Game Review: Earthshine

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Earthshine is a visual novel from publisher/developer Sometimes You. It originally released on Steam back in 2019, and is now making its way to the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5. Earthshine is something of an odd title as it's a visual novel, but it takes that term very seriously. It's a novel first, a game second. (If at all.) Essentially Earthshine is a short(ish) story that is brought to life in the form of an interactive piece of software. It's not the longest game you'll ever play, but is the experience worthwhile? Well, we're going to take a look at it and hopefully answer that question. Join me as we travel into the vast Desert...

Earthshine tells the story of two travelers who come together by chance while traversing through the vast Desert. Enter Talia and Inar, a mysterious songstress and a mysterious caravan traveler respectively. They first meet when Talia decides to join the caravan that Inar is already travelling with. This caravan is heading to a nearby trading village, but the duo's goal lies just beyond that. As fate would have it they both share the same final destination: The Fields of Oblivion. It's said that magical flowers bloom within the Fields, and one can find the answer to anything they seek there. Many have made the journey, and most have failed. Along the way the duo learn more about each other and what originally brought them on this dangerous journey. Deadly monsters roam the Desert, and the village near the Fields is settled by a people whose origins lie in mystery but are tied to the aforementioned magical flowers. There is of course more than meets the eye regarding Talia and Inar themselves as they are anything but random travelers. Exactly what magic do the flowers of The Fields of Oblivion contain? Do the Fields even have the answers they seek? Will they even make it there at all? Earthshine isn't the longest of games, more on that later, but it does answer all these questions and explores the complex question of humanity a bit along the way too.

It begins...

These protect people from the desert monsters.

Now a story in a visual novel is the most important thing, and that's no different here. Don't expect to make a lot of choices that affect progression though, there are literally only two in-game choices and, as far as I could tell, only one of them actually has any effect on the story itself. That means there really isn't any "gameplay" being advancing the dialogue, and maybe saving or loading. With that said though, the story did draw me in and had a fair amount of twists and turns throughout. There is no story padding at all in Earthshine, and I have mixed feelings on what that means for the overall experience. More than once I wished there was more content regarding the world surrounding our duo, but I never got it. There's depth to the story, but it feels like a deep ditch that only goes straight down; side content is non-existent. This makes it hard to discuss the story beyond the barest of mentions as just about anything beyond the above will start to fall under the spoiler category. Rest assured that this also means that the story wraps itself up without any loose ends to it, even though I found myself wondering if the game’s single-minded focus is a good or bad thing.

An early iconic scene.

Inar's magic takes the story places...

When one thinks visual novels anime-styled visuals usually come to mind. Earthshine goes for a more Western look, but this is not a negative point at all. There isn't a lot of variety in the types of backgrounds, and there are only three on-screen characters, but everything looked really great and on par with other games in the genre. Per most visual novels, you can even check out the illustrations you've encountered in a gallery from the title screen. Both Talia and Inar are unique characters and look great in whatever scenario they're in. The only odd part I guess is that there are times one is bigger or smaller in comparison to the other. I originally thought that this was reflecting height, and maybe it is, but there were times when Talia was towering above Inar even though it was usually the other way around. It just confused me in general. It's almost as if the game was going for a forced perspective thing but didn't implement it correctly. Lastly regarding graphics, there was a pretty cool storybook-style scene in the middle of the game that looked quite impressive and made me wish that more like it would be present in the game, but it turned out to be the only one. I wish that this would be the only time that the game's lack of content would disappoint me, but it wasn't.

Is this Dune?

The third "character" only has a few lines.

