Switch, macOS, Windows, Xbox One
// 2024-05-01, 4 min read, #gaming #review
Holy crap. I love Eastward.
Eastward is very character driven. Sam and John, your two main characters, are at first glance pretty opposite: Sam is a loud, excitable, talkative, young girl with tons of energy. John is a relaxed, mute, older man. But they both have big hearts and help everyone they come across. John helps out of a quiet sense of duty, Sam out of a loud and outspoken sense of morality and justice. Together they narratively make a really great duo, which is reflected in combat where Sam's psychic abilities balance John's melee and gun abilities. Beyond that, each town you're in has a unique and memorable cast that you'll come to care for.
Also I feel like before I transitioned I was more like John, and after I was more like Sam. But there's not much to dive into in this game regarding trans stuff. This is just a personal realization I had during editing.
Eastward takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting where the miasma moves from place to place to destroy life, which it's been doing for a very long time now as part of a cycle of destruction and rebirth. John and Sam are thrust out into this world after some shit goes down and their shitty mayor expels them from their little mining community. Largely our two heroes are on their own. They move from town to town, running from the miasma. Sometimes barely escaping it, sometimes successfully helping to save the town. They make friends, find family, find love, and experience crushing loss. It's a world full of loss in fact, but it's also full of hope and perseverance. People all over are doing their best to survive and even thrive in these times. Other post-apoc stories like Fallout don't seem to express much hope, being more about simply surviving despite.
Visually, the game is stunning. It's another one of those 2D-sprite-looking games that is actually 3D underneath. You see it sometimes when your characters extremities clip through an object as you walk by it, or like Sea of Stars, in the way the lightning hits certain elements, or when the viewpoint actually shifts during one single boss near the end of the game. This is not a bad thing, and I imagine is necessary to create the atmosphere and mood they were going for. As well as probably making it easier to design environments and levels. (Also I understand that many modern game development kits like Unity don't do 2D well at all, so doing it in 3D might just be the best way to use the toolkit) The music is similarly utterly phenomenal and always always lands just right. I've been listening to the soundtrack on repeat ever since I beat the game. There's so much emotion and character. And the game uses the perfect track for the final boss fight. It was such a bop that I had to turn the volume up and really jam out while playing, much to the annoyance of my wife and her partner who was over at the time, I'm sure <_<
Eastward is upbeat, bright, and hopeful. It is full of energy. It is also dark, heavy, and full of despair. There's some deep stuff in here about the concept of memories and reliving experiences. Especially those damn existential save fridges. And the whole Ester City.. situation... This has caused a lot of reflection on my part. A couple years ago I trialed a psychiatric medication for my longcovid. Supposedly the medication in low doses could be used to boost dopamine; the hope being that I would regain some energy. Instead, it ended up giving me deeply existential thoughts with no boost to my physical state. I think it was the first time I ever grappled with my mortality. The concept that at some moment in time, I will stop thinking, I will stop remembering. What happens to my memories after I die? Do I/they carry on in some fashion, or is that it and like a light switch flipping off for the last time my light is just gone forever?
....
Right away on you meet your first save fridge. Earthbound has you saving at telephones by calling your otherwise absent father, Mother 3 uses frogs that talk to you about weird stuff. Eastward has fridges that comment on the meaning of existence, life, memories, and consciousness. There's one particularly late game fridge sitting in a graveyard that hits you with this line:
There are countless memories in here, some even older than me. But I'm afraid that no one will ever load them again...
Some other choice fridge quotes:
Not all reunions are a happy affair. But turn back now, and there may not be an opportunity for a reunion at all.
You've gotten stronger. But getting stronger isn't your goal, is it?
It seems silly, but I loved these things, they really stood out to me and I could throw more of these at you all day, to be honest.
Regarding gameplay, there's a lot of action segments which are broken up by long sections of chill downtime where you go on errands for townsfolk. Really gives it a slice-of-life feel that helps you connect more deeply with every character in the game. It breaks up the pace a lot, which can be nice, or it can be a bit of a drag, depending on your expectations and current mood I guess. Personally, I enjoyed them a lot. I really loved learning about everyone, and Sam's interactions especially with Alva were just adorable. Any extra time I got to spend allowing Sam to just exist as a little girl was worth it.
Once you have a few weapons and skills, combat is more varied, but even just swinging that frying pan (which was wielded by legendary young women in history) around is fun in my experience. Dungeons are loaded with atmosphere and the puzzles contained within are creative without being too obtuse or tedious.
I'll probably be thinking about Eastward for a while. Of all the games I completed this year, only Eastward and Sea of Stars have made me cry (so far).
Beyond this point, I don't know how to talk about this game without getting into spoilers. I'm still struggling to express my thoughts and feelings on certain topics and discussions about the game. So perhaps that will come as a follow up post later.
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