Echoes of Mystralia is a story-driven, roguelite where players can use the elements to build their own attacks across a dying world. Read our review of its early-access build to see what it did well, what it didn’t, and whether it’s worth trying.
Everything We Know About Echoes of Mystralia
Echoes of Mystralia Story
Echoes of Mystralia tells the tale of Mazarim, a Watcher-in-training tasked with the maintenance of the Cycle of Memories. After a rift tore open the skies of Mistralia and the land’s own history began rising as violent shadows ready to plunge it into chaos, Mazarim disobeys his master’s wishes and begins the fight against shadows on the surface.
Along the way, he encounters what’s left of Mistralia and its denizens, using the elements as his weapons to cut a path to the guardians of each major region. Through repeated excursions to the surface, Mazarim will eventually learn what the rift is, why it opened, and what awaits the Cycle of Memories should he fail.
Echoes of Mystralia Gameplay
Echoes of Mystralia is an action-roguelite that utilizes a unique Spellcrafting System to turn basic elemental strikes into chains of offensive energy. Set across the branching paths of Mystralia across three major acts, each trip to the surface grants players multiple ways to tweak their basic elemental spells, meet new NPCs, or earn metagame currency to make future runs easier.
While on the surface, players must face Shadows, violent memories of Mystralian denizens, across multiple randomized encounters, earning different currencies, skills, and rewards for surviving. As acts continue, difficulty spikes, and players must compensate by building up their own power as well.
Echoes of Mystralia Release Date and Time
Releasing in Early Access on August 11, 2026
Echoes of Mystralia was released on Steam Early Access on August 11, 2026, for PC via Steam.
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Echoes of Mystralia Review [Early Access]: Almost Better Than Hades
Close Enough—Welcome Back, Hades!
With every new 3D action-roguelite that enters the market comes the inevitable comparison to Hades and Hades 2, and for good reason. Those two games are masterclasses in storytelling, world-building, and character writing at the lowest layer; that’s not even considering their game design and complete understanding of the action-roguelite format.
I bring this up because Echoes of Mystralia isn’t exempt from this comparison, though, I daresay, it being comparable to Supergiant’s magnum opus IP is a feat in and of itself. This game bore the weight of expectation and delivered in the most unexpected ways, challenging the heights of the genre with an unthinkable suite of original ideas; all while still in Early Access.
There are fewer gods in this run through the surface of a world in peril, and much less family drama, but you can expect just as much fun. Let’s jump right in.
Another World Ravaged by Time
We begin with some of Echoes of Mystralia’s stronger points: its original setting, story, and cast of characters. Now, this much isn’t too big an ask from any new action-roguelite coming in, though you’d be surprised how few of them work. To be precise, I speak of their ability to engage players with characters, their motivations, and the diegetic mechanics of the world they live in. Hades did this well (obviously), managing to explain every game mechanic as a part of its world, and Echoes of Mystralia did this just as well.
Let’s begin with the setting, which is yet another world ravaged by time. Mystralia is a place of spirituality and memory, with multiple different species spread across a large continent overseen by an enclave of spiritual guardians called the Watchers. One day, a rift broke across Mystralia’s skies, bringing with it the scourge of countless violent memories called Shadows.
These Shadows threaten to take over anything and everything, locking people in their regrets and turning them into violent monsters. This is where Mazarim, the player character, and his mastery of elements come in, having disobeyed his master’s order to stay behind due to his status as a Watcher-in-Training.
These memories being infectious semblances of the past is portrayed diegetically through the game’s bosses and minibosses, and by extension every single one of its enemies. None of the entities you encounter are inherently evil; they’re all literally just people brought under the enslavement of their past and turned into shadows as the Cycle of Memories gets corrupted.
The first minibosses you encounter? Both fellow Watchers sent before you to check out the situation, now turned into powerful, run-ending husks. One of them, you even get to talk to pre-corruption, then you fight them soon after.
The fact that each run restarts when you die? Explained by a different Watcher up in the sky; one who fishes souls as they die, allowing you to reform back in your hub world. Every metagame currency you collect is a memory of something lost to the corruption of shadows, and bringing them back earns you their use for all future runs. If not that, it’s literally just Wisdom and Experience as currencies for new skills and passives.
This is an ecosystem of ideas and stories that flows as it should; within its own cycle, and understandable from the outside despite it. The fact that it’s an original story not so directly based on anything is icing on the cake, turning something great into something amazing.
We haven’t even seen all of it, just the first major turning point of the story, so prepare for the rest of it when this game’s EA period ends; I know I have.
Melinoë Meets Aang in the Most Innovative Upgrade System Ever
Moving on to gameplay, Echoes of Mystralia builds on the standard backbone of an isometric, 3D action-roguelite by implementing room-based combat, primary and secondary offensive options, a randomized boon system, and specialized loadout customization tools in the form of encounters across multiple roguelite runs. In short, Hades.
If I didn’t mention it right away, this is where the Hades comparison would hit, unless you managed to catch the similarities between Echoes of Mystralia’s and Hades 2’s storylines.
Compounding on this basic set-up is the game’s strongest point, something to surpass even its great narrative backbone: a build-a-bear setup for your elemental attacks. Yes, this game lets you tweak every aspect of your basic elemental attacks like some Avatar, and how it achieves this is one of the most unique game mechanics I’ve seen for this genre specifically.
It’s called the Spellcrafting System, and it’s much closer to coding the elements than it is bending them. See, players start with two basic attack forms from a choice of five, each with the option to be switched between the game’s five elements: Aer (Air), Aura (Lightning), Igni (Fire), Gaea (Earth), and Aqua (Water). These determine the basic properties of the attack, like range, base effects, speed, etc.
