Sometimes the most surreal part of advancing through the many stages and travelling the many places that life will take you is the part where you have to say goodbye to your memories and people around you before setting off and out into the world to pursue your dreams.

This moment was the captured focus for Leaving Lyndow by Eastshade Studios, as that is quite literally the whole purpose of the game.

Story

Clara has been accepted to join and expedition that will take her away from her home village, Lyndow. While excited to go, she must first say goodbye to all those she will be leaving behind and possibly never see again before going on the journey of a lifetime.

Gameplay

The game is a beautifully made experience game where you simply walk through the various areas and interact with the people within them. There are different options to choose from when it comes to conversing with the NPC's that direct the way the conversation flows which would be how that particular individual will remember our protagonist.

There are a few mini-games, such as finding all the "overboard men" with one child NPC, a basketball-tetherball mix style game that you can try and keep racking up a better score on, and other items within the environments that are interact-able with as you enjoy the scenery of each location.

I do have to say that the game was incredibly short. Shorter than I had expected myself, but was still a nice and peaceful game. Check out my gameplay of it, which I end up playing majority of the game on it: 

Graphics

The visuals of the game were great and made up half of the experience! Everything outside looked beautiful and nice. My favorite area, personally, was Uncle's Farm because of all the colors and how neatly he had all the plants growing around.

Sound

The music was calm and somber the entire time, which fit the setting. The sound effects of what is around you was also very accurate and really brought you into the setting. The only time I noticed it was quiet was during the music-based mini-game.

Replayability

There isn't much reason to go back through the game other than trophy/achievement hunting or just trying to improve your personal best score on the mini-game near the end. Once you go through the story, you have pretty much experienced all this game has to offer.

What Could Be Better

I would of liked more areas to venture through and the opportunity to walk through the town rather than teleport from one location to the next. I know it was the goal, but an experience game like this would of been nice to actually feel like I am walking around the town to say bye to everybody rather than just being in the location before I am allowed to go.

Final Verdict

Interesting game that I enjoyed making my way through the full game, but I don't think I will be revisiting the title myself. I hope to see more experience games like this from the Eastshade Studios team, but would like to have a longer experience.

"It was like walking through a fantasy world and convincing those concerned that this is what is best for you. Very relatable."