The trek to the east is pretty linear, but the areas you explore are laid out like little dungeons, with curling paths to find your way through as you battle goofy monsters and solve simple puzzles. Baseball, river rafting, slot machines, and ever-present cooking. There are a lot – a lot – of silly little minigames along the way. Along the way you play through discrete story chapters and explore the stories of the people you meet. I loved switching between the two as they travel through a cute but dangerous apocalyptic world of small towns and dam-cities. They set off from their home under dubious circumstances, and, eventually, find their way. They're lovable characters with a bushel of personality and a kind of timeless appeal. Our headliners are John – a silent protagonist wreathed in messy hair and a bushy beard – and Sam, an outrageously precocious girl with budding psychic powers and a penchant for getting the two into trouble. Even where the story dragged for a time, or the simplicity of the challenges felt patronizing, the parts of Eastward that spoke to me more than made up for them.

John and Sam's triumphs and mistakes take place in a charming pixel-art landscape that's rich with lovely characters and intimately designed places. With all the stylings of a retro JRPG, you might expect Eastward to play like one, but this chill action-adventure is more Zelda than Dragon Quest. Frying pan and psychic powers at the ready, they might stumble into saving the world as they explore it. A man and his adopted daughter find their way through a whimsical, post-apocalyptic landscape.

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