I had a chance to get my hands on Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles at PAX East this year. It’s an open-world game set to come out on PlayStation 4 and PC later in 2017. I was immediately struck by how beautiful the environment was, and more specifically, the light. If you take a look at the screenshots below, you can see what I mean. They were showing off the Grasslands environment for the first time and it was stunning.

It is hard to judge the gameplay, especially at a big convention. Prideful Sloth, who are developing the game, say that it blends elements of Zelda and Harvest Moon. In the demo, I was mostly doing quests for local villagers like chopping down trees and collecting rocks. Yonder is said to contain farming, crafting, cooking, fishing, and brewing, but there is no mention of combat, which might be a welcome change for some folks. 

I will say that there seemed to be a bit of a gap between the character art and the absolutely gorgeous environments. They seem to be going for a Wind Waker sort of thing, and I didn’t feel like they hit the mark. It is more of a nitpick than an actual criticism, and I don’t think it would diminish my personal enjoyment of the game.

I’m not sure Yonder will be everyone’s cup of tea, but I am looking forward to checking out more of it later this year. I wouldn’t mind spending some time in the beautiful world Prideful Sloth has created, and I could see it being a nice, stress free experience.

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