Lovely peaceful adventure Yonder released
This looks lovely!
If you fancy exploring, fishing, farming, befriending, cooking, and crafting, while saving a land without fighting anyone, have a gander at Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles [official site]. Launched this morning, it's a mighty pretty and nonviolent open-world adventure which looks to smoosh bits of games like Stardew Valley and Zelda together. Only with no fighting. No, the way to save everyone is simply by helping people with their tasks.
Our John is having a bash to tell us all Wot He Thinks later but, for now, he tells me he found it "immediately incredibly calming and serene."
A once-lovely island is being smothered by evil murk, see, and we get to save it. To do this, you'll need to enlist the aid of spirits by helping people, which involves crafting, fishing, gathering, and all that.
What I've seen of the finished game looks far more like a bag of MMORPG fetch quests than I was hoping. A task list hanging in the corner of the screen is not what I want from a calm game as I roam through biomes and seasons. But it is a pretty place to explore, and John seems to be enjoying it.
"It's hard to explain it as it is, ostensibly, boring. But it isn't for some reason. It just feels... safe," John told me for first thoughts.
"The second thought I have is that the day/night cycle is idiotically fast, and night time is far too dark."
Sounds to me like someone is afraid of the dark. I'm sure his eventual Wot I Think will mostly be about how he was afraid a spooky ghost might spook him or he'd turn the light on and ET the Extra-Terrestrial would be RIGHT THERE staring at him with outstretched finger.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is out on Steam, with a 20% launch week discount making it cost £15.99/18,39€/$19.99.
