X
- E10+
- Snow Castle Games
- E10+
- Snow Castle Games
- E10+
- Snow Castle Games
- E10+
- Snow Castle Games
Earthlock
Released On: Mar 8, 2018
73
6.6
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
73
62% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
38% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
73
62% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
38% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Earthlock is a fantastic throwback to the JRPGs of the 90s. Its turn-based content is brusquely paced, strategic, and also novel with the stances and pairing mechanics.
More than anything, it is a joy to exist in Earthlock’s painterly world. This throwback to PlayStation-era JRPGs ranks among the best role-playing experiences that there is to be had on the Nintendo Switch so far. And, while it can be seen that its inspiration has held it back in certain ways, the refreshing approach to turn-based combat and the strategising that underpins it will hopefully help the game to be remembered as a classic in its own right.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 31 User Ratings
6.6
39% Positive
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
52% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
10% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 31 User Ratings
6.6
39% Positive
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
52% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
10% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
I enjoyed it. Almost like pokemon style battles which are turn-based. There is a group of characters that you play and you get to build your weapons with the scarce materials around the game and the bosses are challenging as well. I bought it for more or less Php200+ but I think it's worth it for that price since it took me months to finish the game.
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Nintendo Switch
un trés bon JRPG, la traduction Fr est vraiment bonne, les missions et l'histoire dans la moyenne haute.
par contre juste un petit bémol, il faut faire un peu de grind pour battre certains boss.
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Nintendo Switch
A beautiful game which features a host of challenging boss battles require tactical thinking, useful characters, and a big world to explore, Earthlock delivers a solid experience which scratches the turn-based RPG itch. Its fourteen hours of game play swells thanks to a ton of side quests, hidden bosses, and lots of things to craft and collect, and is a true indie delight for any fan of the genre.
Earthlock is a good RPG for the Nintendo Switch catalog that knows how to provide the playability and duration that is expected in this type of genre, but lacks a better construction of the story and its characters, keeping it from the jump that separates a good game from a memorable one.
Earthlock isn’t going to do much for JRPG veterans, as it lacks a level of polish and epic storytelling of series like Final Fantasy and Persona. But, for people like me who bounce off of anything even remotely hinting at a random encounter or linear dungeon, Earthlock manages to maintain the feel of a JRPG while adding and tinkering with a formula that’s been codified over literal decades. I couldn’t tell you what on God’s green earth is actually happening in it, but I can definitely tell you it’s worth your time regardless.
Earthlock is a good game, locked behind a lack of polish.
Those looking for a turned-based RPG, inspired by the golden oldies, are advised to look exactly where Earthlock took its inspiration from, as it's not very good at what it does. Some neat ideas have been included, but these can't make amends for a lack of an engaging plot, or fun battles.
Hits the nail on the head for fun gameplay mechanics but fails on some basic features like saving.
Considering its JRPG influences, the game paces its story a little faster than I expected, which is a welcome change. As soon as you start the game, you're immersed in the story and playing the game without a 40 hour insipid dialogue exchange. The game feels less grindy because of this. You move from scene to scene pretty fluidly, and in terms of battles, I found I only needed to run through the gamut of creatures less than twice per dungeon in order to wreck a boss. You just need to learn how to use correct buffs and tactics. You can also specialize your characters using skill trees, which can really steer battles in your favour.
Non-battle gameplay is fun since each character has their own abilities while exploring, which adds diverse mechanics. Dialogue is not bad, but not fantastic either. The art reminds me of PS2 era RPGs, which makes me nostalgic :)
I'm docking 2 points because they use a save-point system and you can't save on the world map! They scaled their world map to be smaller so you can go to places faster, but that doesn't help if your switch is about to die and you just want to save. Save points are not generously dotted in a dungeon, so you'll find yourself walking back and forth a lot if you're exploring, which is tedious.
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Nintendo Switch
Mare: I think this game is a 6.5, The game could use some improvement.
The End
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Nintendo Switch
Earthlock is a classical JRPG with a decent battle system and cast of characters. The plot is interesting enough to carry through the game, though a lot of side quest content is very basic fetch quests, and repeated ones for no real reason than to extend the time waste. One of the biggest problems is that while the characters have a bit of personality, this is not developed efficiently enough in the game plot throughout so the plot is just slightly above average; one of the typical problems of indie games is that you never see expressions of the characters, so they end up seeming plain and motionless. The difficulty kind of spikes in the boss battles and few points here and there, but e.g. all boss battles are doable by learning some special tactic. Dungeon and map design is good, only few of the dungeons towards end game feel stretched for no reason, but ok. Much plus points for Norwegian translation, I wish more companies would do this more often, I love learning languages and Norwegian happens to be on my todo list.
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Nintendo Switch
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Nintendo Switch
Earthlock is a JRPG-like with a mediocre plot, flat characters, and broken combat/progression system. The exp system is constructed to reward fighting large groups of enemies while giving nearly no exp for fighting groups around the player's party size or fewer. This seems like a clever way to reward the inherent difficulty involved in fighting large groups, except the balance is so skewed to the horde side that you're better off avoiding any fight with 6 or fewer enemies. If you don't spend time kiting enemies around for exp balls, it's perfectly possible to feel as though you've invested the usual JRPG time commitment fighting mobs while reaching near the end of the game with a single digit level.
The combat itself isn't much better. To make the horde reward challenging to attain, you only get effective multitarget attacks on certain characters when in a super state with a long cooldown. Enemies tend to have too much health for attacks outside super state, while seeming almost feeble while in super. To make matters worse, the usual balm for JRPG balance woes- equipment- is unrewarding at best. I spent maybe around an hour grinding scrap piles for a midgame dagger only to discover that it gave 20 fewer attack points compared to the starting dagger. Other games don't do this for good reason. First, it's unrewarding. Second, it means that players struggling with boss fights can't turn to the usual 'get money and upgrade gear' method that lets you complete the game even if you can't quite grasp what the dev wanted out of boss fight X.
Not that the game's plot is worth sticking out the boss fights for. The MC wants to save his sick uncle. That's most of it. Simplicity can facilitate great plots with strong characters behind it, but these are some of the worst I've seen. Look, easy test to see if a set of characters is fleshed out, rather than just tropey sock-puppets. Try to ignore what a character looks like when you read their speech bubble. If you can't tell them apart anymore, the writer was relying on your preconceived notions about what a character looks like to characterize them. Every character in this game has the same voice. What I think really did it for me, though, were the patronizing all caps "WE CAN DO THIS" messages before boss fights. It's the same one before each, but sometimes different characters say... the same message. It makes it abundantly clear that each character is completely interchangeable outside of artistic design.
A quick note that saves are restricted to statues sparsely scattered around the game. You can't save anywhere else, not even in the overworld. Suffering the combat isn't enough commitment for Earthlock, apparently.
It's a bad JRPG and I honestly regret playing it. I even like frogs, which makes this more sad than spiteful.
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Nintendo Switch
Summary Festival of Magic is an adventure RPG with a Nordic take on an Eastern genre. Grow spuds, mushrooms and plants and use your harvest as powerful ammunition or spells; craft your weapons and team up your companions for battle. Solve challenging puzzles, collect rare items and explore various dungeons scattered across the world.
Rated E +10
for Everyone +10
Platforms:
- Nintendo Switch
- PC
- PlayStation 4
- Xbox One
Initial Release Date: Mar 8, 2018
Developer:
- Snowcastle Games
Publisher: Snow Castle Games
Genres:
