YMMV / Westward

• Funny Moments: The female bandit's valley girl speech in 4 includes a long rant about going to the hootenanny. It's unbelievably funny because her dialog is about a century ahead of the setting.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Food industries - the Baker and especially the Butcher - produce ridiculous amounts of gold in exchange for a token extra drain on your food supply. In fact, a one-man butcher shop can outproduce a two-man gold mine, and unlike the mine, uses 100% renewable resources.
  • The marketplace means that once you have a strong industrial economy going, you don't need to worry about wood or coal (both of which are nonrenewable) - just buy what you need out of your endless cash flow.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: If one took Anne Turner from Westward IV and replaced her job at a train station with a job on an apple farm, she'd be practically a human version of Applejack, down to a very similar southern accent, attitude and cowboy hat. Westward IV predates that series by several years.
• Obvious Beta: The experience system in Westward II felt untested, mixed with a touchy town happiness system that, one or both, could trash your town's productivity or make the game basically unbeatable. Westward III enhanced this with more options for experience points to keep the game at least playable without a guide, Westward IV further enhanced things with the career system allowing every citizen to become skilled in each type of job with bonus experience awarded AND removing the need for the hero to consume food, and Kingdoms kept many of these enhancements with a further expanded skill system and totally abandoning the town happiness meter.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The original Westward was done in a purely 2D format with an overhead view. When the second game was announced, it was shown to use a fully 3D engine with an isometric view. The game was also redesigned with an experience and quest system used to unlock buildings and upgrades. A town happiness system was introduced which could either help or harm the town. The main setup also featured the Hero character, a selectable main character that didn't need a home and served as a cross between citizens and gunslingers. While this trope was mostly averted in the long run, the initial reaction to the sequel change was surprising.
  • Westward Kingdoms, as it completely shifted everything to a medieval setting with a new art style. Much of the humor seemed to be removed and the music felt less cheerful.

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