Every time you acquire a boon mid-run, you can attach a "node" to these forms, which modify how the base attack, or a different node attached to it, functions. These can come as triggers, which activate on specific situations, or modifiers, which are always active.
That’s a lot of mambo jumbo, so allow me to simplify with an example. Let’s take the game’s basic starter set, a wind boomerang and a lightning stream. Slap on some nodes that add ricochets to the former, a bonus that improves damage per bound, and a node to make it bigger the longer it’s out, and you’ve got a frisbee of death that rips enemies to shreds.
I love this mechanic so much, I would put it above Hades in terms of uniqueness and overall fun. I’ve always been the kind to love versatility, and Hades kinda forces your hand between specific archetypes that are available. Sometimes you get lucky; other times, not so much, and these lead to what I call "dead runs", which aren’t bad, but are definitely not what I was in the mood for.
No such issue with Echoes of Mystralia. Every run is what I want it to be, because elemental boons are more frequent, and their modifications cover almost every possible modifiable aspect of the base elemental forms. From bounces to chains off of chains to spinning attacks, doubled range, JJBA-style stand rushes, and pretty much anything you can think of.
It’s a veritable sandbox of a combat system that can melt bosses if your logic gates are optimized (and you know mine always are). The intention isn’t diluted by the execution either, as every build is viable if you’re willing to tinker. Move a trigger here, replace a passive there, and your basic strikes become something straight out of Aang’s repertoire.
Even games like Wizard of Legend 2, which turned its pixel art predecessor into something comparable to Echoes of Mystralia, locked you into one static use per attack, depending on artifacts to modify their effectiveness. This is unfettered freedom, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.
Layered Metagame Progression Means Every Run Matters
Now, one layer of gameplay and progression does not an action-roguelite make. If it’s just endless runs without as much as a metagame currency to speak of after, you’re just playing an arcade game. Fortunately, Echoes of Mystralia has metagame currencies out the wazoo, and it’s nearing Hades-level in complexity and customizability between runs.
We can even do the math. Let’s take Hades 2, the bigger of the two Hades games, and see what it had during its first EA build. Five Nocturnal Arms (Witch's Staff, Sister Blades, Moonstone Axe, Umbral Flames, and Argent Skull), with three aspects each, brings us to fifteen loadout permutations. We’ll consider each of the metagame progression chains as one-per, which brings us the Witch’s Cauldron, the Arcana Cards, the Oath of the Unseen, familiars, and the Trinket Trove with limited trinket selection.
Let’s compare to Echoes of Mystralia’s available loadout options. That’s four basic forms with four basic elements to choose from each, bringing us to 16 basic loadout options to unlock. Then we’ve got the Watcher’s Altar for major metagame unlocks, the Lotus for branching passive unlocks (tied to the character itself), and the Watcher’s Duties Section for the game’s achievement system.
A comparable amount of options, though admittedly less. If we’re factoring in possible run permutations, Echoes of Mystralia has Hades 2 beat at this stage, though, due to the sheer amount of possible ways you can arrange each elemental boon within their logic tree, and considering the loadout options to boot.
Bottom line, every run matters, and there are never any dead runs, as I’ve mentioned before. This is standard for this genre, but a satisfying metagame is much rarer than one may expect. Tying themselves to mostly just one metagame currency like Wizard of Legend 2 means it’s a matter of getting enough, and never a matter of alternative progression.
That’s the missing juice a lot of games with these kinds of progression miss, the pièce de résistance to cap off each run with some sort of new way to experience it. Thankfully, this game delivers in buckets.
Very Well Put Together for An EA Build
Talking more about the game’s presentation now, Echoes of Mystralia is impeccably put together for an EA build. Early Access is as Early Access does, so there’s no point in bellyaching about graphics, unfinished assets, and incomplete storylines. This game could’ve gotten away with it, and it does for some of that (unfinished storylines, mostly), but it delivers like the final product for most of the visuals and sound already.
The game has great voice-acting for even the most obscure NPCs, all of which put forth a great showing of talent that leaves nothing to be desired. I will grant that it’s not as iconic as Hades and Hades 2’s cthnoic whispering and grave tones, but to see such good presentation at this stage of development speaks to me of good tidings of its full release.
The game looks just as good as it sounds, and the complexity of design, just like everything else, is very close to Supergiant’s trademark quality. Mixing elements of art deco, art nouveau, and traditional Buddhist symbolism, Echoes of Mystralia lets players feast their eyes on amazing 3D vantages and some of the most stylish elemental effects you’ll see in a 3D action-roguelite.
Overall, the game is a stimulating and impressive overture for the senses if you’re willing to forgive the very few and far between examples of pre-release placeholder art.
Incomplete, Yet Completely Impressive
Almost better doesn’t mean just as good, nor does it mean worse. My intention with that description for Echoes of Mystralia is to put it in limbo until the rest of the game can be put forth in its 1.0 release. As it is, arguments can be made for and against its superiority to Hades and Hades 2, but those cannot be entertained fairly until all the chips are on the table.
The way I see it now, judging it purely on its own merit and not against the most golden of standards, Echoes of Mystralia is a great EA experience. It executed its key features masterfully, presented its world, visuals, and music perfectly, and the only blemish I can find can be excused by its EA status.
I’m no oracle of the gods, nor am I a Watcher of memories, but given what I’ve witnessed from Echoes of Mystralia, I foresee only great things for its 1.0. Whether it’ll surpass the greatest of its ilk, that remains to be seen; though if any game could do it, it’d be this one.
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