The best thing I have found about Earthlock though is the story. Graphically the game is beautiful and some of the bad guys are wonderfully ugly and you can’t wait to give some a slap in the mouth, if they have a mouth that is. The boss battles are incredible, yet annoying at times (just what you want), you really get that sense of accomplishment after killing a giant creature that can totally one hit you if you’re not careful. But as a pair’s bond grows it reaches certain milestones which can make the individual characters abilities better, so there is a lot of thought that goes into what bonds you want to grow as the game goes on, especially since if you grow your bond with a certain pair and then one of those characters leaves your party for a while, you better have a backup or get ready for some grinding to build that bond. So, a healer will be able to heal better, an attacker will attack harder, you get the idea. When a pair of characters' bond has reached its maximum the characters get to perform special actions based on their class. Inside these 4 you pair your characters off and during battles and they have a bond meter which fills with each attack. In Earthlock your party consists of 4 characters, with one or two sadly having to sit on the sidelines. Nothing ground-breaking or fascinating to report there but what is worth talking about is the bond mechanic. Some enemies are weak to certain attacks and strong to others, some enemies are weak to certain magical elements and some are not. There is a significant enough challenge and a variety of enemies and tactics to defeat said enemies that will need to be figured out when you're boosting the individual characters in your party. It must be said also, they are all done very well. This game has everything you expect to see in a game reminiscent of JRPG’s, turn-based combat, weapon/item collection, puzzle completion, character skill progression etc. The boss battles are as difficult as the boss is large. Throughout the story, Amon meets and befriends a whole host of people and even adds some of them to his party. You play as Amon, a small town scavenger who gets caught up in the plot of some bad people to take down the Suvian Empire. Set in the land of Umbra, which has not had the best of times, what with a civil war causing Amri, the magical energy core of the land to explode and spill out everywhere after the land ground to a halt, split the place in two with one side in the light and hot and one in darkness and freezing, giving birth to some pretty badass plants and animals with no idea how to fix it but look! Who of us can say we haven't gone through the same kind of problems? Oh really? Nobody? Oh right. It is an incredible journey through a new and unique world that is reminiscent of the first time I was introduced to something akin to Chrono Trigger or Vagrant Story. Pic: Snowcastle GamesĮarthlock is reminiscent of old JRPG’s, think the Final Fantasy series circa 1990’s, Chrono Trigger etc. However if you heal a ghost enemy it does a large amount of damage, and if you hit a stunned ally it'll snap them out of it so it is utilized as part of the gameplay.Your base of operations in Earthlock is a safe haven we would all be jealous of. The only thing i didn't care for in the gameplay was the ability to help your enemies, for instance there was a few times while using my healer when trying to select the right person to heal I would accidentally heal my enemy, I know it's dumb it's my fault but just something that annoyed me. The game does require some old-school grinding at points though in order to be a high enough level to tackle some of the bosses otherwise you will die, a lot. (should I heal now or can I make it until the next round, etc) The leveling up system allows players to customize the characters to how they want to play, focus on close or long range combat, is defense more important than attack, etc. Instead of having meters fill up to let you know when your character was getting ready to make their move there is a string of icons to the right of the screen showing who is coming up next whether it's you or the enemy which allows the players to strategize as to what needs to be done next. Gameplay: This is where the game shines for me, it harkens back to the old turn based combat I used to love so much, while it doesn't always work in modern day gaming, I enjoyed Earthlock.
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