Earthshine Reviews

Decently well made, has a decent plot, decently executed. It's decent.

Updated: Positive dev response, at least one change to a feature, and seems commitment to improve English trans. Pros: Beautiful art, very engaging music, and (in Russian language option) the voice-acting is pretty good. The attempt to have voice-overs in English for visually impaired players is rare. The story is close to average, but still has some unique, unforgettable details. Cons: English translation from the original Russian is sometimes really hard to understand, descriptions are confusing and there's clearly wrong word choices. Interface can be tricky because of an auto-voice-over in English that is computer generated and ruins background music and immersion. Except for the beautiful art, I wouldn't recommend the story for English speakers, as the translation from Russian to English is problematic. It is FAR better in Russian. The interface can be problematic because the mouse hover is active and can randomly select options you can't see, like the English voice over. I felt the interface and options weren't explained well. How can you shut off the awful English voice over that randomly starts speaking? It can even happen when you're playing in the Russian language option. OVERALL, there are positives and negatives. It was just released on Dec. 9th. If the devs could possibly correct the translation issues in English, I would certainly, fully recommend it.

Rather short VN with interesting but uneventful story. I also liked artstyle and price.

Short existential fairy tale with ridiculous story. More for for young audiences than for adults.

The game is very short, the visual style is not that great but still touching. The plot is a bit interesting and the end is not so predictable. (there are a few of them, some are easy to predict and others aren't) Overall the game is cool and relaxing, music is outstanding (to be honest, it is so calm and intense at the same time, I guess that can both sleep and work while listening to it if you wanted to) Recommended

Beautiful art, music, writing, and a really good story. Lots of joy and melancholy, three engaging characters, romance, friendship, and all sorts of endings. Very fun game and one of the best short games on Steam!!

This game is pretty short and there are only two choices to do leading to three different endings but I really liked the setting, the tone and the lore. I would have appreciated to continue to travel along Talia and Inar, I'm sure their following journey would be amazing. PS: If you're looking for the mini game, the way to reach it is somewhere in the title menu.

Unexpectedly, this visual novel became such a unique experience for me. I'm afraid it'd be next to impossible to write an objective review as to recommend it or not to others, so I'd just like to express my personal gratitude for a wonderful time I had. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2613185929 I bought this novel because I always try to play all the visual novels created by my native developers but I always read them in English, no exceptions. I check for the quality of Russian as well but not for long. I guess there was too much English for me recently, as that's the main language I use both for work and fun. So when I started this novel as usual in English BUT heard Russian voice-over I was struck. First minutes I didn't know what to do, how to perceive the story, I simply couldn't read one language but listen to the other. My mother language just refused to merge with the background sounds as it happens with Japanese, for example. Soon, I gave up. I just glanced at the English text but was so deeply absorbed by the Russian voice-over. I was mesmerized by kinda forgotten beauty of my own language. The narrator's voice was perfect for the role, it made me recollect my childish years when I was told bed-time fairy-tales, when I started to listen to dif fairy-tale recordings with my younger sister. I loved watching fairy-tale films. That voice made me remember again. It was some kind of magic. I think for the first time ever I didn't read a visual novel but actually listened to it! And at first it was kinda painful to look at the English translation as despite being quite decent it didn't give off the same fairy-tale vibe. This story made me ponder again if it is even possible to transfer the same images/feelings/emotions from one language into the other, especially if the languages belong to different families. As I mentioned, the translation was good enough to recommend the game to English-speaking players but it's far from perfection, unfortunately. For example, Russian punctuation remains like [?..], some typos, and in general that made me laugh a lot when I saw 2 English words but heard 10 Russian, some parts of Russian sentences were often omitted. The story is quite short but I could finish it much faster if I read English, as the Russian voice acting was so much longer and not because voice actors were too slow, the original language was so much more figurative, detailed, extended... https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2613186521 As for visuals it's a bit of an acquired taste. I can't say I liked it first, it seemed too...unique, different but it slowly grew on me, tho can't say I enjoyed it a lot. Story-wise this game isn't something mind-boggling. I guess, it's too short for that. But it made me ponder about love, life, death and fate, possible gods' influence on human world, what makes us different (powers and immortality aside), what being human even means. It feels good to ask some eternal questions again once in a while and maybe find a bit different answer this time. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2613186080 The game has 5 achievements for different endings. There are only 2 choices in this short story BUT there're almost one hundred!!! save slots \o/ In so many previous reviews I complained how few save slots the games have with soo many choices and look what I've got here XD I often whine about mini-games in visual novels, as they are challenging for me even if they are easy for others, and even if they are playable I still believe it's just a waste of time and a distraction from the main part. Here there's also a mini-game but it's just perfect! It's not in the very story, you may access it in the main menu after your first play-through if I understood it correctly. The only complaint is that the ach for finding the mini-game had triggered before I actually found it. And the mini-game was great fun! When I was a kid I adored such tasks. So, [I] Earthshine [/i] turned out to be something absolutely magical that returned me to childhood for a couple of hours. This story is short but cheap, fully voiced and very atmospheric. I'd definitely recommend to give it a try! [table] [tr] [th]More thoughts about the game in a [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/readingnook/discussions/0/2960544187654699895/] Reading Nook [/url][/th] [/tr] [/table]

