Eastward video game movie#

Eastward video game movie#

He’s a machine made for hitting, which is why he was a good miner, and potcrab farmer, and blimpig rancher, and action movie star (John takes on a lot of jobs). He wacks, blasts, and blows up basically everything in front of him. John has access to an arsenal of weapons and bombs, most notably his signature frying pan. The two reconnect, and their two complementary skill sets get them out of whatever the situation may be. When Sam’s curiosity sends her off into danger, John chases after, inevitably ending up in some kind of dungeon. Sam is curious and wants to do things, and John facilitates that curiosity by being a great cook with a knack for violence. John is her silent, strong friend and father figure. Sam is a charming, excitable, magical young girl with white hair. This warmth extends to the game’s central relationship between co-protagonists Sam and John, whose relationship drives the game forward. There are fun, hopeful weirdos in all of them, which makes Eastward feel like such a warm game. Each of the game’s four - maybe five depending on how you count the monkey train - major areas are similarly well realised. You leave Potrock Isle relatively quickly, after unknowingly starting a quest to save the world, which makes all of this even more impressive. It feels good to be there, even if it isn’t a great place to live. Everyone is strange, and most are loving.

The whole place packs so much life and character into its six or so screens. It’s a place of poverty, but also small joys: cheap meals cooked well, standing outside your house and talking to someone for longer than you probably should, the intimacy of enduring shared shittiness. The game opens in a small, subterranean town called Potrock Isle, a town populated by a handful of miners and farmers, and ruled by a villainous and power-hungry mayor. By this metric, it’s a brilliant translation. I wanted to experience the game as an effort of translation - a thing that turns the developer’s love for these games into something touchable and raw. A Link to the Past is great! But it did not mark my heart like it did for many people, which is why I wanted to play Eastward. I have no strong feelings about EarthBound, which I’ve never played, or early Legend of Zelda games, which I have. There is a prophecy, the art of which so clearly resembles the Breath of the Wild 2 wall painting that it could feel almost plagiaristic if it wasn’t done so damn well. There are keys of Courage, Wisdom, and Power, which you use to unlock a big door. This is a top-down 2D action-adventure game with a playable, turn-based, item-heavy RPG called EarthBorn that you can optionally choose to play. It does not just wear these influences on its sleeve, but makes an entire shirt out of them. I don’t really know what to do with that.ĭeveloped by Pixpil and published by Chucklefish, Eastward is a love letter to EarthBound and classic Legend of Zelda games. I think Eastward’s heart is very big, but deeply misguided. But I cannot help but leave it feeling strange. Hell, they even put a second video game in the damn thing.

Disregarding a few pacing missteps, the game fires on all cylinders for its entire duration.

Its art and level design are nothing short of extraordinary. The ceastharacters are relentlessly charming. Eastward is a phenomenally constructed video game.