And a Groundhog Day-style sequence at the end which made me repeat the same three fetch quests three times was almost enough to make me throw in the towel. A later area - Monkollywood, where most of the inhabitants are ape actors and end every other sentence with “EEK!” - felt like a massive misstep that reeked of padding. You can collect or buy ingredients and make recipes to store in your backpack, each of which offers different benefits. Secret areas abound containing chests of salt (the game’s currency) or heart pieces which increase your max health when you collect enough. In addition to John’s pan, he picks up more weapons as you progress, including a short-range pistol, a flamethrower, a buzzsaw gun, and bombs that can be placed or whacked across a room. Splitting up the duo is necessary in some puzzles, which provides variety via teamwork as they open up paths for each other. Caves, mines and dungeons offer up cables to be connected, furniture to be dragged, doors to be powered and crates to be blown up. Some enemies need to be frozen to be hit, others are far simpler. Sam is the mage equivalent, blasting enemies with a freeze bubble which John can take advantage of - a simple button press lets you switch characters to mix up the action. John is a slugger armed with a pan to smash the Teflon out of any critter who crawls near. Its Zelda-like action stylings and well-crafted puzzles are a delight. This doesn’t mean the game is a total bust, however. The feeling of bloat pervades Eastward like an uncomfortable meal, except the metaphorical antacid of the Skip button is nowhere to be found. Some of them are fun but at odds with the darker thread of the main story. The pair hop from town to town, fixing problems and uncovering mysteries in true SNES-era fashion, but are hampered by side characters and throwaway quests with inordinate amounts of dialogue in lengthy scenes.
Actually, “gets going” is a bit misleading. After being kicked out of town to the surface though, the plot properly gets going.
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