Eastshade Review Summary

Stunning Visual Landscapes: The game features breathtakingly beautiful and picturesque landscapes, scenery, and vistas that players find visually stunning and enjoyable.

Relaxing and Calm Atmosphere: Players appreciate the relaxing, calm, and cozy atmosphere that provides a meditative and soothing experience.

Exploration and Discovery: Players enjoy the freedom to explore and discover new places, with a world full of detail and life.

Engaging Characters: The game includes well-written, memorable, and engaging characters with believable dialogues and stories.

Satisfying Puzzles: The game includes satisfying puzzles and mini-puzzles that players enjoy solving.

Frequent bugs and glitches: Players report encountering numerous small bugs and glitches throughout the game. These issues range from minor imperfections to more frustrating experiences that can disrupt gameplay.

Save system issues: The game lacks manual save options and has an unreliable save system. Players have reported issues with corrupted saves and the absence of multiple save slots or cloud save support.

Unclear quest objectives: Many players have noted that the quests in the game lack clear objectives and direction. This can lead to confusion and a lack of straightforward gameplay.

Invisible walls problems: There are numerous complaints about invisible walls in the game. Players find these walls frustrating and overly thick, which can hinder movement and exploration.

NPC behavior issues: NPCs in the game exhibit unnatural and rigid movements. They can also get stuck, which detracts from the overall gaming experience.

Exploration-focused gameplay: The game emphasizes first-person exploration, allowing players to freely explore an island and its environment. This includes various transportation methods and the discovery of different biomes.

Character interactions and development: The game features interactions with NPCs, including dialogue, solving NPC problems, and helping local characters. These interactions contribute to character development and storyline progression.

Quest-based activities: Players engage in simple quests, commissions, and chores that drive the gameplay. These quests often involve observation and dialogue with NPCs, and some quests are voice-acted.

Crafting and progression system: A crafting progression system is in place, where players gather resources and craft items. This system is integrated with quests and exploration.

Painting and scenery: Players can paint stunning views and landscapes, taking in the scenery as they explore. The game includes an inspiration system for painting.

Various bugs and glitches: Players encounter numerous minor bugs, glitches, and occasional visual issues. These range from minor annoyances to more significant problems that require game restarts.

Performance and optimization issues: The game suffers from poor optimization, leading to lag, frame drops, and inconsistent performance even on powerful PCs. Some players report smooth performance on specific hardware like the Steam Deck.

Frequent crashes and freezes: The game experiences random crashes, freezes, and game-breaking bugs that can disrupt gameplay. These issues are widespread and significantly impact the player experience.

Graphical and animation issues: The game has rough graphics, stiff character animations, and various graphical glitches. These issues detract from the overall visual experience.

Motion sickness triggers: Some players experience motion sickness while playing the game, which can be a significant issue for those affected.

Great for exploration and relaxation: The game is recommended for those who enjoy exploration, beautiful scenery, and a relaxing, thoughtful experience.

Highly recommended game: Many players strongly recommend the game to everyone, highlighting its appeal and enjoyment.

Non-violent and contemplative: This game is ideal for players interested in non-violent, relaxing, and contemplative gameplay.

Technical recommendations for gameplay: Suggestions include turning on crosshairs to reduce motion sickness and using specific controls for better movement.

Consider purchasing on sale: Some players suggest buying the game on sale, especially if bugs are a concern.

Community fair range: $6.00 - $20.00.

Game completion: 21.0h.

Story completion: 14.0h.

Session length: 2.0h.

The game starts with initial restrictions but becomes fun as players progress and unlock new areas and abilities.

Reported time to anchor: 1h.

Friction: Initial limitations such as extreme cold; Restricted travel capabilities; Linear progression locked behind gates/tolls/rafts.

Chill Explorer: Casual, slow-paced exploration. Motivation: Relaxation and exploration. Stance: buy.

Completionist Achiever: Goal-oriented, completionist. Motivation: Achievement completion and replayability. Stance: sale.

Open-World RPG Fan: Exploration and questing. Motivation: Familiar open-world RPG experience with a relaxed twist. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The game runs perfectly on the Steam Deck, providing a seamless experience. However, it has some minor issues related to its age, such as lack of cloud saves and other quirks. A severe bug causing crashes and progress loss is also noted, which significantly impacts the user experience.

Linux and Proton: The game demonstrates excellent compatibility with the Steam Deck, suggesting a smooth experience on Proton/Linux without notable issues.

Translation instructions needed: There is a need for translation instructions for non-English speakers. This suggests that the game could improve its accessibility by providing better support for different languages.

Small game size: Players have noted that the game has a relatively small size. This could be beneficial for those with limited storage space.