gameing

Navigation

• Top
• Eastward
• DLC
• Spoilers

Tunes

eastward soundtrack art

Life in a Pot - Eastward

the cartridge for earth born. it is wide and thick with art of the main character, who has spiky black hair, over a pixel landscape. the rest of the sticker has a red background with chinese text
official art of alva from eastward. she wears a space suit with a hood which her pink bangs stick out of
the logo for pixpil, the creators of eastward. it has a gull
official art of isabel from eastward. she has short blonde hair and wears goggles and a bomber jacket
the loading animation from eastward. it says 'now loading' with a crt television shone in a spotlight
the official art of eastward. it features the logo in the upper middle section with the main character, sam, standing in the center below it. she has long white hair and thick black eyebrows, wears a black sweater, a yellow cross-body bag, and red boots, and she is holding one fist in the air while sticking her tongue out. behind her is art of several buildings, fans, and smoke, all mishmashed together over a blue sky and yellow background. on the outer edges, there is art of alva, john, jasper, william, and daniel

Eastward

Alright, this page has been a long time coming. It's finally time to talk about Eastward :)!

the basic ink logo for Eastward. it has the chinese title, 风来之国, underneath in a similar script

Eastward is a 2021 action RPG developed by Pixpil, an indie team based in Shanghai. In case you were wondering, the Chinese title for the game is "风来之国," meaning "Country of Wind."

In the game, you play as John and Sam. John is a miner living in an underground town called Potcrock Isle. His working conditions are shit and his boss basically owns his life. Sam, on the other hand, is a mysterious young girl John found one day while exploring the underground ruins. Naturally, he adopts her, taking care of her and sending her to school.

It quickly becomes obvious that something is strange about the world John and Sam live in. Everyone seems to accept the fact that they are stuck living underground, although it isn't immediately clear why. Other kids at school ridicule Sam for wanting to go above ground to the outside world, saying she'll die. Still, it's what she wants, so her and John go after it.

It's revealed early on that the people fear the Miasma, a toxic plague that has taken over the world. Although the people of Potcrock hide from it underground, their lives are dull, and there are other towns on the surface that are still functioning. But what does that mean for John and Sam? Are the people livnig undeground just paranoid, or is there a real threat out there? It's been so long since they hid, can they really know for sure?

an animated sprite of john carrying sam on his back while holding his trusty frying pan

This game is unbelievable. It's so immersive, between the music and sound design, the pixel art and animation, the characters and story, the combat and enemies... everything is just so beautifully done that you find yourself playing for hours and hours.

A lot of the gameplay is top-down combat using John's weapons and Sam's mystical powers. There are also puzzles to solve, items to collect, foods to cook and purchase throughout your travels, side-quests to complete, and more!

The game also has another game in it! Throughout your travels, Sam can play an arcade RPG called Earth Born, which uses gachapon prizes called pixballs to aid your runs. I found it really difficult and only managed to defeat the final boss once, which only unlocked more bosses for me to fight lol but it was really cool!

I've embedded the cinematic opening animation (which plays every time you open the game, if you let it) in the box below. Please enjoy.

Octopia

Does this game sound depressing? Does it seem like nothing good could come out of all this? You're pretty much right, but don't worry! There's another world out there, where nothing bad has to happen!

the key art promoting the octopia dlc for eastward. it features sam and john looking happy and comfortable while tending to their farmland, which has a small cottage and a cow

Pixpil announced the Octopia DLC for Eastward to be released in early 2024, and it was clear right away what it would be: a parallel universe where all your favorite characters get to live in peace and harmony! John and Sam have just moved to an abandoned fairground called Octopia, where they will start a life of farming, fishing, tending to animals, and gradually growing the population of their little village.

Yup! It's a feel-good, story-driven farming sim!

I haven't gotten very far in Octopia yet, just because farming sims aren't exactly my style of game (I've played a bunch, but I prefer other genres, y'know?). Still, if this sounds like YOUR style of game, great news! The DLC is very cheap, especially when on sale, and can be played completely independently of the base game story! It's basically an entirely separate game, although you do need the base game in order to play it.

Spoilers

Since this game is so awesome but so full of surprises, I've decided to include my thoughts on major details hidden under this nifty button I made :) Just click it if you want spoilers, or ignore it if you don't. I highly recommend anyone interested in this game plays it if they haven't already, so this space is intended for people who already know what happens.

Navigation

• Top
• Eastward
• DLC
• Spoilers

the cartridge for earth born. it is wide and thick with art of the main character, who has spiky black hair, over a pixel landscape. the rest of the sticker has a red background with chinese text
official art of isabel from eastward. she has short blonde hair and wears goggles and a bomber jacket
the loading animation from eastward. it says 'now loading' with a crt television shone in a spotlight