Eastward - 遊戲英文短評

*With light spoiler / 輕微劇透

Maker: Pixpil （皮克皮）
Genre: RPG / action-adventure
Platform: PC / Switch / Xbox One / macOS

The storytelling methods brings me nostalgia. Nowadays, due to the "fast-food" entertainment trends, the mainstream storytelling of games is to put players right into actions. Eastward, on the other hand, starts out and lays the background in a slow path, similar to RPG games I've played in my childhood era. It is nor good or bad, rather a choice of personal taste, but in today's gaming culture, the progression pace at the beginning could cause the player to lose interest. I only started to get hooked about 4 or 5 hours into the game, which is 1/5-1/6 of the total time I spent to reach the ending.

Aside from some longer-than-necessary dialogues with no important purposes and the abrupt, out-of-place chapters of the monkey train, overall I exceedingly enjoyed Eastward. The art style is adorable, the characters are relatable, the puzzles are with adequate difficulties, and the ending is a nice mixture of melancholy and happiness.

One thing that stands out to me is that one of the main characters "John" never speaks a word through out the entire game, no dialogue texts, no animation portraying him speaking, and even no narration describing him doing so. I wonder if this is an implicit tribute to the silent adventurer of Ys series, Adol, or to Half-Life's Gordon Freeman. Anyhow, it is an effective way to put the player in John's shoes.

My rating: 9/10

重點單字：
get hooked - 著迷、喜歡上
dialogue - 對話、對白
melancholy - 憂鬱