Eastward feels like going back to the '80s anime days on VHS, where you could experience a clandestine and unusual medium that you couldn't find anywhere else. As John and Sam, players must head east (wow, that's the title!) Through a strange and surreal universe. While the characters and lore have a lot of heart and take this journey to the end with ease, the combat, puzzles, and boss encounters leave a little to be desired.
An excellent score provides an incredible backdrop for pixel perfect art, creating a whimsical and charming atmosphere for this quirky RPG that openly pays homage to titles like Earthbound. In fact, within Eastward, there is a full game called Earth Born, complete with its own gacha (in-game currency) system that is a blast to play when you just want to take a break from the main story trailer.
The story begins simply, with a pan gun to sneakily swing, a Zelda-like structure for acquiring containers of hearts, finding keys to make your way through dungeons, and swapping characters on the fly to solve puzzles and handle fights. John handles the tough fighting early on and uses ranged weapons and some types of bombs to break through walls and take on bosses.
Sam can manipulate the world with energy blasts and gains even more powerful energy attacks that must be charged before unleashing them along the journey. The combat remains simplistic throughout the game and is not really satisfying.
Many dungeons include puzzle segments in which the player must control characters separately, moving them to interact with the environment to overcome elevators, overgrowth, and a multitude of other obstacles. Most of these puzzles are easy to solve, but some involve enemies attacking your characters while they're defenseless (forcing you to swap control between them) or involve time trials that beat their end-game welcome.
Overall, controlling John and Sam both in and out of combat feels good, but there are only a few really cool boss encounters and puzzles, and those are mostly found in the late game.
Surprisingly, Eastward doesn't live and die from his matches or puzzles. Eastward builds a world that feels real, sincere, and intriguing. Many game worlds are created around archetypal building blocks that are based on established fantasy, science fiction, and other heavily traveled terrain. Refreshingly, Eastward is going in a strange and peculiar direction and he took me for a ride where I never knew exactly where things were going. This journey through the world allows you to escape an invasive and deadly miasma. At times, he also unravels other threads that lead him to explore the world of organized crime, the concepts of time travel, the joys of simple farm life, and making movies with decidedly unusual equipment.
The locations and characters that fill these environments are memorable, and I wanted to thoroughly explore the city to make sure I speak to every NPC. I can't remember the last time I did that in an RPG, and it's a testament to the good world that Pixpil has created. These cozy elements of tradition probably would have worked with any art style, but Eastward's combination of spectacular music and pixelated looks creates an atmosphere that shows you don't need 4K resolution or ray tracing to do something magical. Some of the convenience seeps into the game with the cooking mechanic, where you can prepare incredible meals that provide powerful benefits to help take on the most challenging bosses. While I'd love to delve deeper into this world, the less you know about the entrance to the east, the more you'll get out of exploring this enchanting landscape.
While the combat is nothing special and the puzzles wear down your welcome, the Eastward characters, setting, and sounds create an unforgettable experience. If he is looking for something quirky, captivating and surreal, he has found it.
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