Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles wears its inspirations proudly on its sleeves. What it’s even prouder of is how it stands apart from those inspirations and creates a world of it’s own for the player to explore at their leisure and do things as they see fit. Visually the game looks a lot like the new Zelda, with mere minutes into the game a cinematic intro sweeping the camera across a stunning landscape similar to the opening moments of Breath of the Wild.
The game starts with a very simple and basic character creator, and that same simplicity is carried forth for the majority of the game. After a quick premise, you land on the island of Gemea, a beautiful and fantastical land filled with friendly folks and creatures, who are endangered by an evil force called Murk. And your’e tasked with defeating the Murk and banishing it from Gemea. And this is where things get interesting.
Yonder has no combat at all. During your journey, you come across sprites who you take with you and they dispel the Murk. The Murk appears in the form of clouds and blocks your way and each needs a set number of sprites to dispel it. There’s Lumie, the sprite that joins you at the start and she sticks with you throughout, giving you constant advice and other cheery tidbits. By ditching combat, Yonder focuses on farming and gathering, much like Harvest Moon. And here’s where the game’s charm is in abundance.
With it’s whimsical and vibrant world, Yonder is filled with animals to befriend, plants to farm and grow. The plants that you grow can then be fed to animals, and once you befriend them they follow you around. Farming, exploration and the story are not really inter-connected to each other, apart from some early quests. You are free to go about doing what you feel like, and the game never restricts or punishes you in any way. There’s an immense sense of joy in just wandering about taking in the sights, going at your own pace. You never need to worry about health, managing time or resources. While in most games this might have lead to purposelessness, exploring Yonder feels like ample reward in itself.
There are different zones across Gemea, which you can unlock as you keep dispelling the Murk, and all offer a different look and new creatures to befriend and farm. Quests for the most part are simple fetch-quests, but some of them offer a goofy premise and few good laughs. Talking to the residents is a one-sided affair since your character is not voiced, which feels like a missed opportunity, since your character could have easily added to the charm of the world. While the quests feel enough for now, I actually would love to see more deeper farming and animal husbandry mechanisms added later. I am not sure if that’s what the developers have in mind for the future of this game, but given that Yonder takes around 6-7 hours to complete, I would love any reason to spend hours more in Gemea.
Yonder is not for everybody. There’s not a lot to do here, and that’s primarily because it ditches combat and replaces it with simplistic gameplay. While that decision is fine, I would’ve liked to see Yonder as an Early Access title that gets more content added over time. Even so, if you want an enjoyable and relaxing experience, Yonder is worth checking out.
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