Yerba Buena Reviews
For a relatively short game, around 8-10 hours, this was mostly a slammin’ puzzle adventure. If you want something new with an interesting story and original mechanics then I’d highly recommend this. Priced reasonably at about $36 AU, this is an enjoyable romp through the 70s. Although some more music would have added greatly to the experience, there is enough here to enjoy. Maybe just wait for a sale if you get frustrated with puzzles easily. So that’s the skinny, I gotta skitty back to my crib so keep on steppin.
Full of surprises and not afraid to throw you into the deep end, Yerba Buena is a delectably tricky linear puzzle narrative adventure masquerading as a colourful physics sandbox.
Barb finds herself right inside a video game and has a fantastic device that allows her to change things around her and solve puzzles. But even that sometimes doesn't help her succeed.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Yerba Buena is a flawed but fun puzzle platformer. The gun is fun to use, and while the puzzles in the latter half can get maddeningly difficult in levels that can start to feel like they run for too long, those puzzles can also feel satisfying to solve. The story can be a little bonkers at times, but it is compelling despite some issues that can mar the experience. With a solid presentation, Yerba Buena ends up being a fun experience for those craving a puzzle platformer that feels both different and familiar.
Yerba Buena combines creative weapon-based puzzle mechanics with an engaging story. However, eye-straining color palettes, distant interactions, and tedious level designs hinder the experience. Despite its high potential, it is not suitable for impatient players.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Yerba Buena is one of the smartest and most refreshing first-person puzzle games I’ve played in years, turning world manipulation into a mechanic that feels genuinely original. It constantly challenges the way you think, rewards creativity, and proves that great puzzle design doesn’t need a massive budget to leave a lasting impression.
Review in Unknown | Read full review
Yerba Buena manages a solid balance between storytelling and gameplay, with the Oscillator standing out as an inventive and engaging core mechanic. Thanks to its well-designed puzzles and steady progression of ideas, the game delivers a smooth and enjoyable experience that can appeal to both puzzle fans and newcomers.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Yerba Buena ends up seeming like an ambitious indie project that tests its technical limits. Some ideas work brilliantly. Others fail due to poor execution or tempo. But the game’s cleverness helps it through many of its issues. Beneath the tedious scanning mechanics, inconsistent problem design, and lousy presentation lurks a smart puzzle adventure full of innovation and innovative notions.
Yerba Buena is a tale of good and bad. What it does well it does really well. The Oscillator’s copy and paste mechanics and excellent level design make for a fantastic puzzle adventure that will test your puzzle solving skills in every way. However with its ho-hum narrative, boring characters and mind boggling restart level omission it fails to reach that upper echelon of puzzle games.
The basic premise of Yerba Buena stays strong throughout. The Oscillator remains the focal point in keeping the experience together, despite the rest of the game being of uneven quality. Copying movements, duplicating rules in real life, and altering object behaviors still create a satisfying gameplay experience when everything comes together. Yerba Buena just doesn’t always manage to pull it off.
Yerba Buena is a title that manages to stand out with a rare force because it has personality to spare. It's not perfect, it's not always refined, but it still manages to leave something to the player.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Yerba Buena is a decent physics-based puzzler, with some great ideas that often land and a story that kept me interested despite a few frustrations.
Yerba Buena features a gorgeous art style and some genuinely clever puzzle mechanics, but frustrating design choices and uneven pacing hold the experience back. The game’s inconsistent puzzle quality, combined with a poor checkpoint system, results in excessive backtracking that repeatedly disrupts immersion and momentum. I genuinely wanted to enjoy Yerba Buena more because some of its ideas are excellent, but too many mechanics work against the overall experience. While there is still a decent puzzle game underneath its issues, frustrating pacing and inconsistent design prevent Yerba Buena from reaching its full potential.
Yerba Buena has a solid idea on how to advance the puzzle genre, but lacks the execution to really pull it off. What is here is certainly enhanced by a fairly ok story, which has a very cool reveal behind it, but a lack of compelling characters, especially its lead, leaves Yerba Buena in a space where nothing really stands out.
Mad About Pandas delivers an original experience with Yerba Buena, one that stands out thanks to a brilliant gameplay idea like the Oscillator and an intriguing narrative. However, the execution struggles to keep up: between imprecise aiming, overly basic platforming sections, and a level design that often fails to properly support the player, the result is an adventure that alternates between good ideas and moments of frustration.
Review in Italian | Read full review