Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles Review – Cuteness Overload

<p>Sometimes&comma; a super cute game comes along that sets impossible standards for all other games in my life&period; Once&comma; that was <em>Yoshi&&num;8217&semi;s Story<&sol;em>&period; After that&comma; the sweetness of <em>Wind Waker<&sol;em> stole my heart&period; This year&&num;8217&semi;s addition&comma; which may very well be the cutest game I&&num;8217&semi;ve ever played&comma; is <em>Yonder&colon; The Cloud Catcher Chronicles<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I can hear you doubting me already&period; You might even think you can name a handful of games that are cuter&period; But I challenge you to beat the adorableness of this game&period; You collect cats&period; You befriend round&comma; fluffy animals&period; Friends are earned by feeding them pounds and pounds of food&period; If only real life was this delightful&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game starts as you return to the lands where you were born&period; A terrible murk has swallowed much of the area&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s up to you to return Gemea to its former paradise&period; You recruit the help of darling little sprites to clear the dark clouds&period; Along the way&comma; you can build farms&comma; learn crafting skills&comma; and offer assistance to the citizens&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is a stunningly beautiful&comma; impeccable release by the newly developed team at Prideful Sloth&period; They call themselves a micro-AAA studio&comma; which means they create high-quality games at AAA-studio pace with only a handful of people&period; <em>Yonder<&sol;em> has a vast&comma; open-world map&comma; and it took them less than three years to get it from prototype to release&period; Controls are intuitive and switch flawlessly from keyboard to controller&period; UI and map designs are polished&period; This doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feel like an indie release at all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;127569" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-127569" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-127569" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;20191225&sol;20170717232101&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Yonder&colon; The Cloud Catcher Chronicles&comma; Prideful Sloth" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-127569" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Yonder&colon; The Cloud Catcher Chronicles&comma; Prideful Sloth<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As you explore Gemea&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll discover eight distinct environments&period; They range from ice-covered mountains to bubbling swamps&period; Each environment is gorgeous&comma; with bright colors&comma; deep shadows&comma; and the utmost attention to detail&period; The flowers you find in The Grasslands are different than those you&&num;8217&semi;ll collect in the forest&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll even discover new creatures in each biome&comma; from the tiniest penguins to giant yak-type creatures called Groffles&period; My personal favorites were the rotund&comma; flower-covered pigs of the Crestfall Coast region&period; The animals are shy at first&comma; but if you feed them their favorite food&comma; they are happy to follow you around&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;ve built a farm in the area&comma; you can even adopt them&excl; The animals produce materials that can then be used to trade for important building and quest items&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you decide you need an extra hand on your farm&comma; you can recruit townsfolk as farmhands&period; The one and only way to do this is to feed your potential farmhand lots and lots of food&period; Unlike similar befriending games&comma; Gemea&&num;8217&semi;s townspeople aren&&num;8217&semi;t picky&period; They&&num;8217&semi;ll eat anything&period; Ten wheels of cheese seem to do the trick&period; Or ten blocks of butter&period; Twenty raw mushrooms may seem like overkill&comma; but they&&num;8217&semi;ll happily eat every one&period; Once your friendship level has been met through an abundance of foods&comma; you can send them off to work your farm while you adventure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;127571" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-127571" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-127571" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;20192018&sol;20170717210839&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-127571" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Yonder&colon; The Cloud Catcher Chronicles&comma; Prideful Sloth<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As you explore Gemea&comma; you use a world map&comma; mini map&comma; and compass to guide you&period; The compass works much like a quest log&period; Pulling out your compass allows you to select a quest&comma; and it will direct you to the end goal&period; The world map shows where you can find the cities you&&num;8217&semi;ve discovered&comma; your farms&comma; murk that needs to be cleared&comma; traders&comma; and other points of interest&period; The maps are easy to read and even help to show you the altitude of areas&comma; which helps a lot when you are trying to navigate around a large mountain&period; However&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s no option to fast travel by map locations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Travel is slow&comma; and I found myself doing a lot of running back and forth across Gemea&period; You run at a single speed&comma; and the only way to fast-travel between locations is to use Sage Stones&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s one Sage Stone for each environment&comma; and often they are found deep underground or high atop a hill&comma; which makes them a little inconvenient&period; Slow travel is okay when you first start out&comma; as it&&num;8217&semi;s wonderful to take your time exploring each new area&period; However&comma; as soon as you need to hunt down a resource at the opposite end of the map&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll wish there was a faster method of travel&period; Maybe we could tame larger animals as mounts&quest; Or use crafting abilities to build basic vehicles&quest; These would be welcome additions to the <em>Yonder<&sol;em> world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;127570" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-127570" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-127570" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;20191444&sol;20170717203947&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Yonder&colon; The Cloud Catcher Chronicles&comma; Prideful Sloth" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-127570" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Yonder&colon; The Cloud Catcher Chronicles&comma; Prideful Sloth<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Travel and trade are tied hand-in-hand&period; Instead of using currency&comma; most trading is done by swapping items in your inventory for shop items of equal or lesser value&period; Most items you&&num;8217&semi;ll need to purchase are of a low value&comma; which makes it nearly impossible to clear out your personal inventory&period; You rarely trade multiple items for a single item&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s usually a fairly even trade&period; The only reliable way to create space in your backpack is to leave materials at one of your farms&period; Luckily&comma; the inventories are shared between all farms&comma; but I still found myself doing a significant amount of running around&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I felt that the time I spent managing my inventory and tracking down the materials I needed to build bridges&comma; craft items&comma; and enhance my farm detracted from my enjoyment of the game&period; Being able to upgrade backpack storage&comma; more efficiently fast travel between farms and towns&comma; or even sell items for money would help to address this concern&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s plenty of adorable side quests available to keep you entertained while you travel&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll discover a cat lady who recruits you to find all 55 of her lost cats&period; They are found rolling around and purring in the strangest of places&period; A hipster scarecrow wants to make sure you acquire the hottest fashions&period; Help a woman track down a rare fish so she can enter a beard competition&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s so much to explore&comma; that by the time I completed the main story line&comma; I had nearly forgotten my character&&num;8217&semi;s backstory&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I highly encourage anyone who lost themselves for hours in <em>Stardew Valley<&sol;em> or <em>Wind Waker<&sol;em> to check out this high-quality&comma; adorable release by Prideful Sloth&period; If you want more information&comma; you can find our PAX East interview with the developers <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;yonder-the-cloud-catcher-chronicles-pax-east-2017-hands-on-interview&sol;">here<&sol;a> and about 40 minutes of <em>Yonder&colon; The Cloud Catcher Chronicles <&sol;em>gameplay on our YouTube channel <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;youtu&period;be&sol;KpHMpatEYJI">here<&sol;a>&period; If you do explore Gemea&comma; leave a comment and let me know what you thought of those flower pigs&period; They sure are cute&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC review copy of <em>Yonder&colon; The Cloud Catcher Chronicles<&sol;em> was provided by Prideful Sloth for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;