Eastshade

[h1]Life Changing[/h1] The best compliment that I can pay to this game is that it affected me more as an artist than almost any game I've ever played. Because of this game I have bought a table saw, wood, canvas cloth and have begun learning how to make my own canvases. I've taken up acrylic paint when previously I had only down pencil, digital, and some minor watercolor. I would have never even thought to try to make canvases but now I'm learning and loving it. [h2]The Actual Game[/h2] I wanted skyrim but peaceful and reddit sent me here. "We have Skyrim at home." isn't an out of place impression that this game initially gives off, and certainly it has some of the jank that goes along with that comparison. However, what it lacks in polish it more than makes up for in heart. This game has character and a world that makes you want to learn more about your surroundings. Plenty of time can be spent soaking in the environment, the characters, the little story threads running through and around interconnecting with one another. The game at times feels unfinished, even narratively. That being said it is an experience I find myself returning to again and again.

I really wanted to like this game for a chill cozy experience (based on the reviews) ... that's not what I got. It's kind of a broken slog of a game, and not being able to find the barkeep to get the jug of the guys head was the last straw ... NOTHING tells you she's been in his house for hours/days, I wasted so much time trying to get this done. The walking pace is painfully slow, no map, wandering aimlessly was more of a chore than anything else. How this game got so many positive reviews is beyond me ... too slow and janky with no direction ... you're on your own floundering. Couldn't finish and quit (and I love walking sims ... Firewatch, Edith Finch, Dear Esther, etc.))

Literally the most relaxing game I've ever played (so far). If you enjoy completing all the side quests in open-world RPGs even if they don't involve combat, or if you're similar to me and like to take your time exploring the environment and noticing all the little details in a game, then you'll for sure enjoy Eastshade. The best way I can describe it is like Skyrim but only the side quests, and instead of fighting anything, it's solely getting to know interesting characters and chilling otherwise. It's a genuinely cozy game, and while some games in the "cozy" genre are actually quite grindy, you really don't have to sweat at all in this one. The fact that the creator of the game is also a former triple-A 3D environment artist really showcases how important the scenery itself is to the whole game; it's very tranquil. There were a few minor bugs but I encountered nothing game-breaking at all, mostly just slightly humorous glitches. From what I've looked into in the devblog, it was mentioned that the folks who worked on the game were unsure they took the right route by going with animal characters instead of humans as they're a bit uncanny looking due to being "not stylized enough". However, I think it adds character and uniqueness to the game tbh (although I would have enjoyed it regardless). I've also got to take a moment to appreciate the fact that all interactable characters are fully voice-acted, and they did a very good job with that as well! Great voice acting, great music, quests that don't feel repetitive, and memorable characters. An overall great hidden gem of a game that deserves way more attention. It's really an experience you'll remember for years, as the whole thing feels like you took a vacation to a strange yet beautiful island in some kind of fable or storybook.

Many people have pointed out that a game about a painter has little to do with the player actually painting. But it's so much more than that. I loved the quiet, slow exploration of this world and its people. Yes, you can eventually unlock fast travel or travel around faster with a bicycle. But even after unlocking those, the world was so beautiful and whimsical, I didn't want to go too fast. And I think that's the point: to slow down and notice the little things, to appreciate them, to savor them. And when my only quest was to leave Eastshade, I felt truly sad. Because, yes I could boot the game back up again and restart. But I'd never have the joy of experiencing this game for the first time again. So no, this game is not about actually putting color on a canvas. It's about experiencing the world through the eyes of an artist; Slowing down, experiencing beauty in little and big things in the world, and trying desperately to capture it, only to fall a little short because it's the experience that's matters.

