A great RPG is nothing without a believable world for players to explore and adventure through, and Eastward boasts one of the better ones we've seen recently. From the depths of Potrock Isle's caves to the dingy back alleys of New Dam City, every square inch of the game feels meticulously crafted and lived in.
But a location is only as interesting as the things you get to do in it. Thankfully, the places you visit in Eastward are dotted with several points of interest and side activities for players to engage in. Some of these are tied to the progression of the overall story while others are merely fun diversions that help keep things from becoming too stale. So what follows are the very best mini-games players can take part in over the course of their adventure.
5 Sandrupe Harvesting
Sandrupes are just one of the many food ingredients players can cook with in Eastward, and one of the earliest mini-games actually revolves around this particular fruit.
The mini-game takes place at the Sunnyside Ranch in Potrock Isle, after dropping Sam off for her first day at school. And the objective is relatively simple: you knock down as many sandrupes as you can into a big hole (using only your frying pan) within the time limit. The catch is the area is overrun by pot crabs, who would knock the sandrupes off course if any winds up in their path. You'll need to use your charged attack to get the sandrupes to budge, and you score points for each sandrupe that lands in the hole.
4 Blimpig Herding
There is something deviously satisfying about whacking a blimpig with a frying pan over and over again. And that is precisely what you get to do at the aptly named Blimpig Ranch.
This mini-game takes place in the Greenberg section of Eastward, an idyllic village at the center of a forested area with a train station that has a giant whale on it for some reason. And a blimpig is basically a flying pig. By the time you arrive at the ranch, you discover that they have broken out of their pen and are running amok all over the place. The goal is to shepherd all the blimpigs back into their holding pen, and you do this by 'gently guiding them' (read: aggressively hitting them) in the right direction until they are all wrangled up.
3 Baseball
America's pastime makes an appearance in yet another one of Eastward's mini-games. It seems some activities just can't be erased from the public consciousness, even in the face of a world-ending cataclysm.
After John and Sam's arrival at New Dam City, they'll eventually run into a circus troupe in need of a boost to their collective morale. And you assist them by helping them prepare for their next and possibly final performance. One of the activities you are tasked with is taking part in a good, old-fashioned game of baseball (using your frying pan of course). And while its mechanics are nowhere as deep as what you would find in a game like MLB: The Show, it still serves as a welcome break from all the dialogue reading and dungeon crawling.
2 Cooking (Slot Machine)
Cooking forms an important part of the activities available to players in Eastward. For starters, they can regain some or all of their health by eating meals that John has prepared at any of the stoves found throughout the game.
They can also gain some pretty substantial buffs if they cook with the right combination of ingredients. And each time they do so, players are presented with a slot machine mini-game that increases the effectiveness of the food being cooked, depending on how well they perform. The goal is to line up two or more symbols on the slot machine. Getting all three to match would score a "Big Win" which imbues the food being cooked with the maximum amount of buffs available for it.
1 Earth Born
One of the biggest surprises to be found in Eastward is the presence of a fully functional turned-based RPG that players can play within the game. That game is called Earth Born, a Dragon Quest-style RPG with its own parallel narrative and a party of characters that players can do battle with.
The game can be started from any of the gaming terminals found in the various locations you visit, which bear an uncanny resemblance to a Sega Dreamcast connected to an old CRT TV. Your progress is carried over from console to console with aid of a memory card, an item you acquire early in the game. Gameplay involves random enemy encounters and a surprisingly deep turned-based combat system. Players level up their characters by gaining XP, and each one has a unique set of moves and special abilities. The visuals are appropriately simplistic, mimicking the monochromatic graphics prevalent during the 8-bit era.