EASTWARD - A magnificent adventure/RPG is coming to PC! Earthbound meets Studio Ghibli!
I just found out about a gorgeous 2D adventure/RPG game coming from Shanghai-based developer Pixpil, named Eastward!
Pixpil describes their first game as “dual character adventure RPG with puzzle-solving and dungeon elements” with a “visual style inspired by 90s Japanese animation.”
Enjoy the amazing pixel art in the trailer!
The adventure seems to take place in a decaying China(some of the shop signs are in Japanese though?), and you're going to play as a middle-aged digger guy named John.
The story? It's not very clear yet, but one thing's sure, your job is going to help a little girl (whose white hair is so big that she looks like a giant piece of cotton candy😅) to get across what almost looks like a dangerous post-apocalyptic world!
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| The game style has improved a lot over the years! |
That girl is Sam.You found her in a secret facility deep underground, and she's very quiet about her past... You know one thing, she's not like the other little girls.
You two will have to stop at crumbling human cities along the way, meeting the last remaining human settlements, trying to survive as underground monsters encroach further into their
territory.
Get ready to encounter lots of strange people during your adventure, and even stranger monsters!
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| I eat spring rolls for breakfast, so I know Chinese language. He says"ha ha ha". |
FEATURES
- Single player, dual character adventure RPG with puzzle-solving and dungeon elements
- Join John and Sam in their emotional journey across a world falling to ruin
- Meet a quirky cast of characters and encounter strange monsters and distant cities
- Beautifully rich pixel art style, created using a combination of modern 3D lighting and retro-pixel style artwork
- Soundtrack composed by Joel Corelitz (Hohokum, The Unfinished Swan, The Tomorrow Children, Gorogoa), with sound design from Irish studio, Hyperduck Soundworks
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| YAY! We'll be able to enable scanlines! |
The animation is amazingly "realistic" for a 2D game, and the finely detailed backgrounds make me wonder if I'm still going to keep saying "the good old days" when I refer to the Super Nes 90s era... lol
And I haven't mentioned yet the in-house engine, using an innovative 3D LIGHTING ENGINE which gives the environments an even more convincing feeling of being part of a real world.
We're living exciting times. Deadly and horrible too, but still exciting. lol
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| The 3D lighting engine can make a flat looking room realistic! |
Apparently, Pixpil cited the "Legend of Zelda" series as one of their core inspirations, which is VERY promising.
But also... Mother/Earthbound games.😍
Definitely, as years pass, the Earthbound series is becoming more and more one of the top references of the 90s, and I'm VERY happy about it. I always thought it never got as much recognition as I thought it should.
The pixelated adventure should come out on PC during 2018! (no precise dates yet, sorry!)
Pixpil official website
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