Months ago, when I first got my X-Box Series S, I decided to try a little adventure game that I found on Game Pass. It's a cutie, with lovely scenery and well-done cities, houses and interiors. I really enjoyed it and am glad I spent the time with it.
It starts with a shipwreck, but we land at the place we were traveling to anyway. The first-person character is a traveling artist and has gone to Eastshade at the behest of his mother. Mom had been there years ago and wanted some paintings of particular places on the island. That's the main quest, but we'll have plenty more to do while that one's cooking.
All the characters are animal-people: owls, foxes, badgers and the like. That part I found to be a bit too cute. Perhaps the developers were aiming for a younger audience? Even if so, the game works well for adults. We can travel along pathways through the lovely woods, by rushing streams, past waterwheels and isolated houses. We even have to find a boat and travel over a lake. We paint pictures as favors to various inhabitants, and advance in the game that way, and make money with which we can buy things like a sweater and a handy bicycle.
Really the game world is fairly extensive and has an open-world quality to it. The puzzles aren't terribly tough, although I did encounter some bugs. It was quite fun, actually, and a great way for me to get my feet back into the water with gaming, having not been able to play anything for quite awhile. I recommend it, if you can overlook the animal people. Fun!
