Video Game / Eastward

Escape the tyrannical clutches of a subterranean society and join Eastward’s unlikely duo on an exciting adventure to the land above!

Eastward is a Retraux-style video game developed by Pixpil and published by Chucklefish Studios. It combines action-adventure, RPG, and puzzle-solving elements into a videogame highly reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda, but with a heavy dose of modern storytelling tropes.

In a near-future society on the brink of collapse, a hardworking miner called John discovers a young girl named Sam in a secret underground facility. This unlikely pair will embark on an emotional journey to discover the truth, traveling across a wonderfully weird world and exploring bustling towns, curious campsites and shady forests.

The game released to Steam on September 16, 2021 as well as Nintendo Switch as a timed console exclusive.

A DLC, Eastward Octopia was announced on 2023. Acting as a standalone experience from the main story, it focuses on cultivating a farm and helping a town regrow in an Alternate Universe of the setting.

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Tropes:

• Ability Depletion Penalty: Sam can use a charged attack that consumes much more energy than her normal energy sphere. However doing it without enough energy will lock her out of her powers temporarily. This is extremely dangerous in the boss fight where Sam has to fight without John.
• Absent-Minded Professor: Alva always means well with her inventions, but she hardly ever properly assesses the dangers each one can pose during just the testing phase.
• Achievements in Ignorance: In the first chapter of the game, when banished by Mayor Hoffman to board Charon, the sensor called "Charon's Throat" shines blue and then shuts down when Sam passes through it. And, when she and John board Charon, it turns out to be an ordinary train. It's not. And, when entered as the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, zombies can be found patrolling its labyrinthian depths, implying these are people who previously stepped aboard the hellish train. It's likely that, being the Mother, Sam saved John from boarding Charon in its true form and being lost to it in the same way.
• Affectionate Nickname: Alva usually calls Isabel "Izzy".
• All for Nothing: Isabel joining with Mother to revive Alva proves to be this. Even if Mother's birthing chamber had managed to resuscitate her body, Alva's soul wouldn't be in it. The Alva created from the chamber as a result wouldn't be the girl Isabel fell in love with.
• All Women Love Shoes: Alva gifts Sam a pair of red shoes and Sam is ecstatic, it becomes a bonding moment for both girls. Per the item's description, it never occurred to John to buy her shoes.
• Alpha Bitch: Grandis, the Potcrock Isle Mayor's niece, and her friends Sansey and Hansey are shown to bully other children quite openly. Their bullying of Daniel and Sam inspires her to go up to the surface to prove that it's still full of life as Daniel's dad claimed.
• Animation Bump: Some of the very last scenes in the game involve more fluid animation than usual, most notably when Sam merges with Mother, and when the newly-merged Sam falls into John's arms.
• Artificial Human: The ultimate goal of the other Sam known as 'Mother' is to make perfect humans, bred in artificial chambers and labs found throughout the world. It's implied that for hundreds, if not thousands of years, Charon would ride out into the world, unleashing the MIASMA and killing the current living humans, after which Mother would then replace them with new humans. When those humans failed, Charon would then kill those humans and the cycle repeats. Sam is a special type of artificial human, specifically a piece of Mother, whose physical body can be taken over by Mother's spirit to effectively allow her to be immortal. Because these events have gone on for so long, it's possible that everyone in the game world has descended from artificial humans.
• Androids Are People, Too: Humans and robots live together in relative harmony throughout Eastward's various cities and even get married and form families together. There're even several cases of robots adopting humans as children and vice versa, though it's not really explored much.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • You can buy an item that will help to detect any chests that are nearby, including hidden ones. This is available as early as the first area.
  • If you missed anything in your first run of the game (and chances are, you will), finishing the game for the first time unlocks the option to revisit earlier chapters so you can go back and pick up anything you missed - which will still count towards achievements as it carries between save files - without having to replay the whole game.
  • The game autosaves just about every time you enter a room, so if you choose to continue on the game over screen then you'll just reload at the room you died in rather than your last manual save.
• Art Shift: The portraits of John and Sam in the HUD seem inspired by 1920s cartoons like Felix the Cat or Popeye unlike the rest of the game.
