Do you ever take the train eastbound? Do you ever take the train, get stuck riding in circles in a fog surrounded by giant mushrooms that turns out to be a time loop? Do you ever take the train that turns out to be the reaper of death called Charon? Welcome to Eastward, a pixelated laid back 2D adventure game with a surprisingly dark undertone from Pixpil. Let’s see what happens when we ride this train all the way to the Edge of Time… This game flew under my radar until so1o highly recommended it on their blog. I had little expectations besides journeying through The Legend of Zelda-inspired 2D dungeons. Presentation-wise, Eastward more than delivers: it’s one of the prettiest sprite-based games I’ve played in years. The attention to detail is simply stunning: from wandering around in the countryside in broad daylight to revisiting that same place during the night; light sources that radiate, heavily contributing to a cosy atmosphere; to the dark and scary-looking “human factories” where brains and human bodies are floating in some kind of liquid The Matrix-style. The beautiful additional effects only add to the visual flare that is hard to capture in the screenshots scattered throughout this article. Yet I’ve given it a try. The game's pixel art is simply stunning. This village is comprised of rusty boats that make due for houses. Speaking of atmosphere, another high point of the game is the musical score composed by Joel Corelitz. The eerie low-bass tracks signalling danger that play in dark caves, the cheerful music you hear when meeting up with in-game friends, the pumped up music when facing a boss—everything perfectly accommodates the current state of the quest eastwards. I was perhaps again pleasantly surprised by this and will probably add the original soundtrack available at Bandcamp to my digital music collection. Some of the (too) cheerful tunes might be off-putting after a while (for example; the “Sam” and “Happy” tracks got on my nerves after hearing it for the 100th time) but there’s enough variance here to make everyone happy. A few favourites: “Final Boss” to get you pumped up and “Saka No Machi” as New Dam City’s electronic-fused soundtrack. It might be strange to first mention the game’s exceptional graphics and soundtrack only to then start beating it down. Unfortunately, that’s what I’m going to do. Don’t worry, we’ll still end up safely on the positive side. It’s just such a bummer that the pacing of the game is a complete mess. Story-wise, Eastward starts out promising: John, the hairy dude that starts off as a mine worker in an underground city, accidentally dug up a living being that was being captured in one of those abandoned “human factories”: Sam. Sam is a little girl and acts precisely like that: a little girl. “Wow, this is GINOURMOUS! Look at this! John! John! John! Hey John, let’s go do that! John, I’m hungry! John!!” I already have two little brats like that running around in the house, I’m not exactly waiting to babysit another one in a virtual world. Please shut up already, let's get a move on! Because of a few unfortunate misunderstandings, John and Sam got expelled and have to take the train eastwards to be “devoured by Charon’s miasma”. Whatever that means, right? At this point, we have no idea. Until the next sleepy village suddenly gets wiped out and we have to flee again. It turns out that Sam is more involved than she things she is. But then the game’s story suddenly grinds to a complete halt by invoking the “help” of a Tingle-like character who can’t stop blabbering away. Even the dialogue fast-forward button didn’t save me. I like dialogue in a game. In fact, I think it’s essential. But this nonsense was just too painful to read. I am not afraid to admit that half of the dialogue from then on was skipped—and even then I was still frustrated by the lack of any progress. Give me more stuff to whack on the head please, let’s get a move on! Eastward does not seem to be in a hurry to go eastwards. This game can get too laid-back and cosy for its own good. Exploring a human factory on a train, frying pan at the ready... Mechanically speaking, John can equip a range of weapons to dispatch enemies, of which his trusty frying pan is the most efficient and works exactly like 2D Link’s sword: press A until enemies die. Ample of heart container upgrades and a bit of cooking skills borrowed from Breath of the Wild producing food that boosts stats and refills hearts/energy keeps the difficulty at bay. In the later dungeons, I evaded instead of engaged the enemies as there’s nothing to gain and they reappear after re-entering the scene; just like in a 2D Zelda game. The puzzles in the dungeons are much more interesting than the fights. Halfway through the game, I started doubting my ability to finish it as I was fed up with mr. Tingle and his merry band of do-gooders, yet I’m glad I pushed on as the story does pick up again eventually. We learn that we’re in an endless cycle of mass death (the miasma and the train) and rebirth (Sam or “mother” running the “human factories”). I still don’t understand what breaking the cycle by defeating the end boss means as we see Sam and John in some form meeting for the first time—again. The world collapsed anyway, yet we survived, or are we still we? In any case, we’re still taking the train eastbound! Why am I suddenly playing a part in a movie shot on a moving train produced by a monkey? Play this game if you’re looking for a laid-back 2D adventure game with exceptional graphical and musical qualities. There’s even an entire game within a game called Earth Born in case you want to get in real deep, with neat references to the real world. In case you still know what’s real, that is. The post-apocalyptic story, while interesting, ultimately left too many holes to feel satisfactory. And thus we end with a good game that could have been so much better if it was much more tightly scripted. I do hope that Pixpil’s next pixelated adventure will answer some of these questions without them too getting stuck in a time loop! Verdict: 3/5—Good. By Jefklak on 7 October 2026.  Played on: Nintendo Switch  Genre: 2d adventure  Release Year: 2021  Developer: Pixpil  How long to beat: 20.2 hrs