Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles Nintendo Switch Review

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles opens with a beautiful fantasy world that emphasizes exploration above everything else. The similarities to other fantasy games are hard to ignore but unlike titles like The Legend of Zelda, consequences are non-existent. Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a relaxing adventure set in a beautiful world but lacks challenge.

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles has you controlling a custom made protagonist as you attempt to remove a darkness substance called "murk" by completing fetch quests. With the aid of sprites, players must remove these barriers to explore the island. The plot is extremely thin and doesn't evolve past this primary objective. Much of the journey focuses on collecting items, crafting, and exploration.

Along the way, you'll collect everything that can be picked up. Most of the quests require you to collect a specific number of items and chances are you'll already gather them. You can exchange items from local merchants. A farming system is available that offers a specialized way to farm bulk resources and store items, which is ideal since your inventory will get full over the course of the adventure.

Guilds are peppered throughout the world and build your crafting list. Since each area has a specific economy they'll trade items associated with that area. This makes gathering recipes important but not mandatory.

Gamea is a beautiful world with varied and lush environments separated into 8 areas. It's a joy to explore but the lack of puzzles and hostiles won't appeal to everyone. Instead, much of the game's progression is linked to clearing out the darkness and finding the route towards the next objective highlighted by your compass. Rewards are often uneventful with most of the joy coming from finishing the objective. Even after completing the main story Once you've seen everything the thrill of exploration quickly fades.

It's clear that Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles was crafted to be a relaxing adventure and it successfully accomplishes that. Combat and death don't exist in Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles. Falling from heights cause no damage, drowning pops up back on the surface, and nothing lethal exists. Coupled with the lack of an effective fast-travel system and players will find themselves monotonously walking distances. This can especially annoying when your backpack fills and without a quick way to deposit items to the farm you'll end up throwing away items constantly.

The Nintendo Switch version does run well in both docked and handheld mode. The resolution and frame rate remained constant in both modes but you'll find breaks when the game autosaves. But since death isn't an issue this is a minor problem.

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles isn't a challenging title but provides a world ample of things to do. Most of the goals are tied to collecting items and clearing murk which won't appeal to everyone. The world of Gamea does offer a lot of varied environments that have their own distinct terrain but without much substance in terms of rewards or hostiles to face once you see everything the need to complete everything dissolves quickly. If you're looking for a relaxing game that focuses on discovery than Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles will provide an ideal experience for you.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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