• Ascended Meme: A few years ago a reddit thread wondered if maybe the compelling urge to open and stare at the fridge, even though we know there's nothing in it that we want, is because the fridge works as a save point. Well, now it does.
• Attack of the Town Festival: The MIASMA attacks Greenberg the night before their Harvest Festival.
• Badass and Child Duo: John and Sam travel a post-apocalyptic world and work together to fight off baddies and solve puzzles.
• Bittersweet Ending: The heroes are ultimately able to stop Mother, and end the threat of Charon and the MIASMA for good, but at great cost. Sam merges with Mother to stop her and disappears. Isabel is unable to save Alva, and is shattered with grief. In the process of protecting Sam, Daniel's body is destroyed, ultimately reducing him to just a head. But both the human and robot Daniels are able to live happily with William, and somewhere far away, years later, Sam and John meet again.
• Blatant Lies: Right after John and Sam have acquired the glazy berry Daniel will run up to them and claim that his "dad" is dying (notably he never refers to William as his dad other than this conversation, so he seems to be invoking Deliberately Cute Child) and the only thing that will save him is a glazy berry, which Sam promptly hands over to him before he can even finish with his sob story. You can find them later and they'll even try to sell you the glazy berry jam they made from it.
• Boring, but Practical: John's trusty frying pan is far from being the most impressive weapon in the game, but 99% of times will get the job of protecting him and Sam done. Likewise Sam's first power, a small orb of energy that paralyzes most enemies, isn't much to look at, but it's invaluable to fight off some pesky enemies that John would have a hard time dealing with on his own.
• Broken Bridge: Silva and Armstrong will be passed out blocking the stairs to the lower parts of New Dam City and Sam will stop you from going into Rocket apartments until you talk to the Board Man. The Central Park and the Coin Palace areas will be blocked off until nightfall, and the fish market won't open until the subway line is fixed.
• Bury Your Gays: Played With. Alva, who is very openly in a relationship with Isabel, is killed by Solomon. However, Isabel isn't killed but spends the rest of the game dealing with her grief over Alva's death.
• Call to Agriculture: John, Sam and even Jasper are offered the opportunity to join Greenberg and settle there which they all seem excited about until the MIASMA shatters that dream.
• Camp Gay: Jasper, specially at first where he's almost farcical. As the story progresses we learn more about his Hidden Depths. Notably, unlike most examples of this trope, his theatricality rather than his interest in men is emphasized.
• Can't Spit It Out: Uva very clearly has developed feelings for John, and she even mentions how much she'd love to have a child like Sam, hinting that she wants to be a part of their family, but she can't bring herself to say it and John is a man of few words. The dream John has at the start of Chapter 4 heavily implies that he would've reciprocated if Uva confessed to him.
• Caps Lock: The MIASMA is spelled in all caps.
• The Casino: The Coin Palace. It seems to be the reason why many of the citizens of New Dam City are dirt poor. The game implies that on the top floor other types of services are available for patrons.
• Cast from Money: One of the Merchant's special attacks in "Earth Born" throws literal cash at the enemies. It does more damage the more money you have.
• Chainsaw Good: John obtains a Buzzsaw that SHOOTS saw blades. The monkeys of Monkollywood intended to use it as a prop but considered it too dangerous for some reason.
• Chef of Iron: John knows his way with a skillet in more ways than one.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: The Lucky Coin. Sam and John end up going after Daniel in the caves beneath the school after some bullies threw the coin in there; he later tries to give it to Sam when she and John are imprisoned, and it gets thrown through a poster on the wall of their cell, revealing that there is a hole behind it that they can use to escape. After that, while in New Dam City, Sam uses the coin on a machine at the casino that everyone else has lost at, resulting in her constantly winning and getting the attention of Lee the owner, which sets the rest of Chapter 3's plot into motion. Then the coin is used again when Sam and John join William and Daniel (the robot) on the Iron Carbine and they need to make it move fast enough to outrun their future selves, and also later when John chases Charon after Mother possesses Sam and goes on board.
• Compressed Hair: Alva's helmet that she usually wears obscures the fact that her hair is long enough to go down her back.
• Corrupt Politician: Mayor Hoffman of Potcrock Isle. He's the only person who lives in a house while everyone else live in trailers, docks the miners' pay constantly for failing to meet productivity standards even in the face of invasion from monsters, and exiles any folks found to have made contact with the surface.
• Curiosity Killed the Cast: If Alva had just stayed in the command center rather than check out that suspicious noise, she probably would've lived through Solomon's attack on the Wind Shrine.
• Cycle of Hurting: There is no invincibility between hits on this game, some "mini boss rooms" are just closed rooms with multiple normal enemies and that should be enough to quickly overwhelm you.
• Dark Reprise: Charon's true inside theme is a slower, darker remix of Sam's theme.
• Dean Bitterman: The principal at Sam's school rules it with an iron fist and even her employees fear her.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Lee graciously accepts being Sam and John's friend after they win his bet.
• Demolitions Expert: John is a "digger" or miner. Understandably he knows his way around using bombs as tools and weapons.
• Developer's Foresight: Some of the dialogue changes depending on if you've spoken to certain NPCs beforehand or not. For example, if you spoke to Jackson, Eric, and Kentaro at the start of Chapter 3, then the former two will already know who Sam is and that she is interested in Earth Born during the cutscene outside Rocket Mansion.
• Door to Before: The item you need is right by the entrance to the Old New Dam City area. Shame the door is locked and you have to walk the long way around to find it. Even worse, when you finally find it the door unlocks by itself with no further explanation. Inside the Dam, elevators will take you right back to the entrance of each area; gee it would have been convenient if those elevators had been available before.
• The Dragon: Parodied and then played straight with Solomon. In New Dam City, Solomon seems like a random person, name dropping Charon and making ominous warnings but not actually being threatening, but his attempt to make good on them results in Alva being mortally wounded. The adult and elder Solomon in the next two areas are played more straight, but still somewhat comedically, having childish goals of supreme dominion of the world. Mother, for her part, doesn't discuss any role he'd have in her vision of the future.
• Dream Sequence: John will have a dream about the mines in Potcrock and relive the accident during which he found Sam. During an earlier sequence he'll be back in Greenberg the morning after the MIASMA attack and all the villagers will greet him as if nothing happened. Uva will be the only one to acknowledge it's all a dream; she asks him not to feel bad for what happened and expresses regret over how things ended before he's woken up by Sam.
• Duel Boss: The boss fight against Isabel is completely one-on-one on a sidescrolling plane.
• Double Entendre: The "Beetle Queen" in a Dominatrix costume while introducing herself to the rest of the circus troupe:
  Beetle Queen: Ready your stakes, boys, because tonight, the tents shall rise!
• Double-Meaning Title: Eastward is the name of the game's land and John and Sam must move "Eastward" to the land's Capital City to get to the bottom cause of the land's imminent collapse.
• Easing into the Adventure: The first few quests are related to getting John to work on time, dealing with some slugs that are causing trouble in the mine and getting Sam through her first day of school. Things start getting stranger from that point onwards.
• Evil Counterpart: Brave, determined, kind and caring John has a coworker named Yohn who while somewhat similar in appearance is a lying coward, quick to turn on anyone if it saves his skin.
• Fast-Forward to Reunion: In the final moments of the story, when John and Sam defeat Mother, John holds Sam (who has merged with Mother) in a sea of water for a brief moment before she disappears. Mother asks Sam if she'll say goodbye, to which she replies that she doesn't need to, because she knows they'll meet each other again. Fast forward after the credits and we see Sam as a teenager/young woman waiting at a train stop. She bumps into John, who'd grown to be a middle-aged man and while she doesn't quite remember him, John is silently floored at having been reunited.
• Final-Exam Boss: Solomon's last fight pretty much forces the player to use most of their arsenal ranging from John's frying pan to his guns and Sam's powers in order to defeat him.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: A plant sprayer gets retrofitted as a handy flamethrower. How it manages to consume the same ammo as the shotgun is anyone's guess.
• Foreshadowing: When Charon stops to let off its passengers, when exiting, Charon can be seen driving away on its own. It leads one to wonder where the train's going when it's not there. The answer is revealed in time, and it's nothing good.
• Frying Pan of Doom: John's primary weapon is a skillet that he uses to both whack baddies and cook food.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Sam will need to use her light powers to help John through some MIASMA puzzles in Old New Dam City and immediately after they return to New Dam City she'll proclaim to Alva that she believes MIASMA to be just hogwash. Either her memory is seriously compromised or the developers forgot they had included MIASMA in the dungeon right before this conversation.
