Eastward

Genre: Action-RPG

Players: 1

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: Chucklefish

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Review:

Eastward is an isometric Action-RPG released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game focuses on a story of two characters who live in an underground community sheltering under the fear of stories of death to those who venture to the surface. John, a strong but silent type, and his adoptive daughter Sam, whose mysterious past and strange powers garners far less attention that her insistence that the surface is safe and beautiful, ultimately putting both of the two at odds with the others in the community.

However, you don’t need to be on the surface to see the beauty in this game, which uses gorgeously-detailed, well-animated pixel art with good lighting effects, nice water effects, and tons of personality. Both the community below and the world above seemingly built out of the wreckage of some forgotten past, resulting in a jumbled-together hodgepodge of elements that gives the world a very lived-in feel. These great visuals are joined by an excellent synthesized soundtrack, with great tunes like Eastward, Glimmer, Confession, Strange Quest, Departure, Iron Carbine, and Final Boss.

However, while this game looks and sounds great, it is arguably the characters that really shine through the brightest here, with Sam in particular being a big ray of sunshine, but with the pair meeting a wide variety of great characters on their journey through the course of the game.

The gameplay here feels reminiscent of a game like Zelda, although there are stark differences. Mainly, Eastward is a very linear game, and there’s not much in the way of exploration. What’s more, the game makes use of a character-swapping mechanic between its two leads that makes good use of the pair’s very different moveset for in-game puzzles. Speaking of those puzzles, the puzzle design here is excellent, and the boss design is similarly fantastic.

Also, I have to give a mention to Earth Born, the game-within-a-game that players can partake in here, which plays like a lost Game Boy entry in the Dragon Quest franchise, albeit one that is somewhat simple, and very tongue-in-cheek, with characters simply named things like Knight, Girl, and Monkey. This simple little Turn-Based RPG is enjoyable in its own right, if primitive by today’s standards.

While this game really is excellent in many respects, it is also somewhat slow to start. Players who hear about the surface world early on may find themselves eager to escape to it, but that won’t happen for a few hours, after the game slowly builds its characters and takes you through its basic mechanics. What’s more, players might be expecting the game to open up at that point and allow for more exploration, but unfortunately, players are just as trapped in the outside world as underground, and just as led by the nose from one objective to the next.

Still, while Eastward doesn’t replicate the freedom of exploration of the Zelda games, it nevertheless has superb gameplay, a fascinating world with a lovable cast of characters, and charm bursting out of every seam. If you’re a fan of Action-RPGs, this game should absolutely be on your list.

tl;dr – Eastward is an isometric Action-RPG with gameplay and puzzles similar to classic Zelda games, but without the same freedom of exploration. The game starts out dreadfully slow, but it more than makes up for that with its lovable characters, beautiful pixel art visuals, and abundance of personality and charm.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Action-RPG

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