Eastward

Graphic design is stunning, but that's all. Some animations feel cheap, and too long/repetitive after a few hours of playing (cooking, running, speaking). Fighting feels chopped as well, quite uncomfortable to aim. Plot has an intrigue at the beginning, but then is very chaotic and tiring. In addition, the system of ingame achievements is literally absent, no possibility to come back after the game end, no NG+ feature, only playing right from the beginning (which is, at least, 20 hours, for only one or two missed "secrets"). Almost all levels are too direct (ie. "go from left to the right", "fight the same enemies one more time", etc) with many unnecessary "puzzles", which are either too easy, or time-consuming (because of the lack of intuitive ingame hint; confusion of level-design and character skills). At the end, game just can't follow you to its final; you have to play like 5 "almost final" levels just to see the next useless puzzle with mechanics from the flash games. Many "treasures" appear at the final levels in a row like the developer just forgot to put it with a balance earlier. Plus, last legendary city is obviously "inspired" by the romanticized idea of "East" as some Soviet Union/Russia, which I subjectively didn't like at all. It realy made me upset, because there are so many alternative aesthetics, but the developers chose a retro-futuristic propaganda theme. To sum up, the game feels incomplete. It is easily seen that the developers were rushed, or the project was thought to be smaller at the beginning of creating. It could have been a masterpiece, but now it is just a really beautiful picture with too many text, skills (most of which you use just because it is needed for the level once, like in the lego games) and very simplistic gameplay for such a style.

至今不知道这唐b游戏怎么请到的这么厉害的画师，在库里沉淀了三年以为会有所好转，没想到一如既往，不是很明白为什么手柄切键鼠居然都不能无缝，甚至还会卡死，如果不是花钱买的这游戏就直接移除库存了，能活下来全靠美术支撑

If you want a challenge or a great story, this game is not worth it. If you like beautiful pixel art and to explore a very detailed weird world, this is for you. Other comments already reflected that there seems to be a bigger story behind the game but it is not told very clearly. There is tons of fluff dialogue, like tons and tons. Thank goodness for the button that speeds up dialogues and cutscenes. A lot of weird design choices have been made. The whole game is a story on rails but there are hidden spots too. Sometimes you miss an ability to reach a hidden spot so then it is not really clear if it is a hidden spot or a part of the story you have not unlocked yet. Sam is not a super useful second character but then again I missed the two spots in the game (which are in the same area!) that give her extra abilities. I actually found the dungeons where these are but got stuck and thought I need an ability I don't have yet. But then I finished the area and once you do, there is no going back. Quite annoying. I did not get the DLC, but it seems to be a farming sim? I do not understand the design choices for this game. But it is very pretty art, so if that is enough for you, go for it.

Basic gameplay and boring storytelling is still basic and boring even when dressed up in the most beautiful pixel art you've ever seen.

This feels like one of those game projects where they clearly had a talented artist to do the spritework, but decided to write the script by hiring some online fanfiction writer from QQ or something. It's not that its necessarily bad, but it does read like a series of cliches that have been haphazardly stitched together by someone who thinks they can fake it and the great art will smooth everything over. Maybe I'm being too harsh....probably not though. 6/10