• Genki Girl: Sam is an endless bundle of energy and curiosity. Alva's not too far behind in this department.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Alva for the most part acts bubbly and feminine, but her main interest lies in machines, and she doesn't mind getting herself dirty.
• Girly Run: Jasper's running animation is like this, adding to his campiness.
• Good Luck Charm: A green coin with a Four-Leaf Clover engraved on it originally given to Daniel by his father, Daniel later gives it to Sam as thanks and she uses it to defeat the "Black Hole" a pachinko machine infamous for being undefeated, and she beats it repeatedly.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: The fabled Ester City, where no one grows a day older, is actually stuck inside a time field that loops the same day over and over, before Charon is meant to arrive. Only after John and Sam break the time field do they notice that Ester City had been derelict and abandoned long before they arrived.
• Guide Dang It!: Despite having several chests, items, upgrades, and abilities that are permanently missable, it's not until the end of Chapter 2 that it becomes obvious that you won't be able to return to any previous areas to get them. The game doesn't always warn you when you're about to pass a point you won't be able to return from, nor does it warn you about when certain items will stop being available to buy in shops. If you're not using a guide, chances are you're going to miss at least one of these in your first playthrough. Thankfully, any collectibles that go towards achievements are carried over across save files, and a chapter select option was added in a patch, so you don't have to replay the entire game to complete everything.
• Heart Container: Heart Orbs. Collecting four pieces will grant an additional heart.
• Heroic Mime: In contrast to the chatty Sam, John doesn't speak a single word, only grunting in battle. A common gag in the game involves John answering a phone and the person on the receiving end wondering why the line is silent, only to quickly conclude that it must be John.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • When Solomon surprises everyone at the train station with an attack, Daniel jumps in the way and takes the hit, getting his body destroyed by it. He gets better by the end, though.
  • Sam merges with Mother in order to stop her from carrying out her plan, effectively giving up her life with John. A flash-forward shows her as an older girl who doesn't remember John, meaning she also gave up her memories of that life.
• High-Altitude Battle: The final battle against Solomon takes place in the elevator to the top of the Eternal Tower.
• Hidden Buxom: Alva in the Hot Springs Episode turns out to have quite a sizable bust. Isabel is quick to drag her back inside while John isn't looking.
• Hidden Depths: Lee's goons may look like just a bunch of thugs, but they're smart enough to help Alva run the God of Wind fan. They also help evacuate the whole city when the MIASMA attacks.
• Hidden Eyes: Many characters sport them, notably John is one of them.
• Honorary Princess: Alva, even though she's referred to as "The Princess" she doesn't appear to be a ruler, more of a well esteemed and respected lady specially due to her grandfather having saved the residents of New Dam City when Old New Dam City was overrun by the MIASMA.
• Hyperactive Sprite: Everyone is in constant motion unless time has frozen. This, on top of John's Hidden Eyes make it difficult to know if he's meant to be sleeping or just sitting/resting.
• I Can See My House from Here: Inverted, Sam exclaims that she can see Greenberg from their new home.
• I Choose to Stay: When Sam and John decide to leave New Dam City in order to visit Ester City, Jasper decides to stay behind, partly because he doesn't want to run away and abandon everyone again like he did in Greenberg, and also because he's found his place with the people from the circus there.
• Intergenerational Friendship: John is a man in his 40s, while Sam is a young girl who isn't quite a teenager yet. While their relationship has elements of John being a Parental Substitute for Sam, they're often shown as equal parts of a team and along most of the adventure, Sam takes the initiative in deciding what the next objective is.
• Important Haircut: At the very end of the game, William has cut his long, messy hair into a neater style, but with enough hair left for a bit of flow. It's implied that he's now bringing his human son Daniel, who has also had a haircut, on his adventures with him.
• It's All My Fault: John's a man of no words, but the dream at the start of Chapter 4 reveals that he blames himself for the destruction of Greenberg. After finding out that she and Mother are one in the same, Sam is also crushed by the guilt of the lives Mother has destroyed, particularly her role in Alva's death.
