Eastward is a game that I really enjoyed, but I’m aware that it’s not for everyone. This video breaks down what I enjoyed about the game and what it’s valid criticisms are. While these criticisms didn’t bother me much, I figured it was best to be transparent.
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Eastward – Joel Corelitz
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This was such a good video that hits so much of the thoughts I have about Eastward. For me, when playing through it for the first time, it was honestly kind of magical. I don't know what it was or why, but I hadn't been that engrossed in a game for a good while and despite all the shortcomings I blasted through it and finished the 30-hour long storyline in about 4 days. I even enjoyed all of the filler dialogue because I just felt like it really added to world building and I just really enjoyed the character interaction even when they were not that meaningful. Hell, I even found the ending a little moving.
Reflecting back on it a few months on, and being midway through a second playthrough (taking it much more slowly now) I now see the game's flaws but it still has a magical something that really clicks with me. Might just be a combination of characters, art and music.
Anyway, nice video, liked and subscribed.
Yeah, this is going to be a pass for me, but I just want to take this moment to make a short list of TRASH games that I love 😂
The Last Remnant. Has an interesting, but INCREDIBLY FLAWED combat system that I can't recommend to people, especially in the original PC version. But it deserves a place in gaming history for this reason alone: it's a turn-based RPG that shows your party members and enemies attacking one another between turns! They don't deal damage, but they parry one another, they swing (and miss) weapons at one another. I have NOT seen an RPG do that since!
Fable 2. I like the whole trilogy, but they are ALL garbage RPGs that don't ever deliver on what was promised. To me, there's just something so charming about this series to me, though. 😅
Thief Simulator: My god, this game is the epitome of min/maxing. -1000 on polish, +1000 on fun factor. Robbing low res NPCs, and vandalizing their stuff is WAY more fun than it should be to me.
I love video ideas like this. Even though this game isn't for me, it's nice hearing the good about a videogame I would have not heard about, otherwise.
I loved the artwork and music so much, especially the track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suBIjcU5lUk And, while I thought such was so charming and clearly reflective of passion (loved seeing the Earthborn characters depicted in a more detailed style in the credits), I agree with all that you said. Additionally, I wanted to break my Switch lite so many times when playing Earthborn because of how frustrating a game concept like that is to someone who brings a completionist mentality and expects something of a permanence to the rewards for my investments in even a sub-game. I still haven't gotten the achievement for beating the true demon king because of how daunting and potentially rage inducing such an endeavor will be lol. More than that, I found it disheartening that the chapter skipping made available in what's technically a new game plus doesn't allow for the retention of the alternate forms of Earthborn Pixball characters although, they seem to be forced out of the machines upon the re obtainment of the first of any character in a new playthrough. Also, the glitching of the selector which caused it to stay on the first item when I'm trying to quickly try out all combinations of foods to get the cooking achievement was another flaw I noticed a number of times. The needless degeneracy was a massive put off for me. Especially the portion in which Sam has to wait outside of some curtained area because of the pervy nature of some vending machine on the train just gave the game a trashy feel I didn't think was called for at all.
As you touched upon, the story is so flawed in its content and more importantly to me, its presentation. Being on Switch lite, the dialogue boxes would pop up then disappear so quickly at times or run off the screen. While for an obviously short game, there can't be much emotional attachment built up, I didn't feel much significance when both Uva and Izzy died. Even with Izzy and Alva constantly and ominously discussing the chance of their protective Buddha's fan thing failing, none of the ideas brought up seemed that interesting nor effectively conveyed. Similarly, when Alva's debating killing Sam, I honestly didn't feel strongly one way or another because I didn't care much for any of them even though the game was really trying to push this notion of Sam being so oblivious to her devastating actions that they make her so obnoxious for a bit.
And just random nitpicks, the load up time from the Switch homepage felt so long. I wish that given the wait time and the inability to use such to collect gold coins from MyNintendo, that iam8bit would at least do more than just include a sticker sheet inside the physical copy but to see that they didn't even put inner case artwork made me so disappointed in what could have been all the more greatness for a game that seemed to continually surprise people in a good way. For the combat, I wish the repeated playthroughs allowed the carrying over of all weapons, too because I think some really awesome weapons are only so briefly available.
The general atmosphere and look of the game was fantastic. Also the music. But man I just wish I could’ve gotten more into the story and characters. I liked Sam and a couple others but character motivations and the writing just wasn’t really there for a lot of them. As for the story I felt like it had really cool ideas but they pretty much executed everything without the proper set up and context. I think even the ending actually could’ve been fantastic but not all the pieces of the story were properly presented to set it up. This game easily could’ve been in my top 20 if they could’ve nailed the story.