The last thing I want to talk about is sound, and there's a bit more to cover here. First of all the game is fully voiced, there's even a narrator that reads all the non-dialogue sections. This sounds a bit more impressive than it is as there are only four voiced characters, but it's still cool and not something you see too often in titles of this size and scope. A fully voiced novel sounds amazing doesn't it? Well, there's a bit more to that... See, the problem is that the game isn't voiced in English. The entire game is voiced in what I believe is Russian. I can't really judge the quality of the voice acting for obvious reasons, but I must say that I still felt that the voice acting added to the overall experience and mood. Though while I'm on the topic of localization, I should also toss it out there that the dialogue seems a bit stilted at times due to wonky translations. Also, there's a few typos here and there that occasionally too me out of the experience.

I found that the music in Earthshine is quite varied and really good considering it's a shorter indie title. There were several tracks that set the tone perfectly for the scene, and the sheer amount of tracks was very surprising. Unfortunately, just like the voice acting, there's a big caveat that I have to mention too. When I went through the credits I noticed that they referenced a stock music library many times when it came to sound design. I can only assume that means that some, if not all, of the music I was previously enjoying came from that sound library and had nothing at all to do with Earthshine beyond being chosen from countless others. Now using stock music isn't always a bad thing, (The original Night of The Living Dead used it and it's one of the greatest movies of all time.) but it made me double think how much I was actually enjoying the game once I knew about it. In the end it didn't change my opinion, but it upset me that I initially found the sound to be the strongest aspect of the game and it's the one thing that the developers probably had nothing to do with.

One of only two choices in-game.

I wish there were more scenes like this.

Earthshine has a good story to tell, but the problem is that it only has the one story and it's a fairly short one. I finished the entire game, complete with two different endings, in about an hour. It was not a bad experience, but it left me wanting more and wondering why it just ends so abruptly. There are credits to be found as I mentioned before, and they even come complete with a cool vocal track, but they're only accessible from the main menu. When you hit the last screen of text the game simply stalls for a bit and then dumps you back to the title screen. I couldn't believe that something as simple as moving the credits there, or even just having a "The End" screen, wasn't added to give the story a sense of finality. Also, as far as I can tell there are only two different endings that split from the game's final choice. Once you see both, and unlock their images in the gallery, there is literally nothing else to do in the game. There isn't any sort of replayability beyond wanting to go through the story again. This all together makes it quite hard to recommend.

It's ending...

Aren't we ALL a little dead inside?

One of the game's saving graces is its price. When it released on Steam it was priced at $1.99 and I wish that that price made the trip over to consoles as well. The Switch release, which is what this review is based on, is priced at $4.99. Now I don't want to say that it isn't worth that price, as I've definitely spent that much on a good book or two in my time, but I've also had better experiences from games within a similar price point. My advice is to check out the trailer first, and if the visuals and music seem to draw you in even knowing its short length and problems, pick it up. If you can get it on sale, all the better. I enjoyed the story and characters a lot, and the fact that I wanted to know more about the world is a good thing. While I can't guarantee you'll find the experience as rewarding as I did, I do think you'll find something fulfilling in your time with Earthshine. As long as you temper your expectations accordingly, I'm fairly positive you won't regret picking this one up. That trip to the Fields of Oblivion can be a bit life-changing after all, one just has to take that first step!

Check out Earthshine on The Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/earthshine-switch/

---

Story: B+
Gameplay: C- (Can you even call it "gameplay" here?)
Graphics: B+
Music/Sound: B+
Value: B-

Overall: B-

Pros:
+ A story that feels like a great post-apocalyptic sci-fi short story brought to life.
+ Fully voiced throughout, including narration.
+ The music and visuals feel top notch.
+ Though there are only two (sort of three) characters introduced, the game does a good job making you care about them in its short runtime.
+ Its low price makes its overall lack of content a lot easier to accept.

Cons:
- Sound mixing is a little off by default, and the music may be sourced from a stock library. Also, while fully voiced, the dialogue is all in Russian.
- A very short experience that moves just a bit too fast at times.
- In-game choices are so ineffectual they might as well not exist.
- Calling this a "game" is a bit incorrect as this is a true visual novel in the purest sense of the term.
- There's pretty much no replayability here short of wanting to experience the story again.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

---

#EarthshineOnConsoles