Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles Reviews

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a somber and peaceful game. Its gorgeous visuals, astonishing environments and the fun core mechanics of discovery make for a joyful experience. However, despite the polish and the variety of things to do, the game lacks finesse in its storytelling and personality in its characters. This keeps Yonder from being an incredible game, but it's still a great one. The PS4 version of this game was played for the purpose of this review.

Delve into an island world of beauty and adventure that takes you across several vastly different regions as you endeavor to find answers to your mysterious past and the presence of the Murk that holds the lands in captive, slowly encompassing the lands and chipping away at the hearts of the people. Open your heart to the people and creatures you encounter as you endeavor to help them reclaim a world that is slowly being taken from them and enlist the help of otherworldly beings to dispel the...

Video games are the preferred form of escape from the real world for many people, myself included. The beauty of this entertainment medium is that it can come in such vastly different forms. If you have some pent up aggression, you can blow off some steam in a fighting game like Street Fighter or lose yourself in a realistic military shooter like Call of Duty. If you want to exercise your mind, you can solve numerous puzzles like those found in The Talos Principle. If you want to live out a...

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles initially released for PlayStation 4 and PC last year. With the game now hitting the Switch, RPGamer takes a look at Prideful Sloth's laid-back adventure.

There are enough small grievances I have with the game that hold it back from being truly great, but the tone and setting are so charming that it’s hard to be too mad at it. If you want to do some peaceful meandering during your commute, the Switch version is easy to recommend.

Breath of the Mild

Overall, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a charming and visually pleasing experience that will remind you immediately of 3D Legend of Zelda titles, mainly The Wind Waker, in how the towns, island, and citizens are portrayed. The questing and story progression is okay, but it may become boring and tedious for some looking for more of an action oriented affair. The side activities alone, as well as with the crafting and farm management are what many will have to enjoy to get the most out of Yonder. Otherwise, if you are looking for something deeper, this may be a rather boring expedition.

The beauty of Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is the player’s ability to choose what they want to focus on. Exploring lands full of groffles and magic sprites serves as a refreshing break from other games. Its story and quests are not the most engaging, but the world of Yonder has enough charm that its shortcomings are easy to forgive.

Sometimes, you really do just need a laid-back game that drops any semblance of agency or emergency and instead allows you to simply explore everything that it has to offer at your own leisure — something that you can easily unwind with, or a title that’s just relaxing and inviting. Yonder fulfills this purpose wonderfully, and I can see myself revisiting it time and time again just so I can get lost in its world once more.

Make Groffles, not war in this delightful exploration and crafting sim.

To some, Yonder will be just a drawn out series of fetch quests lacking a worthwhile reward. It didn’t feel that way to me, though. When it comes to carefree, pressureless exploration and discovery, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles does its job properly. There are these small moments, like jumping from high up for the first time, only to see your character whip out an umbrella and float slowly to the ground, which add uniqueness to the experience. Then, very good production value and the freedom to essentially go wherever, truly make Gemea a place worth exploring. Delving into farming and crafting, however, will run you into systems that are perhaps a bit too simplistic for their own good, while the story isn’t anything to write home about. As far as relaxing exploration of a beautiful world goes, Yonder fully delivers on its promise. It’s a pity it doesn’t do more with its other components.

It seems like nowadays every developer wants to make an open-world game. In the case of a studio like Guerrilla Games, a company previously known almost exclusively for the first-person shooter franchise Killzone, their foray into open-world games was this year’s Horizon: Zero Dawn, which has been one of the biggest critical successes of the year. But when it comes to new open-world games, most aren’t as unique or successful as Horizon, and it’s led to an overwhelming feeling of homogeny within the genre. Enter Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles, an open-world exploration game built by just a handful of people at indie developer Prideful Sloth. It’s a modest game, but Yonder immediately sticks out from many others in the same genre due to its striking visuals, charming world, and complete lack of combat.

I accept that Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles won’t be for everyone. The lack of any kind of conflict will instantly be a turn-off for some, and it’s a shame, because Yonder should be applauded for daring to do something a little different in creating a completely peaceful experience. Video games don’t have to equal violence. Knowing that no monsters await you around any corner, and that no band of rogues is out to kill you is strangely liberating. Put down your guns, your swords, and your bows and arrows, and step into the world of Yonder just for an hour or two. You might just love it.

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is hard to categorize. It meanders with a pleasant, lazy pace through half a dozen genres and homages without ever feeling completely settled on any one thing. After hours and hours of playing, I still felt like the game was hiding something from me, that, if I turned the right corner, I might discover yet another feature, mystery or area.

Yonder really does have a lot going for it. It’s one of the more charming games that I’ve played this year, and the very relaxed vibe really works to its advantage. I will concede that some aspects of the game may feel a little undercooked, and it may not twist some of the borrowed elements into something that’s gives those aspects their own identities very well. It may not have the sharp writing that we’ve become accustomed to in gaming these days, but at the end of the day, it’s p...

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a beautiful canvas that needs more detail to make it a masterpiece. Gemea is an enchanting location and the majority of systems in the game function well, but the magic hook is missing. The story isn’t engrossing and the quests just blend into each other for the most part, as do the characters that give them. Gemea is magical, the content not so much.

The land of Gemea has been taken over by purple clouds of murk that have broken the Cloud Catcher. It's up to you to save this world from crisis and uncover the story of how this evil mist came to be.

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles comes from Australian Studio, Prideful Sloth Games, as their first big project that creates a world for you to explore, traverse and experience. Yonder attempts to hold up this aspiration with the story of a lost young child discovering their hidden past in a beautiful fantasy land.

In the end, Yonder isn’t inventive, exactly, as the multitude of ideas and cross-media inspirations converge somehow into something infinitely familiar. Missions are cut down to absolute basics to fulfill an open world quota, but it’s possible to forgive this when traipsing through this aesthetically pleasing land and helping these delighted folk. And as importantly, there’s bravery in eliminating things like combat and leveling, allowing Yonder a rare, distinctive brevity.

If you enjoy stopping to smell the roses, the fields of Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles are awash with aroma. However, if you're looking for something with a little more kick, you may not get what you're looking for.

Infinitely charming and unnaturally adorable, Yonder suffers from tedious gameplay but makes up for it with a bold sense of whimsy.