Lock's Quest

Lock's Quest is 5th cell's second ds game, and fifth overall.

Gameplay
Lock's Quest is a real-time strategy game, incorporating tower defense gameplay elements. The battlefield, viewed from an isometric perspective, is displayed on the DS's bottom screen. Combat is divided into two phases, Build and Battle. During the Build phase, the player has a limited amount of time and resources to construct defenses, which consist of walls, towers, cannons, machines, and traps. Once the Build phase ends, the Battle phase begins. Lock can repair damage to the defenses or fight enemies, with each action having a corresponding minigame.

Both battle phases make good use of the touch screen, as the player can utilise sliding and twisting movements with the stylus to activate various upgrades and abilities.

Plot
he game is set in a kingdom, built using a mysterious substance known as Source. The builders of this kingdom, the Archineers, studied source in an attempt to better understand its properties. The greatest archineer was Agonius, who discovered a truly remarkable property of source - that it can emulate life. Agonius started creating lifelike beings from the source, but the King, who understood the dangers of this, demanded that Agonius halt his work. Agonius refused, and so was banished from the kingdom.

Seeking vengeance upon the King, Agonius assumed the mantle of Lord Agony and created a clockwork army with the intent of destroying the kingdom. A war ensued, with heavy casualties on both sides. Eventually, two kingdom archineers, Kenan and Jacob, infiltrated Agony's fortress. The exact nature of the events that happened therein are not revealed until the end of the game - all that is known, at first, is that Agony was defeated, and Jacob was missing, presumed dead. Kenan, now a hero, took up the position of Chief Archineer.

The game itself begins some years after the events above. We are introduced to Lock, a young man living in a coastal village, along with his sister, Emi, and grandfather, Tobias. When this village (and indeed the entire kingdom) is attacked by a new army of clockworks, under a new Lord Agony, Lock enlists as an archineer and helps to fight the clockworks. After a long time, the Kingdom force prevails and the new Agony is defeated. At the climax of the plot, it is revealed that the new Lord Agony is none other than Jacob. Long ago, when Jacob reached Agonius' chamber, he found Agonius a frail and broken man. He also found the young Lock, who was himself clockwork, the greatest creation of Agonius. Jacob took Lock and raised him as a human, under the guise of Tobias. He created Emi, who is also clockwork, and the village in which Lock was raised.

At the end of the game, the King tells Lock that, despite being clockwork, he was truly alive, because Agonius had given Lock his soul. Conversely, Jacob could not bring himself to sacrifice his soul in order to give Emi true life, and so, in time, Emi would simply crumble to dust.

However, it is implied that Jacob, repentant and sorrowful for having waged war on the Kingdom, did eventually do so at Lock's request, and the final scene of the game is Lock and Emi playing tag on the beach.

Development
After Drawn to life was realeased, Jeremiah Slaczka the company's Creative director, wanted to do something completely different. Following his goal of original titles, he thought of Lock's Quest, and told the company. After the mistake, with Drawn to life, the company agreed and realeased the game. It sold terribly, and the company lost faith in themselves, but however it was still popular. Jeremiah took this seriously, and thought of Scribblenauts, and got to work right away.

Trivia
They're many references, to Drawn to life, such as Heatharian