Earthlock: Festival of Magic (Xbox One) Review

From the start, Earthlock: Festival of Magic is a beautiful game with wonderful character design and an amazing soundtrack. This doesn't fade away through the game as the developers didn't just throw in background characters as much as many other games. It is a stunning game to play.

This is one of the better games of this decade, mixing RPG-like gameplay, a wonderful soundtrack, impeccable character design, and a kind of minimalistic cartoonish visual. The game starts with Amon Barros, a desert scavenger with an iron will and a taste for adventure. Along the adventure, new characters come into play, including Gnart Tigermouth, a young hogbunny, Olia Alagbato, a mysterious lone wanderer, and Ive Lavender, a general's daughter. Earthlock takes place in the world of Umbra, a diverse land with many different creatures, some friendly, others not so much. The world stopped spinning for some reason thousands of years ago, giving it a very slightly post-apocalyptic feel.

Eventually, a settlement building feature is unlocked. This allows the player to build their own village on a remote island, bringing features such as harvesting and character levelling. The island is accessed through portals found throughout Umbra. Over the course of the adventure, new shops and items are added, which add things like potion brewing and weapon upgrades. Gardening is a very important feature on this island, as magical plants can be grown that perform a myriad of actions. This island is the "home base" throughout the game.

Earthlock uses a JRPG sort of battle system, with each character taking their turns against each other, and the ability to substitute attacks for items or powers. The soundtrack is absolutely beautiful, with an orchestra playing the entire time, and songs hardly ever being used twice. Aside from the battle system alone, the game doesn't use a random encounter system, unlike most JRPGs. Enemies spawn in a fixed location each time, and they reset every time the room is entered. This means that the player can defeat an enemy guarding a door, leave the room, then come back in and face the enemy again. This leads to some aggravating moments when lost in an area, constantly dying to an enemy that has already died. However, this is made up for using the "feign death" option, where if all but one of the party is dead, the survivor can fake their death and escape enemies, remaining invisible for a short time.