• It's the Journey That Counts: Enforced by Sam. After going through a number of quests to find the most delicious dish Mr. Lee has ever tasted, he finally admits defeat and asks Sam what does she want as a reward. No limits. She just asks for his friendship and that he joins them for dinner every day.
• Just Before the End: John and Sam's world has fallen into deep ruin and many people are rapidly dying.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Almost immediately after Mayor Hoffman banishes John and Sam from Potcrock Isle and forces them to board a train named Charon, the first floor of his home, which is located on Charon's train tracks, is completely destroyed when Charon comes charging through due to John having activated a secret switch in the Mayor's home prior.
• Lethal Chef: When Alva attempts to prepare dinner, it results in the kitchen being covered in smoke. According to Isabel, this isn't the first time this has happened.
• Locomotive Level: Chapter 6 takes place on a large train full of sapient monkeys who film movies. Charon also sort of counts, but the interior is much bigger and hardly looks like a train at all.
• Loot Boxes: In-game mechanic. Literal gacha machines exist in the game. You need special tokens to use them however, not real money or even in-game money. You use tokens to obtain Amiibo-like figurines that grant you special items that will aid you in "Earth Born". Different machines have different figures available so you'll need to visit multiple ones to obtain all the available figures.
• The Lost Lenore: Alva winds up becoming this to Isabel. After Alva is killed by Solomon, Isabel spends the rest of the story trying to bring her back to life.
• Love Makes You Evil: Isabel ends up allying herself with Mother under the belief that Mother's breeding chambers can revive her beloved Alva. She's ultimately talked down by Alva's spirit, who points out to her that any duplicates made in the breeding chambers won't be the girl she loves.
• Mad Scientist: Alva's experiments are at the very least considered dangerous by anyone who's seen them.
• Magical Barefooter: Sam is barefoot and only wears an oversized sweater (presumably John's). At least until she gets a pair of red shoes from Alva.
• Magikarp Power: The aforementioned cash based attack from the Merchant on "Earth Born". If you save your cash or if you use his other attack "Loan Shark" often to build up your available cash, you can steamroll through most enemies with ease including the final boss.
• The Mall: The second dungeon is located in the ruins of an abandoned mall, complete with shopping carts and escalators out of order. No Zombies unfortunately.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Zig-Zagged regarding Alva and Isabel. In terms of personality, Alva fits the "feminine gay" role as the more bubbly and girly of the two, but she also enjoys tinkering with machinery and doesn't dress in a particularly feminine fashion. It's just that Isabel displays many more traits that are typically associated with tomboys in addition to being a field combatant.
• Mean Boss: Partially because Daniel the robot often struggles to keep William's various grifting schemes and personal information to himself, William isn't really all that kind to his invention, either subjecting him to a harsh Dope Slap or outright insulting him. Where it counts, William still considers Daniel the robot as much of a son as his own flesh and blood.
• Mechanical Abomination: Mayor Hoffman portrays the train Charon as being one, claiming it to be some harbinger of death. He's absolutely right. While it masquerades as a passenger train while John and Sam are riding it, it soon enough drops the act to reveal itself to be a many-legged, segmented rattletrap horror, with its paneling flapping at the point of nearly coming off, pouring MIASMA onto the world below as it rampages down the rails. To make matters worse, its interior is a Bigger on the Inside Eldritch Location inhabited by the mutated, animated corpses of the poor souls that came aboard it.
• Mirror Boss: Isabel. When fought she perform melee attacks, ranged attacks, in form of illusions, and even heavy strikes just like John. In a more literal sense you have to fight Isabel by reflecting her attacks.
• The Napoleon: Mung. His temper is as short as his height. However he's shown to worry about his sons Silva and Armstrong quite a bit, risking life and limb so save them.
• Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters: Outside of running a rigged casino, Lee doesn't seem to be all that bad a guy. He's also one of the people responsible for protecting New Dam City from the MIASMA.
• New Neo City: Inverted, after New Dam City was overrun by MIASMA, a new New Dam City was built in higher ground which led to the abandoned city to be named Old New Dam City. Sam lampshades how ridiculous that name sounds.
• No-Gear Level:
  • Part of Chapter 6 involves John having his weapons taken away, forcing him and Sam to have to sneak their way to the storage room to get them back.
