YESTERDAY'S STILL GOT IT
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RPG:s used to be so charming back in the PlayStation 1 era. That was before
spoken dialogue and sophisticated animations bogged the high fantasy down with the
burden of realistic looking people and real-world psychosocial problems. The Norwegian RPG
Earthlock recaptures the glorious days of
Final Fantasy VII-IX, updating the old formula with some modern design standards. The debuting developers themselves, Snowcastle Games, love these old games, which is apparent by their careful and skillful handling of
their inspirations.
They get most things right. All the storytelling tropes, for one: A diverse
cast of characters each stumble upon clues to some world-threatening event. This
incites them to come together to defeat different gods and monsters, and in so
doing liberating the world of that threat. The universe starts out
relatively small, but opens up incrementally to reveal different climate zones
on a Lord of the Rings-like journey through the lands.
It takes place in the world of Umbra, which is a magical
fantasy realm where people proficient in channeling the magical source of Amri (instead of "mana") can perform wonders. A girl called Ive and a boy named Amon meet by chance, the former being the daughter of a general, and the latter
the orphaned protege of a scrap collector. In a classic Hollywood screenplay they'd fire off a love affair in the second act, but Earthlock is all aboard the chastity train.
I was never hooked by the writing, nor did I particularly care
that it wasn't better. Personality-wise, the characters are unremarkable, and
their brief interactions at the party camp leave a lot to be desired. Apart
from Ive and Amon, you get a hogbunny, a cool chick, a feline and a robot.
Although I like their character designs, they don't stick out as particularly
memorable, although we get to know a couple of them a little better through
sidequests.
But the game itself doesn't lack personality. It radiates a carefree aura of
fairytales and old-fashioned, uncomplicated morality. The music is upbeat and
catchy. The visuals are plain and clear. And the game is heavily inspired by a range of different outstanding
JRPG:s, weaving good systems together into a neat tapestry of a game. The
atmosphere and world exploration remind me of the colorful and visionary
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, whilst the combat buddy ability
system makes me recall the camaraderie in Xenoblade Chronicles.
Your companions join the team one-by-one as you find and unlock new
settlements, where you can buy new equipment, ingredients for crafting, and
restock on ammo and healing items. Loads of different beasts litter the world
map, and you decide whether you take them on in the old fashioned turn-based
combat or sneak past them to conserve your resources. The more enemies you
engage at once, the better the bonus experience net rewards and the quicker
you'll level up.
In other words, Earthlock scores no points in originality. I don't mean that
in a particularly derogatory sense. Because it treads familiar ground, it is
extremely easy to learn, yet designed to be hard to master. It is
hyper-focused on the quick and challenging combat, which borrows heavily from
Final Fantasy X (a good call since it, in my opinion, features the best
battle system in that series), in that it is turn-based with a bar on one
side, displaying the turn order.
Disappointingly, unlike FFX, Earthlock doesn't allow you to switch characters
in and out of combat, meaning you're stuck with the same quartet until the
battle's over. This can put a damper on a fight, when you realize you never
stood a chance, simply because you started with the wrong combatants. There's
a right setup, and several wrong ones. A common mistake I made was pitting a
completely useless melee-only fighter against an airborne boss. The bosses are
tough enough that you cannot afford such a waste of space.
The leveling is another systemic landmark of the game. With each level
increase, you unlock new card slots on your talent board where you can choose
freely what kind of upgrade to obtain - a character-specific skill, a
universal perk or a good boost in any of your attributes. If you regret your
choice later, you can always switch out cards for more suitable ones. It's a
fun, rewarding puzzle to figure out ways to increase your odds, obliterating
droves of enemies in one hit and earning juicy "outnumbered" EXP-bonuses
because of it.
A somewhat original concept is that every character has two different stances
they may switch between at the cost of a combat turn. It might be a defensive
vs offensive stance, or a melee vs ranged, or offensive buff vs healing. This effectively doubles your maximum available combat roles to twelve. It makes the fights, particularly the long boss encounters, fall into a rhythm; a
flow of all-out damage dealing, versus ebbing away to lick your wounds as you run out of action points.
This makes the character dynamic a great, experimental device that you need to
manage ever so often. This is encouraged by the increasing battle bond between
different characters. By pairing them up in combat, they learn each other's
ins and outs, and acquire new shared abilities that really boost your battle
performance. Pairing, for instance, the defensive droid with anyone will eventually provide them with great protective boons.
Earthlock's biggest strength lies in its pacing. Even going for a
completionist playthrough, you'll be able to beat it in a lot less than half
the time of any ordinary JRPG. Everything runs smoothly, transitioning from
overworld to combat screen in a heartbeat. The story never meanders, and the
exploration allows for fast travel. During combat, the character animations
finish in the blink of an eye. And the increasing experience gains from
tackling multiple enemies even make the few bouts of grinding more exciting than usual.
As an unwanted side effect, this pacing also makes the game feel a bit
shallow. The few glimpses of lore and world building fly by too fast. We see
the remains of ancient lives in old ruins, statues and magical devices, and
the dialogue hints of ancient Gods and all but extinct civilizations, but the
world never becomes the thought-provoking backscene it strives to be. Even
though the main story revolves around the subject, they are reduced to mere
ornaments. The writing is too meager, and careful exploration yields nothing lore-substantial. Much like the rest of the written content, I notice that it exists, but it never tickles my imagination.
Instead the game finds appeal in the forward momentum, of combining
meaningful systemic content into a wholesome, addictive, classic
RPG-experience. By stealing and combining the best parts of a number of
different classic JRPG:s, Snowcastle showcases exquisite tastes, and the
seamless end product is something to recommend for newcomers as well as genre
veterans. It is a lot of fun to play, but pointless to think about in terms
other than battle strategies.
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