A funny thing happened during my 18 hours, 13-minute journey through Earthlock: I stopped caring. It’s not that I stopped enjoying myself, because I was, mostly, still doing that, but the entire world and story of Earthlock stopped being something I cared about.

It didn’t even take that long for me to stop being invested in the world, either. Somewhere between the second boss and the fourth major encounter, I realized that the story wasn’t going to pick up and the characters were likely never going to grow in to people I necessarily cared for. As the final credits rolled, I felt a pinch of sorrow having to say goodbye, but it wasn’t nearly the same level of emotion that I’ve felt with previous RPGs.

Having said that, Earthlock convinced me to stay invested through other means. Let’s break the game down and consider it for all of its parts.

Developer: Snowcastle Games

Publisher: Snowcastle Games

Digital Only // $29.99 // Played for 18+ Hours // Review Copy Provided By Publisher

First off, Earthlock was Kickstarted in 2014 and released in late 2016 on XBOX One and later, PS4, WiiU, and PC. It unfortunately launched to universal “MEH” reviews, but developer Snowcastle Games did not stop there. They set off to work on fixing the numerous bugs, glitches, and bungled plot elements that were widely criticized. The version of Earthlock that was released for the Switch is now the standard version on all platforms, with Snowcastle giving free updates to owners of the original game. For that, they deserve to be commended!

How well did they do in fixing it? Glad you asked…

One of the first things you’ll notice is Earthlock’s bright colors and even tones. The artwork is above par for an indie game and is pleasant to look at during your 15-20 hours. The characters are all drawn in a pseudo-Disney like fashion and they’re mostly pretty nice to look at. A few characters are particularly interesting looking, like Uncle Benjo and Gnart Tigermoth – one of the titular hogbunnies – but most of them are just plainly nice.

The backgrounds range from very detailed and stunningly gorgeous to plain, empty and nondescript. Overall, the graphics are good enough to not turn you off, but aren’t good enough to make you take pause.

The gameplay centers around RPG tropes of story development, combat, and exploration. I’ve already mentioned that the story line is particularly run-of-the-mill, but it helps to reiterate that. If you’re looking for an engaging story or one that attempts anything new, look elsewhere. However, if you’re someone who enjoys somewhat unique combat, you may want to keep your eye on Earthlock, as this is where the game is particularly engaging.

First, the combat focuses on a “Stance” system that allows each character to change stances (at the cost of their turn) to switch their ability set. The lead character, Amon, can switch between a Thief stance, allowing him to stab enemies and steal from them, to a Blaster stance, which allows him to shoot his musket/blaster weapon, to different effects. It’s a pretty cool system that allows for a variety of strategies in regards to big boss battles and effective grinding.

Secondly, the character system is reminiscent of recent Final Fantasy games and other RPGs, where you allot points in to a “Talent Grid”, effectively allowing you to customize your characters, in a moderately robust way, as you see fit. Though I didn’t attempt to make strange, counter-intuitive builds of the characters, I imagine there might be some room to min-max some of your characters in ways that aren’t immediately obvious. It’s a decent system that was fun enough to invest some thought in to and led to some “just a few more fights” moments, as I wanted to level my character up to see what came next.

Lastly, there is an extensive gardening system here that appears to be rather deep and intricate, but I didn’t get too involved in it beyond what was required, as it didn’t particularly appeal to me. However, I can see this being something the right person would enjoy.

The sound effects are nothing to write home about, but the musical score was easily among the best features of Earthlock. It was appropriately epic when it needed to be and I nearly always found myself thinking that the music was pretty great. I’m not even someone who normally pays attention to music, but Earthlock’s score drew my attention on more than a few occasions. I believe that is testament to its well-above-par quality. Listen to this track, Echoes of the Earth, and get a feel for Earthlock’s soundtrack:

Earthlock took me a little over 18 hours, as I mentioned before, and to be honest, I didn’t stop to smell the roses very often. I think you could probably spend another five to ten hours doing all of the side quests and exploring more of the world, but I never felt invested enough to want to do that. I don’t see many, if any, reasons to replay the game. Character customization, while fun, isn’t robust enough to warrant multiple playthroughs, and the story wasn’t interesting or deep enough that replaying the game might reveal hidden secrets detailed within.

Lastly, the game was stable enough and I never noticed any weird clipping issues or other bugs that were possibly present in earlier versions of the game (I never played them). That’s clearly a result of Snowcastle’s hard work and steadfast support of Earthlock. I’m very happy to report that and even happier to see a developer make the tough decision to go back and finish a game like this. If anything, Snowcastle will now be a developer studio that I actively watch, as their support for Earthlock has been incredible.

Was their support enough to fix Earthlock? Mostly. I see potential in the groundwork laid out with this game, but the story and dialogue really keep Earthlock from feeling like the truly epic RPG I really wanted it to be. Those elements are so critical to RPGs that their mediocrity drag the game down as a whole. The story wasn’t outright offensive by any stretch of the imagination, but it was so safe, so…boring, that I couldn’t help but hope that they bring in new talent for Earthlock 2 (yes, it’s already been announced). With further polishing of their combat system and an overhaul of their story writing, Earthlock 2 could be a game that people will stop and take notice of. Meanwhile, Earthlock is a game that manages to be pretty fun in spite of itself, but it could have been so much more.

I’ll be watching Snowcastle’s next project with bated breath.