Synduality: Echo of Ada Review – Mechs make this Game Good, But Reports Say No x3

Synduality: Echo of Ada came out on January 23rd, 2025 for PS5, PC/Steam, and Xbox Series X/S. It is essentially a Sc-Fi anime-based mech extraction game set in the Synduality anime universe where you gather resources using a mech called a Cradle Coffin. Staying alert against occasional fellow players and enders (online mode) and knowing when to retreat is how you will survive the combat and elements.

With that said, is Synduality: Echo of Ada a good game? Let’s find out, starting with the game’s story.

Let’s start with the story. In short, SYNDUALITY: Echo of Ada takes place in 2222, a unknown number of years after a mysterious poisonous rain called The Tears of the New Moon wiped out most of humanity and birthed deformed creatures that now hunt the population. Amidst the calamity, humans are forced to build an underground haven to survive.

In Synduality: Echo of Ada, players take on the role of a Customizable Drifter whose goal is to collect the rare resource known as AO Crystals. In your quest, you must collaborate with your artificial intelligence partner to face xenomorphic creatures known as Enders, survive the hazards on the surface (and fight/dodge other Player mechs).

Your partner is an AI Magus, who can be named anyone/anything you want within reason. Together, you’ll help other players deal with Enders, and coordinate with said players to find AO Crystals and Hiding Spots from the rain. Sometimes, these players will go rogue and hunt you down to hoard everything for themselves, causing them to be expelled from the Association and be labeled Bounty Targets to be hunted by other players (like you). With that, let’s transition to the Gameplay.

Gameplay in Synduality: Echo of Ava is heavily contingent on having a Game Pass Ultimate or PS+ Subscription, what with being a PvPvE extraction shooter. That’s how you’ll progress from being stuck playing the same no-loss tutorial with the same powerful female AI companion who effortlessly blasts away a group of Ender wolves with projectile spheres to playing eventually with other players in limited Online Co-Op. There’s just one major problem, though.

Once you PAY the subscription fee ($11.00+ before taxes based on whether players have chosen PlayStation+ Essential or Xbox Game Pass), the full experience begins. You get to explore the Northern Zone. There’s a lot to go over, such as putting Insurance on items, automating repairs after missions, item management and storage, how mining AO Crystals work, etc.

You will lose your items, money, and mech when you are somehow killed (whether by Opposing players or Enders) or forced to make an Emergency Escape (L1 + R1 + Square Button on PS5). Once your mech is lost or critically damaged, it’s all gone – Forever!

However, before you go on your Sortie (or Quest, in other words), you always get a chance to Insure your weapons, mech, healing items, etc. The cost depends on how much you want to insure, the item’s rarity, the mech’s level, etc. Once you insure these items, you’ll pay a 10% insurance fee, and a Premium if you need to cash out.

So essentially, the Insurance system in this game functions like in real life – to soften the blow of a loss rather then replace said lost items (such as from – say, the Ultimate Edition of the game). I kinda like this system, to be perfectly honest, unless you need the funds asap. Then it becomes a chore to wait a real-life HOUR!! However, that wait time can be shortened, if you know what to fix and when. And each upgrade to shorten said wait time gets progressively more Expensive beyond belief!

As far as traversal means in this game, Your mech in this game for traversal is the Cradlecoffin. The CRADLECOFFIN is an all-weather bipod developed for the harsh terrain of the surface. Each mecha has a different endurance level, load capacity, operation time, stamina meter, and can be further customized with many body parts and weapons to suit each sortie (Story or Online) and try new playstyles. That would be good if there were more than 5 varieties of enemies to fight in the Online story mode.

The 5 varieties of enemies are exploding Chasers, Ender Wolves, Centipedes, Parasitic Mechs, etc. They all come in 3 different colors with lighter coloring equating to higher-level enemies doing bigger damage. One more thing before winding done: The AI companion speaks pretty much every single time you do something. It’s incredibly annoying!!

Online Play is required, so as indicated at the top of this section, an online subscription (PS+, Xbox Game Pass) is required to even progress past the tutorial and play in the Northern Lands. Items are managed by type and so on. AO Crystals found in the field are mined by holding the square button and pressing the square button (On PS5) afterward to collect them.

Editor’s Note: Synduality: Echo of Ada was reviewed on the PlayStation 5, and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.