Eastshade Review

Following the game Leaving Lyndow, Eastshade takes places many years after. We play as a painter, who has come to the island to paint the beautiful sceneries the place has to offer. We start the story off on a boat on it’s way to the harbor of Eastshade. Although trouble strikes, and the ship begins to take in water from crashing into something. You escape the shipwreck with your easel, and are set upon the world to explore at your leisure. When travelling Eastshade you have the ability to paint whatever you fancy, by using the “photography mode”. To do this you need to collect a few resources in order to build a canvas for the painting to be on. This painint aspect of the game is closely knittet to the story, some of the missions you will encounter have you paint a specific area of the world.

Eastshade is an open-world game, and very slow-paced. There is no combat, no timed events and nothing to stress about. You move through the beautifully crafted world at your leisure, talking to the inhabitants and completing different quests for them. Through this, you learn the story of the island and it’s inhabitants. The quests you will encounter throughout the game is mainly fetch quests (although, as mentioned, a few paint-this-or-that quests as well), earning you a bit of coin you can use at the Inn or to buy more art supplies. Doing the quests, you help the inhabitants to see their errors and knit them closer to the islands other inhabitants, all through your art!

When you are out exploring the world, there is a few other things you can do. You can fish, collect local fauna or craft items. For example, you can craft yourself a campsite on a beautiful spot of nature, if you are inclined. You might be thinking, is there no real story to the game? And sure there is. The main objective of the game is for you to travel to four locations, and paint them – the last wishes of your mother (who did this herself earlier in her life). When the four locations has been painted, you can happily return home, having completed the game. The different spots are gated between different quests, which you must complete in order to progress. One is for example to unlock an airballoon so you can travel up the mountains in order to paint them.

Whenever the game was designed, the developer Danny Weinbaum said that he meant to design the game as a Grand Garden rather than a massive, wild and uncaring world. And this really shows. The game is gorgeous, and walking through it is a real delight. The island inhabits different anthropomorphic animals, owlfolk, bearpeople, deerpeople and monkeys – even raccoons hiding deep underground, only able to be found through a bit of puzzling!

It has been said multiple times already, but the graphics of the game is amazing. It is a beautiful designed game, and you will surely be spending a good amount if time looking at all it has to offer. It has splendid nature, and at night the skybox is just as amazing. You find yourself painting different areas just because you feel like they are beautiful. In Eastshade are also two major cities. The first, is where you start, the Port of Lyndow and Lyndow itself. Then there is Nava, the main city of Eastshade. Its a rather big city with loads of people to interact with. When first visiting Nava you are greeted with a beautifully designed city, and when entering there are plenty to see.

The musical score for Eastshade is very fitting to the game. It’s a relaxing score, and very beautiful at that. You could put on the soundtrack and listen to it if you are in need for some nice background music while reading or when relaxing. The gameplay is the weakest part of the game. Not that it lacks action, but the quests are more or less the same. Most of them are fetch quests, which does become repetitive in the end. Some more puzzle-oriented quests would have been nice. That being said, if you are a fan of exploration games where you can chill and play it in your own tempo, Eastshade should be right up your alley. You will find a beautiful world to immerse yourself into, and spend hours just looking at all the beauty the game has to offer.