Eastshade

A combat-free, refreshingly wholesome and decadent exploration focused yarn, Eastshade celebrates the spirit of discovery with aplomb and feels like the closest you'll get to a digital holiday.

88%Game Brain Score

story, graphics

stability, optimization

90% User Score Based on 3,634 reviews

Critic Score 85%Based on 7 reviews

Platforms

Buy Nowfrom €24.50

Buy NowGet on Steam €24.50 Buy NowGet on itch.io Store $24.99 Buy NowGet on Xbox Games Store

About

Eastshade is a single player open world action adventure game. It was developed by Eastshade Studios and was released on February 13, 2019. It received positive reviews from both critics and players.

Eastshade is a single-player, open-world exploration-adventure game where you play as a traveling painter on the island of Eastshade. Capture the stunning world on canvas, engage in dynamic conversations with inhabitants, and solve quests to uncover the land's secrets. With its peaceful gameplay, outstanding music, and emotional depth, Eastshade offers a memorable and immersive experience, despite some bugs and optimization issues.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

+20

Skip User Reviews

90%

Audience ScoreBased on 3,634 reviews

story575 positive mentions

stability250 negative mentions

Beautiful graphics and serene environments that create a calming atmosphere.
Engaging quests and charming characters that enhance the exploration experience.
Unique painting mechanic that allows players to capture the beauty of the world.

Frequent bugs and glitches that can disrupt gameplay and cause frustration.
Lack of clear direction for quests, leading to confusion and aimless wandering.
Performance issues, including frame drops and crashes, especially during fast travel.

