This has been mentioned a lot already, but there's no way to overlook just how great Eastward's presentation is. Its pixel art is one of the best I've ever seen, and the music is versatile and mostly feels fresh across the game's lengthy playtime.
This makes it even more unfortunate that the story didn't reach its full potential, which I could sometimes catch a glimpse of, but never fully grasp. The pacing is really slow, but even with the game dragging along so many moments, I never felt like the story beats were developed beyond a shallow level.
There were many characters that I really liked, but they lack a context around them to really shine. One aspect of that is the plot itself, with few and badly paced interesting situations for the characters to act upon. Also, the there's almost no world-building on this game, especially on a smaller scale basis like towns, character relationships and past events, which weakens the characters surroundings story-wise.
That last bit, especially, could be greatly expanded upon, even more so if you consider Eastwards' graphics, and how capable they are of depicting the game's post-apocalyptic world as lively but cohesively as it does. This would allow for truly unique and well fleshed out sceneries.
The gameplay is decent, but quite bland and derivative, almost not evolving conceptually throughout the entirety of the game. It works and I was able to vibe with it at times, but there's not a lot worth mentioning.
I really wanted to love Eastward. But the truth is that, while I don't love it, I actually do like it. I really like the characters, it's just a shame that they don't come to full fruition. And the story, inconsistently developed as it is, allows for glimpses of something much more interesting as a whole. Even though it may seem that I like Eastward just for the potential of a game that isn't actually there, I in truth do enjoy it for what it is, since even if there is a good amount of wasted potential written all over it, that is only so because the game underlying it all is charming, enticing and unique most of the times.
This makes it even more unfortunate that the story didn't reach its full potential, which I could sometimes catch a glimpse of, but never fully grasp. The pacing is really slow, but even with the game dragging along so many moments, I never felt like the story beats were developed beyond a shallow level.
There were many characters that I really liked, but they lack a context around them to really shine. One aspect of that is the plot itself, with few and badly paced interesting situations for the characters to act upon. Also, the there's almost no world-building on this game, especially on a smaller scale basis like towns, character relationships and past events, which weakens the characters surroundings story-wise.
That last bit, especially, could be greatly expanded upon, even more so if you consider Eastwards' graphics, and how capable they are of depicting the game's post-apocalyptic world as lively but cohesively as it does. This would allow for truly unique and well fleshed out sceneries.
The gameplay is decent, but quite bland and derivative, almost not evolving conceptually throughout the entirety of the game. It works and I was able to vibe with it at times, but there's not a lot worth mentioning.
I really wanted to love Eastward. But the truth is that, while I don't love it, I actually do like it. I really like the characters, it's just a shame that they don't come to full fruition. And the story, inconsistently developed as it is, allows for glimpses of something much more interesting as a whole. Even though it may seem that I like Eastward just for the potential of a game that isn't actually there, I in truth do enjoy it for what it is, since even if there is a good amount of wasted potential written all over it, that is only so because the game underlying it all is charming, enticing and unique most of the times.