Earthlock: can a JRPG from the West tick all the right boxes?

Earthlock: Festival of Magic is the new Kickstarter-funded JRPG from Norweigan developer Snowcastle Games. Dave Cook talks with the team to see if this colourful, intriguing new project can satisfy the appetite of seasoned genre fans.

[NewMonday]

this looks promising, a well planed Kickstarter

looking forward to it.

[HavokPants]

its called a damn jrpg for a reason because its from JAPAN! not MURICA

[ICANPLAYGAMES2]

Beat me to it.

[rextraordinaire]

You might be interested in knowing that Norway is in Europe, not America...

[HavokPants]

oh every time i hear western its usually reffering to america

[randomass171]

I think they call it that because it was largely inspired by old JRPGs. But I agree, it should be called an RPG, not JRPG since the J stands for Japanese. :P

[DCfan]

No.

[nope111]

How can it be a JRPG when it's not from Japan?

[lilbroRx]

That's what happens when people start using twisted labels.

I've never used the term JRPG. RPGs span dozens of genre even in Japan. J is not a genre. Its just a term used to divide, and often disparage, RPGs that come from Japanese culture from those that aren't.

I always referred to them as "console rpgs", or there actual genre. Now westerners are trying to take the divisive label they created and tack it to their games to garner their popularity. Ubisoft did it with Child of Light which bears no semblance of anything Japanese, rpg or otherwise, and now this group from Norway is.

I hope this doesn't become a trend.

[TitanUp]

i agree with you the term jrpg is a bit odd so is western rpg. they are all rpg

[Hicken]

Because jrpg no longer means it comes from Japan, but that it's an rpg in the Japanese style.

Japanese rpgs have a decidedly different style from those made in the west, and so the term jrpg was coined to denote them. Of course, they were all
Japanese for decades because no one outside of Japan made games in that style.

Now developers in other countries do. Those games are, because of their STYLE, still jrpgs. It's that simple.

I really hate when people act like words or phrases can't change or expand in definition, as if language is some static thing that is the same thing it was when it first started.

[randomass171]

But isn't that like calling Avatar an anime? If it's not from Japan then it's inaccurate to use the label. This is Japanese inspired, but it's not from Japan. So how do we classify it as a JRPG?

[Hicken]

There isn't a western cartoon genre, for one. It walks a fine line, outside of that, like Teen Titans did. Hell, TT was pretty much western only in source material.

To be honest, it's a bit hard to describe, but jrpgs just FEEL different, in my opinion. I've played some Oblivion, Dragon Age, and Champions of Norrath, among others, and they all feel very different from FF, Persona, or Tales. The Souls games feel more western than Japanese to me.

The only reason it seems to be specific to Japan is because... well, what western devs make games like jrpgs? What Japanese devs- until the Souls games- were making rpgs that felt like an Elder Scrolls title?

There's nothing stopping devs from one side of the world from making a game that's in the vein of rpgs from the other side of the world. It's just that it's only been recently that devs have tried.

[kingjosh1876]

I played the demo but it really wasn't very interesting imho, the characters seemed plain and there was nothing special in the mechanics. Perhaps other people will like it though?

[randomass171]

There's a demo available? Where can I find this so that I may try it out as well? :)

[kingjosh1876]

It's on their kickstarter page.

[randomass171]

Awesome! Thanks for letting me know. :D

[Skate-AK]

Will have to try the game since it got funded. Probably get it for Wii U.