Eastward - out now!

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Robbo-92** » Wed Oct 06, 2021 8:06 pm

shy guy 64 wrote:
Robbo-92 wrote:Is chapter 3 the longest one? Think I’m nearing the end of it but it’s starting to feel like a bit of a drag to be honest!

not sure, certainly one of the longer ones

Well I hope not many more of them turn into fetch quests for the second half! Not a chance am I getting this finished pre Metroid :lol:

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Robbo-92** » Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:10 pm

After 12 and a half hours I’m finally onto Chapter 4 :datass:

I really hope it starts to speed up a bit again, chapter 3 was such a slog by the midpoint of it.

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Balladeer** » Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:21 pm

Remind me what chapter 4 involves? All so long ago now...

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Robbo-92** » Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:32 pm

So far I’ve just had to save 3 people before the Miasma struck the city and then deliver some curry, this is starting to feel like another chapter of fetch quests :dread:

With how much I was sold on the game after the first couple of chapters this has gone downhill quite a bit, feels like its going to end up being about twice as long as it needs to be as well.

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Balladeer** » Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:56 pm

Ah yes, that. It's a common criticism of the game that I've seen that it goes on longer than it needs to. I only found chapter 6 truly grating in that regard.

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Robbo-92** » Tue Oct 12, 2021 2:24 pm

Definitely not looking forward to chapter 6 if I thought 3 was bad then!

Edit, chapter 4 was nice and short thankfully, hopefully 5 will be a similar length, think I’m going to have to focus on this before going back to Metroid Dread or I fear this’ll get forgotten about and left unfinished.

Edit 2, Chapter 5 was nice and short too…..now onto the infamous sounding chapter 6 :dread:

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Robbo-92** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:20 am

Made a start on chapter 6 and so far it really is something isn’t it :lol:

Is it just how bizarre it is? Or does it drag on as well?

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Balladeer** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:22 am

It's not too long thankfully, I think 3 and 7 are the long ones. It's just an absolute pacing killer. It feels like you're building up some momentum ahead of the final location, and then - bam. Train of monkeys with no relevance to anything before or afterwards.

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **shy guy 64** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:49 am

it was the lurching tone shift that threw me

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Robbo-92** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:55 am

Yeah Chapter 6 feels just like a filler episode of TV :lol:

Defiantly just going to try and power on with this before returning to Metroid.

Not going to lie though, wasn’t expecting a glory hole to get a mention :fp:

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Balladeer** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:00 am

Oh yeah, that bit. I really didn't like that. Odd tonal whiplash. Sprite jiggle physics too.

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Robbo-92** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:11 am

Yeah even for a slightly quirky game that just didn’t fit at all, more cringeworthy when you consider the age range that could be playing the game as well.

Think I’ve nearly done chapter 6, just beat the monkey train boss. This game certainly has its ups and downs doesn’t it.

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Balladeer** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:27 am

That it does. You're going to remember it though! It fits alongside Iconoclasts in my list of games with big interesting ideas and immensely flawed execution that people should still probably play.

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Robbo-92** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:00 am

Made a start on chapter 7 already, seen that you can miss upgrading Sam’s abilities in this chapter as well, not quite sure why they’d not make unlocking and upgrading Sam’s abilities part of the main quest really. Quite enjoying the vibe of Ester City though, Island of Time seems rather odd in comparison.

Edit, Chapter 7 isn’t quite as bad as C3 but I’ve now got to repeat the deliveries for the 3rd time? I just don’t get why they need to pad out the already reasonably decent playtime with rather needless repeats of fetch quests?

Edit 2, part of chapter 7 I’m on is getting that way a little though, just walking round looking for things, got Sam’s upgraded abilities which is good, not that they seem loads better though.

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Robbo-92** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:58 pm

Well I’ve had a productive day on this, just finished it :toot:

Hence yet another post in here.

I have to say, the good bits of this are really enjoyable, just a shame there’s quite a lot of filler/bloat in there to pad it out for some reason, I think if it was 15 hours at most it’d have been a more enjoyable game overall, they could have cut nearly all of chapter 6 and a good chunk of chapters 3 and 7 too to trim it down if they’d wanted to. Boss battles were generally really good, couple of so-so ones but overall good. Thought John might have said a few words right at the end too.

I think this is one of the nicest looking pixel art games I’ve played in a long time though and one than I’m glad I took a chance on and played it but I can safely say its not going to be something I’ll probably ever play again.

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Balladeer** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 8:40 pm

You blitzed through it! I didn't find the pacing as bad as most, apart from Chapter 6. What did you think of the plot, especially the ending? (In spoiler tags, natch.)

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Robbo-92** » Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:08 pm

Yeah I really wanted to get this finished so I could crack back on with Metroid Dread, quiet day too :lol:

I thought the pacing was at its worst in chapter 3, with hints of it coming back at the start of chapter 7 with the delivery quest repeated 3 times (at most I could see why you’d need to do it twice), I didn’t find chapter 6 awful but it was just so different from the rest of the game and really added nothing overall? Could have definitely been cut in my opinion.

As far as my poor take on the story……

I think part of the reason the plot was up and down was with how much text there was to read throughout, much like the rest of it, with some bits trimmed/cut out and slightly altered it could have probably been quite a bit more coherent for the most part. Overall I’ve enjoyed my 23 ish hours with Eastward, but think it’d have been a much better 15 hour ish game in my opinion.

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Balladeer** » Thu Oct 14, 2021 7:13 am

I think it's meant to be deliberately vague/left up to interpretation in places. At least I hope so. :slol:

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **shy guy 64** » Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:28 am

Balladeer wrote:
I'm glad I didn't miss anything re. the dragon, apart from appearing on the title screen it really did come out of nowhere! I got a bit of a Blade Runner vibe to the ending, but that might mostly have been due to the synths.

I think it's meant to be deliberately vague/left up to interpretation in places. At least I hope so.

that was a dragon?

PostRe: Eastward - out now! by **Balladeer** » Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:27 am

I think so! Other interpretations welcome.

Eastward - out now!

Who is online

Affiliates