[ad_1]
![Eastward: Octopia Review - Screenshot 1 of 5](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/144530/900x.jpg)
Just a few years in the past, a cute new action-adventure recreation referred to as Eastward launched on most platforms, mixing some interesting EarthBound-esque visuals with a narrative-driven recreation loop that’s vaguely paying homage to the older Zelda video games. We actually loved it, regardless of its flaws, and it appears that evidently developer Pixpil had some extra concepts it needed to probe for the distinctive world it constructed, because it’s now launched a large DLC referred to as Eastward: Octopia. This siloed growth provides much more than just some new ranges and scenes, successfully performing as a half-sequel of kinds that fully modifications up the gameplay. We’d even go as far as to say that it’s a superior recreation to the unique.
Octopia’s narrative takes place in an alternate universe separate from the principle timeline of Eastward; on this world, issues are decidedly cheerier and brighter, whereas there isn’t a touch of miasma to be discovered anyplace. The story kicks off with Sam and John arriving by practice at a mysterious place referred to as Octopia, an deserted amusement park that’s lengthy since fallen to smash. The 2 buy a small home and a plot of land there to start out afresh, and got down to rebuild Octopia to its former glory by way of their farming efforts. Loads of alternate-universe counterpart characters from the principle plot of Eastward ultimately transfer there to affix them on this endeavor, however everyone seems to be just a bit completely different on this iteration.
![Eastward: Octopia Review - Screenshot 2 of 5](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/144542/900x.jpg)
We gained’t spoil an excessive amount of, nevertheless it’s closely implied that the narrative ultimately ties again in with Eastward’s fundamental story, although newcomers don’t essentially must know the total story to get essentially the most out of Octopia. For essentially the most half, it is a easy, cute story a few rising rural neighborhood coming collectively to construct their residence, however these of you who performed by way of the total story of the principle marketing campaign will discover some particulars and easter eggs that point out a more in-depth connection. Most significantly, the narrative right here is decidedly much less verbose than the bottom recreation, and this a lot stronger concentrate on pacing is a welcome enchancment.
Gameplay in Octopia diverges fairly a bit from the narrative-driven, Zelda-esque construction of the principle recreation, changing it as a substitute with some good old style farm sim mechanics. Every day is simply over ten minutes lengthy, and you retain John and Sam busy with actions like tending to your animals and tilling your soil, whereas reinvesting the earnings from the products you promote on the town into upgrades in your property and extra seeds to plant. What you do together with your day is left largely as much as you, there’s no rush, however unlocking extra upgrades and getting extra individuals to maneuver to city is gated by fulfilling requests by townsfolk for development tasks or meals you possibly can cook dinner for them.
![Eastward: Octopia Review - Screenshot 3 of 5](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/144526/900x.jpg)
Like most farm sims, Octopia begins out just a little gradual, nevertheless it doesn’t take lengthy so that you can fall into a pleasant rhythm as you begin setting quick and mid-term objectives and diligently conducting them. As soon as issues begin to open up extra and you’ve got extra residents within the city, duties begin to choose up fairly a bit to the purpose the place it virtually appears like there aren’t sufficient hours within the day. But it doesn’t matter what you select to concentrate on, you’re all the time properly rewarded in your efforts, creating an exquisite sense of development as you watch the ramshackle city slowly flip into a spot that feels extra like residence.
To assist break up the repetition of farm duties considerably, Octopia additionally options minigames that supply a little bit of gameplay selection. Fishing, for instance, duties you with ‘chasing’ fish across the perimeter of a pond together with your fishing pole’s bobber, with rarer fish having extra deft and swift swimming patterns to evade seize. In one other instance, you possibly can extract uncommon ore from a mine by sending down a cutesy remotely-operated drone, which you navigate round caves by enjoying an old-school arcade recreation that duties you with dropping bombs to loosen deposits and unlock deeper flooring. We appreciated the gameplay range supplied in Octopia—it isn’t overwhelming, however there are simply sufficient actions to keep away from issues getting too repetitive.
![Eastward: Octopia Review - Screenshot 4 of 5](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/144541/900x.jpg)
The visuals have been all the time one of many highlights of the unique Eastward, and we’re glad to report that their high quality has not dipped within the slightest for this growth. The detailed spritework and animation is a number of the finest within the enterprise, doing a fantastic job of showcasing every character’s distinctive character and quirks. In the meantime, the intense, cozy environments really feel proper at residence with the farm sim aesthetic, whereas the later biomes you unlock and go to assist so as to add some good graphical range. It’s powerful to say whether or not Octopia seems to be higher than the bottom recreation, however on the very least it continues to set the bar for what a hi-bit 2D artwork type can accomplish.
Octopia isn’t with out some comparatively minor points. One necessary drawback is that there are some noticeable efficiency hiccups to take care of. We had a number of instances the place the sport fully crashed on us, wiping out any progress that we made on that day, and we observed occasional however sudden body drops that may trigger you to lose a fish or trigger John and Sam to leap ahead a number of steps when tending their crops. The body drops aren’t too detrimental given the general gradual tempo of the gameplay, however they’re a persistent annoyance that dragged down the expertise a bit.
![Eastward: Octopia Review - Screenshot 5 of 5](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/144538/900x.jpg)
There are additionally some lacking quality-of-life options that make Octopia a clunkier expertise in comparison with its style contemporaries. For instance, while you’re cooking dishes—one in every of your fundamental sources of earnings—there’s no choice to mass produce multiples of a dish when you’ve got loads of elements and need multiple, so that you’re pressured to navigate the menu and reselect the dish repeatedly to make one after the other. Such points don’t enormously have an effect on the expertise, however little issues like this will add as much as disrupt the gameplay circulation, particularly throughout prolonged classes.
And although that is much less of a direct criticism, we’d like to focus on that Octopia is just obtainable to those that have purchased Eastward first, confusingly. Regardless of being successfully a whole, self-contained, 15-20 hour farm sim, this isn’t obtainable for separate buy like different standalone DLCs similar to Demon Turf: Neon Splash or Shovel Knight: King of Cards. This isn’t essentially a unhealthy factor, however it could come as a disappointment for some; not solely is Octopia total a extra pleasurable expertise than the bottom recreation, however on the worth of solely six bucks, it’s a steal when you think about all of the content material it has to supply.
Conclusion
Eastward: Octopia might not carry many new concepts to a crowded genre, however that is an impressively well-executed growth that properly ticks all of the containers for a satisfying and stress-free farm sim. Though it has some rougher edges, the respectable gameplay selection, attention-grabbing story, beautiful visuals, and shocking quantity of content material all come collectively to make this one a simple suggestion to any followers of the unique Eastward. Even for these of you who fell off your playthrough of the unique for one purpose or one other, we’d encourage you to think about coming again for Octopia—it is a a lot better-paced recreation and, some efficiency points apart, it’s misplaced not one of the attraction that made the unique so common.
[ad_2]
Source link