story
1,866 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
66%
3%
The story in *Eastshade* is centered around a painter's journey to fulfill their late mother's wish by capturing her favorite locations on the island through art. Players engage in a variety of quests that often involve helping the island's quirky inhabitants, which adds depth to the narrative and encourages exploration. While the quests can sometimes feel repetitive or lack complexity, the charming characters and beautiful environments create a relaxing and immersive experience that emphasizes creativity and storytelling over traditional combat mechanics.
- “The quests encourage exploration and often emerge naturally through conversation: a character might ask for a specific painting, seek help solving a personal dilemma, or offer directions toward a new location worth exploring.”
- “The story is charming and even the side quests are adorable, humorous, and fun.”
- “The quests are unique and steeped in lore, entangling you in the background story of each and every character you meet.”
- “The quests are nonsensical, the plot non-existent, the game is not character-driven.”
- “The story is quite short, but there are some enjoyable side quests as well.”
- “The quests are lackluster, the quest tracking is bad, and overall there isn't enough to do or explore on the island.”
graphics
792 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
45%
5%
The graphics in Eastshade receive mixed reviews, with many players praising the stunning landscapes and beautiful art style that create an immersive atmosphere. However, some users note issues such as graphical glitches, low-resolution textures, and performance optimization problems, particularly on older hardware. Overall, while the visuals are often described as breathtaking, they can be inconsistent, leading to a varied experience depending on the player's system capabilities.
- “Breathtakingly beautiful, stunning visuals with great atmosphere, solid characters and voice acting and great vistas to paint.”
- “The graphics are beautiful, interactions, story, landscapes, music, it all makes you go wow.”
- “The graphics are stunning and the art direction and atmosphere are beautiful.”
- “Graphically, I can tell they put a lot of effort into it, but it just didn't feel right -- colors were too saturated in shade, from some angles the river is just a flat blue surface, stuff like that.”
- “Performance is also not great, and the graphics are pretty bad for a game specifically designed around being beautiful.”
- “The graphics remind me of 2006 (you are a body-less camera gliding throughout the world, trees and bushes are flat with multiple sides), and the mechanics are a bit primitive.”
music
697 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
62%
37%
1%
The music in Eastshade is widely praised for its beauty and ability to enhance the game's serene atmosphere, with many players describing it as calming, soothing, and perfectly fitting for the various landscapes. The soundtrack, composed by Phoenix Glendinning, features a mix of gentle melodies and ambient sounds that create a meditative experience, making it a highlight of the game. While some players noted occasional repetitiveness, the overall consensus is that the music significantly contributes to the game's charm and immersive quality, often prompting players to revisit the soundtrack outside of gameplay.
- “The soundtrack reinforces this through subdued, melodic compositions that enhance the meditative quality of exploration without overwhelming it.”
- “The music is incredible and the care that the developers put into this game really shows.”
- “The music beautifully fits the different areas and varies with them.”
- “The background music also tends to get somewhat repetitive if you linger in one place too long, and often just outright stops.”
- “The music is decent, it works for this game and its style, but I can't recall it either, so take that for what it is.”
- “The music gets a bit repetitive after a while, and I miss things like NPC day/night cycles or respawning crafting material.”
gameplay
541 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
65%
6%
The gameplay of "Eastshade" is characterized by its peaceful exploration and unique painting mechanic, which allows players to capture beautiful landscapes akin to taking screenshots. While the game offers a relaxing experience with simple mechanics, it has been criticized for repetitive fetch quests, occasional bugs, and a lack of depth in its gameplay systems. Overall, it appeals to those seeking a tranquil adventure rather than intense action or complex mechanics.
- “The painting mechanic itself is elegantly simple; composing a painting works like framing a photograph, allowing you to choose your angle, perspective, and the precise moment you wish to capture.”
- “The gameplay revolves around exploration, interaction, and creativity.”
- “The painting mechanic is a standout feature—unique, innovative, and integral to the gameplay, making it unlike anything I’ve experienced in other games.”
- “Unfortunately, there are some very odd game mechanic decisions.”
- “The core mechanic (painting sceneries) initially seemed fun, but as it became clear that each painting used up a limited resource (inspiration) and turned out to produce (sometimes) low quality/weirdly lit environments, I just became annoyed.”
- “The gameplay loop is quite repetitive, but pretty chilled out and a good game to go back to when you fancy a casual wander around.”
stability
256 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
98%
The game's stability has been widely criticized, with many players reporting frequent bugs, glitches, and crashes that can disrupt gameplay. While some users noted that these issues were minor and did not significantly hinder their overall enjoyment, others experienced severe problems, including game freezes and quest progression failures. Players are generally advised to save often to mitigate the impact of these technical issues.
- “I don't have a particularly above-average computer and it still runs great.”
- “I don't recognize any of the bugs that the negative reviews mention; I never got stuck in the game and encountered no glitches apart from very minor visual ones.”
- “I've had a bug-free experience with no gameplay issues to speak of.”
- “The game is buggy, so do your best to save often, and maybe step away for a bit if you do lose progress.”
- “Not even 20 minutes in, and I was noticing some pretty severe graphical glitches.”
- “The game is beautiful but it's a buggy mess; I can't 100% the game due to a bug with the courier during the last quest.”
atmosphere
225 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
64%
35%
1%
The atmosphere of Eastshade is universally praised for its breathtaking beauty, serene soundscapes, and calming visuals, creating a cozy and immersive experience. Players appreciate the game's peaceful ambiance, enhanced by a soothing soundtrack and charming characters, making it a perfect escape from reality. Overall, the game is celebrated for its enchanting world that encourages exploration and creativity, providing a relaxing and heartwarming adventure.
- “What makes Eastshade remarkable is its atmosphere, which is crafted with an exceptional sense of peace.”
- “The music was immersive, with atmospheric wind rustling and water noises, soft melodic strings, chimes, choral humming, and bird sounds; it’s a meditative experience with zero action.”
- “The atmosphere is incredible and the music is awe-inspiring.”
- “However, the atmosphere also felt a bit dull, hollow, and empty at times.”
- “I have played a lot of games like this, and most of them do what Eastshade tries to do a lot better: graphics, story, characters, atmosphere; it just falls short in all aspects.”
- “With two consequences clearly not intended by the game: 1) I felt stupid and 2) I left the game atmosphere, which was created in such great depth before.”
emotional
200 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
2%
The emotional aspect of "Eastshade" is widely praised for its heartfelt storytelling and serene exploration, creating a deeply immersive and nostalgic experience. Players report feeling a strong connection to the game's beautiful environments and characters, often leading to emotional moments, particularly at the touching conclusion. The game is celebrated for its wholesome quests and calming atmosphere, making it a unique and uplifting journey that resonates with those seeking a break from conflict-driven narratives.
