#eastward octopia spoilers

[giuliamarcovaldo]

favorite sillies from the character album so far

[justskyla-art]

me when i cook (i'm not the one who's cooking it's john eastward actually and he's making the best plate of spaghetti you've ever seen)

[cl0wn-tim3]

Man I'm being so normal about the eastward dlc

(I have 15 hours in 1 day I am insane about it)

[pallastronomy]

I’m smiling like a fucking idiot I missed them so much

[10gofrio]

i love them so much..

[estercity]

Me quietly putting my ‘I’m sad Octopia is just a farming sim with no development of the established lore’ back in my drafts.

[highly-important]

Octopia is so fun! *spoilers*

I’m really enjoying the gameplay loop of tending crops/animals, visiting town, exploring/fishing/mining, and then going home and seeing what new things I can cook with the stuff I collected that day.

It’s fun inviting neighbors over. I like how you can plan out a meal that kind of works, or just do the math and find a meal that hits the target exactly. And the same with inviting people over- it’s fun that you can just do it because you like them, or because you are hoping to trigger something or get a store discount.

I really love how they tied narrative through gameplay progression. It’s really genius imo. I won’t really talk about story, but I really wasn’t expecting one. I think some of my issues with other games like this is the sense of character progression. Characters either stay sort of stagnant, or they all develop individually in separate silos, or they never really interact with each other. But Eastward has little dramas with the towns people. When you change the town it changes their stories too. It’s so corny but it feels so immersive.

I don’t know maybe I just don’t play enough farming sims? Maybe this is exactly what original Harvest Moon was like

There are a lot of conveniences in the game I appreciate. I like that there are fewer tools and no inventory management. I like the menu that shows you where everyone in town is, and gives you a heads-up on characters that are arriving to town. I like how quickly you can buzz through the map. The game is always giving me little things to get excited for.

The whole idea of tourists coming to visit the town is such a great use of their cast of ten thousand characters. I enjoy this version of the apocalypse where everyone just decided to be cool about it. I just want everyone to enjoy themselves.

I think I actually really underestimated this game at first. I was anticipating a simple farming game loop, but this is really engrossing. I’m having so much trouble putting it down. If any of the Greenberg people show up im going to break down.

[talesfromthebacklog]

Are you looking to click with a new game and want something genuinely different?

I am always hunting for new titles to reinvigorate that click I feel with video games. Not all video games will click but when they do they can be something truly special. I wanted to go over some of my favorite games I’ve played in recent years that are available on current gen consoles. I’m not covering anyone upcoming, these are titles you can pick up today. Cheaply at that. Several of which are on sale on Steam right now as of writing this.

So. Enough chit chat. Lets’s start with an easy one:

Paradise Killer:

PC Switch PS4/PS5 Xbox

I just finished this one and am in the middle of writing my review on it. Painfully stylish with a killer vaporwave soundtrack this game oozes aesthetic. Kaizen Game Works understood the hauntology assignment and took it to the MAX. You are an investigator trying to solve an immortal god-like council’s murder in a dystopian society. You’ve returned to this gorgeous open world parasite paradise from your exile of 3 million days (about 8219 years)! If you’ve played Outer Wilds this is among that same vein. (And I will caution you, while not hard, the game relies on you wanting to just explore. It will provide hints but it won’t hold your hand.)

This is an Ace Attorney-esqe collectathon mixed with open world and exploration. There is no combat. Both the writing and the world are spectacular. Don’t deny yourself something this wonderful, because it is.

This has quickly risen among my gaming ranks as a favorite and it hits to being as close of a favorite as my number 2 suggestion…

Outer Wilds:

PC Switch PS4/PS5 Xbox

This is perhaps one of my favorite games of all time. I wanted to talk about this second because Outer Wilds has received more of the notoriety it deserves in recent times and I wanted PK to get the main spotlight. Don’t get it twisted though If it wasn’t for UpIsNotJump’s video (<— Spoilers) I would have never realized what I was missing. And I still think a lot of people don’t understand what they’re missing too. It is an absolute masterpiece. And seeing it getting released physically again is a god send. I want people to play this game. (And it’s DLC Echoes of The Eye)

No combat. You are a scientist exploring your local solar system in your spaceship in an open “universe” instead of an open world. The sun explodes every 22 minutes which sends your memories back in time. Again, I will caution you that the game relies on you wanting to explore. It will not direct you.

Eastward:

PC Switch Xbox

Too much exploring. Let’s reel it back with Eastward. A Zelda-like where you control an older man and a little girl with psychic powers in a post apocalyptic world. If you’re looking for those fun pixel games that pack that quirky feel this is it. A bit existential, a great sense of humor, and fantastic writing are all part of the Eastward package. (You startin’ to see a theme here? Ha ha)

All while boasting a seriously killer pixel soundtrack. The original Iron Carbine trailer for the Nintendo Direct had an immediate impact on me as a gamer. I knew this was a game I would fall in love with. Sometimes you just know when something is special. This game is beautifully pixelated and packed with lovingly crafted content. Puzzles are the right amount of challenging and there is so much fun side stuff to do. Including a Dragon Quest-esqe game inside the game! It also received DLC via Eastward Octopia! Which I also love.

