Whether you do or don’t recognize these callbacks, though, Eastward feels like a game charting its own course.
Eastward begins on Potcrock Isle, an underground settlement that functions as the last bastion for humanity against a surface world rendered uninhabitable.
Those demand finesse with characters and a level of mastery that Eastward doesn’t necessarily teach you the rest of the time.
And you’ll see it in a minor NPC that’s the spitting, pixelated image of legendary anime creator Hayao Miyazaki.