“Like leaves chasing the mighty ocean current. That at any moment, could find themselves plunged beneath the water. But one day… yes… if we could only wash ashore. We could sprout. Bud. Grow strong roots that burrow beneath the earth…”

We are born into this world as very little. A blank slate in which the experiences we are exposed to initially shape who we are and the trajectory of what we seek to become. These individual defining moments we reflect on become known as ‘memory’. We find this mosaic of fragments in which we are comprised is never truly cemented. We continue to experience, accumulating more of ourselves. We find pieces to cherish and deliberately seek to embody forever. Others instead we forget or choose to forsake, expelling bits of which we once were. This transient nature of self leaves our pathways through life to be ambiguous. We are never quite certain of our eventual destinations, only perhaps the direction in which we are headed. Eastward is a game that celebrates the spirit of this journey. A game about collecting memories, preserving them, and eventually letting them go.

“Ah so someone’s finally decided to learn things again, hm? Don’t you think it’s a little late for that, John?”

John, who comprises half the duology of ambivalent protagonists, is a confronting character to play as. Silent as the grave in this breathing world founded upon dialogue. The emotionless exoskeleton he embodies jarringly contrasts against the vibrant landscapes and the people contained within. You are made to feel he does not belong in this world in which he travels. This is deliberately so, the journey in which he partakes is not being driven from his own volition. He is instead a willing passenger along for the ride. This mostly blank slate known as John has been calcified over a lifetime of empty experiences accumulated prior to the start of the adventure. For a self and identity to manifest, there must be components, internalized ‘memories’, in which to build with. Due to the circumstances of John’s existence, very few of these were ever formed, and therefore he is unable to exude self nor manifest agency. The acquisition and internalization of new memories in which to do so is a slow and gradual process. Eastward is partially a game about growing the stagnant universe that is John

“Isn’t this just another dome? Higher than the one in Potcrock Isle, but still. What could be on the other side of that dome?”

Instead, this train’s driver is of the other half of the duology, Sam. This child John found by complete happenstance. Although we are born with very little it is not nothing. For a while at least, we possess an innate curiosity. A desire to experience all that we can. We seek to fill ourselves, this empty vessel, with memory. To grow and become more of ourselves. This youthful inquisitiveness that is often framed as ‘naivety’ before being supplanted by ‘experience’ is a quality of which Sam projects. While any latent desire John might have once possessed to expand past the dome that encloses him has been crushed, Sam in contrast cannot, and will not, be contained by any such dome. John, as her designated caretaker, must follow as she so casually shatters anything that seeks to bind her, and in doing so frees himself from long rusted shackles. Through a foundation built upon mutual trust, the two journey. Accumulating memory together. Building that which they are and becoming so much more.

P: “You’ve saved the world!” K: “That was only a happy byproduct.” P: ”……” K: “All I really wanted was to save you.”

The dichotomy of this relationship that is shared between these two is not an isolated case, rather instead a reoccurring theme of the work. This dynamic is further explored, mirrored, and contrasted against by a few other pairs among the cast. A codependency of which is consistently framed to be akin to the romanticized notion of a Princess with that of her Knight. A Princess whom leads, serving as a catalyst for experiences, an intoxicating fountain from which ‘memory’ freely flows. Who can conceptualize purpose to the struggle of existence, the nature of the world, and find their place within it. And a devoted Knight who willingly follows, living vicariously through their muse, enabling and accommodating her ambitions. Seeking to protect her from harm at all costs knowing that without her they are lost. While this is far from the only relationship dynamic examined, it is the one this work seeks to emphasize and elaborate extensively upon. Both reveling in its beauty and lamenting in the tragedy left in its wake.

“Every once in a while, we run into something that seems strangely familiar. Don’t question it. There’s definitely meaning behind it.”

The memories that form us so in turn are used to form the world around us. That which we are moved by motivates us to move others. Lingering memories of the past are propagated into the future through the actions of those living in a transient present. Within the imagined world of Eastward lies another imagined world, Earthborn. A game within a game. The in-game designers of Earthborn weaving their memories into their creation. This essence of themselves becoming absorbed as new memory by all those who engage in the work. A shared experience immortalizing a singular and contrived moment in time. So too the world of Eastward seeks to be perceived. A reflected and abstracted memory of the living world we exist in right now. Memories and the ideas we extrapolate from them we are made to find are as living and breathing as both you and I.

