If you are one of those people who miss the feeling of the nostalgic turn-based combat in RPGs, then you should give Chained Echoes a chance. It is a shining example of what it means to love and admire a genre of games, down to the very mechanics themselves.
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The class system refers to when you learn your skills from objects or gear. Each class has pros, cons, and flexibility to learn the skills that best fit your play style, but some shine more than others in terms of playability. We rank all the classes to determine which proves to be the best in both skills and style.
12 Shaman
Once you’re in the Flower Fields of Perpetua, you’ll have to navigate past a barrier blocking your way via several fungus bulbs. Sounds kind of gross, but what else would you expect from a swamp filled to the brim with mud, bugs, and frogs? Activating these will clear a path for you to reach the statue.
The fight is simple, but it’s debatable if the reward is worth the effort. Sure, you get a significant boost to your TP and Magic, but the usefulness of the water and earth attacks from Shaman isn’t necessary if you have other members in your party that innately have those elements to start with.
11 Pyromancer
The word pyromancer invokes a feeling of excitement to play as that class in games. You know you’re in for great damage and quick fights, usually. In Chained Echoes, though, the class feels a little lacking. You gain both the expected fire spell and a wind spell to complement it. Seems fine so far.
But then, the passives are lackluster compared to some of the other abilities you can get from other classes. Pyromancer brings fire resistance and plant killer. These are fine, but that’s all they are. Straightforward to the point of being bland in comparison.
10 Vampire
If you are both a vampire fan and an RPG enthusiast, then you should be excited to hear there is a vampire class within the game that will make you a creature of the night. The class itself makes whoever you decide will equip this a selfish, yet self-sustaining character who can boost their attack, making them stronger temporarily.
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The class does have some setbacks. Yes, the vampire class can boost its attack, but at the cost of some of your HP. They also can regain both HP and TP for themselves, but only for themselves, which is situational.
9 Gambler
This class is one of the rewards you receive for clearing a Leonar Temple, mini-dungeon puzzles located in various areas around the map after you unlock the airship. Each puzzle has the same concept: push the orbs around until all can pass the goal. The gambler class is the reward for one of the puzzles and can be fun to play in theory.
The gambler class plays exactly as you would think: there’s a good amount of RNG to choosing which targets to attack and even which status effects to cast. It’s fun to play around with if you’re looking to spice up the gameplay with chance, but it doesn’t add much else.
8 Rune Knight
The rune knight seems as though they don’t bring much in the way of decent knight skills, but instead giving both itself and the rest of the party some much-needed elemental boosts in the way of light and dark elements. But that’s not all they bring.
Passives are fairly decent here also. Rune knight brings a defense-up boost as well as a boost in countering magic. There are other classes with better passives, but a boost in countering can turn out to be the thing that pulls you out of a bad situation.
7 Monk
A high counter rate and a boost in agility? Sounds like the monk is primed for someone who prefers to attack with their bare martial arts and not worry about special skills to put into their rotation. The monk class is best suited for someone who either already has a decent amount of power behind their attacks or someone who could use a little boost in agility, like someone with a tanker build.
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That’s not all, though. The monk is also able to cure one status ailment that was cast onto the user by an enemy. Meaning less time and resources wasted in staying alive and more focus on the fight in front of you.
6 Summoner
Look, being powerful enough to conjure up beings who can attack with powerful magic is a sign that you are strong, and the summoner class in Chained Echoes is no different. As a summoner, you can summon things to do your bidding. Nothing better than that, right?
Not only are they at your beck and call, but you gain a substantial boost to your TP, as well as gain Ether Kills, a passive ability that does more damage to Ether-based opponents. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t bring much in the passives, but who needs it with the summons?
5 Chemist
Somewhat similar to the gambler, there’s a little bit of RNG involved with using these skills from the chemist, although there’s a lower risk involved, and you only gain items without the risk of losing anything. This is a class you would want to grab for all of its passive skills that could be beneficial to place on your character.
For example, you can learn benefits that can boost the effects of your items for you and, eventually, for the members of your party. The best skill you’ll gain though, is the chance to not consume any of your items upon use.
4 Bandit
This class is great if you want to make all your enemies angry with your antics. You’ll be able to steal, but the bandit has much more going for it than just sticky fingers. Taunting an enemy could be good on a tank-type class, so you can draw all the attention away from your party members.
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Not only will you be an annoyance to your enemies, but you’ll also have the chance to poison them upon causing damage. Not as consistent as the poison skills that Robb innately comes with, but a zero-cost poison attack is better than none at all.
3 Mage Warrior
In comes the class with the best of both worlds: the magic potency of a mage with the strength and skills of a knight combined into one. Though depending on how you build it, that could end up being a detriment. See, the Mage Warrior tends to play with your physical and magic stats during combat.
That means that if you start with a strong physical boost, but a not-so-great magic stat, then your physical attacks aren’t going to hit for much, and vice versa. So, you’ll have to manage your SP carefully when choosing what you want to level up.
