Eastward Reviews
Excellent pixel wind screen, profound plot and world view shaping, as well as puzzle solving and combat complement each other.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Eastward crafts a cozy journey through fascinating and bizarre realms, featuring a memorable cast. While lackluster combat and a few repetitive puzzle styles tarnish the experience, it's still a ride well worth taking
Eastward is a gem of a title bringing wholesome storytelling, clever gameplay, and exceptional visuals that all hold their own even among the exceptional selection of indie titles currently available.
A surprisingly fun and competent genre-bend from Pixpil that's a must play for fans of Eastward.
Eastward pays homage to the adventures of the 90s, fusing ideas from one and the other, but maintaining his own style. A small visual marvel that can entertain you for more than 25 hours, and now, thanks to the patch with the translation and the added improvements, makes the adventure more accessible than ever.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
There’s no denying that the team over at Chucklefish pulled off Eastward’s art direction quite well with the game’s bizarre and retro elements. Eastward is for people who want to bring back their gaming nostalgia in the 80s and 90s era. At the same time, this game also captures an audience who prefer this kind of great storytelling without choking your machine’s specs.
Eastward is just an amazing adventure full of surprise and great characters. It's pixel art and music are one of the best things in gaming during 2021.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Eastward is one of the most carefully crafted games I've played in a while, with a densely detailed world to explore and endlessly charming characters to meet.
When it comes to pixel art action-adventures the normal standard that is compared against would be The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past...
An old-school RPG created with a lot of love, charming visuals, and mesmerizing soundtrack.
Eastward pays homage to all things loved about SNES-era gaming, looking and feeling like the games of our childhood locked deep within our hearts. At times, I wondered if the experience would be enhanced playing Eastward sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a giant CRT television, tethered way to close to the screen by a wired controller. For gamers of a certain age, Eastward feels an awful lot like home, and one I didn’t realize I missed so dearly.
Eastward is generally a no-fault title. It is beautiful, it is very careful, and it oozes love and know-how everywhere. Only the language barrier should prevent you from playing it, because it is plain and simple fantastic.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Simultaneously a throwback and a breath of something new, Eastward is a magic trick of blending familiarity with novelty and grim apocalyptic sci-fi with wide-eyed fantasy. In the future, if there's any justice, we'll be referring to similarly spirited and stylish games as "Eastward-like."
A post-apocalyptic action-adventure framed as a train journey through a cute heartfelt story of discovery, loyalty, and the bonds we form with others, Eastward shines like a diamond on the Switch. It’s wholesome, it's original, it's quirky, and it's full of that special ingredient that turns a little indie into a must-play. Eastward's graphics, narrative, and characters draw you in almost effortlessly and keep a tight hold until this train has come to a complete stop.
A wonderful homage to classic RPG gaming that takes classic concepts and polishes them up with a level of care that is rare to find.
I highly encourage lovers of pixel JRPGs to try this game out for yourselves. John and Sam will cook you up a satisfying adventure you will want to devour whole!
Eastward is not only the dazzling debut title of a very small development studio in Shanghai, just as it is not just a video game that closely resembles the best Zelda 2D in history. Don't call it Zelda-like: not because it's not a formally correct definition but because Pixpil's creature wants to be something more than the classic declaration of love to a title of the past. Eastward is one of the brightest examples of what are the true qualities of independent development: a real pearl that deserves to be discovered, perfectly able to carve out its space in the niche of instant cult videogames.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Referring to the world above as the “Forbidden Land”, with the threat of being sent to an ambiguous realm as punishment for rebellion, Eastward leans on fantasy to flavor its story, without forgetting about its core, real-world values. Its fluid, well-paced progression, and control movements thankfully allow you to explore and admire the view before continuing because Eastward is all about the journey despite its fascinating destination.
A true Masterpiece. That's the word that comes after having accomplished this trip in the company of John and Sam. Varied level design, fascinating story, funny and endearing characters, fantastic visual and audio… Eastward has it all. Much more than a pale copy of its illustrious models, Pixpil's neo-retro game ticks all the right boxes to establish itself as a pure 2D action-adventure gem.
Review in French | Read full review
All of that said, denouncing Eastward’s strengths and successes for any of the above would be disingenuous. It is a remarkable game that, while retro in ambition, will paradoxically go on to inspire the drive and uniqueness of future projects. It is clever, vibrant, and unapologetically original, and unless some magnificent twist of fate occurs over the next three months, it will undoubtedly go down as one of the best games of the year.