Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles

Very much recommended as an exploration game, with a few weaknesses to note. First off, this is a beautiful game to look at, and it excels at natural environments in particular. There's a lot to see and jog through, almost all of it breathtakinglt pretty particularly at dawn and dusk. And there we run into a hiccup- the night times- they are as long as day, and the player has to explore the terrain almost groping in the dark with just a dim lantern to help them through, and it's not nearly enough. It also sucks to be forced to see these beautiful landscapes in near dark. To be fair, the greyscales, the shadows and the night time glows do have their charm, but it shouldn't be for half the player's time. In addition, the map is hard to decipher. some of its lines are hard to make sense of, and it's hard to be sure whether there's a way open to cross a line on the map, or if it's a hard boundary. Also, some of the structures like natural stone bridges or even the player built ones are not depicted on the map. The player can place markers on the map, but the mechanism is not very easy to use either. Some of these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ could have been ironed out or honed by the developers but they seem to have moved on. Still, I would rate the environments and exploration at a 9/10. Had the listed ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ been improved upon, I would rate it a 10/10 for an Indie game in this respect. Quest designs are a middling 7/10, and the billboard quests seem to be randomly generated with generic rewards, not a good design. Crafting is ok, a 7.5/10, but tends to be more of chores than meaningful rewards. The music is as well done as the environments and adds to the exploration as the players visits the various vistas. It sits in the background, is never offensive or tiring, and is awe-inspiring at the right moments. A 9.5/ 10 for me. On the whole, this is a game the explorers among us will love. And this is the core strength of the game, partly diluted by forcing the player to traverse the map at night-time. There's a real joy to discovering the natural world of Yonder. The quests, crafting, farming, fishing, story are present but not as good as could be. With more than 70% of the game completed, my rating for Yonder is 8.5/ 10.