Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles Reviews
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a relaxing, explorative crafting adventure game. The game invites decompressing and immersion into the fun Island of Gemea. If you’re here for cute animals, luscious environments and exploration, building farms, crafting ingredients and structures, then this is the game for you. The main story feels as if it ends a bit abruptly and the fast travel component is not ideal. However, with lots to do and lots to see you shouldn’t get bored quickly.
Overall, Yonder is a game I`m enjoying and the development team at Prideful Sloth have done quite a decent job.
Yonder is for people who enjoy wandering about from task-to-task. It is easy to lose yourself in the simple, charming, and surprisingly expansive land of Gemea.
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 growing darkness. Reconnect with your homeland as you work to bring about the return of the paradise it once was by acquiring and using skills in crafting from basic bundles of sticks to larger stone buildings. Start farms that house various island animals and increase each region's productivity and restore the peace and happiness of the land and the people.
Yonder is the type of game I wish we had a lot more of on Xbox.
What’s brilliant is any explorer in Gemea can simply choose to farm, complete quests, seek sprites to defeat the Murk, or all of the above! Though it has its flaws, Yonder blossoms wonderfully through its blend of familiar visuals and mechanics most gamers have already come to love, and then opens its world even more for players of different tastes to get comfortable and play how they want. This is definitely one cloud worth catching.
All in all, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is an exploration-based, open-world collect-a-thon with crafting and quests that are both beautiful and fun when played in small bursts. Ultimately, it doesn't provide any substantial challenges and doesn't run too well on the Switch's hardware. Unless you're a die-hard fan of relaxing games that you can play for the sake of playing, Yonder may not be your cup of tea.
...this is a beautiful game that keeps me entertained for hours at a time. It doesn't matter how much I play, I will always have a reason to go back. If you are looking for an uncomplicated, sweet, relaxing and colorful adventure, then this is the title for you! They also take criticism very seriously - just check out the troll island. :)
All told, Yonder is that kind of game that has value, but only a very specific kind of gamer will be able to find it. Yonder isn't a bad game by any means, but it's clear that it tries to do too much at once and doesn't stop to make sure that anything is that fun in practice. Mediocre gameplay mechanics aside, it's a relaxing game to play with your coffee in the morning, and the presentation value is a definite plus. We'd recommend this to anyone looking for a relatively shallow game that doesn't take a whole much of a time investment; for what it is, Yonder is a decent game, though it's hardly a must-play.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is, in a nutshell, a huge collection quest. That should be clear to every buyer. Whether large or small, you will be rewarded with a wonderful game world for your purchase, which you will be reluctant to leave. After a stressful day at work, we are driven to the cuddly world of the game every now and then. Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a clear recommendation to buy. If you can do without a cartridge, you can also get it for a much lower price in the Nintendo eShop.
Review in German | Read full review
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles does not disappoint. It's a highly enjoyable and polished game, displaying a thoughtful approach to adventuring, an offering plenty to maintain interest.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a relaxing adventure set in a beautiful world but lacks challenge.
For a game from an indie studio, Yonder is surprisingly robust, polished and large. If you’re after a different kind of experience, that’s peaceful and relaxing, Yonder might just do the trick
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles does its best to present you with a steady stream of breathtaking vistas, serene escapes and idyllic moments that snap to a picture frame with flawless ease. The core game has all of its slight flaws that came with the other versions, but I found that taking time to frame and save some of what I saw gave me a deeper appreciation of Yonder's many high points.
This is a game which taught me to love the feeling of being lost, and I'm sure it's one I will return to for a long time.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is like The Elder Scrolls for the most casual player all the way to The Legend of Zelda to its charming world design. While it can be compared to an open-world Harvest Moon, it's very much its own identity. There's plenty of deep rewards for those who live for that stuff. The sense of discovery kept me engaged the whole time. I wanted to collect everything not because I was forced to, but because I wanted to. Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles evokes the feeling of that time of innocence while being a kid roaming grassy fields and stuffing your backpack with everything you can find and knowing that even simple sticks & stones were treasures because they were yours. Then you mastered their uses and felt like the best adventurer ever.
At the end of the day, though its story isn’t anywhere near as inspired as its well-planned and executed world, Yonder is a feast for your eyes and ears. The passive nature of the play and the beauty around almost every corner, mixed with the consistent sense of discovery, make it a very serene and relaxing way to spend quite a number of hours finding all of the game’s secrets. Unlike its peers of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley it does have a better defined point where you could very much choose to consider yourself “finished” but at the same time nothing is trying to discourage you from continuing to enjoy the experience. If you love the sense of discovery in Breath of the Wild (or other titles) and losing combat isn’t a big deal to you Yonder is absolutely worth checking out!
Despite some hiccups in performance that are perfectly understandable given the scope, limited budget, and the engine used, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles in its Nintendo Switch incarnation retains all of its charm. It is not a Triple-A product, and yet what it manages to achieve is a wonder to behold.
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.
It does a fantastic job of making a captivating atmosphere that's both fun to explore and filled with things to do. There are frame rate issues and the lack of diversity among quests is a bit disappointing, but the jaw dropping visuals and superb audio design left me pining for more. While it certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea, those looking for a laidback trip through a stunning world, look no further.