I did not specifically follow Earthshine and neither have I received any recommendations (except for the Steam itself), so I was diving blindly into the unknown when making the purchase. Imagine my surprise when some of my Steam friends asked me to review this game. As they said, the trailer was quite vague and did not give enough information about the content. And as always, I am happy to oblige and share my thoughts. What is Earthshine and is it really worth your attention? Yes, and let me tell you why! [h1]The story[/h1] A beautiful priestess Talia travels through the Desert to find something only she knows about. It is not a usual place full of sand and various animals – a dead and sad entity instead, the Desert is the true image of what humanity has to live with now, having lost the light. But what lies behind the darkness? Never-ending loneliness or the bright light of someone’s hope? Soon Talia and Inar, another traveler whose caravan Talia met along the way, will find out. And maybe the story about beautiful flowers that heal people and give them life is not just a fairy tale? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1934978518 [h1]My thoughts about the game[/h1] To start with, Russian is my native language, but I played Earthshine in English as I always write my reviews in it. To be honest, it is a bit difficult for me to judge the quality of translation in this case because, yeah, by no means are my own translation projects perfect. However, I can say that the text seems to be quite easy to read and does not feel heavy or artificial. I did notice some unnecessary commas [i](heck, I have this issue too; all the time!)[/i], but hardly any typos or grammar/vocabulary mistakes. [i]Examples: 1) ‘That’s how…’ (вот как) should have been translated as ‘I see…’; Inar all of a sudden changed his gender in one of the sentences (‘her’ instead of ‘him’), etc.[/i]. Some words repeated too often within one sentence for my liking (‘sparkling with bright sparks’); and I definitely did not agree with some parts of the translated text, but this is mostly my nitpicking, really. The story. It is both sad and inspiring, truly magical and surprisingly understandable. I should warn you that the game is very short, just about 2-3 hours long. I really wish it was longer to let us see more of this charming world and to learn more about the lore, the Goddess, the magic and various peoples. And, of course, to continue reading about Talia and Inar. Still, do I feel dissatisfied or disappointed after completing the game? No, absolutely not. Even though some parts felt a bit rushed, there was just enough of everything to make me fall in love with this short fairy tale. Though I would not have anything against a prequel or sequel too… Now, you may ask me, ‘what actually caught your attention if you did not notice Earthshine until recently but still bought it right away?’ It is simple, my friend. The artwork. It is just so beautiful! With vivid colors, neat lines, lots of details, and the true magical spirit of the unknown land. Talia, the main characters, is stunning; you will notice it right away and when you see the very first CG. In fact, all CGs are gorgeous! Inar is also a memorable young man and his sprite was very pleasant to look at. Backgrounds are pretty. At the same time, the UI is quite simple – just the basic buttons that are accurately placed at the bottom of the cute text box. The same goes for design of the Setting menu, Save/Load, etc. Also, I would definitely change the color of Inar’s sentences: blue lines on the blue background – not the best idea. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1934973106 One of the best parts of the game is voice acting. Which is, sadly, also a noticeable con for the English-speaking community as this feature is available in Russian only. As far as I can see, there are also no Chinese voices right now. I cannot say that this really makes the game worse, of course, but this feature is important for some gamers and is a significant feature for such a short title. Also, Russian voice actors did a marvelous job in this part! It will be such a shame not to be able to hear or understand them. There is even a narrator who reads text during the whole game! This is very rare thing for visual novels – which also makes Earthshine an audiobook, technically. Guys, and the music! I absolutely loved the opening song with these mysterious Arabic motives and an awesome female singer (the song is in Russian only too, by the way). For some reason it reminded me of both Aladdin and Ghost in the Shell – first because of the theme, and second because of the voice that is similar in some ways to Origa’s one. Other music tracks were lovely too and helped creating this beautiful and magical atmosphere. My only complaint here is that most tracks ended quite sharply. There was no soft switching between different tunes – they just started abruptly if the scene required it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1934964556 [h1]Would I recommend it?[/h1] As I have already said, yes, definitely. Earthshine is rather short, but the story and artwork are just so good! And I cannot even properly explain it, but the audio part brought me back to my childhood. When I lied on the floor listening to my favorite audio books with fairy tales – about the Golden Rooster and different princesses, love and magic, foreign countries and old Russian cities. To sum up, Earthshine is worth your money and time. This is a story that does not really change your life, but still makes you remember it with love and just a bit of sadness. [b]P.S. Ah, by the way, there is a lovely mini-game that has two additional pieces of artwork (that are not added to your gallery, though). Can you find it? :3[/b] [h1][url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/32296668-Casual-Game-Reviews/] More reviews on our Curator Page[/url][/h1]