Eastshade

Very cozy. A game where the focus is on the pretty landscape and solving small problems for people living peaceful lives. If your favourite part of Bethesda games is ignoring the plot, picking up crafting ingredients, and talking to silly NPCs - then this is for you.

It's a nice, relaxed, very visually pretty game. Is it the most compelling story? No. But it's a chill escape from reality for a few hours.
Edit to add: it *does* have crashing/glitching issues. But it autosaves frequently enough that it's a mild irritation to just reboot it, I'm not losing like hours of progress or anything.

Life Changing
The best compliment that I can pay to this game is that it affected me more as an artist than almost any game I've ever played. Because of this game I have bought a table saw, wood, canvas cloth and have begun learning how to make my own canvases. I've taken up acrylic paint when previously I had only down pencil, digital, and some minor watercolor. I would have never even thought to try to make canvases but now I'm learning and loving it.
The Actual Game
I wanted skyrim but peaceful and reddit sent me here. "We have Skyrim at home." isn't an out of place impression that this game initially gives off, and certainly it has some of the jank that goes along with that comparison. However, what it lacks in polish it more than makes up for in heart. This game has character and a world that makes you want to learn more about your surroundings. Plenty of time can be spent soaking in the environment, the characters, the little story threads running through and around interconnecting with one another. The game at times feels unfinished, even narratively. That being said it is an experience I find myself returning to again and again.

I first fell in love with this game when it was on xbox gamepass. I'm only 6 hours in on steam and am more in love with it now then i was then. definitely a cozy game. 10/10
EDIT: I am now 15 hours in and i'm editing to say that I have had several game breaking bug issues: being unable to save the game and having to close it and losing 45+ minutes of progress to being unable to interact with anything (including my bed so I couldn't sleep; which then caused me to FREEZE TO DEATH).
This game is still absolutely beautiful and I want to truly love it but its hard to get over the bugs and issues i have experienced. it is frustrating to have to replay sections over and over due to these bugs. I don't want to sit here and be mad while playing such a potentially "cozy" game. 6/10

This one will stay with me for some time. Basically like an Elder Scrolls game (most of all Oblivion) with only the sidequests. It's very well written and charming, and lovely to look at. No combat, so some might dismiss it as a walking simulator, but if this is your kind of thing, this will very much be your kind of thing.

I've been on a bit of a peaceful game kick lately, and Eastshade is the one game that kept me coming back.
The world is beautiful, the characters endearing, and the simple act of exploration has never been so rewarding. Not to mention you can paint at any time, provided you have enough Inspiration to do so, and if you click Export Paintings in the pause menu then anything you paint will be saved to your computer for you to enjoy any time you want. They're not just screenshots either - they're actually designed to look like paintings, brushstrokes and all.
I didn't want to finish Eastshade as I reached the end of my first playthrough, and not long after I ultimately finished it I was starting a new game.
I certainly have other games to play, many of which are more action-packed or exciting...but I still find myself longing for Eastshade. I find myself longing to take a stroll through the Blushwoods looking for Inky Caps or enjoy a storyteller's show at the Tarnished Teapot, not because those things confer any major gameplay benefit (although Inky Caps do make good fish bait and the first time you hear a story it grants you Inspiration), but simply for the pleasure of it.
Eastshade is a sublime experience and I hope to see more games like it.

I played for 33 hours and even near the end I was still discovering paths I'd never been on, buildings I'd never been in, and characters I'd never encountered. Beautiful visuals; I painted some that weren't part of any commission or quest because I wanted to save them for my own collection. I don't usually play as a "completist", worrying about achieving 100% on everything, but I was enjoying this game too much to not want to complete every quest, paint every commissioned painting, visit every section of Eastshade.