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Absolutely beautiful! I love the art style, the music, the characters, and the writing! The cast have real lives with believable anxieties, which is a must for me (I hate when writers go too into the "ùwú my head hurts uggh i have a bad life!!!" and "im scawed, grrr silence brain!" style). Since you represented the setting so vivdly, it made me want to do research into the West Country and southern England. I also appreciate the little mini-sprites that indicate who's talking (a nice feature that I wish more VNs used.)

Absolutely in love with Ranzo! Cannot wait to see this visual novel develop!

Where shall I begin? 

First thing's first, this game is not meant for everyone. It's a horror visual novel. Truth be told I am not a fan of horror or scary media by any stretch.  That being said, this is probably the greatest piece of media I have consumed in a very, very long time. 

If we look past the horror aspect of the story: the writing, the artistic value of the narrative, the pacing (for the most part), the character development, and the visual art, are nothing short of masterpiece quality. 

I really cannot understate the merit that Echo commands. If we include the horror, it seems to both toe the line of traditional horror tropes in storytelling but subvert them. Not only insomuch as the story includes the almost expected twists and turns in its plot, but also in the way that the story keeps the audience engaged in the individual feelings and lives of the characters. Needless to say, when the characters hurt, we hurt. The deep emotional impact that the story has on its readers is something of awe and a warning to those that aren't in the best mental state. 

I was a late arrival to Echo in terms of the furry VN scene's obsession du jour. I first played Adastra in early 2020 during the horror of COVID lockdowns and have since become a devotee of the Echo Project. So I want to preface the following with the fact that I speak as an unabashedly biased and pro-Echo partisan source.

The downsides of the story is that it lulls from time to time. I remember having to will myself into continuing on with playing the story in the beginning scenes on Saturday. Another theme that was a major detractor for me was the Southwestern US setting. I speak with bias, since I live in the US Southwest and am not the biggest fan of the local culture, the "theme" of the landscape and thus any story that is based around such a place. But, to Echo's credit, it doesn't build itself off of the Southwestern cowboy aesthetic, which is what I initially feared when I started playing. 

Another unfortunate aspect of the story was that some horror scenes seemed overly gratuitous and served little more than to remind the reader that Echo is still indeed a horror story. Now obviously this is expected with the genre, but some things I felt would better serve left out. 

Besides that, there were still some minor typographical errors in the dialog, but nothing devastating to comprehension. 

The soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal. This is something in which the Echo Project shines. We the audience get invested in the stories of Echo Project titles not only because of the stellar writing but the intuitive emotion-laden tracks and presentation of said music. The work truly does speak for itself. 

All things considered, Echo is absolutely a must-play for anyone who consumes furry themed visual novels. The game's appeal not only extends to the queer-furry crowd, but even to the general visual novel-consuming public, queer and non-queer, furry and non-furry alike. 

I also played TJ's route first. I really don't believe it matters. If anything, I prefer putting his first since it gives you the "sweetest" story and gives you the smoothest introduction. It only gets rougher from there on out, and even considering TJ's route, that's quite the assessment.