Game completed: Eastshade

I got this game when I felt the need for a simple RPG and it looked very promising.

As soon as I booted it up I knew it was going to be different from what I'm used to. It's not your regular RPG or even adventure game. There's no levelling, no skills, no combat, but there's an open world to explore and quests to complete.

You're an artist travelling to the island of Eastshade. Your mother has recently passed away and she visited Eastshade several times during her life. To honour her memory you have decided to pain some of her favourite places on the island. This is the main quest of the game. Your ship sinks off the coast of Eastshade and you end up in the port town of Lyndow.

From here you're free to explore and do quests. Some areas can't be reached until you've learned how to make a raft, and later how to make a boat. Some areas can't be reached until you've gathered enough currency (glowstones) to buy a zip trolley to travel via zipline. And you can buy a bicycle to get around the island quicker. No horses or other mounts here! You have a bicycle!

You can't stay out in the freezing cold night without a coat or other means to keep warm. This is the only survival mechanic in the game but there are several ways to overcome it.

The painting mechanic is really cool and I haven't played any other game where this is a thing. Rather than people asking you to kill stuff for them (as things usually go in games) people on Eastshade asks you to paint things for them. The painting mechanic is integral to the game and the first thing the game teaches you is how to make a canvas to paint on.

I jokingly call this game the sidequest simulator because every quest in this game is what a sidequest would be in any other game. But it's a good thing. Eastshade is relaxing and nice to play and it's so so pretty.

I did notice some rendering issues with the trees and vegetation. A few times the big city wouldn't render at all and I'd fall through the map. This could be fixed by loading an earlier save. There were some bugs where mission important things wouldn't spawn, but they could all be fixed by loading an earlier save or sleeping in your tent and getting a new loading screen. Nothing game breaking.

I really enjoyed my time in Eastshade and after I finished it I discovered that the devs made another game before that, which takes place in the same world and the same island. I will be getting that later.

Play Eastshade. It's worth it.