This is a beautiful game with great potential. But I feel like it misses both its potential target audiences: cozy gamers and roguelike gamers.

I don't mind the random dialogue, and I like running random errands for NPCs. But I am very, very bad at combat, and have had to replay some segments many times, and it gets very frustrating. I just finished Chapter 3 as of writing this. I like most of the game but the combat is often too hard for me.

On the other hand, those people who enjoy roguelike games have no issue with the combat, but hate the dialogue and the fetch quests. Which, I admit, are very long and take up much more time than the combat or plot sections.

I may or may not finish this game. I'm interested in Octopia, but I wanted to complete the core game to get to know the characters first. If Visual-Novel-type dialogue coupled with Zelda-like combat doesn't sound fun to you, you should probably give this game a pass.

This game sure is now one of my favorites after finishing it for the first time, and i will go for another playthrough to 100%, and i sure understand that the plot is all over the place, there are issues with the pacing, and all, but to be frank, this game with how we got is a "Perfectly parked car crash", in other words, a miracle, that got released, and still enjoyable as it is. I can easily say, that i will recommend this game, at least to play through it once, just to understand one and simple thing, - developers love their work, and should be praised for this rough of a gem game, and experience.
Let me say this - Welcome to Eastward!
And now, Let me explain, what this game is, and why i can just fanboy over it for some extent, just for the fact alone, that this game evoked in me feelings and emotions of excitement and sense of adventure, i haven't felt for a long while even with big indie tittles or big studio named games.
Eastward is a Zelda-like adventure game, inspired by games such as Mother/Earthbound, and animated films by studio Ghibli, one intro sequence alone tells you that much, but i am sure that the Ghiblie have inspired not just the art direction, but the narrative itself, with it's major shift in tones, even though, the execution felt more like an Adventure time, where first couple of seasons give you lots of self-contained episodes of light-hearted nonscence, and bits of some serious plot on the precipice. But then season 7 comes along and it's just bashing you on the head with a frying pan into the ground with a drastic shift in tone, where you try to ask yourself questions - What's going on, WHY is it going on? Did i have missed something?
With the latter, i can say, - Yes, we did, all of us did, due to the cut content, and history behind it's development, and to be honest it's not perfect game, in some places it's under-developed, in some it's overcooked, and some are stuck in the miasma, but that's just it.
What we do have however, is a plot, filled with holes, but with good characters, that became like friends and family to me, and it was a magical feeling, in a wonderful world, that sure feels alive, with it's npcs talking and walking about their business, asking to come to their stores, and it was awesome. The story-driven changes in gameplay were amazing, to me they brought and excitement to the scenes they're in, and gosh, don't even get me started with even additional stuff in the game. Like Earth Born, which is a smal JRPG inspired by Dragon quest, which is fully fledged game, that is part of the world-building and even main story, with a reference to Amibo-figurines, which give you items in the said jrpg, and help you to get some sort of perspective on the lore of the world... And the music, gosh it's amazing, some themes of course can be repetitive, but, when they hit, they hit HAAAARD! Anyway's i'm slowly going into fanboy mode, so let me wrap this up...

Eastward is a gem, it's a simple Zelda-like game, a 3d game with a beautiful 2d artwork, that suffers from many plot-holes in the narrative department, and yet have a simple plot for you to follow and understand, with a delightful cast of characters, and big moments, that can stay with a player for a long time, and amazing soundtrack, that helps the said story to, as people say - HIT DIFFERENT in the scene where they're presented. It's not a perfect game, but positives, surely weights out the negatives, and with it, i ask of you all, to give Eastward a chance, and you might even like it, on sale, or not, up to you!
Thank you for the read, take care of yourselves, stay safe, and i will see you later, Eastward!

I love the main story (just everything else made me cry).
And I love the DLC (I headcanon it's the aftermath).