The only sense I got was that he was as creeped out and uncomfortable as I was, honestly. But here, his silence is loud when he can’t respond to Uva’s advances and express his feelings or intentions. Lastly, John is a completely silent protagonist, which sometimes has funny meta moments because people just talk at him and, when he doesn’t respond, make assumptions about his intent. Also, the jiggle mechanics on her sprite are very uncomfortable, especially because the sprites do that passive up and down of their shoulders. Uva is pressured into this situation, her body sexualized from the get-go by the creepy older men and women alike, and none of it makes sense even in the context of the plot. Their encounter ends on a possible moral of how Uva shouldn’t have to be somebody for John to love her, despite what all the other women in town try to tell her, but the whole encounter feels icky, especially since it happened right after my Hoffman revelation. The game’s second location, which I won’t describe since it’s still worth the experience yourself, has a female character name Uva who is suddenly and overwhelmingly in love with John. Worse yet, once I noticed this frustrating depiction, I kept spiraling into more and more causes for concern. Still, I’m also pretty unsettled by it, as well as the total lack of mention of this by anyone else online. I have no intention of accusing the game’s developers of purposely creating a character that I couldn’t unsee as an antisemitic caricature as soon as I did. And specifically, it’s a name that could derive from the traditional medieval Jewish occupations such as financing and lending that giver rise to some of history’s most acrid antisemitism. This is fine in isolation, maybe, but Hoffman is a very obvious and often Jewish surname. He’s fat, has a big nose, is perhaps fairly greedy, and nobody can accrue power or wealth without his permitting it. The game begins in a dismal underground city run by a terrible and terrifying Mayor Hoffman. Here’s the thing, though, about Eastward. The game also benefits from several fun side bits like its cooking mechanic with a robust menu to uncover, a set of collectibles to procure, and an entire RPG to play within the game itself. The areas do get repetitive after a while and between unlocking new mechanics, but the localities are so wonderful and the gameplay so fun that it almost didn’t matter. The two move together with the ability to swap at will, or you can split them apart to partake of the game’s many puzzles. The two characters, John and Sam, each have their utilities John does combat with his frying pan or some different ranged weapons while Sam uses her strange abilities to freeze enemies or clear obstacles. Mechanically, I was thrilled the moment I realized the game was based on real-time action rather than turn-based combat like its obvious Earthbound influence. ![]() It’s all a combination that feels like it only works in tandem if you took any of its parts out, the game would fall apart. You will certainly be asking all the right questions from the onset, and very, very slowly, you’ll get various pieces of information through hearsay, myths, and accidents. Of course, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t expertly sprinkle intrigue throughout. From a beautiful 16-bit aesthetic to plucky Sam and silent John, to personality-full NPCs, to one of the best soundtracks of late, there’s zero about this game that makes you feel rushed to figure out anything beyond what’s directly in front of you. ![]() ![]() The slow nature of Eastward is benefited by its entire essence, though. And the action happens sparsely between narrative moments and smaller quests. You’re not working clearly towards a particular mission. You’re not given any big planet-saving quest, obviously from the onset. You play as John and Sam in a cryptic, post-apocalyptic scenario, more or less just living your lives as happenstances befall you and your strong moral compasses demand you intervene. Eastward is a placid action-adventure game from developer Pixpil and publisher Chucklefish.
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