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eastward review in 3 minutes pixpil chucklefish zelda-like heartwarming adventure

Eastward Review in 3 Minutes – A Poignant Experience with Passable Zelda-Like Gameplay

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Eastward is a game with a lot of heart. Itā€™s an action adventure in the style of Zelda from Pixpil where you play as Sam, a little girl who was found glowing in a cave, and John, the silent digger who found her. Together, they travel across a post-apocalyptic world, helping out the people they meet along the way.

The formula is simple. You go to a place, watch a cutscene, find a dungeon, fight some enemies, and do some puzzles.

Eastward truly shines in its story and presentation. Vibrant and well-animated pixel art brings the charming world to life. The environments are varied and dense with detail, and the over-the-top characters are memorable in appearance and personality alike. Itā€™s a world I wanted to spend time in. However, the art deals in caricature, and at times this feels lazy. Notably, making characters who are implied to be mentally disabled ugly feels below a game that otherwise humanizes its characters.

If you donā€™t mind long dialogue sequences, can get through the slow early game, and find satisfaction in the passable combat and puzzles, youā€™ll find Eastward to be an incredible experience overflowing with heartfelt whimsy and terrible tragedy.

Eastward is available September 16 on PC, Mac, and Nintendo Switch for $24.99.

Watch our fullĀ Review in 3 MinutesĀ for Eastward.


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Author
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Elise Avery
Elise Avery is a freelance video editor and writer who has written for The Escapist for the last year and a half. She has written for PCGamesN and regularly reviews games for The Escapist's YouTube channel. Her writing focuses on indie games and game design, as well as coverage of Nintendo titles.