Leaving Lyndow
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It's Clara's last day on the island where she grew up. With high honors, she's graduated and fulfilled her childhood dream of joining the Guild of Maritime Exploration. She needs to complete preparations, visit her favorite places, and say her goodbyes – before leaving on a journey she may not return from. *Dangerous journey not included* • Leaving Lyndow is a peaceful experience, with a detailed environment to explore at your own pace. • Examine objects to learn about the life and world of a young scientist preparing to leave home. • Partake in mini-games that further reveal the story. • Speak with friends and family as they prepare for the departure of a loved one. • Short and sweet: An experience that can be completed in one sitting.
Steam User 12
I am 32 years old.
My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and we adopted our son together. Both are now 4 years old.
When we were going through our separation, I felt lost and unhappy. I was self-destructive. One day, I was so angry with everything spiraling out of control that I punched a concrete wall in a moment of overwhelming emotion. This resulted in breaking my fifth metacarpal in my right hand—the hand I worked with, played games with, and used to carry my children to bed—the hand I desperately needed to ensure I could continue providing.
Upon learning the severity of the self-inflicted damage, I became almost suicidal. Keep in mind that just a few months before this, I was the happiest man, with no history of depression or anxiety. I had never experienced anger outbursts, nor was I the type to break down and cry, but I was in a tough situation that truly prevented me from seeing the light on the other side.
With nothing better to do, I looked for a game I could play WITH ONE HAND while recovering. Somehow, I stumbled upon this game and read some of the comments. I decided it was worth a try... I must admit I didn't beat the game, nor did I play as much as some of you. In fact, I may have played this game for only a day or two. That being said, after doing so, I had a new joy and hope for life. I managed to leave behind the pain and suffering that had been thrust upon me. I could experience the joy and happiness of other people. I relaxed for 5 ♥♥♥♥ minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.
After realizing this, I turned off the game and went back to work. My hand hurt a lot, but I was motivated. I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and became the father I needed to be at that moment, not the weak boy I was behaving like.
Today, I am close friends with the mother of my children. We don't fight, argue, or say hurtful things to each other. We are parents and friends.
Now I have 3 children. My third child is, wait, ALSO 4 YEARS OLD. The woman I am with was going through a very similar situation at the time of my separation, and we just unexpectedly stumbled into each other's lives. We have been dating for a year and are very happy together.
Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today. This silly little game helped me realize that.
Thank you.
Steam User 5
I played this intro game after playing Eastshade. For me it was more of a homecoming than a leaving, but it was interesting to see how Eastshade grew out of Leaving Lyndow.
Steam User 5
★★★★★ - 5 out of 5 Stars
Eastshade is my favorite game. It's a game that makes me feel an inner peace no other game has ever given me. After I finished Eastshade, I got Leaving Lyndow, but I knew I needed to save it for a time when I really needed that inner peace again.
I just finished playing another game that made me feel extremely depressed and the depression is lingering, so I knew I needed to finally use Leaving Lyndow. It's only 45 min long, but as soon as the game started, I was transported back to Eastshade and breathed a sigh of relief.
After playing, I feel much better.
Leaving Lyndow feels like it's a less complete version of Eastshade, where the character models aren't quite finished yet, but I didn't mind. If you'd like a small intro to Eastshade or want more of Eastshade when you're finished, I highly recommend.
Steam User 2
Accidentally playing Eastshade first really makes me appreciate how amazing the world of Eastshade is. Piecing together the map felt almost magical
Steam User 5
Steam User 3
TL;DR: Leaving Lyndow is a very short, relaxing walking simulator with gorgeous scenery and beautiful sound. Bonus: easy achievements. Buy this game if that sounds appealing to you.
The long version: Above anything, Leaving Lyndow is a gorgeous game. Before I even left Clara's bedroom, I was completely enthralled by the environment. I only became more enthralled as I got further into it.
This game is a (very short) walking simulator, which I happen to love, but ymmv. Although the character you play has a ship to catch, you do not need to hurry at any point in the game. It's a very relaxing experience, in which you get to explore different locations at your own pace (I use the word "explore" here because to you, the player, these are new locations, while for your character, they are familiar locations. Player and character have essentially opposite reasons to take their time and look at everything, but it works). Aside from explorable locations, the game includes a couple mini games and/or fetch quests, some of which you need to complete to move on, while others are optional. There isn't a whole lot of story, but it was enough to keep me interested. There's also a surprising amount of worldbuilding and backstory for such a short game with only a few explorable locations (see below, where I talk about things I found intriguing).
As I mentioned, this is a beautiful game. The environment looks both realistic and slightly magical at the same time, due to the fantasy flora and unique architecture. I wanted so badly to explore the scenery in between the enclosed environments you get to visit in the game, but I do understand why they weren't included, seeing as how Leaving Lyndow was apparently intended more as an introduction to another, full-size game, rather than a full game in its own right (I was unaware of this as I played, though).
The music and the sound are also very impressive, although there's no real voice acting for the NPC characters; each one just says a few made up words when you first initiate a conversation, then just stands there in silence for the rest of it. The nature sounds are lovely and the indoor sounds are very convincing, though when you hang out in the tea house for a while, not talking to anyone (like, say, if you're standing by the bead game for five minutes, waiting to get an achievement), you'll notice that it's a pretty short loop. Also, and this is incredibly minor, the background conversation does not sound like the same language as the NPC lines.
As soon as I finished Leaving Lyndow, I immediately replayed it several times, experimenting with resolutions and the FOV slider to get different screenshots (I did experience some motion sickness with the FOV slider set all the way to 90, which I believe is the default). The replays were also needed to get the achievements I missed on my first playthrough; they're all easy enough to get, but you may not get all of them just playing normally. The game is very short, so it took me no time at all to play through several times. The whole experience takes maybe 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how much you explore and stand around taking screenshots.
I will say that it would be nice to have more than one save slot, so you could more easily visit each of the locations, without having to replay from the beginning, but again, the game is very short so it's not that big a deal.
I very much wanted to spend more time in this universe, so I wishlisted Eastshade as soon as I finished Leaving Lyndow and found out about its existence. I can't wait to see what it looks like and learn more about the universe because Leaving Lyndow made me very curious.
As I played, I very quickly became invested in the characters and their world. I feel vaguely sad for Clara's mom, who will be living alone in that large house after losing her husband and now sort of losing her daughter, though she is clearly excited the daughter is getting this opportunity. I am concerned for the uncle, who is so worried about Clara, and especially for the young cousin, who seems unusually obsessed with death. Is he traumatized by what happened to Clara's dad, or did something happen to one of his parents? No second parent is every mentioned, but the kid is clearly going through something and I'm sure Clara's departure is not helping. Maybe all the characters are also traumatized by the disaster that took out a good part of the neighboring town. It's sort of interesting that Clara's loved ones seem to be worried about what may happen to people when they leave the island. On the one hand, this is understandable, considering what happened to the dad, but on the other hand, disaster has also just visited home, so clearly nowhere is safe.
I would love to learn more about the things Clara studies on her expedition. I'm also really curious about more mundane stuff, like the difference between the two homes in the game. Why is one so much larger than the other? I am also intrigued by the lack of light fixtures. The small number of candles seen inside Clara's home is nowhere near adequate to light a space that size. Does that mean the sun doesn't set in this place? Does it set only briefly this time of year? I am so eager to learn more about this world and the characters and I wonder if Eastshade will have answers for me (I understand it's a completely separate story, but I have hopes!) (and yes, I also understand that possibly neither of these things means anything beyond the devs made decisions for out-of-universe reasons :p )
Anyway, I am 100% a fan of Leaving Lyndow and wholeheartedly recommend it to those interested in short, gorgeous, walking-simulator type games.
Steam User 1
Leaving Lyndow is a short story that ties well with the game Eastshade. I recommend playing Eastshade first.
It is a beautiful and atmospheric wonder that left me feeling content. :)