• $2.59 • -80% • Halfway
• $5.99 • -60% • Starbound
• $6.39 • -60% • Pathway
• $7.49 • -50% • INMOST
• $15.99 • -20% • Starmancer
• $19.99 • -20% • Eastward

We never did get Wargroove. It was a real kick in the teeth for Chucklefish to announce it was coming here and then cancel it when the release was over 6 months overdue. I've still not really forgiven them for the way they handled that.

Yeah, reading reviews Eastward has no parity with the steam version as far as patches go, so until they get off their asses and UPDATE the game for the very people that paid for it, it's gonna remain on my wish list…

Too bad, too, as I was hoping for a sale for this game.

Halfway is an ok game.

It scratches that SNES ere Fire Emblem type itch, although the dialogue is disappointingly shallow.

Pathway is kind of a fun idea, and I got some joy out of it. But later on, the tactical battles feel more like a chore vs. the story segments. The random nature of the event means that a few bad occurrences beyond your control can cost you an hour or more of progress.

Haven't played the others.

I cannot recommend Starbound.*

*Though, at a deep discount and with modifications (but Not Frackin Universe) in mind, I can push it into a firm maybe. It's an unoptimized and sometimes buggy mess and their development team basically gave up on updating it after waiting for the Xbox port.

What patches are you talking about ? The gog version of the game is v1.1.5 .

Wait, what? HA, thanks for this bit of info, I'm glad that it's been proven false!

Into the cart, it goes!

Gonna do a little fan shilling for two of my favorites here - Pathway and Eastward!

- - - - - -

Pathway is a fun and quirky roguelite, and an Indiana Jones meets XCOM meets FTL hybrid. The tactical combat is fun, the tone and setting is a great callback to Indiana Jones era adventures. I like the variations that can come up on each run; not just unlocks, but how some runs can have a whole crew dwindle to one guy clawing their way to victory, or you lose most of your mates and then finish with even more people than you started with.

Unfortunately, I find that progression to unlocks is slow (not sure if more recent updates fixed this or not). Also, there isn't a lot of variation - lots of sand, lots of Nazis, not a huge amount of RNG events so you will see repetition after a while. Not a lot of absurdly-OP-yet-rare weapons to throw some amusing runs into the mix either, which is something I like in roguelites to break up monotony.

So for these reasons, I think this game is most enjoyable if you play a run or two then leave the game for a while, then come back and repeat. If you just sit with it for days or weeks on end, trying to "finish" before moving onto another game, you're going to burn out and really feel the repetition. However when you take breaks from it, it feels like a fun romp each time (even after you start seeing some repetition)

- - - - - -

Eastward is a comfy callback to the Earthbound/Mother series of games. Sweet characters, slowly unraveling story, heartfelt moments, cool world, quirky NPCs, offbeat and subtle sense of humor.

Based on what I see most negative reviews complaining about, it seems to receive flak for the same reasons Earthbound fans loved those kinds of games: A slow burn but heartfelt narrative, where characters and the people you meet on your journey are most important. Rather than RPG gameplay excellence or lots of narrative choices. Yes, there is gameplay and combat and puzzles but it's not going to be super deep or challenging.

So if you fancy yourself a Earthbound/Mother fan for the story and characters and general comfy vibe, I definitely recommend this one.

Fair warning, I haven't finished it yet, so perhaps the ending isn't that great. But ~15 hours in, I've really enjoyed my time with it, and it's the most Mother-series-like game I've played.

And yes, as DD & Ji Ji pointed out, the game is on par with its updates compared to Steam. So negative reviews for that aspect are out of date.