Becksworth
Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Anyone else playing this? I’m only a little ways in, but so far it’s like a post apocalyptic Earthbound crossed with Zelda gameplay.
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Eastward and Down. Talking bout Eastward
- Thread starter Becksworth
- Start date
Anyone else playing this? I’m only a little ways in, but so far it’s like a post apocalyptic Earthbound crossed with Zelda gameplay.
I accidentally deleted my save so I had to start from scratch losing a couple hours progress. Could have been worse, I suppose.
Im definitely interested in where this is going, and appreciate the lack of explanation
Im definitely interested in where this is going, and appreciate the lack of explanation
This looks neat
Ludendorkk
(he/him)
Any impression of this? I'm interested
sfried
Fluffy Prince
It's "Earthbound meets Secret of Mana + twin character puzzles" but that's completely reductionist.
Don't forget "accidental dad/adopted daughter" trope but I do think there's a lot more going for it.
So far I am at Chapter 4 and there were some real twist and turns. You'll end up caring for its characters even if they're tertiary or extras. A shame Deltarune Chapter 2 basically stole a lot of its attention.
I'd also like to add, while the pixel art is second to none the best animated pixel art out there (almost every character have different varieties of unique animation), It's not all style over substance, either: There are a fair number of areas to explore each chapter and the secrets are pretty well placed. I think the pacing is rather deliberate in that it is focused much more on the character relationships but the gameplay that's there is pretty solid, and doesn't fall into early indie pixel art game tendancies of overindulging in character attack animations so much that combat losses its snappiness.
Also the music is great.
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Becksworth
Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Maybe it’s just because I just came off a 50+ hour RPG, but it doesn’t seem nearly as slow paced as a lot of the reviews made it out to be so far. Perhaps just having a 3D Zelda style slowish open in 2D was jarring to reviewers?
sfried
Fluffy Prince
I think it's because most reviewers came off from playing Hades and expected combat to be similarly fast paced, whereas Eastward's is more deliberate but still feels snappy. I guess it's more like the Mana series in that regard in that there are upgradable stats (such as bomb and ammo count), as well as a certain characeter's abilities which could be found entering these puzzle dungeons.
Becksworth
Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Got to Greenburg being destroyed. Don't know why I wasn't expecting this to get super dark early on. That's like the M.O. of all Mother-like games.
Becksworth
Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Beat this last night after Metroid and finishing Psychonauts 2 side tracked it. It's alright overall, but man was I wrong about the pacing. The middle segment just draaagggs on forever, and there are several optional dialogue bits throughout the game that could have used some serious editing down.
A real bad example of this is the professor in love with his student. It adds nothing to the main plot and very little to the world building, but the conversation just goes on and on, and you can accidentally trigger it more than once.
A real bad example of this is the professor in love with his student. It adds nothing to the main plot and very little to the world building, but the conversation just goes on and on, and you can accidentally trigger it more than once.
I picked this up! I'm not sure how far I am, but it doesn't feel like I'm very far at all; I just got banished and hopped aboard the Charon train to deadtown or wherever. But it also feels like it took a really long time to get this far, somehow. Comments that it drags in the middle are a bit concerning, considering how slow it already feels. Is it a particularly long game?
Becksworth
Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
I think my playtime was in the 20-30 hour range? I'd have to double check. There is a good game in there if you can stick it through the overly long slice of life bits.
Oh, and what's up with the RPG minigame? Is it important to the overall mechanics? Seems like a decent number of the rarer/more hidden treasures I've gotten so far have been tokens for it, so it seems like it might come into play as more than a curiosity, but I'm not sure how...?
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Since this is on Gamepass now I finally picked it up and dang is it gorgeous. But I'm not really enjoying the actual gameplay. The combat hitboxes feel off and the story already drags ("kill some time while Sam is in school" is a baffling early game choice. It's her first day of school and we still haven't seen John's actual work! Let me do either of those things rather than a black screen at a bar!). Even outside of this thread I was already reading how the pacing in the game is slow later on and I'm concerned if I already feel like it's slow. Also I'm not finding the characters quirky and charming like I'm clearly supposed to, instead the majority of them just seem annoying. I'll pick it back up another day if I fell up to it but overall glad I finally tried it and that it was for free.
Ludendorkk
(he/him)
Would you believe the game only gets more frustratingly clogged with pointless character bits and forced-sidequests-within-sidequests?
It really seems like the creators were loathe to do like, any editing, at all. Every single idea made it in it seems.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Honestly after playing a bit more I've shifted to just being extremely uncomfortable with the amount of breast jiggle physics on a character who everyone is trying to set up with the main character for some reason.
I read a plot summary and there are a few things I want to see so I might play a little more as I'm close to one then skip around a Let's Play for the rest. I was already pretty done due to the breast stuff but as soon as I saw there's a part where you're in a time loop and need to keep repeating things I knew I would never finish this game.
It's a bummer because there's a lot of cool stuff here. I think this is this studio's first game so maybe other ones will be better?
I didn't get very far in this one, I don't think (I rode the train to hell or whatever, found a village, and then something bad happened to the village or was about to?) but in the end I couldn't force myself to go much further and put it down. Everything was soooo slow, I wasn't a fan of any of the side characters, the translation/writing was annoying me, the combat wasn't particularly interesting and neither were the puzzles or exploration.
It's aesthetically beautiful but that's really all it had going for it, as far as I could see.
It's aesthetically beautiful but that's really all it had going for it, as far as I could see.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Yeah, I'm quitting this too. Just not fun.
But I did find this video which seems to just have the plot-relevant parts of the game so I got to see how most stuff resolves. It wasn't as satisfying as I hoped but glad I saw how things shook out. And boy did I still skip a ton of stuff even in this video.
But I did find this video which seems to just have the plot-relevant parts of the game so I got to see how most stuff resolves. It wasn't as satisfying as I hoped but glad I saw how things shook out. And boy did I still skip a ton of stuff even in this video.