Greetings Traveler

When the game was announced, I immediately added it to my wishlist! Its art direction made me want to play it from day one since I was truly attracted by it.
Actually It didn't feel like a bad game but it didn't feel like a good one either. Honestly I found myself a little frustrated playing it.

Unfortunately I've got the impression that the art direction was the only original thing I found in Eastward. Perhaps I was expecting to have a story or a gameplay that is a little bit more atypic and that we can find more inovations which wasn't the case here.

The gameplay works but it doesn't invents anything new. Also the rhythm of the game was so slow.. Everytime a dialog appears, I thought "Please, stop talking so much, I wanna play! I've already achieved three chapters and I feel like I didn't actively played this game enough!".

This bad feeling could have been avoided with a more captivating story ?

Sadly, its classical "adventure pixel art game" scenario made me feel uncomfortable. Firstly, the little girl's character is too naive and secondly the character John who's intentations aren't clearly indicated, thus follows this girl without any clear direction because... game requirements I guess ?

Also, I wanted to talk about the audio in the game. Music is very good but maybe it's too much present.. I liked the OST but it was finally exhausting to listen since whenever you enter a building, a new house or another environment the music is constantly changing and never has the chance to develop or continue timewise, it would have been great to program the music to progress in a realistic manner instead of starting from its beginning whenever it's triggered.
Sound effects are good but the game would benefit if they were more polished.

If you're looking for a classical adventure game in a beautiful world, without any fantasy, then I would recommend this game! :)