Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles Nintendo Switch Review

"Charming World"

Campaign

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is actually a rather lovely game, though also a quiet and empty one as well. I finished the main narrative element in less than a few hours and by the end I was just alright with it. There wasn't much of a sense in terms of completion, but I didn't necessarily hate it. It's the most fine sort of story I've played despite having some solid charm for the first part of the experience. The story follows you, as whatever character you design and you need to find out what happened to your family on this island.

This quest causes you to get shipwrecked on an island of beauty to then help its inhabitants. From there you wander about on the island completing quests, clearing murk and collecting Sprites to clear further murk. That's really all, I mean you can do some side activities but nothing felt too compelling. I don't have an issue with the game's removal of combat though in its place needs to be some more engaging activities. If you're looking for something more out of the game it does have minor farming, fishing and guild based things to do.

Gameplay

Yonder looks stunning, it truly does shine and it's a pleasure to adventure through. On the Nintendo Switch I found it to look surprisingly good, yet it looked off. There was a certain glow to it that didn’t look right and this caused a white noise on objects such as trees. There were some performance issues, but for the most part it does look quite good whether it’s on the large screen or docked.

The island is filled right up with life and unique biomes. I was impressed how it all flowed together so perfectly, but there wasn't enough to keep my interest for long. The game can be beautiful, but it's also needs to be fun and engaging. I felt like I'd just run from one end of the island to the other. Then I'd wait a bit since it has day based quests (more like I left the room for awhile). Controls were simple, there was a decent amount of crafting though I still desired something more out of it.

The Conclusion

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles was fine, nothing more though nothing less. It's a beautiful adventure for exploring, yet lacks the engagement needed to truly make this compelling. There's a short narrative that doesn't take long to play through and after that I didn't really care for extra exploration or activities. It handles alright on the platform on either format, the environments are gorgeous with biomes that perfectly swirl together. I just expected more from the story or at least some more interesting quests to do to the side. Whether that was going to meet locals, having some fun side adventures or anything really as I wasn't ever too into it aside from the initial journey. I think this fits the Nintendo Switch audience more as it is a casual RPG experience that’s quite relaxed..

Read our Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review
View our Game Hubs

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles Review on Nintendo Switch
Review Code Provided by Stride PR

Rating Overall: 5.8