  • In Chapter 8, John has all his weapons except his pan taken away, which makes things more difficult for him when he has to outrun the MIASMA, and then fight Isabel.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Solomon at first seems like just a random punk fancying himself Charon's herald. Then he winds up killing Alva trying to make good on his threats.
• Not Too Dead to Save the Day: Alva's spirit manifests during John and Isabel's battle and convinces Isabel to let John through to stop Mother. She also gives a pep talk to Sam's psychic projection, encouraging her to fight off Mother's influence.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in two cases:
  • When meeting Uva for the first time, she calls out John's name, but it's quickly shown that she was actually referring to a dog who is also called John. There's also the robots that run shops where you can upgrade your equipment, all called Johnny.
  • William's son back in Potrock Isle is called Daniel, and he decided to name his android Daniel as well.
• Parasite Zombie: A glowing creature seems to control the mindless infected humanoids in Old New Dam City, after enough damage is made to the host, their top half will explode and three glowing tentacles will appear only connected to the lower half of the host, then it becomes much more aggressive and fast.
• Parental Substitute: John is Sam's in all but name. Even though she clarifies to other people that refer to him as her dad that "John is John" it's pretty clear that they have a parent-child relationship.
• People Jars: John found Sam in one as shown in the game's intro. You will find other more sinister ones being guarded by "Breeder Robots"
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • You can't return to any previous areas, and there are some isntances where you can't return to certain places within those areas during your time there either. This means you'll be locked out of any chests you missed. You may also miss out on being able to buy certain items from shops, not helped by the fact that they cycle which items they have in stock. New Dam City in particular has one or two sidequests that reward you with Heart Orbs, which you miss out on if you haven't completed them by the time Chapter 3 ends.
  • Speaking of Chapter 3, there are also 2 secret areas where you can get 2 new abilities for Sam, which can easily be missed. Chapter 7 also has a secret area where you can upgrade all of Sam's abilities.
  • You have an option to change the book on the Mayor's desk that he will use for his speech when he banishes you from Potcrock Isle, you can replace it with a copy of the Earth Born manga or an adult magazine which he'll quote from during his speech. If you miss this and check the painting behind his desk first the scene will continue and you'll miss this extra content.
• Personality Chip: William is taking Daniel to Ester City to have an Emotions Chip installed.
• Pineapple Ruins Pizza: The flavor text after cooking a pizza says "John once tried to make pizza. John once put pineapple on pizza. John failed at making pizza."
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Daniel the robot. He's able to stop Solomon's runaway train with just one fist and without even flinching.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Chapter 4 in spades. Solomon manages to rob New Dam City of all its hopes: the Wind Shrine, the Princess and the Knight. Solomon manages to damage the Wind Shrine enough so it would have basically no hope of defending the city from the next MIASMA surge and Alva ends up mortally wounded by him which later forces Isabel to take her away from the city in a desperate attempt to save her. The city is basically at its lowest with only Lee keeping its people from giving up completely.
• Real Men Cook: John is shown to be an amazing cook and thoroughly recognized by anyone who tries his food.
• Replacement Goldfish: William, an adventurer who was banished from Potcrock Isle, has a son named Daniel who you meet early on in the game. Later, you encounter William, who travels with a shy, teenage-looking robot he named Daniel, who he seems to deeply care for.
• Retirony: Alva and Isabel discuss going on a trip together after successfully fending off the MIASMA at the start of Chapter 4, with Isabel in particular promising Alva that she'll always be there to protect her. Alva is killed by Solomon at the end of the chapter while Isabel is away contending with Solomon's sabotage of the Wind Shrine.
• Retraux: The game has a 16-bit art style but with modern fighting elements.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Alva has long flowing pink hair and the sweet, girly, optimistic and cheery personality to match.
• Rule of Three:
  • Most of Chapter 3 involves Sam and John trying to make a meal to impress Lee, with him giving them 3 chances. Sam thinks it will be easy because of John's cooking skills, but it ends up taking them all 3 tries. Firstly, after acquiring a Glazy Berry, Sam Falls for Daniel's claim that William is dying and needs it to live. After that, Sam and John end up overcooking the crab pot after getting preoccupied with helping the circus troupe. Finally, they make a meal out of a Golden Valley Snapper fish that Lee is impressed enough by to accept his defeat.