Moon: A Remix RPG

PC Switch PS4/PS5

I do play games with combat. I swear. Several of these games just don’t have it! (Ha!) This will perhaps be the hardest game to sell to you on this list. I have a soft spot for quirky games like this, but know that this was a PS1 Japanese exclusive game in the 90s. And it sure acts like it. Slow to start, weak tutorial, and doesn’t provide a ton of direction. This game was ported into English for the first time in 2020 and I love it. It is a trial and error experience though.

This cult classic is one of the games that inspired Undertale and when you play it becomes wildly apparent. I dare say it reminds me more of Undertale than its other main inspiration Earthbound. You are a little boy that’s been fallen into his video game and you have to save the souls of monsters the hero has killed using love. (Sound familiar?)

Light hearted and weird this game also has a great sense of humor as it pokes at classic RPG tropes. And that slow intro comes into play providing a unique perspective as you journey through the game befriending people. It won’t be for everyone, I would research this one before sinking the… $18.99 on the purchase. But I think it is worth experiencing if you love Undertale.

I think I’ve yakked enough. If folks like the post I’ll follow up with a part two with a little more genre variety! I wanted to the first post to include my top favorites. So. I hope there’s something in there that invigorates you the way these games did for me.

[giuliamarcovaldo]

i think that it’s sooo cute that you can invite the npcs over for dinner in octopia 😭 it just adds to that small tight-knit community vibe that they were going for

[giuliamarcovaldo]

little bun referring to sam as john’s sidekick 😭😭

[giuliamarcovaldo]

sam not being woken up by izzy and alva literally crashing their ship through the side of the house is so fucking funny

[giuliamarcovaldo]

some of my thoughts on octopia so far !! (spoilers i guess?)

i love that daniel and daniel are existing together and so far no one has questioned that william gave them the same name

the scarecrow’s face changing to predict the weather is so cute (and sam copying its face of course)

additionally- making the scarecrow this universe’s mayor hoffman is so fucking funny

magical self-refilling watering can is a W

being able to use the axe for the trees AND rocks also a W (no switching between tools is so convenient)

the clock at the top of the screen/progress bar so that you can see how much of the day is left is a nice inclusion

love the cute moon and sun graphics that show up when it’s loading between days!!

petting the animals!!! :D i wish i could name them too 😭

absolutely LOVE the character album... i can’t wait to see all of the character icons :3

no fridge so far… i miss its quotes :(

mysterious bunker in the swampy area?? feels very familiar… what is it for… where does it go….

all in all i’m really enjoying it!! i’m so glad that sam and john are finally getting to live a peaceful life 😭

[pallastronomy]

Back to Octopiaposting: Isabel being a huge fan of Earth Born and collecting the Pixball figurines is my new favourite piece of trivia revealed in Octopia so far. Can absolutely picture her Alva and Lee all playing Earth Born together as kids

Also makes her title of Rocket Knight that much funnier in hindsight because she 100% took it from Earth Born. She either started calling herself by it when she was like 10 bc it sounded cool and it just stuck (in no small part due to Alva never letting her live it down) or she consciously chose it as an adult bc hey she literally has a rocket and can just play it off as a coincidence so nobody else has to know about some silly little video game being that much of a guilty pleasure for her (Alva obviously exempt) and honestly I can’t decide which of the two is funnier

[pallastronomy]

Back to your regularly scheduled incoherent Azure posting to say ouhhg my god I didn’t see the little picture of them in here what if I exploded

[estercity]

that's also very interesting because octopia implies that the 'mother' in octopia isn't yet corrupted by the Actual mother that sam was threatened by in the main game, but also the mother in octopia is still very much aware she is a vessel for mother and of what mother's plans are (she also comments on the fates of several people implying she both knows whats going to happen and what has happened in the past, which is A lot of information for a single vessel to have since i don't even think sam got that after awakening in main game). like she isn't sam, there's a clear detinction that this vessel identifies AS mother without being the main villain of the piece we knew mother as.

i'll probably end up replaying just to anaylse everything again

[estercity]

mother wanting to stay back to oversee what happened to the rocket knight leigon after her last message to them is to never lose hope because it can be found no matter where you are, then agreeing to follow john back to octopia anyway because she had to acknowlege that if she stayed she would be what brought on their devastation. makes me wonder how many 'maybe it'll be different this time' other sams had to experience before this one, and how many more will go onto experience it. i wonder how many actually make it out