Eastward ('Journey through a society on the brink of collapse' - no, a different one)

There have been roughly a billion and three pixel-art SNES-like action-adventure-RPG-hybrid indie games released on Switch and other platforms, most of which leave me utterly cold.  This is not one of them.  It looks nice, for one thing, not like the art was just something that needed doing to get the game out the door.  The soundtrack gives me heavy Stranger Things vibes in a good way.  The character designs have strong Mother energy, and it looks like there are going to be lots of interesting places to explore (and a whale on a roof).  

As for how it's going to play, that's still pretty hard to tell.  Looks like it might have shooty elements?  EDIT: Scratch that, IGN did a 25-minute gameplay demonstration!



Regardless, it's interesting enough to have ended today's showcase, so I reckon it's interesting enough to get a thread.  Anyone else tempted?

Oh, I'll watch that gameplay thing later! I've been intrigued by the vibes but I had no idea what kind of game this would be.

I'm very interested in this, the art just looks wonderful

Absolutely does, I'm surprised this one hasn't gone more attention. Even if it's a bit RPG-y for around here, I'd have thought its strong Earthbound vibes would get attention from beyond the usual crowd.

I think it's one everyone quietly knows will be decent but because we've not really seen it there isn't much to say on it, as someone who's never played Earthbound but definitely gets those vibes, I'm still expecting this to be really good and I'll very likely be playing it around launch.

I'm 100% down for this - the art and general vibes are right up my alley. Am I wrong in saying there's a little bit of classic Zelda DNA in there from watching that gameplay video?

Some for sure, part of why it looks good I think

Classic Zelda x Mother feel is what I'm getting.

So this crept up on us - well, it crept up on me anyway.  I had no idea it released yesterday until somebody on the Internet told me as much.  I picked it up straight away and have put a few hours into it.  Some early thoughts, then.

OR and I occasionally debate what makes nice pixel art - I, for example, don't think either Owlboy or Iconoclasts are terribly good-looking. I don't think there's any doubt that This Is Good Pixel Art. The fluffyness of Sam's hair comes across beautifully. That said, I can't say I think it's a very aesthetically pleasing game, and that's my fault I think. The animation is really nice on top of said sprite art, but the (intentionally) muted colour palette for what is after all a dystopia, thus far mostly underground, has led to it all being... well, rather ugly to me. Objectively pretty, subjectively ugly. I'm sure it'll get prettier when I get above ground. Also worth noting that the game art, the chapter introduction art, and some of the fonts haven't really gelled together for me.

As for the gameplay, thus far it's... fine. Lots of whacking things with a frying pan or lighting things up with Sam's magic, and lots and lots of backtracking to talk to the next plot-advancing person. There was one really good boss who was the unquestionable highlight, but otherwise it's all felt like a bit of a shrug sadly. (There is a fully-fledged Game Boy RPG contained in it, which is really quite fun.) The writing too is fine: bits that were meant to be funny didn't really land, and the central conceit has been done to death. Some of the characters are good (I already love Sam) and some aren't (there's an obvious Porky Minch analogue that hasn't worked for me at all).

So yep, overall I'm more lukewarm than I hoped to be. It's a shame, but I think there's a lot more to go, and there's definitely good stuff in there. I think some brighter colours and more interesting enemies could do wonders.

A shame it's not grabbed you from the off. Hopefully it's just some early-game doldrums and it'll open up more from a combat aspect in the later stages. The gameplay video in the OP seemed to show off some neat looking combat, which I guess is from later than the opening areas?

It seems to have improved! Two things happened in quick succession which helped. Firstly, I changed environments, improving the colour palette. It's still a bit washed out, which I guess makes sense when it's 'a society on the brink of collapse' but which I still like less, but it's definitely more colourful. Secondly, the characters gained the ability to split up, and with that it began to feel more dynamic. (Also I got a gun. Frying pan's better.)

I'm still a little unsure about some of the writing. You get a bunch of characters thrown at you without much development, and there's an early-game 'romance' which stretched the bounds of belief a bit. On the plus side something particularly amusing happened to the Porky Minch analogue, and Sam's still great.

Glad to hear it! It's definitely on my to-play list, and hopefully soon as well. I'll look forward to some more thoughts from you.

...and then just now, the game had... a moment, shall we say. One of those moments. The kind that makes the likes of the Mother games unforgettable. I'm not saying said moment was as good as those, but... I think I'm into Eastward now. Slow starter though.

@Balladeer wrote:

 I'm not saying said moment was as good as those, but... I think I'm into Eastward now.

...was it a sexy moment?

It was not a sexy moment. Sexy moments are not likely to get me into games. They are likely to make me intensely awkward instead. Also if sexy moments had made the Mother games unforgettable, I think we'd be talking about Ness' baseball bat in very different terms.

I picked this up! I've not played much of it as of yet as I ended up getting hooked on that Dragon Quest style RPG thing and playing it for far too long, but I'm already loving the feel of this game. The art style and character sprites really give me Mother 3 vibes and I'm intrigued to see where the story is leading and why everyone is hiding underground. More thoughts to come!