Just want to get some issues I had out of the way. The game did crash and break a couple of times. The game has an auto save feature so usually it was ok, but at one point I lost about an hour of my first exploration of the Tiffmoor Bluffs as the game didn't auto save, although my re-exploration was faster since I knew what to do (I was more annoyed the auto-save never triggered despite doing multiple significant things). From that point i did manual saves more often. I also had times where I would get physically stuck (fixed by reload or teleport). Sometimes things would visually get stuck in weird ways, fixed by a restart. Also the games performance isn't too great, but I was sort of able to work around this. So there is some major jank tech wise and I think it's important to mention it, but I want to talk about the game itself now. To me this is a masterpiece game. I wasn't sure what I was getting into. Things I read were walking simulator and like Elder Scrolls, but without combat. I've never really gotten into a Elder Scrolls game and I'm not always a fan of walking sims. To me though, the game actually reminded me most of games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild; specifically the parts where you're exploring a town and solving problems for people and the parts where you're traveling the open world and come across stuff. These things are actually my favorite parts of these games, so having a game doing just that was cool. This is also essentially a photography game which I also really love. The main quest simply involves capturing 4 paintings for your mom, very similar to the "Captured Memories" quest in Breath of The Wild, one of my favorites. The way the game paces the exploration is great. Kind of like Zelda games, you start simple, stuck in a small town area letting you slowly get to grip with what the game is going to be like. In this game that was the town of Lyndow you start at. You are told of a big city and there's an open space in between, but for me, I just stuck to Lyndow until I felt I figured out everything there. Right off the bat I met a kid wanting to help her paint and the game smartly uses this as an opportunity to teach you about gathering resources, crafting canvases and making paintings. It felt natural and also helping out the kid felt nice. A nice bonus was that the kid mentioned a painting the inn keeper wanted. This wasn't marked as a quest, but I was curious to try it anyways and it actually worked. There is no handholding, the game has no ui indicators telling you what to do (minus some hints in the loading screen), and everything is naturally explained. The abandoned tower quest was my favorite here. The voice acting and dialogue is amazing. In games like this, sometimes you feel like you're doing a fetch quest or being told to go somewhere. The game almost never feels like this. The game doesn't have any major game altering choices, but because the characters are likable, you naturally want to do whatever pleases you most and the resulting dialogs themselves and the consequences to the people is what makes the various quest have some weight. I always felt engaged because it didn't feel like I was going through filler dialogue. As mentioned already, the game isn't handholdy so you also don't feel like the game is talking to you like you're an idiot (The Thief at Sinkwood Inn quest is a great example). Sometimes it was imperfect, usually with some dialogue not making sense after completing a quest, but it was more good than bad. In this game you are kind of slow. There is progression to how you can explore which feels nice. Stuff like being able to teleport, going through cold, getting a raft and some more. It's cool when you get some of these items and realize you can go to new places. The walk itself which you do a lot feels kind of slow, but I realized I didn't mind it. The game is beautiful. If you're able to, I recommend enhancing this aspect as much as possible. I used Windows Auto HDR for high contrast visuals and Nvidia Smooth Motion to get high fps (helped with the games performance not being great). Coming across and walking through Tiffmoor Bluffs was magical. Boating around the island felt so freeing. This game also knows when to kick in the music. Once again with Tiffmoor Bluffs, it plays this Ghibli style music and I felt like I was in some kind of forsaken land. I took tons of screenshots because of the beauty and the clean hud made that even easier. When I got to the end, I started feeling sentimental about my whole journey coming to an end, but I also felt fulfilled exploring the lovely, dense world. The game hit me hard right at the end too and it made the choices I made that much more worth it. I felt like I was leaving a home and friends. It would have been cool if you could go around and give one more farewell to everyone you met. Overall, this will be an experience for me to remember.

i really want to like this game because conceptually, it sounds really nice. the environments are pretty, but i find every single character insufferable as well as a good chunk of the mechanics. maybe it's just not for me.

Beautiful, atmospheric, and chill game that has a lot to offer when it comes to exploration, discovery, and narrative. Close to the end of the game I found myself sad that it was going to be over soon, and hoping that I shall play more of games like this in the future. The fact that community guides have a guide called "Games, even remotely, resembling Eastshade" shows that I am far from the only one with such sentiment. Some more polish could probably make it even greater, but that really is nitpicking on my part, it was well worth the asking price as-is. I have thorougly enjoyed my time with it and can strongly recommend it.

First of all, I just want to say that this game is so freaking beautiful. The visuals and the environment are some of the best I have ever seen in a game. Secondly, if you are looking for action, fast-paced gameplay, and a solid game plot then this is not the game for you. This game is slow-paced, peaceful, relaxing. For me, its helping to slow my quick mind and keep me calm which is barely achievable through most games. The characters are an interesting aspect and were surprisingly fitting for the game. And the soundtrack is stunningly magical. I found this game through an Instagram reel where it was described as "Skyrim without the fighting" and I could not pass that up. Basically, if you are looking for a cosy, adventurous game to get lost in then this is for you!

作为步行模拟游戏，本应作为强项的沉浸感却做得很差。被预览图片骗进来，玩了以后发现实机画面和商店图片完全不是一回事，最高画质仍然粗糙的和网游一样，树叶都是模糊的贴图，优化也不行，固态硬盘都经常出现贴图加载延迟，空气墙和穿模也很多，探索的乐趣被平庸的画质和地图设计搞得兴趣索然，不好玩。 刚发售时以为开发团队需要时间打磨游戏，但过了8年重新玩发现问题都没解决。 顺便一提，猴子NPC都很丑，不如都换成熊

This is a lovely game with beautiful landscapes, plenty of wonderful, funny and touching interactions, and relaxing music. I really enjoyed it.