only a couple hours from here, the scorching is quite enjoyable! Anyways, imma go take a swim if you want to join.
In hindsight, you probably could have just told me to drive here instead of shipping me, it's like 2 hours from where I live.
Listen closely, I have something to tell you:
I didn't know Echo had good and bad endings for some characters and just thought they each had 1 ending. I thought Leo's bad ending was just the Leo ending.
L: CIV! You've been making fanart of it for months now and haven't even gotten the rest of the way through Flynn's ending! You've literally only completed 2 endings! You can't just talk like you're not still missing most of the other stories!
Don't listen to her. I totally didn't do TJ's route first and thought I had it all figured out from then on.
L: Well maybe if you took a pause off fanart and actually read more of the stories YOU'D ACTUALLY GET MORE MATERIAL TO MAKE FANART OF!
Honestly though, I need more free time to actually do the other routes and see them. I've been so busy I've just been living off my bad Leo and TJ ending knowledge for the last few months.
Don't even get me started on Arches and Smoke Room either.
Civ pleaaase dont go into the mines you dont know who died down there... youll get covered by maggots civ!!! its not safe!!! yeah sure there might be like... Gold, on the second floor, Pass three, left, pass two, left, right, pass one, right, left, left, right, straight. But you really dont want to go there, there are spiders and small children in there, horrific and horrifying.
Caving is fun and totally not dangerous and full of possible encounters with ghastly entities! Why don't you join me and Lye!
Wait, did you say spiders and small children? I'll take the spiders.
L: Please, spiders are the least of your worries. There's only one thing worse than spiders.
A child!
L: No.
hows the mine otter? Did you find what you were looking for? Are you lost? hopelessly so? You can always scream... someonething will eventually find you! If i recall correctly cell service does not work that well underground... and the camera's pick of very strange stuff! like g- gh- Ghooosts!
Yeah, we decided it was a bit dangerous to go too far and get lost so we turned around after a while. But we did find some old mining equipment which was cool!
Lye got really jumpy though at one point after looking in a hole. She refused to let me look at it, but she was acting like she saw a ghost! Which for a necromancer I thought would be rather mundane but whatever it was seemed to spook her!
She's probably playing a prank on me! Yeah, probably a prank!