Swapping between the two is effortless, and learning to do so effectively – especially as you acquire upgrades – makes for a very satisfying curve, and the game also balances the puzzles and more action-y elements well. Sam, meanwhile, has a ranged attack with easily recharged ammo, but can’t actually do damage to the vast majority of enemies. What really makes the gameplay pop is their vastly different skillsets – John has a vast arsenal, but works in close range and has limited ammo for his meatier weapons. Eastward acts as a unique fusion of 2D Zelda and the Mario & Luigi games, where you swap between John and Sam to fight enemies and clear puzzles. Until you get to the actual gameplay segments, which… are honestly fantastic. As long as the story is interesting and the writing is sharp or quirky, I can put up with hourlong diversions. One of my favorite games ever is Persona 4, one that infamously takes several hours for you to get to any real significant gameplay. Complaining about the slowness of RPGs is a stock critique, I’m aware, but you have to understand that I’m usually someone who never suffers from Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain. The first couple chapters underground in particular felt agonizingly slow, and while it gets marginally better after that, the number of occasions where I felt a scene wasn’t being overly dwelt upon was slim. There are dozens of minor characters who all have to chime in, and only a small handful of personalities to go between them. While that’s damning enough, the true detriment just comes with how slow the story progresses. And while the game could have spinned something episodic out of it, truly focusing on the journey rather than the destination, it instead feels like an unfocused narrative. Instead of being driven to travel onward, it feels like you’re pulled by the nose from one incidental plot point to the next. By the time there are more concrete players in the overall plot and Things Happening, you can’t help but wonder why you’re doing any of it in the first place. The first couple of chapters underground just have John and Sam living day to day without a specific goal, and upon leaving the underground they just kind of… meander onward. After a number of mishaps, John and Sam both end up exiled to the outside world, heading on a train eastward towards… what, exactly?Īs mentioned, much of Eastward’s plot is frustratingly constructed, largely in the lack of any character motivation for the first half of the game.
He looks after Sam, a rambunctious and adorable girl who, despite the protests of the local denizens, claims that there’s life and beauty. You play as John, a silent, scruffy miner working in the underground of Potcrock Isle. To even describe Eastward’s is deceptively difficult. While living up to its initial visual promise, and having a stunningly solid gameplay system, Eastward fails to ever really get going, bogged down by a poorly structured plot, too many characters, and utterly sluggish pacing. Well… unfortunately, after heading far Eastward, the journey is much more of a mixed bag than I hoped. Tell me that a game is an Earthbound-ish action-adventure game with beautiful, jaw-dropping pixel art? Well, sign me up on the spot – which is exactly how I responded to the announcement of Eastward, a colorful kinda-RPG with that exact selling point. Tell a cinephile this movie’s by their favorite director? They’ll watch it.
#EASTWARD PLOT FREE#
Tell a college kid a meeting has free food? They’ll be there. Sometimes, all you need to sell someone on something is one sentence, or even one phrase.
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