65: Eastward (with Chris Dominguez - A Novel Console)

Eastward (Pixpil) is a game that has a great elevator pitch- absolutely gorgeous pixel art, bopping music and gameplay/story that evoke The Legend of Zelda, Earthbound and Dragon Quest, but failed to live up to the heights of any of those games for me. Poor pacing and a baffling decision to have a silent protagonist dragged this game way down into the "this feels like homework" zone. And that's a shame, because a) we never want a game to feel like that, and b) this game won a patreon poll! I still love you, patrons! Joining me on the podcast to discuss Eastward is Chris Dominguez, one of the two hosts of A Novel Console, a podcast dedicated to video games, books and food. As I told them on the show- if you're not up for video games, books and food, I don't know what to tell you. You can check out their show by following this link (https://anovelconsole.carrd.co), and I was also on their show last week to talk about The Lord of the Rings and all of the other Tolkien adaptations. TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 1:16 Story Setup 11:12 Aesthetics 34:02 Gameplay 40:49 SPOILER WALL 1:07:42 Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!