2025’s Hugely Overlooked God of War-Inspired RPG Deserves a Second Chance

In an era in which roughly 50 games are released, on average, every day, it is no surprise that a few truly exceptional titles fall a little under the radar. They could be the next Balatro, Undertale, or Elden Ring, but we simply wouldn’t know because they’ve been buried by a litany of other great and not-so-great games. It is the price we pay, I suppose, for the excess we seem to enjoy so much. Of course, it is then up to fans of said hidden gems to step up and try to promote their excellence as much as possible, as a marketing budget can only get a game so far, especially if that game happens to be an indie title or AA.

I happen to be a fan of one such game, a title that went criminally overlooked when it released in 2025 and continues to garner not nearly as much affection as it deserves. What makes this a unique case over the numerous other underrated games from 2025 is the fact that it replicates the style, tone, and visual style of 2018’s phenomenal God of War reboot. It is a tough act to follow, but Echoes of the End has achieved the impossible and delivered an experience that, while not quite as comparable, nevertheless offers a God of War-like narrative, setting, and visuals with a unique twist on its action-packed combat.

Echoes Of The End Is God Of War Meets Star Wars

Echoes of the End was released in August 2025 to mixed reviews. It isn’t entirely hard to see why, as the game, while certainly lofty in its ambitions, fell short of expectations. It attempted to deliver a narratively rich God of War-esque single-player campaign in which players explore picturesque locales inspired by the developer’s native country of Iceland, fight against a cavalcade of monstrous foes, both fantastical and otherwise, and upgrade the protagonist, Ryn, through a series of RPG-lite progression systems. The majority of that, in addition to a sweeping score and stunning visuals, was achieved, but the combat never quite matched God of War’s frenetic action, and the puzzles scattered throughout were more often than not a frustrating inclusion rather than a much-needed distraction.

This all changed with Echoes of the End’s Enhanced Edition, a Cyberpunk 2077-esque 2.0 update that completely overhauled the game’s opening, vastly improved combat, tweaked various animations, fixed puzzles, and added an outfit system that gave venturing off the beaten path more of a purpose. Ostensibly, it was a significant overhaul of existing systems, one that simply perfected what was already there while adding a handful of supplementary mechanics that further elevated Echoes of the End’s best features. That is to say, Echoes of the End was already a great game when it was initially released; it just needed a tad more polish, and the Enhanced Edition delivered that in spades.

The game we have now is a phenomenal experience that blends the staggeringly beautiful and highly detailed linear exploration, deeply profound and cinematic narrative with high stakes and epic boss battles, and fun and intuitive puzzles of God of War with Star Wars Jedi’s soulslike combat and force abilities. In many ways, Echoes of the End’s combat surpasses God of War 2018’s, Ryn’s numerous unlockable abilities leading to a more robust and complex combat model that requires a greater use of one’s environment and strategic thinking to fell regular enemies and bosses alike. There’s the expected melee combat and accompanying companion abilities, in addition to a suite of magical skills that see Ryn flinging enemies off cliffs or into spiked walls, dragging them closer to her for a finishing blow, or blasting them away.

The aspect of Echoes of the End that surprised me the most, however, was its narrative. Too few games can deliver a story as simultaneously grandiose and intimately personal as God of War’s with the same cinematic flair, but Echoes of the End comes pretty close. Visually, it is equally as striking, its epic moments of high-stakes action drawing you in while its sombre moments delivering the emotional gutpunch you’d expect. However, that would all be meaningless were the writing and performances to be terrible, but it is in both respects that Echoes of the End truly shines. Its complex lore and worldbuilding are parceled out into tantalizing piecemeal chunks that never distract from the overarching themes of family, loss, and the feeling of being an outsider, and its character arcs are handled with such maturity that I’d argue they make Ryn one of the best gaming protagonists in recent memory. Echoes of the End’s story is so good that it makes me wish we got more games that strove for such impressive heights.

We Need More AA Games Like God Of War

Echoes of the End marks what feels like the beginning of a AA renaissance, especially when it comes to cinematic single-player adventures. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 obviously stole the show in this regard, and I am excited to see where its unique twist on the JRPG genre takes the Western gaming industry, but Echoes of the End is far closer to the type of games we’ve been sorely lacking since the decline in the AA development space. Beyond God of War and Naughty Dog’s brand of narrative-focused titles, we don’t get many AAA linear story-driven experiences, at least the kind that Echoes of the End seems eager to resurrect.

The closest AAA comparison I can think of is Hellblade 2: Senua’s Sacrifice and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which released in 2024 and 2021, respectively. On the AA front, there’s the wonderful Plague Tale series, which hasn’t had a new entry since 2022, Stray, which came out in 2022, Hi-Fi Rush, which released in 2023, and more recently, the divisive 1348: Ex Voto and South of Midnight. Over the past five years, we’ve certainly seen a greater influx of this style of games, but it is clear that they’re no longer the dominating force in the gaming scene. That’s a huge shame, as they tend to deliver far more compelling and focused experiences than their open-world counterparts.

Echoes of the End’s status as a truly must-play underrated RPG does seem to imply that, as much as I may want this genre to flourish, there’s not as great a desire from the gaming community at large. Still, I suspect that, as a consequence of every game endlessly vying for and desperately attempting to retain our attention, players will begin to value shorter narrative experiences more, and games like Echoes of the End will begin to see a far greater influx of players. One only has to look at the success of better-branded and bigger-budgeted titles like God of War to see that there’s at least a growing appetite for shorter, more meaningful experiences.

Should games like Echoes of the End continue to deliver profound and cinematic stories with detailed worldbuilding and compelling characters (a tall order, I know), then I suspect that we could see the God of War formula become increasingly popular again, as it once was during the sixth and seventh console generations. However, that’s only possible if these types of games manage to survive the relative lack of attention and countless commercial failures, something that feels improbable considering the aforementioned underrated nature of games like Echoes of the End. It’s an unfortunate cycle, one that saw AA gaming diminish in the first place and one that comes as a consequence of the aforementioned excess we seem to relish. I sincerely hope it ends, that God of War-style games manage to claw their way back to the top, and that AA studios like Myrkur Games get to keep making impactful cinematic single-player adventures like Echoes of the End.

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