It’s really fun when you can see the bones of a game. When you start playing and you can feel the influence immediately. I could feel the influence of games like Earthbound, Legend of Zelda and Stardew Valley immediately when I loaded up the Eastward demo. At its core, it is primarily a Legend of Zelda style action-adventure game. But the little touches of everything else, as well as an interesting and intricate-looking world that Pixpil has created made Eastward a very exciting experience.
The art direction is phenomenal. Starting out in this small town that has buildings almost built on top of each other like a dense city, you get a feel for the post-apocalyptic vibe Eastward is pushing. I could feel both modern and science fiction vibes pulsing from the town as I spoke to robots and kids playing arcade games. Upon leaving I was tasked with entering a sawmill where some of the workers saw monsters.
The town was completely passive, I wandered, entered shops, spoke to townsfolk. That all ended once I got to the sawmill. Soon I was bashing baddies with John’s frying pan or knocking out obstacles with Sam’s pong pong gun. Likewise, I was using said instruments to solve basic puzzles to traverse through the dungeon/sawmill. Swapping between the two protagonists was simple to do and added quite a bit to the puzzles I experienced. I would launch a platform down a river with John’s frying pan and have to swap to Sam to clear obstacles with her gun.
Reaching the end of the sawmill I was treated with a boss battle. While simple in design, it sets the tone for the future of the game. This was most assuredly a new skin on the Legend of Zelda formula but it felt like so much more than that. Between the art, dialogue, and music, Eastward has really established an identity of its own.
Pixpil has really set itself apart with Eastward and shown that you can make something truly unique using an old formula. I might have groaned a bit when I collected my first heart container or using bombs on a cracked wall but for every moment of that, there were meditating swamis and whacking snake-plants with frying pans. I’m really looking forward to Eastward and I can tell from the demo, it’s going to be something special.
