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- Prideful Sloth
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Released On: Jul 18, 2017
64
7.5
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
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Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 39 Critic Reviews
64
26% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
62% Mixed
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
13% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 39 Critic Reviews
64
26% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
62% Mixed
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
13% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Obviously, there are some people that probably won’t enjoy Yonder too much. If you want action and adventure, of course, it’ll probably bore you, and if you want a fast-paced story, you’re not going to find that here. But if you’re just looking for a delightful game that allows you to explore to your heart’s contest, Yonder is exactly what you’re looking for.
Yonder lacks combats, but that it's not a problem when you have a world as beautifully crafted as this is. Match it with addictive (although simple) crafting mechanics, and you have a unique adventure, where joy is found behind every new landscape.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 57 User Ratings
7.5
63% Positive
36 Ratings
36 Ratings
19% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
18% Negative
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 57 User Ratings
7.5
63% Positive
36 Ratings
36 Ratings
19% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
18% Negative
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
I honestly wasn't expecting much on this game and didn't even bother picking it up until someone said how good it is, and they were right. The art style is quite charming and relaxing and very well done. It definetly feels like a game Nintendo would develop focusing on more simple but attractive art style. The gameplay is quite good and everything is set out easily enough. There is a few things I would have liked to have seen in terms of making the world feel more alive but nothing that was too upsetting however.
This game makes a perfect chill out game. A game you can go to, to just relax and explore a lovely island. I am going to be watching Prideful Sloth (the developers) closely for their next game after finding this gem
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PlayStation 4
Yonder is an artwork that immerses you in this relaxing and beautiful world. If you don't know what to play and just want to have a good time this is the perfect game since is completely free of stress. Yonder makes you enjoy the world for it's good design too (the lightning effects are amazing, the environment, the seasons of the year, even the night and day cycle).
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PlayStation 4
This beautiful adventure transports you to an amazing world filled with a wonderful soundtrack. As far as gameplay is concerned, Yonder never becomes complex, instead opting for a simple, but charming experience. Highly recommended.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is an enjoyable enough adventure, but it’s missing a hook to get players invested. The game wants you to get lost in the economy and exploration it offers, but in just performing these menial tasks for their own sake it fails to create any moments where the entire experience is more than a series of distractions.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a lovely, sedate open world adventure game that inexplicably gates its crafting mechanic behind an obtuse, tiered system that renders it moot.
Simple quests, a lack of tutorials, and little-to-no backstory makes Yonder feel unpolished, in direct contrast to its whimsically charming setting. [Sept 2017, p.84]
One cannot comprehend who Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is meant to serve. Exploration is a chore based on frame rate issues and less-than-stellar graphics. Questing sucks because there is no real sense of progress or accomplishment. Farming and crafting is similarly pointless as there just isn’t a heck of a lot to do. I will confess to giving up after only a couple of hours in hopes that I was the recipient of Alpha code.
Yonder is a relaxing and beautiful game. If you don't like to be relaxed, or you don't like beauty or cute things, then this game isn't for you.
Yonder isn’t aiming to take you on an epic journey filled with conflict or drama. It isn’t trying to overhaul its genre with new mechanics or gameplay. Instead, it’s a beautiful, easy going and relaxing experience. One in which you’re free to collect flowers and cats, explore the various gorgeous environments, or run a farm. All at your own leisure.
Following a quick ship wreck and some rushed story scenes explaining a thing called ‘Murk’, which is a strange mist infecting the land, you’re dumped on the islands of Gemea. A deceptively large world, which features diverse environments from deserts to dense forests and snowy mountains. From there on, you’re free to wander and explore to your heart’s content. Which was exactly what I did.
Yonder1
Yonder if anything, is beautiful. I spent the first half an hour just wandering around, taking in the gorgeous artstyle and environments on display. Seriously, just watching a sunrise or sunset is a treat. There are breathtaking landscapes galore, intricate trees and foliage around every corner and areas which just sparkle in the sun and moonlight.
The Australian developer Prideful Sloth’s debut title, coming to PS4 and Steam for the time being, is not just for show though. It features a range of activities for you to fill your time. Fishing, farming, taming cute animals, crafting and learning trades such as being a brewer or carpenter. And a gazillion collectibles, most notably cats. Who will purr loudly when they are nearby.
You’ll be tasked with completing a variety of missions too, from finding out who stole a lamington, to various fetch quests. Which as you could imagine, grew old incredibly fast. Although, where Yonder shines most is when its mechanics are focused around exploration, as its exquisite world steals the show.Yonder2The Murk, which covers parts of the world and stops you progressing to new areas, forces you to explore the regions you already have access to in order to find ‘Sprites’. Little fairy like beings which allow you to clear the Murk. It is a smart mechanic which led to me exploring the many nooks and corners each region had hidden throughout.
Overall, Yonder aims to be a nice and playful time. The characters and models are simple but cute, like a child’s playset. How characters talk is quite friendly and often silly. Even the font seems somewhat childishly friendly. None of these are negatives, just observations of the developer’s obvious aim of creating an easy going experience. One which will definitely appeal to younger audiences, as well as older ones looking for a calming game to wind down to after a long day.Yonder3
As if to emphasise this more, the first chance I had to jump off a ledge my customisable character pulled out an umbrella to glide down with. It was only at that point I realized I didn’t have health. In fact, there aren’t any enemies in the game to fight at all.
Yonder avoids conflict wherever possible. If you go too deep into water, you spawn back to safety. Animals you come across, such as buffalo or foxes, actively avoid you, through turning their bums in your direction (unless you have the right food). It is cute and honestly adorable. All and all, it creates a refreshingly pleasant game.
Populating the variety of towns there are plenty of people to talk to. Some pop up continuously throughout your journeys, giving you facts on the land or about cute animals inhabiting the world. Some will be quest givers, many you’ll be able to hire as hands on your farms or be able to trade various items with.
Overall though, the characters I encountered in my journeys felt one dimensional and empty. You can’t develop actual friendships through story lines or dialogue. They often felt more like filler and lacked character. Which is disappointing, considering the world has so much. Yonder4The small quirks and sometimes silly dialogue of the characters will most likely be enough depth for some. But I felt mostly unattached to my quest givers, who felt just that. More points of contact for quests if I ever became bored of exploring.
Despite these faults the story, gameplay and world comes together in the main objective of the game, which is to repair the Cloud Catcher. You’ll need to traverse the many environments, talk to and collect items from people from all walks of life and complete some of the most unique missions of the game.
Albeit still lacking the finesse and character to make this an incredible game, there were moments which made me feel like I was going on an exciting adventure towards the end. One which required me to have truly explored and understood the world to complete it.
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PlayStation 4
This is an extremely beautiful and relaxing game for all ages. Don't listen to all those **** unfairly downrating the game. Hate train galore. It also seems people were having wrong expectations. Watch some let's plays on it, don't believe the haters.
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PlayStation 4
Good, but it could be better, the graphics are very beautiful and pleasant, and the gameplay is attractive to a certain extent, however the game does not support its mechanics and its history, after a certain time everything is very superficial and tiring, And the gameplay is becoming more and more repetitive, plus a case of untapped potential
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PlayStation 4
Superficial and Empty. The "No Man's Sky" of RPG Farming Sims.
I enjoyed my first hour, keeping an open mind throughout, and I wanted so bad to love this game. But I am tired of making excuses to justify my wasted evening and my wasted money.
Art style is cute and original (outside of the obvious BOTW influence), but the plot is mediocre and unoriginal.
Farming is boring and automated. The animals go from adorable to unnecessary, quick.
Crafting is unrewarding. Items lack interesting descriptions to enhance the experience, leaving a mass of rather useless junk filling up your backpack.
Your backpack's carrying capacity is unclear until you are far away from a chest and unable to store the items, as opposed to **** Valley, which is always clear. This is due to the expectation that a scrolling menu (rather than a fixed menu) can imply a very large or endless capacity.
I rather like the bartering system as opposed to a coin-centric model. However, items are shown to equal a certain amount of money, even though actual money is never used, resulting in a strange inconsistency.
Finding Sprites in Yonder (including the prototypical two sentence "you found me" snarky comment) is a not so subtle riff off of finding Kokiri in BOTW (except without the fun/unique/challenging/charming puzzles that come with BOTW).
Yonder's Murk (the purple fog) is clearly another not so subtle riff off of BOTW's Malice (the purple goo).
MC does not sleep, eat, run out of energy, etc, rendering the chef path another useless edition to the game.
MC does not have a house or a central hub, which would have aided in a feeling of commitment to the land and community.
NPCs lack depth and add nothing to the main quest line, who are only there to trigger sidequest after boring sidequest of grinding for useless resources that you probably already have in your bloated backpack.
And there are the recipe quests: Bring me this item, but, first, here is the recipe for the item, and, also, here are the ingredients to craft the item. Make the item. Give me item. (ಠ_ಠ) Thanks.ヽ(ಠ_ಠ)ノ
The most frustrating part about this game is its unfulfilled potential, and it has so much potential!
There is more to say, but I'm just one person. There are extensive reviews on Steam that are very helpful. Please read the reviews before purchase. It may save you your evening and your money.
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PlayStation 4
I do apologize because my comment can be triggering a little and maybe even hateful
(I understand if you would call it that way. Because IT IS a bucket of cold water that I am pouring out on a head here and people generally don't like that. And I think this is what is defined as hateful for some. But I also feel like it needs to be addressed here because judging by the comments on Steam people do feel that way but act like they can't criticize any artistic endeavor that is cute because it will mean they are not only wrong but also bad people or something...)
But... After this long intro, I will say only this:
This game is so very very shallow... And everything good here is so on a surface level... Just a perfect definition of the term: all style, no substance.
If you like this "GAME" you are either a little girl (and then it is absolutely fine) or in a mentality of a little girl because in real life you are desperately in need of sincerely expanding your comfort zone a little.
(If I am this harsh how can I wish you well, am I right here? I can only be bad. Also. I am a guy because that definitely matters to some:) )
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PlayStation 4
Summary Yonder shipwrecks players on the vast island of Gemea, a land enshrouded in an evil murk. By exploring the land, joining forces with the locals and contributing to their community through optional talents like farming, crafting, cooking, fishing and brewing, adventurers can help the island flourish.
Rated E
for Everyone
Platforms:
- PlayStation 4
- PC
- Nintendo Switch
- Xbox One
- Xbox Series X
- PlayStation 5
Initial Release Date: Jul 18, 2017
Developer:
- Prideful Sloth
Publisher: Prideful Sloth
Genres:
