Greetings Everyone! As always I try to review every game I own and occasionally like to buy a game here and there on my wish list, even more when they are on sale. Today, we have a new RPG using classic mechanics with a healthy splash of new and exciting. The graphics are also low in that indie way but charming. Anyone looking for a new RPG knows what to expect but some younger players may have never seen a turn based RPG that focuses on story not leveling mechanics and although there is challenge the mechanics themselves are not meant to be the focus.

Timeless Setting: Let me start by focusing on the most important part of any RPG, the story. Before I can start with the story itself I must mention the settling. I absolutely love the setting, I won’t get into the big ‘thing’ that sets this world apart but I absolutely loved it…what annoys me is that the game focuses so little on it. There is an amazing part of the world you are in that the game only bothers mentioning part way through and with no fan fair; they don’t’ try to ‘show you’ and just tell you but don’t make anywhere near as big of a deal as they should. It turns out that this is even partly central to the story but only because some happened already. I feel like I would have rather see the original event and not this second coming. There is an amazing story that I hope they will focus on in a sequel but as it is the story is left with a ‘bleh’ feeling where the setting is amazing.

Press Space to Attack: The combat revolves around classic turn based selection where you line up on one side and the enemies line up on the other. I know many might think this outdated but I found it refreshing to see an old school system but that is also revamped with modern components and strategy. Not only is the combat solid it is difficult to a decent degree, requiring attention and strategy but not so difficult that you have to spend hours of grinding. The leveling system has a unique ‘talent’ system that is innovative but forgoes weapons and armor or stat improvements from leveling. It is a nice system though I would have liked to have seen more depth in the end (and a level cap higher than 20) including weapons, armor, etc. The Amri system is a nice addition that creates resource management in addition to turn based.

Time to Completion: From my research the game takes about 20 hours to play though I spent several hours more. But, none can argue that it isn’t a bit short, the game picks up about halfway through but feels more like a speed bump due to some of the story issues. I can’t help but feel there is a much larger story here and this is only the first chapter, I want to know more about the cities mentioned, the final continent, etc.

Some Minor Bumps: I normally stick to three points but I felt it was needed. There are some non story related issues that I have. The ammo system in the game and the items themselves are managed poorly, I should be able to remove items from my shortcuts that are no longer needed but all I can do is exchange them. In addition the way the items are numbered is odd. The much larger issue is that there are a small number of venders but you can’t sell anything and many of the rarer items require you to kill very specific enemies you don’t really remember where they are causing some minor annoyances when you are just trying to prepare for the final push. The game also has area based level caps for experience which is both a blessing and a curse. Finally, we have some odd pulls where the enemies seem to bug out and you end up having to kill them in another battle hurting both your experience and time; to make matters worse some enemies are single enemy packs that are just basic enemies wasting more time for no reason.

Let me end by saying that if you like classic RPGs with a solid combat system you should grab this. Yes it has problems (mainly some of the story bits) but overall an enjoyable game that really could use a bit more depth in the story and some additional content. Oh, Olia’s victory animation needs some work; she looks like she is jerking her spear around instead of flourishing it. Other than that, this game is a solid piece of callback to the old ways of RPGs with some solid attempts to improve on it.

During my entire playthrough of EARTHLOCK, I was never really sure whether I enjoyed it or not - the game tiptoes between enjoyable and boring, never really falling into either category.

For everything it achieves, there is a "but":

The locations are lovely, but nothing memorable.
The character design is interesting, but the characters themselves are not.
The battle system fun and challenging, but grows old quickly.
The JRPG grind is mostly absent, but now you have to wait around to literally farm your upgrades.
The music well produced, but not all that fantastic. (The battle theme being the most disappointing.)

Perhaps the worst offender is the story, or what constitutes one. It's borderline generic involving loosely tied together plot points. You go from location to location with only the thinnest of motive before discovering the main antagonist and from then on pursuing him.

As many have mentioned, the ideas are there, its just the content that is missing. EARTHLOCK never truly feels finished.

I'm recommending this game because I genuinely see potential in Snowcastle's series. With EARTHLOCK: Festival of Magic it has started shakily, but with a little finesse they could have a magnificent series.

Earthlock is an indie developed (somewhat rough around the edges, no AAA content), adventure (you follow a linear series of events) RPG (there are no decisions in the story, no Role to play) inspired by the classic 3D RPGs (early Final Fantasys with must reduced content) of the late 90's (more early 90s), with a fresh take on turn based combat (nope, old hat. There is nothing new about the combat) and character progression (while the presentation and some details might be new, i is nothing to write home about).

The game has its moments, sure. Some nice locales and a few interesting fights. On the other hand the story makes very little sense. Instead of backstories and character progression the characters insist on being 'mysterious'.

If you don't set your expectations too high you can have fun with the game.

If I could describe Earthlock in a single sentence it would be something along the lines of this: A simple, unpretentious rpg heavily inspired by NES/SNES jrpgs. The game has numerous flaws, but if you temper your expectations you'll be taken on a rather enjoyable journey.

I'll begin with the game's strengths. The music is absolutely brilliant. Almost every track fit right in and strengthened the atmosphere of the entire game. The dynamic music, how the overworld track would go right into the combat version of a song then seamlessly right back out once combat ended, was a great touch.

The story is simple. This is actually a boon to the game as it keeps the focus where it needs to be. The characters all have their reason for going on the journey, and it's never hard to follow.

The world is pleasant to look at. Visual design for most places ranges from 7/10 to 10/10. I do not know if it was intended, but the stark contrast in appearance between the ancient technology and the modern, rediscovered/reinvented technology was pleasing. The world felt as fresh and unique as it needed to be. In addition there are lots of little bits of lore scattered around for those who wish to look. Even the character Gnart, a scribe of sorts, keeps a little journal of the adventure one can read at any time. You can tell they cared enough to flesh out their world beyond what the story required.

There are many great systems similar to those used in other rpgs. There are no random encounters, all enemies being visible on all maps. One can choose to engage a large group or lure them off one at a time. There are benefits to both approaches. Obviously fighting fewer enemies at a time will make life easier, but fighting more builds a large experience multiplier skyrocketing levels much faster. It's a great risk vs reward system. Although the difficulty spikes make it near manditory to fight large groups when you can or else you may have to go back to grind levels later.

You have a party of 4 out of possible 6 characters. Each character can be 'paired' to any other and they work together. They gain passive bonuses based on their bond level, which can change up how they play. Furthermore every character has two seperate stance which give them multiple different abilities. You can have the character Amon play as a rogue/thief, or as a ranged heavy hitter.

Instead of physical equipment, each character has a large talent board. On the talent board you can put stat cards, ability cards, and perk cards. This further changes the way characters can play, though each one is locked into a general role. The mages are never going to be as effective fighters as the characters made for it, but they can be made somewhat passable if one chooses.

The use of teleport and saving statues is nice. They're well placed so one is never far from being able to save or teleport back to a town, so the lack of being able to save anywhere was not noticed at all.

The gardening is a cute addition. I mean that both literal and sarcastically. It's not required except to craft healing potions, or if you plan on turning either of the two character with ranged weaponry into ranged specialists. It is the only reliable way to gain potions or ammunition, and can be quite time consuming. Perhaps being able to purchase second best ammunition and potions from shops would alleviate the frustration I had with the game design behind it. Using it to craft the best items would give incentive, while giving the second best items to shops would have made it 100% skippable by those not wanting to touch it.

The enemy visual design is a little hit and miss. In general I like it, even though there's not a wide variety of enemies so some models are simple retextures. I adored the old enemies from the ancient ruins.


Now the bad. Like I said the flaws are numerous but most are relatively minor, considering the small team and inexperience behind the people involved. Some minor spoilers about characters lie below, but nothing pertinent to the story.

The scope felt a little bit too big for the story. There wasn't a whole lot of character interaction, and I could feel any footing of investment I had in a few of the characters slip as time went on. Gnart and Amon end up being the most interesting of all the characters. That's not to say the others couldn't potentially be, but there is so little ever mentioned of them that it's easy to forget that they are more than cardboard cutouts holding weapons. Olia, a mysterious spear wielding warrior/scholar, obviously has an interesting backstory that is constantly hinted at, but never properly told. Taika is an odd and special breed of magic dog, but we're never told what makes them special. PAT is an ancient robot from the pre-magic-apocalypse, but he tells almost nothing of interest before that pre-magic-apocalypse. I think Ive is my least favorite character, but that may be because of her introduction to the game and lack of consequences for a particular action she commits rather than her demeanor. The game shares a lot of backstory on Amon and Gnart, on the other hand. While it serves to flesh them out a lot and is wonderful in and of itself. It also highlights just how little the game tells us of the others. In short, I think the characters have character, but the lack of interaction makes one easily forget.

The dialogue is also rather simple and a little strange at times. Some of it could be due to translation, but it never bothered me personally.

In addition I wish there was just more interaction between all the characters. They all had their various reasons for being dragged into this adventure, but the party banter felt very lacking. Maybe an easy solution to this could have been various interactions on the Isle of Plumpet (your home base more or less) depending on how far into the story you are. Interactions with things leading the chosen leader of your party to comment with their thoughts or feelings.

The fights, or rather the game difficulty, seemed very spotty. You're driven in a linear fashion through the world, or else this wouldn't be much of an issue. However more than a few times you'll enter an area or find a new boss, and there is no way forward except to go back and grind out a level or two. Maybe it was because sometimes I preferred to not fight large groups of enemies so I became underleveled, but even so it was an annoyance. In addition, the AI seems really bad. For example, it will bring a character to the brink of death and then focus on another before actually finishing said character.

Animations are a little clunky and character models felt stiff. In contract to the music work, the sound design for everything else was mediocre.


This is very spoilerific for the ending, so reader be warned. I'm wondering how the party managed to escape the memory of Maato after destroing the Valvur'ed Ichabo. To my knowledge there was no proper way to leave once you entered. Them just magically pooping out after winning the fight seemed very hamfisted. I can forgive everything else in the game, but that was one thing I felt really needed an explanation. Perhaps this is due to the general feeling of the scope of the game being slightly larger than what the devs could feasably pull off, which I feel is the reason for a lot of other story/character interaction related things. But still, this if anything needed some sort of explanation.


In short, the story is nothing spectacular but passable and unpretentious. The game systems are hit and miss, but with a lot of novel things thrown in. The world and music are delightful. I paid around 27 euros for this game. I'd say it's at best a 15 euro title, for those that like this sort of game. Although I feel no regrets paying the amount I did and am glad the money went to this studio. There was real talent and real love fueling this game. Despite the pockmarks and cracks, I found it to be a great experience.

Short version: If you like JRPGs - particularly those from the sixth-gen before shooters with stats took over the RPG market - then I highly recommend Earthlock despite its flaws. If you don't like RPGs, then this one won't change your mind.

Most of the Earthlock reviews are very, very mixed, and this one will be no different. The easiest way to deal with this is to lay out everything it does well and everything it does badly.

What Earthlock does well: The game features a excellent combat system that's more tactical and satisfying than in most RPGs but without getting too quirky for its own good. It features a character level system that allows the player to easily build each character in several different ways. The overworld features yet another neat series of mechanics that allow the player to avoid random battles or manipulate them to increase experience. Basically, the developers tweaked the basic RPG gameplay enough to avoid the more common old-school design errors. And while the graphics aren't stellar, the design is exceptional - a visually unique world with a level of detail rivaling that of some S-E titles.

What Earthlock does badly: The game is pretty grind-heavy (especially with the poorly implemented farming system that means a patient player never runs out of healing items or ammo), but the big problem is the story. It's hard to explain the many problems with the plot without spoilers, but here's the gist: There's not much of a story for the first half of the game, just a series of extraordinary coincidences and unmotivated decisions to get the party together. Once the story does start up, it moved with headache-inducing speed, introducing new characters and plot points without really establishing them at all. I gather that this first game was meant to establish the world (and it is an interesting world with an interesting history), but the game doesn't even do a great job of that since most of the worldbuilding is in optional flavor text.

I still recommend Earthlock because when it comes to RPGs, I'm willing to forgive a weak story if the game has interesting mechanics - and Earthlock definitely delivers that. It's just frustrating because the developers avoided the world of old-school RPG gameplay snags while burdening the plot with excessive devotion to old-school RPG cliches. I hope they release another title, because I suspect that they will get better at this with time, and they're already more than halfway there - they just need to unlearn what they think they know about writing for video games.

Earthlock : Festival of Magic is a turn-based combat RPG similar to the old Final Fantasy series. You play as Amon, a thief/explorer who has found an artifact that is wanted by the cult of Nadir. Your hammerhead shark uncle, Benji, gets captured and it is up to you to save him. Along the way, you will pick up your motley crew of Ive, Taika, Frogboy, Gnart, Olio, etc. The start tutorial at the Suvian Academy is extremely lacklustre.

Gameplay-wise, you control a team of 4 heroes taking turns to act. The game is designed for a controller where you use the arrows to choose from 4 main categories of actions; combat, items, running/escaping and ultimate. Each hero has 2 stances to choose from, a combat stance and a support stance. Combat stances are basically for damaging/casting spells while support stances do support roles like tanking, stealing, trap laying and buffing. All special actions require Amri points and range from 1-3 costs.

There's base building on Plumpert Island where you get to garden, barnacle and craft. The crafting is slightly cumbersome but easily done. Gardening only encompasses watering plants to a certain level and harvesting them until they mutate/upgrade. Every item or vegetable collected has a minor, normal and magna level which requires you to get a normal, + and ++ recipe respectively. It's basically Levels 1,2,3.

Conclusion, the overall feeling is that it's okay but not great. It's very close to mediocre. The game is missing many components to make it feel impressive. However, it is decent enough to play. At the time of this review, only 3.4% of all Steam purchases bothered to complete this game. It is like almost like Earthlock is trying to be like Final Fantasy 7 but seems to be lacking in certain key areas. Perhaps, the Unity Graphics Engine is not robust enough?

21 Dec 2017: I had to change my review from positive to negative. After playing for a longer period and seeing how shoddy the later part of the game is and how nothing has changed over a period of 1 year, I am greatly disappointed by Snowcastle Games. Bugs have not been fixed and the overall gameplay is just not passable. It would be unfair to other developers who put in the effort to make a proper game. To give it a + would be trying to reward developers for churning out unfinished games for money-making purposes.

Note: Snowcastle Games is an independent game developer based in Oslo, Norway. Founded in 2009. After five years in development, including a successful Kickstarter campaign, they are now back with their highly anticipated RPG; Earthlock: Festival of Magic, the first in the Earthlock Trilogy. CEO is Bendik Stang, COO is Erik Hoftun, Lead Designer is Thomas French.

1. Base Building/Gathering
Build a garden, barnacle beach, blacksmith, emporium, airship, rest stop, crafting, etc.

2. First Strike Clicking
Keeps you attentive with only a small amount of effort.

3. Seeing Your Enemies on the Map
I love this compared to the old Pokemon-grass random encounters.

4. Unique Stances and Abilities
I kind of like it except for Ive and Amon who both have Steal.

5. The Burning Desert Level
Kind of immersive when you have to run from shade to shade. It's like one is in a real desert.

6. The Moving Frog Statue
I like how it moves and bows whenever you warp.

7. Frafnir's Lair
The moving stairs are a nice touch.

8. Different Hero Interactions
Ammon has an Amri Attractor to turn on devices. Gnart and Taika are short.

1. Dead World
There is seriously little or no interaction with the world. Every object is a decoration. You hardly interact with the world at all.

2. Skill Build
Horrible. Once you connect up the first 3 skills, what else is there to do? There is no real customization since once you form the main skill links, you are just filling up empty spaces.

3. The Strategic Map
Too little and too small. Once you get to the desert, it's like 50% game explored. Almost like an entire beginner's island. I was expecting more.

4. Repetition for Ive and Amon
Steal x 2? Kind of breaks the unique character aspect.

5. Fire, Water, Electric Attacks
So boring. Fire does additional damage called Burning. Water does additional damage called Drowning. Electric does additional damage called Electrocute. The problem is that all the effects are the same. It's just a matter of finding out what weakness the creature has.

6. Bosses Have Pure Immunity
The bosses have Confuse, Silence, Slow, Taunt Immune. So, your status effect skills don't matter.

7. Crafting Ammo/Lances Only for 2 Heroes
Only Ive and Amon use it.

8. Changing Stances
Absolute waste of time just to reach another set of skills. This is horrendous and doesn't add anything good to the game.

9. Limit of 4 abilities per Slot
Each ammo and item type is limited to 4 slots. So, having ammo + and ammo ++ requires 2 different slots. You have to manually remove the weak ammo and replace them.

10. Dead Zones
The game is very linear and goes in one direction only. Once you complete a zone, that's it. Move onto to the next one.

11. Bugs/Glitches
Taika's Elemental Absorb creates a bubble that absorbs any Fire/Water Attack once. However, once you absorb one attack, the bubble animation doesn't disappear. Tooth Cactus does not shine for harvest. PS4 controller can't be detected.

12. Bad Zooming
If you run too close to a wall in the foreground, the game automatically zooms in onto your character causing you to lose sight of the map. For some reason, they have no idea how to use translucent foregrounds. Also, combat with certain monsters results in the monsters appearing outside of the screen so you can't see them.

13. Repetitive Creatures
If you look at the bestiary, you will see that the monsters are different coloured versions of themselves. E.g. Barghest is red and Simoorg is blue. Red, yellow, blue lanterns.

14. Mini-map sucks
It's a compass not a map.

15. No Different Weapons/Item Customisation
Picture show Olio with Paddle and Sickle, game does not have item customisation.

16. Unfinished Game
If you look at the trading cards, Brynn would be a hero. Olia would have different armour and items. The gardens would be more interesting. There would be airships and a blacksmith. There would be more shops.Barnacles poo.

1. Gardening
Cumbersome but easy enough to do. It's a good idea but I think it can be improved to make it more fun to do. Currently, it feels like a minor chore. It does not look like anything advertised. The plants are all "dead" and are basically the same thing. This is what I mean by okay but not great. It is a good concept but delivery is extremely mediocre. Also, you are collecting vegetables to make weapons. No wonder their damage sucks. You are basically firing potatoes.

2. Barnacling
Minor chore but the barnacles are cute.

3. Hogbunny Design
Perhaps, the hogbunny is not as cute as it seems? Over 20% of the purchases stopped playing after seeing the hogbunny. They didn't even want to reach Plumpet Island. It's neither cute nor cool.

1. World Interaction
Secret zones, climbing on, destructible objects for obviously breakable things, sitting down on a chair, hidden wall bookcases, jump puzzles, cracked wall breaking, swimming, picking up throwable objects, mini-games, talking to NPCs for rumours, NPCs that react to your action, increase/decrease population size due to your actions.

2. Ive's Special
Sniper shots. On the map, if there certain objects that need to be shot down from a distance, changing to Ive will allow you to aim and shoot it. E.g. Levers, power circuits, buttons. Olio can use her strength to move rocks, boulders and heavy objects.

3. Level 5 Garden
Don't make me plant 2 Level 3 plants. Make them Level 5 with 30 at once. 1 plant, 5 growth stages, 3 different parts to harvest.

4. Remove your +,++,+++ System
It's a horrible crafting system and makes your game look mediocre.

Earthlock: Festival of Magic is a simple yet very enjoyable JRPG set in a mystical world of danger and adventure.

General Gameplay
In Earthlock you’ll play as Amon and his group of have-a-go heroes as they adventure through Umbra. The story is light-hearted but fits well with the JRPG genre and though it isn’t overly ‘deep’, it does the job of keeping you interested in the characters and wanting to find out more as the game goes on. There are some nice bits of lore throughout the game and some character development that, hopefully, will lead into a sequel.
The gameplay is intuitive and relatively simple to learn - a huge plus for me is the fact that the game is fairly straightforward. There are dungeons along the way you can explore and you can veer off a little and do you own thing but your direction is clear and the story path is easy to follow.
Earthlock uses the usual JRPG turn-based combat style of choosing whether you want to attack/use items/rest and though it seems easy at first, once you start meeting new party members and unlocking new talents and abilities you’ll find yourself having to think about your technique a little more. Your party members can be ‘paired’ and will gain a battle bond whilst they fight together, giving them added passive advantages and a super ability when fully levelled. The combination of skills, abilities and stances gives you a huge arsenal to play how you prefer and allows you to take different approaches to taking on enemies.
There is also a fleshed-out levelling system that allows you to pick and choose what you level in what order you want but also allows you to switch out talents/abilities/some stats if you’re not happy with them, if they don’t suit your playstyle or they aren’t working in a specific battle. You ‘craft’ talents which can then be used on any of your characters and also swapped out if you need to. Abilities are found throughout the world and sometimes gained when you level, these are mostly character based and can’t be changed. You can also earn ‘stat slots’ which increase a certain stat (e.g. magic, armour, agility) – this is the only way to buff your stats beside levelling.
The graphics aren’t amazing but they don’t feel underwhelming either, they fit with the game style. The little pieces of art on the loading screen are fantastic, I wish there was a little more of it in-game (though there is a comic you can buy that I’m hoping has a similar art style).

Pros
++ Easy to learn gameplay. Everything is explained as and when you encounter new things.
++ Delightful story with likeable characters.
++ Intuitive but not overly complex puzzles. None of them are too difficult but not even one feels cheap or easy either.
++ One of those games you can find yourself getting lost in for hours – 22 hours playtime in a week.
++ Brilliant soundtrack that fits with the game world. I probably spent longer than I should have just planting and harvesting seeds because the music was so relaxing.
++ Really nice lore if you take the time to read it which is hopefully continued in the comic.

Cons
--Cannot skip enemy attack animations. This can become time consuming if you’re like me and prefer to fight a large group for more XP.
-- You can only control your camera at certain points in the game, which has led me running into enemy ambushes unintentionally and not being able to see around me properly at times.
-- No dungeon mini-maps. My memory is pretty bad so remembering which routes I’ve taken in corridors that all looked the same was kind of hard.
-- Can be a little difficult at times with no warning meaning you need to grind up a level or so to pass some of the bosses.
-- Little to no replayability. Once the game is over there isn’t really much to do.

Summary
Overall, Earthlock is absolutely worth trying, especially if you’re a fan of JRPG’s that are a little more light-hearted. The gameplay is fun, the story keeps you interested and the overall experience is great. I completed the game in a week and had a lot of fun getting all the achievements so I’d happily recommend Earthlock: A Festival of Magic. The ending was fantastic and closed the game perfectly, and has kept me wanting a sequel so I hope these guys have something else coming.

I bought the game during a sale since I have very fond memories of games that look like this one.
First of all, I don't really regret to have bought and played this, yet at the same time, I can't really recommend it as well.
All in all the game shows a lot of promise, but it during developement some short-sighted decisions were made, at least in my opinion. But let's mention the good stuff first:

- Earthlock runs smoothly. I haven't experienced any crushes or major bugs during my time with it.
- The idea of building pairs in the party (which consists of 4 characters, chosen from a total of 6) is quite nice, especially because you can unlock certain perks and thus customize your party. A grid-based talent system adds to this as well.
- There's a hub you can teleport to from any save point. There you can craft, regenerate and quick travel.

However, those are the only features which stand out positively.

As for the story, it's a mediocre one that hints on a vast world with rich history, yet most of it is told in bland cookie-cutter dialogue. The best example I can give for this is that in the last quarter of the story your main character suddenly is a descendant of an old race who have been around since forever doing cool ♥♥♥♥, you know the drill.
It's seems there might be more to it, but that's really it. Someone mentions this fact, everybody is astonished, scene ends, nobody ever cares again.
The characters themselves are walking stereotypes, albeit they do have a certain charm to them.

Now for the bad stuff:

- The combat is repetitive, bland and tedious at times. You are introduced to some strategy druing the first quarter of the game, but you barely need any, besides the few instances when the game demands it for certain bosses.
- You are level capped. This is one of the short-sighted decisions I mentioned earlier. I hit max level about two thirds into the game and from then on fighting seemed even more like a drag than before.
- There are random difficulty spikes here and there which can render a party you deemed overpowered for the last two hours dead in a few turns.
- There is no gear at all. You have to improve your characters through the usage of talent nodes which you can not craft. Unlike ability nodes which you can craft, but they are quite expensive and you may only obtain currency thorugh fighting and stealing since you are unable to sell any loot.
- Lastly, you can not buy ammunition for your characters, you have to craft it. This involves growing plants which take forever to grow. After this, they need to be harvested and tended to which really disrupts the pacing of the game at certain points. I, for example, went out of ammo shortly before facing the final boss which really killed the little mood that had built.

In conclusion, I really want to like this game and I do see the potential it holds, but after having played it, I was just glad it was over. If you really like rpgs that feel like they are 10 to 15 years old, this is your thing, but if not, you might not like this game at all. However, I still would play a sequel or even back it up.

Nice, old school JRPG that harkens to the some of my favorites like the older Final Fantasies and Dragon Quest. It does the fundamentals well without trying to do anything too radical or new, just a few twists on the tried and true formula, some of which are brilliantly simple and I think add a lot to the experience.
It is apparent that the whole thing was made with love. The world and soundtrack are beautiful and have a lot of character, but the storytelling is pretty lazy, the characters are a little flat, and a lot of it just feels kind of slapped together.
Still, all-told, I'm having a good time exploring their world and beating up cartoon monsters with my rag-tag crew of good guys, which is exactly what I was hoping for. If you want a laid back jrpg romp, this is a good one.

Earthlock harkens back to the early days of 3D JRPGs with gameplay inspired by games like Final Fantasy 7-9.

One of the initial draws for me was the art and music. Very clean and polished. The music is high quality and fit in well with the art direction. While it can look bland in some areas, overall there is a considerable amount of detail. Though not particularly unique, the character designs were also good.

The gameplay itself was mostly as expected. There is the world map you wander around in, towns and dungeons you can visit, and then battles you can fight in an oldschoolish JRPG battle system.

Although the towns looked great, there wasn't much interaction to be had outside of story. This is true in general. There are very few optional things to do and it takes the liveliness away from the world.

The dungeons had weak designs. They weren't particularly challenging. While there are elements that resemble puzzles, they were not puzzling at all. You simply go through each section guided by whatever path is made available to you.

The battle system was ok, but too many things that just weren't useful. I found that I only used a few skills because of how useless most of them are. Changing stance to use a different set of skills was a cool idea, but took way too long to recover from to be practical in most situations.

It was an excellent effort, but in the end, it was a mediocre experience and did not satisfy.

Update 7/11:
I played through the game with the new stance cost reduction and the battle system is a little more interesting now. I am using skills and party builds that weren't feasible with the old stance costs.

Playing the game again also made me rethink my recommendation. I wanted something a little more hardcore and in that respect, I still would not recommend this game. However, it is a decent game, not too casual, that should appeal to genre fans that don't mind a little less depth.