Eastshade (2019)

I highly recommend this to anyone who likes "walking simulator" style games, or casual RPG's. The scenery is beautiful. The people you meet are engaging. The music is relaxing and magical. Exploring is its own reward, as there's always some new view or random thing to find. You can spend time simply fishing, paddling the lake or oceans on your raft or boat, camp under the stars, and brew tea over a campfire. This is a world to get lost in.

My only issue was accessibility. There should be alt text alternatives for people with vision issues and a way to zoom in on script or change the size. The map also could have benefited from the ability to zoom in as the script and even symbols are far too small.

That said, again, it's a delightfully charming game. I was sad to leave Eastshade. But, I know I'll be back to do it all again.

An Elder Scrolls game without combat and a fairly unique painting mechanic. Eastshade manages to nail that drive to explore and go off the beaten track that you have in Scrolls games. It doesn't need combat because the beautiful scenery, quirky characters and your ability to capture the world on canvas, are fine replacements.

Not perfect by any means as performance is pretty janky and there are no key rebindings.

I had a very nice time playing Eastshade. It is a gorgeous, open-world RPG without any combat, but plenty of tea drinking, painting, and wooden bicycle riding. Cresting a hill on my bicycle to find a large open field dotted with windmills left my mouth agape. I thought the size of the world was perfect - small by most standards, but it felt dense and lived in - zigzagging across the geography was a constant delight. By the end I felt like I could navigate without even glancing at the map, having become so immersed.

Admittedly, Eastshade has its fair share of issues. It was clearly developed by a small team. It suffers from a lot of texture pop-in, and it felt like the framerate started to drop towards the end. Some of the character designs are a little off-putting (but not nightmare-inducing like those in prequel spinoff 'Leaving Lyndow'). The writing is generally ok, but nothing special, and the voice-acting is charming in an early-2000s kind of way.

Speaking of 'Leaving Lyndow', I would recommend playing it first if Eastshade interest you at all. It is a pretty forgettable walking simulator, but it lets you see several locations during a different time period. Later stumbling upon these locations in 'Eastshade', I was overcome with a sense of both familiarity and the melancholy of passing time. It really added to my appreciation of this unique little gem of a game.

Hey, it is also on Game Pass, so give it a whirl.