Author: Rich Meister

I only played the Mother games recently. I bounced about in the original Earthbound release when I was a kid. Still, it was a fan translation of Mother 3 that I got through totally legitimate means that moved me from a place of distanced appreciation to genuine respect for the quirky, charming series.

Eastward is a game that takes the best of Earthbound/Mother’s surreal and fun writing and combines it with the top-down action of traditional Zelda games for a nostalgia-packed adventure that carves out an incredible world that I won’t forget anytime soon.

Eastward (PC, [reviewed] Switch)

Developer: Pixpil

Publisher: Chucklefish

Released: September 16, 2021

MSRP: $24.99

Eastward stars two playable characters, John and Sam, residents of the subterranean town of Potcrock Isle. John is a digger, and Sam is a little girl that he dug up. Potcrock is full of diggers, people that uncover things long buried, but John is so damn good he dug up a whole ass person. Early hours take a slow burn style of teaching you about this stylish post-apocalyptic world, and the thing is, everyone in this town is kind of a dick, save for a few of the other diggers who seem to be genuine friends to John.

From the tyrannical mayor justifying his shitty behavior as a means of protecting people to the assortment of diggers living in squalor, the opening hours of Eastward are weirdly identical to that of anime Gurren Lagan. The main differentiator is that nobody digs up a mech, and John’s discovery of Sam occurs in an opening animation rather than in the game proper.

Through a series of events I won’t spoil here, John and Sam fly the coop and head on a journey to, you guessed it, the East! Along the way, they see new cities, make strange friends, and get caught up in a battle to save the world and discover the nature of Sam’s mysterious abilities. It’s a massive story with many moving parts that don’t all fit into place until the curtains close. It’s fun if a bit unevenly paced, and the memorable characters make even the slow bits worth visiting.

The dynamic of John and Sam as characters is one of Eastward’s more intriguing elements. John is a silent protagonist, a tall cipher for the player to project themselves onto, while Same is the complete opposite. She’s outspoken spunky and energetic, and she clearly looks up to John. Once the game kicks off, their parental relationship is already established. Sam looks up to John as a father, and he’s willing to protect her like she’s his own. It’s heartwarming, you know John loves her even though he never speaks, and it just works.

John and Sam aren’t the only charmed-filled standouts though. It’s hard to gush about all the characters without getting into spoilers but mainstays like Jasper and William and Daniel are characters I won’t soon forget just to name a few.

When it comes to gameplay, Eastward wears its Zelda inspiration loud and proud. In place of a sword, John wields a frying pan that gets incremental upgrades as the game continues; he also wields bombs and guns that come with different variations and purchasable upgrades. You can also swap to playing as Sam with the press of a button. While Sam can’t kill most enemies, she uses a chargeable energy blast to freeze enemies in place, and these blasts and swapping between our two leading characters are the keys to solving a lot of puzzles.

Dungeons aren’t as obviously laid out as more traditional games like Zelda; instead, you’ll organically find yourself stumbling across keys hidden in underground tunnels and realize you must be making your way towards another boss fight. While the puzzle design and dungeon layouts are fun, the sporadic nature of their placement leads to the strange feel of Eastward’s overall pacing. It does everything well, but you can sometimes go a few hours of information-heavy dialogue scenes before you get back to actually fighting anything. While Eastward is never dull, a more evenly paced dose of action could go a long way in making longer stretches of the game feel more rewarding.

John’s count of health is measured in hearts much like Zelda, and beating bosses or progressing to certain story beats will increase your max number. You can also find golden chests that give you special orbs that make a heart when you collect four of them.

To add to the long list of ideas taken straight from our favorite green-clad hero, Eastward even has a Breath of the Wild-inspired cooking system. John’s frying pan doubles as an actual frying pan, and you can combine ingredients at stovetops throughout the world and make special meals to restore health and provide temporary buffs. You can usually find stoves near refrigerators that serve as save points.

If you’re looking for more traditional turn-based RPG gameplay, then look no further than Earthborn, Eastward’s game within a game. Sam carries around what appears to be a Famicom-style game cartridge for Earthborn and an in-universe role-playing game that everyone in this world seems to love.

Earthborn gameplay is run-based, so you want to get to and defeat the demon king in one go taking as much time to gather and strengthen your party as you wish. The catch is you can get pixballs from capsule toy machines that basically act as amiibo to aid you with in-game items. Engaging with Earthborn is entirely optional, but the game’s events serve as an analog for a lot of the main plot, and it really is a whole lot of fun.

I’m going to say the cliche thing here...Eastward is a visual feast. The large sprite work and retro look combine with more contemporary lighting and particle effects that make the environments come alive, and the unique character designs pop. Locations like New Dam City ooze life and are littered with billboards and strange characters that you can’t help but speak with.

Couple the visual flair with Eastward’s soundtrack of video game music junk food, and I’m in heaven. I’ll be buying this soundtrack the moment it gets pressed to vinyl, and I have no doubt it will.

Verdict: I adore Eastward. The post-apocalyptic world is filled with memorable landscapes and characters that stay with you. It fumbles a bit in overall pacing, but it does everything with confidence, even when it leaves you craving a bit more action. This narrative-heavy action game is far from perfect but it’s a standout of the year and one of my favorite things I’ve played in a while

Buy it

[This review is based off a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer]