Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure Review
The original Earthlock was an unashamedly old-school JRPG that played well but offered little in the way of innovation. However, the game benefited from a pretty major overhaul in 2018 when the development team at Snowcastle Games added a load of extra features for the Switch port. Adding these all onto the original version as a free upgrade was a move that generated a lot of goodwill and therefore the announcement of a sequel was met with plenty of excitement. Earthlock 2 is due in 2024 but to tide us over we have a surprising spin-off in the form of Ikonei Island.
Despite being primarily a survival and crafting experience, Ikonei does offer a decent story to carry you through – albeit one that suffers from the usual genre annoyances of being blocked behind incremental building progression. You play as one of four unique characters stranded on a mysterious desert island who must survive and explore. While I played through in solo mode there is up to 4 player multiplayer available. Bizarrely, the characters you don’t control just stay standing on the beach unless you switch to them and move them. I chose to just let them chill out where they were throughout.
Graphically, Ikonei is pretty solid with a cartoony aesthetic that is in keeping with the main game. Everything is bright and colourful with interactive objects being clear enough to ensure that they are easily visible. Characters and animals are nicely designed and the island contains an unusual range of biomes with different looks and challenges. Music is pleasant without being particularly memorable and the occasional voice acting is much the same. Cutscenes feel a little underwhelming with static images but that is understandable for a lower budget spinoff project.
Exploring the island of Ikonei reveals a number of buildings to restore and a small number of NPCs scattered around the various areas. Working through their quests will result in them joining you back at the main hub area when you have rebuilt their
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