  • Also in Chapter 3, there is a sidequest where you have to bring an NPC a meal that will help him get the ideal body he wants to impress a woman. The burger set will make him too fat, and the vegetable stir fry will make him as thin as he was before; the diet set will finally make him muscular enough.
  • Solomon is fought 3 times at different points in his life. Each fight ends with you recieving a key.
• Scavenger World: All over the place structures are mostly built from scraps and repurposed materials. In Potcrock Isle everyone lives in some kind of vehicle and even the Mayor's house is built from scrap material. Greenberg is no better: all of their houses and even the train station are built from repurposed ships.
• Shipper on Deck: Most of the population of Greenberg is determined to see Uva and John get hitched ASAP. She later confides in Jasper that she actually IS on board with the plan.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: John acquires one. Unfortunately it requires ammo and can't be shot in quick succession, unlike the handy skillet.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Mung hands you the subway pass he proclaims that "Whenever. Wherever. You and the subway are meant to be together."
  • The Game Within a Game "Earth Born" plays a lot like the old school Dragon Quest games, even down to the generic "Knight must save Princess from Demon Lord" plot. For extra points, the knight on the cartridge cover is a Captain Ersatz of Loto/Roto from Dragon Quest III.
  • At one point in the game you can visit Lowtown and find Margolari Pittore painting the people there. One of the inhabitants will claim to be reminded of that grand ocean liner years ago.
    Lulu: I'll never let go, Jack...
  • In the Monkollywood train you can find cardboard cutouts of multiple franchises such as Godzilla fighting a Captain Ersatz version of Ultraman, as well as a Gundam suit.
  • Over the course of Solomon's three boss fights, he give you keys representing wisdom, courage and... strength.
  • The bullies Grandis, Sansey, and Hansey are named after the Terrible Trio of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Princess Alva may be girly and adorable but as Mr. Lee's goons will attest: "she can scare the hair off a fly".
• Small Role, Big Impact: Grandis bullying Sam by mocking her description of the surface above them is the initial catalyst that sparks John and Sam's journey.
• Speech Impediment: Daniel the boy and Daniel the android both suffer from a stutter.
• Stealth-Based Mission: Chapter 6 has a section where you have to make your way through the train cars while avoiding cameras, lights, and patrolling monkeys. Getting caught by them sends you back to the start of the room, and resets any puzzles.
• Stepford Smiler: As Alva reveals to Isabel while they're out drinking, much of her happy-go-lucky inventor self is just an act she puts on so she doesn't feel the constant fear of failing to protect New Dam City from the MIASMA.
• The Stinger: The post-credits scene shows that William not only managed to survive after John took the Iron Carbine to Charon, but he also reunited with his son Daniel, and has managed to partially rebuild the android Daniel as well.
• Stop Drowning and Stand Up: In Chapter 5, when Sam and John find Mung in Lowtown, he's splashing around in the shallow water and calling for help, and Sam tells him he can just put his feet on the floor to stand up. The funny part is that Mung is a robot and might not even be able to drown.
• Strong Family Resemblance: William and his young son Daniel have long, disheveled purple hair and noticeably large eyes, which Daniel is bullied for in the beginning of the game.
• Super-Strength: Daniel the robot is shown to be extremely strong, so much so that he is able to stop Solomon's runaway train with only his fist.
• Supreme Chef: John's quite the cook, and a major gameplay mechanic involves cooking healing items that can occasionally grant buffs depending on what ingredients are put in.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: There are several points throughout the game where a vending machine is available to buy bomb and ammo refills from, as well as energy drinks, a fairly decent healing item. These are usually right before you have to fight a load of enemies or a miniboss. Areas before boss battles will usually also have a cooker and a fridge for you to make some meals and save your game beforehand.
• Survivor's Guilt: Jasper went outside for a walk when MIASMA fell on Greenberg, there was nothing for him to do but run for his life but he still feels like it's his fault and that he could've done something to help them. He's understandably still in shock when they reach New Dam City. John's dream at the start of Chapter 4 reveals that he feels the same way.
• Taking the Bullet: Just when Sam, John, William, and Daniel are wondering where Charon is, Solomon suddenly shows up and launches an attack, only for Daniel to take the hit, destroying his body in the process and leaving only his head intact. The post-credits scene shows that William was able to repair the head enough for Daniel to get better.
