Eastward is one of those games that will immediately catch your eye. It looks flat out gorgeous and thankfully developers PixPil and Publisher Chucklefish have crafted a game that’s teeming with life and heart. Eastward is bursting with pixel art detail and that’s one of the core elements that will draw you in and keep you going throughout. Does this indie title deserve your time? Is it worth playing through to discover more about its gorgeous world? The answer to this and more will be revealed shortly so let’s dive right in.
In Eastward, players will take on the role of John, a miner and Sam, a mysterious white-haired young girl. Playing as either John or Sam, you’ll adventure through the gorgeous world of Eastward while speaking to various NPCs and completing quests. Eastward kicks off with some seemingly innocent storytelling in Potcrock Isle. You’ll have to speak to a lot of NPCs and eventually, you’ll be given a frying pan. This is one of your main weapons and with it, you shall wreak havoc upon slugs in the underground mines.
Things escalate quickly though and John and Sam get separated quite early on in the game. There’s a solid chunk of the game dedicated to reuniting the two characters and Eastward uses the first chapter to drive home the father and daughter relationship aspects that go on between John and Sam. Once Chapter 1 is over, the game really kicks off with a certain spoilerific event happening which sends John and Sam on a journey eastward.
Adventuring in Eastward involves exploring the rather large map in specific locales. There are numerous NPCs in each area and the game features lots and lots of text to read through. Unfortunately, there’s no voice acting in Eastward which is quite a shame given how each character in the game is written so well. Once you’ve spoken to some characters, they will task you with various quests. Some of these are fairly standard fetch quests while others involve a bit more activity. Eastward makes copious use of this fairly standard RPG plot mechanic but falters in that there are some quests that will have you backtracking more often than not.
This makes the game feel like it should be played in shorter chunks over a period of time instead of in long sessions so as to not burn yourself out. The text you have to read from NPCs will infuriate gamers who have no patience. Especially those that don’t care about reading through walls of text before button-bashing their way to victory.
Gameplay in Eastward involves exploring areas and using either John or Sam to get through puzzles which will then allow you to progress further. If you’ve played any 90s RPG video game, you’ll know what to expect here. There’s exploring, speaking to NPCs, getting quests, and unlocking new abilities or items which will help you progress further but for the most part, despite having a large world to explore, Eastward is still quite linear. Oh and you save your game at fridges which are scattered throughout the game world.
Swapping between Sam and John is thankfully an incredibly painless process and can be done on the fly. You will need to do this to solve puzzles since there are plenty of pressure plate switches that require both characters.
Combat in Eastward involves smashing enemies with your frying pan and later on, using bombs and additional weapons. Without spoiling too much, there’s enough variation on offer here and the combat is definitely fun in the game especially when you’re throwing bombs around. It’s unfortunate that this wasn’t expanded upon even further and at its core, the combat remains rather simplistic even with the new weapons later on. The extremely long stretches where you are simply just reading through storey text which cannot be skipped doesn’t help matters either. This imbalance gets grating later on in the game and the pacing seems to be slightly off.
With that said, when you’re adventuring through the gorgeous world of Eastward and discovering new areas, the gorgeous visuals motivate you to continue onward. Each area looks flat out amazing with so much pixel art detail bursting from the seams. The developers really put a lot of effort into Eastward’s world and there’s so much of it to soak up.
The puzzles in Eastward aren’t too difficult to solve and thankfully there is a quest log and map available so you won’t easily get lost. Unfortunately, though, there is no Chapter Select feature and if you miss out on doing something in an area, you won’t be able to go back later to complete it. There’s also no way to increase the text display speed past “Fastest” either so even if you restart the game, you’ll still have to sit through hours of content again just to do something specific like collecting a specific ingredient or a recipe. Achievement hunters beware.
Eastward is also a rather long game. It will take you easily upwards of 20 hours to get through this game depending on your play speed. If you get stuck with some puzzles or with boss enemies, this will only increase further. Speaking of boss enemies, Eastward has quite a few and these thankfully, are well done. Each boss follows a specific attack pattern or features a gimmick of sorts which you will need to overcome. Fairly standard fare once again but it does spice things up after you’ve been smacking plants, slugs and other creatures around for long periods of time.
Eastward’s soundtrack thankfully is just as amazing as its visuals. The background music used throughout the game is extremely good and suits the game’s world perfectly. Composer Joel Corelitz did an outstanding job here since the game’s tracks directly improve the storytelling throughout by creating just the right atmosphere. If you’re a fan of synth, piano and overall chilled vibes music, there are quite a few tracks in the Eastward OST that will satisfy you.
Overall, Eastward is a great pixel art adventure RPG with some quirky characters and some slight missteps in its execution. The unskippable cutscenes and lacklustre fetch quests bog it down and prevent it from being a true classic. The game’s story is enjoyable and there are some standout moments in the title with some philosophical questions but this is definitely best played in shorter bursts to prevent burnout. If you pick up Eastward on Nintendo Switch, you’ll be able to do this since you won’t really have to return to a fridge to save your game as often as you would on PC via Steam.
Developer: Pixpil
Publisher: Chucklefish
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems
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