what i liked:

+ a love letter to two of the most influential games of past days - the legend of zelda and earthbound.

+ charming main characters with unique gameplay. sam and john are two of the most lovely main characters i've ever played with. at some point, you'll have to use both to solve puzzles or fend of your foes.

+ great character writing and development. a lot of different persons with feelings, emotions and peculiarities. pretty charming and always a pleasure to talk to the people. overall the character cast was pretty well written with many memorable ones along the way.

+ well executed story - it's a well rounded mix of wholesome slice of life sets and a mysterious, futuristic and apocalyptic plot. eastward is a magnificent roller coaster ride and you'll witness many different intense emotions like friendship, camaraderie, love, loss, despair, fear and many more. fantastic stuff right there!

+ interesting world and decent world building. mysterious, dangerous, yet laid back and cozy.

+ gameplay is "bare bones" at first glance compared to modern video games with a basic action combat system and simple puzzles, which isn't an issue at all imo, but there will be more gameplay and puzzle adjustments over the course of the game. many people complaining about it, but i can't confirm the critique since the gameplay is simple, yet works so well. the controls are responsive and there are no major flaws. a dodge button would be great tho. if you don't care about an overly unique and modern gameplay, you'll be totally fine with eastward.

+ different weapons and special abilities for puzzles and combat.

+ somewhat challenging and unique boss fights. the bosses are quite creative in it's design and accordingly there is a lot of variety as well. in my opinion the boss fights are going to get more complex and strictly better throughout the game. the last ones are an absolute blast to battle!

+ the game is somewhat linear, but there will be freedom in exploring at times and it definitely pays off doing so. a little investment in backtracking is well worth your time, at least if you care about dialogues and for completionist reasons. do keep in mind, if you reach certain story milestones, you'll be locked out of past areas for the rest of the game.

+ gorgeous pixel art and graphics with a lot of love for details. eastward is an artistic masterpiece whit a stunningly detailed artstyle and excellent art direction.

+ well crafted animations which are even more impressive, considering the minimalistic graphics.

+ well composed and sometimes hilarious soundtrack with calm and relaxing chip tunes and other retro themed osts, absolutely loving it.

+ many secrets and chests to be found - i wasn't able to find everything on my own in the first playthrough.

+ decent amount of upgrades, although upgrade materials take quite some time to obtain.

+ comfortable fast travel to speed things up, but honestly i've almost never used it since the game is so beautiful. everything's a pleasure to the eye and a delight to walk through, so simply delve into the affectionate details of your surroundings. usually it won't take long to reach your area of interest anyway.


what felt debatable to me:

~ slow pacing since the game is heavily narrative driven with an abundance of dialogues, which i personally enjoyed a lot. the game is chill, providing one of the most relaxing gaming experience i've ever had and so it shouldn't be rushed anyway. could bother some people tho so i put it into the "debatable" section.

~ fantastic opening cutscene with a ghibli-esque art direction which let's you hope there are more of these, but sadly there won't. kinda missed potential.

~ eastward got an okay'ish sense of humor and some npcs are "tropes". it's adorable most the time - so i can't complain much, but some are questionable at best.


what i disliked:

- i've had a bug in the shop menu which made it barely controllable sometimes, because the cursor gets constantly dragged into one direction. to fix this issue i've had to quit the shop screen and reopen it. nothing too serious tho.

- the stealth section wasn't that great and kinda infuriating at times. may be a personal issue.


10/10

what i liked:

+ a love letter to from games, souls-likes and of course, everyone's favorite - dungeon crawler. despite playing this in first person view, it kinda reminds me of another genre classic called "blade of darkness". both games got a similar vibe and atmosphere going.

+ six maps already and the final game should have ten or more. the maps themselves are quite different, providing unique themes, designs and enemies. the level design is excellent as well, with a lot of connectivity.

+ exploration is immersive and rewarding. having a blast delving into the dungeons, fighting enemies, finding all those secrets and more. tons of creative concepts like spraying blood with a spell on some carnivorous plants, acting as chests. the game may feel somewhat empty at first, but there are tons of secrets and details hidden everywhere. a little backtracking now and then is well worth as well.

+ the atmosphere just hits the right spot - dungeons are giving you the creeps, blood is pumping and you'll be nervously checking all the corners - incredible.

+ interesting and well thought out lore. there are a lot of flavor texts and lore drops all over the game. i'm quite intrigued to learn more about these cursed lands and the fates of other damned.

+ combat is fun and engaging. even though it isn't as clunky as one would imagine by the looks, aiming can get a little obnoxious at first. if you've played arthurian legends or similar games, you may feel at home, since the combat is very similar to such games.

+ decent build variety with different weapons and spells. a couple of classes like in dark souls and six different stats in total. honestly i can't say much about the viability of the weapons and spells, since it's in early access and there are almost no resources out there. i'm playing whatever weapon i like and nothing felt terrible so far, but imo the longer the range the better the weapon, since u won't get hit as often. magic is even more fun than weapons, with different schools and some fancy utility spells.

+ fantastic retro pixel artstyle and graphics. i've completely fell in love with the style this game has to offer. early 3d pc and psx era comes to mind, showcasing a well executed masterpiece.

+ awesome soundtrack, mostly calm and atmospheric. just vibin' through the game. very well done and the sound effects are mostly on point as well.

+ decent optimization at this point - constant 240 fps with no lags, crashes, glitches, whatsoever.

+ controls are responsive and far from being cumbersome, which surprised me honestly. the game looks old and plays new! can't get any better than this, can it?

+ haven't had a single bug in my playthrough so far. well, let's be real. there will be some bugs since it's an early access title, but at least there are no major game breaking issues.


what felt debatable to me:


~ power level balancing issues. at first everything was quite tough and scary, but after a couple of hours, i'm basically melting every enemy in seconds. it's still fun, but should be addressed for the 1.0 release or future updates.

~ the hub area could be bigger with a couple of more npcs. would love to see more different characters and even more so, some advanced dialogues for those already in the game, increasing their memorability. the story telling lore skeleton is probably my favorite so far. let the ride never end!

~ please introduce a setting to remap inputs.

~ i'm still not certain if there are boss enemies in the game or not and if not, will there be some? if not, why? would be interesting to hear the developers' thoughts about this topic.

~ the game needs a map so badly. i could see this was an intentional design decision and there will be no map at all. if so, i can respect that, but the devs have to improve the recognisability of some levels to sooth getting lost. catacombs were a pain up to some point, where i could see many people quit the game for no reason. i think there should be a "greyed out" simplified map to help you keep on track, to improve backtracking and without spoiling the exploration too badly.


what i disliked:


- enemy spells shooting through obstacles and walls. spells are darn hard hitting in this game and it's no joke, if they can and will hit you through basically everything.

- fairy spell is kinda out of hand with no maximum amount of summons and on top, they'll track and shoot enemies through walls.

- demon slayer achievement won't be triggered correctly.


lunacid is already a 10/10 by heart. with the early access issues and missing content, let's play fair and give it an 8/10 in this state. definitely one of the most promising upcoming games for me!

i'll update this review after i finished my playthrough, obtained some new thoughts and of course if some big content updates happen.