• Temporal Paradox: The group doesn't realize that the other train "chasing" the Iron Carbine is the Iron Carbine itself from the future, with Izzy's rocket attached to it on top. When the Future version collides with the Past version of the carbine it causes a paradox which sends them back in time repeatedly, until they figure out a way to outrun themselves.
• Those Two Guys: Silva and Armstrong are as sharp as butter knives. They keep falling for every Get-Rich-Quick Scheme they hear and are constantly getting into trouble and needing to be saved by Mung.
• Timed Mission:
  • In the Eternal Tower, there are rooms where you only have a certain amount of time to solve a puzzle and navigate the room in order to break the barrier that surrounds the device causing the time loop before it rewinds and you have to try again. There are hourglasses that can give you extra time, though.
  • EarthBorn gives the player seven in-game days to gain enough levels before having to fight the Demon King. The second run requires having to gain enough experience and defeat the king's four generals before time is up.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: The latter half of the game has a lot of things going on with time that are hard to make sense of. When John and Sam are travelling with William and Daniel on the Iron Carbine, they end up in a time loop due to being unable to move faster than what turns out to be their future selves, who are using Isabel's rocket to move faster in order to escape the loop. To get Isabel's rocket themselves, they end up on the Monkollywood train, which was visited by her a long time in the past from the monkey's perspective. Then, when the group finally reaches Ester City, they find themselves in another time loop (which only Sam and possibly John seem to be aware of), and breaking the time field that's causing it reveals that the city has long since been abandoned and overgrown), and somehow Isabel was able to visit it in its current state. On top of all that, we see three versions of Solomon who are implied to be the same person at different points in his life, and it's unclear if his funeral was a result of him faking his death, or happened after being killed by Mother and somehow sent back in time.
• Title Drop: Appears in a dream sequence that John is having.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Alva is nothing short of a bright and cheerful presence who desires nothing more than to help the inhabitants of New Dam City. She's killed by Solomon.
• Urban Segregation: New Dam City is somewhat dirty but still a nice enough place to live. The sewers however tell a different story. You can find other homeless people loitering around the city, some of them having lost all their money to Mr. Lee's Coin Palace.
• Underground City: Potcrock Isle is a large community of people who live underground and are forbidden from exploring the surface above them as they have been taught that the MIASMA has made it uninhabitable.
• The Unreveal: It's teased from her reactions to Solomon that Isabel is somehow related to the Breeding Facility for the New Dam City area, mentioning at one point that she was "created to protect Alva", and this being related to Mother as well, but whatever said role is goes largely unexplained, as she "joins" Mother only to try to save Alva.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: John's switching the train tracks in Hoffman's hidden cavern to send it to the east allowed Charon to be loosed back into the world, and taking Sam out there reactivated both the factory and the MIASMA, effectively setting the end of the world back into motion.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Charon. Mother's haven and where the MIASMA is spread to kill humanity so she can "polish" them into better beings. It's also where Sam is taken and where John has to venture to save her.
• What a Piece of Junk: At the end of Quake Valley John pilots a scrapped jeep... That's nonetheless functional enough to give him and Sam a wild ride which is incredibly amusing to Sam in particular.
• Wacky Wayside Tribe: Downplayed with the Monkollywood chapter. While it's eventually revealed that the train is being run by Solomon and has one of the human factories on board, it doesn't contribute much to the main plot, especially the beginning of the chapter where John has to take part in filming some scenes for a movie.
• Weakened by the Light: The shadowy creatures that appear in New Dam City are heavily affected by Sam's light abilities.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: William and the Daniels' fate are shown after the credits, but Isabel's is left open. After she's talked down from opposing John, she just disappears from the story.
• Womanchild: Alva displays the same energy and curiosity as Sam despite being old enough to drink.
• Wrench Wench: Alva. She built Izzy's rocket as well as the Sonic Punk.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: This is apparently what happens in the fog near Ester City. The monkeys of Monkollywood met Isabel many years ago, so much so that only the oldest one remembers her and the youngest ones only read about her in ancient documents.
• You Can't Go Home Again: After John, Sam and Jasper are banished from Potcrock Isle by the Mayor.

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