It's probably gonna be a long review but I wanna share my thoughts after finished playing the game just recently. When I first stumbled upon Eastward, it was from it's DLC. I thought, "oh this looks like a really nice chill farm sim game and the pixel art is really exactly my type", then found out that I needed to have the base game and likely playing it first before jumping into the dlc, so I hesitated getting the game because I didn't want all the fighting and stuffs. I just wanted a cute pixel art farming sim game. I know people would say "just play stardew then" but whenever I look at Stardew, it didn't click on me how Eastward did. Then when the first time I was thinking of getting Eastward, I read the reviews just to see what people say about it, and I saw quite a lot of people weren't happy with the story, so that made me more hesitated on getting the game. After that Eastward has been sitting in my wishlist for pretty long time, until it has a discount during one of the steam sales event. But even when I finally got it, I didn't played it instantly. I don't exactly remember when, probably around almost mid of last year I finally decided to play it because I really wanted to play the DLC. And I was surprisingly pleased and even after finishing the game just recently, I wished to re-experience it again. For me, I quite like the story. It was pretty interesting and I would highly recommend to people who likes story games, plus the stunning cute and well made pixel art. I also love how each characters has their own design and each have their own interesting personalities. I love John and Sam especially, always makes me want to cheer them on. I think the only part I wasn't too excited on playing was the part where they meet with the apes(?) because they talked so much ;A; but I still enjoyed it regardless. While I did say I quite like the story, I felt like it was a bit rushed nearing last few chapters. I felt like something was missing, but i couldn't pinpoint what it is. So I understand why there were reviews saying that they weren't satisfied with the story plot or pacing. But, I still enjoyed it a lot despite feeling something was lacking, and even thought about replaying it again, maybe one day in the future. If this game studio makes a new game I would likely want to give it a try because that's how much Eastward left an impression on me, or if they planning to make a continuation of Eastward. I think that's all I have to say about Eastward. Maybe there are people out there thinks I'm giving Eastward too much compliments and think they don't deserve it, but I just wanna share my whole experience with Eastward. I enjoyed Eastward a lot. From the pixel art style being exactly my type, the story plot, the fighting gameplay, characters, soundtracks are just *chefs kiss*, the cute cooking animation whenever I cook something, and many more details that I may have missed saying, I enjoyed them all. I hope to see more games from this studio, along with the pixel art as well because I love it so much (yes i'm bias). Thanks to whoever reading my review :3 PS: also yeah i have gotten to the dlc and taking my sweet time playing and enjoying it :3

When I was first reading reviews and deciding whether or not to buy this game, many people said the story was bad but the art/graphics were amazing. Here's an honest review from someone who's played the game in full: The game is told in 8 chapters, and the first 2 are setup/exposition. The exposition taking place underground feels like already treaded territory and seems like it doesn't add anything new to the apocalypse/sci-fi genre. During those chapters I was really temped to stop playing. But once I got past the underground and got to explore the rest of the game, I was really touched by the stories of the characters, the trials they went through, and the lengths they would go to protect the ones they loved. I was amazed by the attention to detail to the game mechanics, to the city setups, and to the bosses you'd fight, and how each boss had their own reasoning, real stakes, and a complex experience that made them do what they felt they had to do. I don't feel I need to talk much about the graphics/art because everyone in the reviews seems to be in agreement that they're incredible. But trust me, the writing improves over the course of the game. So if you're reading all this and are on the fence, I'd say give it a shot, make it past the underground and then decide for yourself.

剧情真心一坨，美术很棒。看起来像是编剧创造了一个自认为很满意的开篇，然后自我感动开始智商下线跟着感觉随意创作，最后发现乱七八糟开始放飞自我后写出的似是而非，看似外表华丽实则内在空洞的剧本。以后再做游戏麻烦剧本写出来后用脑子仔细读读，符合逻辑了，挖的坑填了再拿出来做游戏。我们一般把这种感动了自我，恶心了大家的叫做文青病，给美术磕一个吧，真的，白瞎了这么好的美术。

This game runs great on steam deck, looks great, cute graphics and characters, sounds good, etc. Humor is pretty good as well. Basic story premise is fine. But... the game is just boring. I am over 4 hours in and I kind of just sat here wondering... why? What exactly is the reason that I should have put that much time into it? Or better question, why on earth should I put even more time into it? There just isn't anything to do here but run around, have some really extremely light combat that always works the same way.... I just can't figure out what the point is of the game. This should have just been a KN or something. There's really no gameplay here that I can find even 4 hours in. People describe it as "chill" but I dunno... this is more "snooze" than it is "chill." It's really that slow. The story could potentially rescue the game if it was exciting but... it isn't. It's slow and plodding, and mostly somewhat juvenile. There's a lot of school children talking about school children stuff. It's a post apocalyptic setting which should be cool but the juvenile stuff just kinda runs counter to that whole theme, and it ends up washing it out really badly. The "mystery" they tease in the first few hours was kind of lame in my opinion. If I'm completely honest, this story would possibly have appealed to me when I was... 12? Maybe 13. But beyond that... it's really not adult level sci-fi. There's a ton of great indie games on the market, especially in the isometric action RPG genre. There is just not a good enough reason I can find to use your time on this one.