Eastward’s pixel art is beautifully detailed and Fisti-Fluffs is absolutely adorable [Now Gaming]

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-09-26 15:16 (JST)
Translated by. Nick Mosier

Now Gaming is a weekly digest that provides a quick overview of what our writers had played or found interesting in the world of video games. Here we have the translated version of this week’s Japanese edition of Now Gaming.

Absolutely adorable

by. Taijiro Yamanaka

I played a bit of Fisti-Fluffs which recently launched on PC and the Nintendo Switch. It’s a game where you rampage around as a cat with up to four friends, but it’s also possible to play with CPUs. The PVP modes have players doing things like fighting to be the last cat standing or trying to steal control of a crown with their cat punches and such in all-out battles. It’s amusing to see furniture flying around the room and there’s even a mode that’s all about that kind of destruction. It’s a game less about skill and more about enjoying the slapstick chaos.

There’s also a cooperative mode where players defend their kibble from mice that requires coordination between everyone. No matter which mode you play, if you’re playing with friends, it’s guaranteed to get everyone riled up. As of now, only local multiplayer is supported, but if you’re playing on Steam, Remote Play Together can be used. Online play is also planned for a future update.

The window! The window!

by. Keiichi Yokoyama

This week I’ve been playing Dagon: by H.P. Lovecraft. It’s a game that takes H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Dagon, and recreates it in 3D. I guess the title makes that pretty clear. This first-person novel game lets you casually enjoy its mad world for a short while.

The game’s Steam page notes that it’s a “100% faithful adaptation of the original story” and the developers deliver a finely detailed version of Dagon based on their interpretation. Scenes that were hard to imagine from the text have been clearly visualized, and some scenes left a different impression than what I had when I read the original, which was surprising. The scene with the semi-famous phrase “The window! The window!” was one of those times.

Bit Golem, the developer, is now working on an enigmatically described “mystery-slash-fishing game” called Tales of Herring Lake.

A treasure trove of fun for parents and children

by. Seiji Narita

This week I played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild… At least I started to until my daughter snatched the controller away. She’s currently in elementary school and the way she gets hooked on things is amazing. Normally, even when I recommend a blockbuster game, she’ll just bluntly say, “YouTube is more fun.” But when she sees me playing Breath of the Wild, her attitude completely changes. She grabs the controller and starts running around Hyrule setting grass on fire and flipping over all the rocks until suddenly, she’s made more progress than I have.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a treasure trove of fun for adults and kids alike. I’m looking forward to the sequel in 2022.

Cute fluffy-haired girl

by. Aki Nogishi

I’m playing Eastward. It’s an action adventure game with beautiful pixel art that bears some resemblance to games of the SNES era. For starters, the detail in the pixel art is amazing. The backgrounds are beautiful with their subdued colors giving it a retro flair, and there’s a lot of variety in terms of character animation.

Because of the beautifully detailed pixel art, the characters that live in Eastward’s world, even NPCs not related to the story, are teeming with personality. And when it comes to the main characters, it only gets more lavish with unique animations for special event scenes scattered about. It’s the kind of game where it’s even fun just to people-watch in town.

I’m probably near the middle of the story and the atmosphere of the game can go from warm and pleasant to heavy and dark in an instant, so the mood changes can be drastic. However, the overall atmosphere never gets too heavy due to how cute and naive the main character Sam is. The action and puzzle solving are just the right difficulty so it isn’t stressful to play. If you want to shower your eyes in adorable pixel art, check this one out.

All sorts of extravagances

by. Ayuo Kawase

I’m also in the middle of playing Eastward. It looked promising before its release and I had been looking forward to playing it. The visuals and world have quite a bit of detail packed into them. From the carefully crafted UI to the abundance of text, it’s obvious a lot of time and passion was poured into the game’s development. While nothing stands out gameplay-wise, it’s all solidly made. It takes inspiration from a lot of places, but it all comes together to give Eastward unique character, which is great.

The game’s pace is on the leisurely side. The game is rich with text, so I’ve been stopping along the way to peer into the lives of the game’s inhabitants and really enjoy what the world has to offer.