Eastward is a detailed and charming adventure RPG from Pixpil, a Shanghai-based studio, published by Chucklefish in 2021. It pairs a dying world with a father-daughter road trip, and it works more often than it doesn’t. The game’s two halves — the quiet overworld journey and the combat-heavy dungeons between them — are built from the same pixel art and the same characters, but they ask different things of the player.
Trailer, via Nintendo of America.
John and Sam in Potcrock Isle
The setup is grim. A toxic plague called MIASMA has nearly wiped out humanity, and survivors moved underground to rebuild. John is a hardworking miner in Potcrock Isle. Sam is a mysterious young girl he finds during his work and adopts as his daughter.
Sam gets expelled from the town’s school after an altercation with other students about her desire to see the outside world. She then meets an identical incarnation of herself called “Mother,” who encourages her to seek the surface. Potcrock’s mayor banishes the pair, sending them off on an old passenger train dubbed “Charon.”
The game’s best idea is that the outside world is pleasant. John and Sam reach a settlement called Greenberg and try to settle in. It doesn’t last. While helping a local rancher, they find a high-tech factory that Mother activates, dispersing the toxic plague into the area. Greenberg is destroyed. A mysterious woman named Isabel saves them and helps them leave on Charon. Sam forgets what happened.
Two Characters, Two Toolkits
Eastward’s combat is built on switching between John and Sam. John handles offense: weapons, bombs, and the ability to move heavy objects. Sam handles support: stunning enemies, clearing hazardous fields with an energy ball, and squeezing into small spaces.
| Character | Role | Key abilities |
|---|---|---|
| John | Offense | Weapons, bombs, moving heavy objects |
| Sam | Support | Stunning enemies, energy ball, squeezing into small spaces |
Sometimes the game requires you to use one character alone to progress, like clearing a path to an exit. The chapters come with a variety of goals and map areas, and fast travel is sometimes available. Between fights you can talk to non-player characters, save at specialized fridges, and cook. Ingredients make food items that restore health and add bonus effects like increased damage power.
Earth Born Is a Game Inside the Game
Buried inside Eastward is a second game. “Earth Born” is an homage to the Dragon Quest series, a traditional RPG with rogue-like elements, and it’s a classic fantasy abstraction of Eastward’s main story.
While having no bearing on the main game, it can only be played in game until chapter 7, after which it is accessible as an extra upon the game’s completion.
Players collect tokens during the main game to unlock “pixballs” for Earth Born, which also unlock additional features. That’s a lot of scaffolding for a side mode.
New Dam City and the Cost of the Fan
The back half moves to New Dam City, where John and Sam reunite with Isabel and meet her partner Alva, the princess of New Dam City. As Alva’s “lab assistants,” the pair help with various projects and start to build a life.
Then the toxic plague approaches. Under Alva’s leadership, the team evacuates citizens to start the “Buddha Fan,” a giant fan built by Alva’s grandfather. It repels the plague, but the city takes damage. When it returns, only Alva is manning the controls. The team activates the fan manually, at the cost of Alva. Isabel, grieving, takes Alva’s body and seeks a way to — and here the source material stops, which is its own kind of ending.
The visual style is the most consistent thing in the game. Inspired by 90s Japanese animation, Eastward combines a modern 3D lighting system with rich retro-pixel artwork. The game released first for Nintendo Switch, macOS, and Windows, with an Xbox One version following in 2022.
Eastward holds a 7.8 on Metacritic. The world-building and the art are the parts that stay with you, and the John-and-Sam relationship gives the story its center. The weaker stretch is the dungeon design, which sometimes splits the pair apart when the game is at its best with both of them on screen. Earth Born is the tell: when Pixpil commits to a single idea, it’s very good.
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