Several years ago, Toronto-based Cococucumber released a voxel-art, turn-based RPG, called Echo Generation. Set in a town gone awry, it was charming and colourful, and it made a mark, winning some awards. I played some of it, but didn’t get finishing it before it left Game Pass, which I still regret.
A couple years later, they followed it up with a fantasy game inspired by Zelda, called Ravenlok, which I played through, reviewed and quite enjoyed. I still think about it.
Fast-forward to the end of May, 2026, when they followed their earlier effort up with a second round; that being Echo Generation 2. We received a code for it, and can now share our thoughts. Sorry they’re a bit late, but some health problems got in the way.
Although it features the number two in its title, this is actually a prequel to the first title, and a different type of experience. You see, instead of being a turn-based RPG, this follow-up is a deck builder with turn-based combat. It’s all about using cards to do battle.
Surprisingly, this narrative is broken up into chapters, in a kind of grid system. You can choose which of several to play first, and the order you tackle the others. For the most part, they aren’t long; coming in at around an hour each in my experience.
The ‘first’ chapter is reminiscent of Stranger Things, as you play as a young girl who’s been locked up in a facility and is breaking her way out. She’s got powerful abilities that are represented by strong cards, so this will be easier than average. It’s a short chapter, too, which kind of sets the strange story up.
Next up — for me, at least —were Jack’s two chapters. A former soldier, we find him taking a vacation at the shore with his wife, son and young daughter. All of a sudden, during a beautiful sunset perfect for a family picture, an explosion occurs and strange zombie creatures begin to come out of the woods. This causes Jack to have to fight them, sometimes with the help of his family. Their goal is to escape to the presumed safety of their suburban home.
After that, I played through the bounty hunter’s chapter. Set in a beautiful, futuristic city, full of aliens and neon lights, it involves looking for targets and doing the bidding of a creature who owns a nightclub.
Last up was a mostly black and white segment, starring a zombie looking for her son. She traverses a ruined landscape, including barren wastelands, polluted waterways and an old factory, and does battle against creatures like skeletons and robots.
All of these chapters tell parts of the story, but they still feel disconnected. That’s partially because of the fact that the latter part of the game ends up being a challenging boss rush, which doesn’t give you much in the way of safety or checkpoints. I was really liking the game up until then — which surprised me, because I’m not a deck builder fan, or at least didn’t think I was — but boss rushes are often a frustrating and weak way to end a game.
At this point, you do a frustrating puzzle to power on a generator, then perform a ritual. Afterwards, you get to choose three of the heroes you played as to form your end game team. Then, there are three rounds of boss battles, each of which has three enemies. It starts one on one, then becomes two on one and afterwards becomes three on one, as you get your full party. There’s only one checkpoint during this, as you visit a lobby, where you can upgrade a card and whatnot, before taking on the final trio.
Before I played through this one, I had heard that the end game was a frustrating pain. This worried me, and made me think that I maybe wouldn’t be able to finish it. However, I surprised myself by beating it all in one go. Although I didn’t think I had, I’d done enough fighting and levelled my characters up enough, with good enough decks and badges. A couple of the latter came in handy. More about them later, though.
Still, while I ended up liking the boss rush more than expected, as well, it’s not the ideal way to finish a game. It felt a bit rushed. That said, it was better than I’d heard. Be warned, though, that the final boss can make it so that you can’t see which cards you’ve got, which is annoying and unfair.
As mentioned, Echo Generation 2 is a deck builder with turn-based combat. You’ll generally have two characters in your party, but will sometimes have three, and they can each have their own decks. Each character, be it Jack (melee/guns), the bounty hunter’s animal companion (elemental effects), or one of the other several playable characters, has his, her or its own type.
If you take your time exploring the environments, which include a forest, a cabin, a house, labs, the testing facility and the futuristic city with its markets, night club and back alleys, you’ll find new cards. Some will be duplicates, but others will be a great boost to your deck, depending on what you want. You can also earn and find money, which can be used to purchase other ones from vending machines or merchants. Usually, these end up being things like chocolate bar cards, to heal you.
It should be noted that there are also a few opportunities to level up one card of choice.
The combat is generally pretty straightforward, but those who love these types of games or like to play strategically can design their decks for different build types. Some cards allow you to mark enemies, some make them bleed, some add effects to them and others can allow you to take an extra turn or bide time. Others are attacks of different types, health, shield or regeneration cards.
There’s a poorly explained battery system, which only allows certain cards to be used a finite amount of time per battle. You’ll see the green battery icons above them, and how many you see will tell you how many uses they have left. This wasn’t a big issue on normal.
In Echo Generation 2, each character levels up independently, and they all have their own skill trees. The upgrades found within include increased attack power, more health, the ability to use an extra card per turn and more. However, given how brief the chapters are, most won’t max their skill trees or come all that close. That is, unless they go back and repeatedly fight enemies who respawn when you leave each room. Some may want to in order to be stronger for the boss rush. I took my time, and fought every enemy at least once, but fought some twice or thrice.
Enemies run the gamut, from aliens to monsters, to zombies, to mechs and infected soldiers.
This game also features a badge system. When you find them, they can be equipped to give you perks and boosts. The problem is that they’re mostly limited, and are specific to each set of characters. Most chapters didn’t seem to have many. I think I found just one or two in the zombie chapter, and I took my time.
On the presentation side of things, Cococucumber’s latest is a treat for the eyes and ears. It’s set in the 80s, features classic sci-fi charm and elements, and has a good soundtrack. The visuals are next level, though. Echo Generation 2 — with its blocky, retro, voxel art style — is often beautiful, especially in scenes like Jack’s camping trip. It always looks really good, but a few too many sections take place in boring environments like labs, offices, bunkers and testing facilities, meaning it doesn’t get enough opportunity to show how stunning it can be.
When I found out that Echo Generation 2 is a deck builder, I was disappointed and worried that I wouldn’t like it. However, I’m glad that I did. I really enjoyed, and got into the early part of the game, and it’s something that I could have played longer. However, the unfortunate decision to make the end game a boss rush against inter dimensional aliens who barely featured in anything else slightly hurt my enjoyment and the game overall. I wish they’d chosen to do something different.
Still, despite that downside, Echo Generation 2 is a good, short, and fun game to play through. I’m glad that I gave it a chance, and will remember it fondly. Hopefully the first one will go on sale soon, so that I can revisit and finally complete it.
This review is based on the Xbox Series X version of the game, which we were provided with.