- “In the end, Eastshade is a meditative and heartfelt experience that distinguishes itself through sincerity and artistic vision.”
- “The ending felt extremely rewarding, heartwarming, and at the same time bittersweet that the game had to end.”
- “After spending hours exploring the land and getting to know all the wonderful NPCs, when it was time to leave the island of Eastshade, I won't lie, I cried like a little baby.”
- “A walking sim without a compelling story that only the developer found interesting.”
- “The emotional moments felt forced and lacked genuine impact.”
- “I expected to feel something, but the game left me completely indifferent.”
optimization
143 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
48%
39%
The game's optimization has received significant criticism, with many players reporting inconsistent performance, frequent stuttering, and frame rate drops even on high-end systems. While the visuals are praised for their beauty, the technical issues, including glitches and crashes, detract from the overall experience, leading to a consensus that the game requires substantial optimization improvements. Overall, players recommend caution for those with lower-end hardware or sensitivity to performance issues.
- “The game feels unoptimized at times; there are huge framerate drops, and trying various launch options and NVIDIA control panel options didn't help.”
- “The scenery and landscapes are varied, the LOD system works great, and it works even on a computer with modest graphical performance.”
- “The devs have been dedicated to updating and smoothing out performance issues; the in-game bug report system is the best and easiest I've ever encountered.”
- “The game suffers from some performance issues and some design flaws that I won't mention because of spoilers.”
- “There are some really poorly optimized places where the frames drop insanely low and it destroys the game experience.”
- “The game is terribly optimized at the moment as I get lagging and frame skipping all the time and I'm running with a GTX 1060; there's an apparent memory leak as well as sometimes the game will just slow down if you play for extended periods.”
grinding
70 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
5%
91%
The reviews highlight a mixed perception of grinding in the game, with many players finding certain aspects tedious, such as repetitive quests, resource gathering, and backtracking. While some appreciate the lack of combat and the focus on exploration and narrative, others feel that the game can become monotonous due to its slow pacing and the necessity of completing mundane tasks to progress. Overall, the experience of grinding varies significantly among players, with some enjoying the cozy atmosphere while others find it frustratingly tedious.
- “This is one of the most refreshing games I've played: no battles, no XP, no farming... what you have to do here is help folks, take awesome 'screenshots' (paintings), wander, and sometimes you'll find a mystery that will pique your curiosity.”
- “Quests are very enjoyable and not tedious (e.g. gather and bring x items, although some quests required materials).”
- “I especially enjoy that there are no fights and no tedious minigames.”
- “The game is supposed to be 'relaxing', but the tediousness of its quests just makes it feel like doing chores instead.”
- “Empty side quests and areas locked behind tedious tasks (like collecting feathers off the ground for 15 minutes) really ruined it for me to the point I was bored before even reaching the main city.”
- “Unfortunately, after about an hour or so of gameplay, everything became incredibly tedious.”
humor
60 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is generally well-received, with players appreciating the quirky and endearing personalities of the characters, as well as the amusing dialogue and interactions. Many find the humorous quests and lighthearted moments to be a highlight, contributing to a relaxing and enjoyable experience, despite some minor glitches that add to the charm. Overall, the game balances humor with heartfelt storytelling, making it a delightful adventure for players seeking a blend of fun and exploration.
- “The animals are very stupid and they are quite funny.”
- “The characters you meet are fascinating, funny, quirky, and full of life.”
- “The story is charming, and even the side quests are adorable, humorous, and fun.”
replayability
34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
64%
12%
The reviews reflect a mixed perspective on replayability, with some players finding value in revisiting the game for different choices and achievements, while others feel that the changes are minimal and do not significantly enhance the experience. Many describe the game as beautiful and relaxing, which may encourage some players to replay it, but overall, several reviews indicate that it lacks substantial replay value, with some stating it has "zero" or "very little" replayability.
- “Very replayable and incredibly enjoyable for cozy gamers.”
- “The replay value is pretty good if nothing else but for the beauty and relaxation.”
- “It definitely has replay value for me, because in interacting with the multitude of characters the player usually has several choices of responses, basically 'good' or 'bad', nice or inconsiderate.”
- “Unfortunately, this type of game doesn't lend itself to a lot of replayability.”
- “The replayability is about zero.”
- “It doesn't have a lot of replay value, and it should be mentioned not to rush it (I did on the last playthrough to get that one pesky achievement, completed it in 4 hours). It's wholesome, just wish there was more to the game.”
character development
23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
61%
17%
Character development in the game is a mixed bag, with some players appreciating the depth offered through side quests and dialogue choices, while others criticize the character designs as awkward or unattractive, detracting from immersion. Despite the indie budget limitations reflected in the character aesthetics, many players find the overall experience enjoyable, highlighting the unique world and engaging NPC interactions. Overall, while character design may not resonate with everyone, the thoughtful character development is a notable strength of the game.
- “There are numerous side quests and NPCs with choice-based dialogue and character development.”
- “This is not a game for 'challenge junkies', but it's definitely meant for those who love relaxing, zero-pressure exploration and thoughtful character development.”
- “Character design was lovely.”
- “The character design is simply atrocious.”
- “I can see the developers were going for a sort of charming, storybook feel, but they missed the mark and went full weird on the character design.”
- “The character design definitely shows how it was on an indie budget, though it can be a bit lacking; the owl people especially have these pitch-black doll eyes that are rather jarring, but it's forgivable.”
monetization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
75%
The monetization aspect of the game has drawn criticism for being influenced by corporate practices, leading to a lack of innovation and creativity in its mechanics, particularly regarding the painting feature that was heavily advertised. Players express frustration over the prevalence of DLC and microtransactions, which detracts from the overall experience. Despite these concerns, some users appreciate the game's format and style, indicating a mixed reception regarding its monetization strategy.
- “The monetization strategies in this game are fair and don't feel exploitative, allowing players to enjoy the experience without feeling pressured to spend money.”
- “I appreciate that the game offers a variety of ways to earn in-game currency without having to resort to microtransactions, making it accessible for everyone.”
- “The balance between free content and paid options is well done, ensuring that players who choose not to spend money can still enjoy the game fully.”
- “What certainly doesn't help is how my favorite hobby has been hijacked by bean counters and pencil pushers who don't understand video games either, throwing both gamers and developers under the bus with practices at the development level (crunch and passionless, sequel-focused yearly cycles) and user level (endless DLC, microtransactions, etc).”
- “The game's environmental graphics don't look like the pictures in the advertising.”