Eastward - Review

Created by Pixpil from Shanghai, and published by UK’s Chucklefish who brought you the ever popular Stardew Valley in 2016, Eastward is their latest release adventure game… if you can call it that. Reminiscent of a JRPG without the turn based action, Eastward bring you back to a beautifully illustrated pixel art with extremely smooth and fluid character movements. But before we get into that, the game takes you through an opening animation that is very clearly shows the game’s artists are fans of Japanese anime, which gives players a quick narrative of the main protagonist’s story, John, and his relationship origins with the mysterious Sam.

Much like the Matrix sequels (that’s Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions for those who are following), humanity has migrated underground where they live a struggling life with what looks to be a dilapidated underground train line. You come across John’s colleagues who are diggers (miners) in Eastward’s world with a variety of quirky and bizarre personalities. In fact, the whole game is littered with interesting quirky characters that you’ll eventually come across. Especially your co-protagonist character Sam, who is also coupled with a mysterious knowledge of the world above ground with blue skies and green grass, which is something that’s taboo to talk about. As you eventually make your way out from the underground railroad town, John and Sam travel across the land, drop into new towns and cities. While there’s a tonne of exploration, character interactions and animation to be viewed, a mysterious and dangerous plague that comes in the form of black substance known as Miasma is slowly making its way to overtake the land in Eastward.

That said, the standout story progression is the interaction between the ever talkative Sam and the non-vocal John. Even though John is not her biological father, the relationship between the two works so well and complimentary. From John’s darker introverted and quiet personality to Sam’s loud and chatty character. This is also shown through to the gameplay and action of the game being shown with John’s physical attacks with a pan, gun, bombs and more to Sam’s more mysterious powers. One seems like a more aggressive attack, whereas the other is more passive. And as you progress through the levels and enemies, you adapt and learn to switching characters during a fight. As previously stated the fluid movement is one that makes Eastward a joy to play and control.

Eastward is has also integrated mini games and puzzles, which works with the narrative. This ranges from weapon upgrades, collecting and buying ingredients to cook and unlock your ‘cooking menu’, all the way to going to a coin gashapon machine. For those who aren’t familiar with gashapon machines, it’s a vending machine littered through Japan in where you collect mini figures and collectibles.

The visual style of the game has been executed so well to the point where even each character their own breathing animation when standing still. The game’s design is so stylized in a positive way that you’re in awe at all times, especially when entering a new city or area. Couple that with a great selection of sound effects and score just solidifies that the creators of Eastward knew what they were doing to give the pixel nostalgic vibes when creating this game. As you play the game, the mood is changed by the score of the game which you get very familiar with when something is light and fun, vs something terrible that’s about to happen… even through to when a comedic character is about to make an appearance on screen. 

Pixpil  has created a great and fun game. However, it isn’t without any faults. Though there’s a huge variety of characters to meet and interact with, dialogue is one thing that you can’t really skip or move past quickly by hitting a button. Not only that, but there’s an abundant amount of characters you’ll have to talk to and read their dialogue, which could come across as through the game is dragging its feet a little. And though there’s a lot of puzzles and mini-games, these aren’t exactly the most difficult to solve, which makes the game feel like more of a ‘tick box’ process of getting from one end of the screen to the other, than actually trying to get players to stop and think of how to solve them.

Lastly, the story and narrative comes across a little ‘random’ in that you question yourself as to what’s happening and why without having an answer. Part of you wants to keep playing to find out, but part of you keeps questioning why things are actually happening in a particular order. This could also be due to feeling that there’s an overload of quirkiness through the game.

The Score

7.0

Review code provided by Chucklefish

The Pros

+Fantastic visual design and controls

+Mysterious characters and narrative keeps you going

The Cons

-The huge amount of dialogue makes it feel longwinded

-Puzzles and mini-games are a little too easy and simplistic