“As for me, I’ll stay here. Watching over her. Protecting her until the end of time”

There is an inevitability to the nature of memory that we must eventually confront however. That because memory is living so too must it eventually succumb and fade. In time we will forget all and in turn be forgotten. Memory is found to be a contradiction. Designed to be preserved yet fated to expire. So what good are they then? We experience, only to eventually forget? It is to find value in the journey itself, to live in these moments as they pass through you. To have memory propel you forward seeking out more in kind, which in turn propel you further. Memory, and all it entails, is both the fuel and pursuit in the journey that is life. Allow it to push you onward even as you must look back.

(Eastward is an amalgamation of experiences that have resonated with its creators, which have then been deliberately sought to be propagated. Reconstructed and reimagined memories of other works as well as our lived reality, cohesively combined into a creatively distinct journey. The work conveys a broad range of ideas and themes, very few of which are delved into deeply and none of which given a definitive conclusion. To many who play it, this has been perceived as a breach of trust, a failure of the work to satisfy the expectations of those who were enticed to engage with it. To me, this would be a complete misunderstanding of the value of the work. What it is fundamentally about and seeks to encapsulate. This is a game that seeks to show you beauty in the mundane. The value of passing moments that we so casually dismiss as inconsequential but ultimately are of unfathomable value to the journey that is our lives. It shows you the expansiveness of a world not to taunt you with your inability to comprehend it but so that you may dismiss it in pursuit of the fleeting more personal connections in which you care. I would recommend this game to absolutely everyone but from critical consensus it is clear the reality is this work is divisive. Instead, I begrudgingly suggest it should only be pursued by those who can find value in a work that asks no questions nor seeks to provide any answers.)

“…Until one day, a mighty wave comes crashing down, swallowing us once more. And then even more leaves set sail, searching for their own land in which to bloom.”

“The sinner shall be atoned. Even though no punishment will be enough for your sin.”

What is the worth of this experience we know of as life? There is a popular response to this question that has persisted throughout human social understanding. That the purpose of life is to be judged. That this existence we are experiencing is merely transitory. That it serves as a filter to determine which of us are worthy to behold the infinite love of the universe or to instead suffer in ceaseless unfathomable torment.

Seig Wahrheit is a condemned man. A character awaiting judgment. It does not matter to Seig that the sins on which he is accused are not the ones that he actually bears any guilt for. He is guilty all the same and knows it. Yet most insidiously still, despite the nigh certainty of his ultimate fate, he must ensure he persists until his day of judgment. To expire prematurely would disservice those whom have allowed him to prolong in this existence, this torture that is being alive. Such is his belief in life’s purpose as he has been taught to perceive. It is a trial to be endured, to exist is to be in pursuit of a knowingly futile atonement. To become a lamb marching willingly to their own slaughter.

Chaos Legion is a game that distills this idea of self-flagellation into essence. The struggle of life and existence is brought up, but extracting meaning from it is not to be sought. It is an answered question after all. Rather this game seeks to revere in the struggle itself. Absolution for Sieg is not even on the cards, he is to suffer eternally. This game seeks to beat you down and beat you down and beat you down until you understand you only exist to be beaten down. Yet you must get up each time. Powerful obstacles will incrementally show up to crush you. Through both perseverance and gradual acclimation towards these inferno legions in which you are eternally bound you will eventually overcome them. Your reward in doing so? More frequent and harsher trials. The challenge which you struggled to overcome repeated until mundane. Despite statistically growing over the course of the game, it never quite gets any easier. Rather you merely build up a tolerance to the pain. Even this is not ideal. The pain is all Sieg has after all to remind himself that he is in fact, still alive.

So, what awaits you at the end of all this? What is the final verdict in this perseverance that embodies Sieg’s existence? What reprieve will he be granted in death? You poor naive fool. You will never have been made to suffer enough. A judgment postponed. You get to be alive in this living hell for a while longer.

How cruel the creators of such a world must be.

(Chaos Legion is a game entirely dedicated to its mechanical nuance and is tightly crafted to be as such. Despite my framing its story and narrative elements is incredibly minimal. In its international localization it has been finely retuned in response to criticism of the Japanese version being boringly easy. The result of which is this game made for the sensibilities of sadomasochists. It demands mastery of obtuse systems that you will likely need to consult external references to truly understand. but feel ‘satisfying’ once mastered. If you are more inclined to experiencing it for its cool vibes you can forgo this suffering and should seek out the original Japanese version instead. Myself though? I think it is only through this pain it afflicted upon me that allowed me to connect to it at all)