Peace and love
But, metaphors apart, exactly, what is Yonder ? Once again, the appearances deceive you, it is impossible not to look back at its atmospheres and pastel tones of clear references to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker or the latest Breath of the Wild , also because the title developed by the boys of Prideful Sloth practically uses the same incipit of the latter.
The first frames of Yonder put the player in one of the most classic industry clichés: the unnamed protagonist is aboard a boat, which is thrown with force against the rocks, struck by a violent storm. After the wreck, it is not known that the survivors have survived or been wreck and the player is dispersed on the island of Gemea, apparently an idyllic, green and lush place, but on which a terrible threatens a dense fog called Miasma that is swallowing and destroying entire parts of the region. A bit like in the low lodigiana between November and December.
Despite the sober and classic phrase ” you’re the one you chose ” about the protagonist – or the protagonist based on your initial choice – Yonderit is practically the Gandhi of video games and avoids everything by referring to mechanical action : there are no fights, the same fog is nothing but a sort of wall that prevents access to certain areas and death is not contemplated even if it is thrown down from a cliff, since the protagonist has a well-kept umbrella, he does not get it anywhere that safely lands him. If you are looking for adrenaline, continue to look elsewhere.
Lost for Gemea …
Yonder is rather a title that lives mainly on all the actions that in the other productions make a corollary, no matter the heavy label that immediately the citizens of Gemea pose on the protagonist, identified as the savior of the homeland from the mysterious past.
The hero who should cleanse the lands from the Miasma with the help of the goblins recovered from the ruins – the enchanting creatures, not the vacuum cleaners – becomes a sort of handyman because, apparently, all the citizens of the island have their problems but, of course, I am not able to recover even the three wooden logs located about twenty feet from their feet.
Yonder’s main questso interesting is the curiosity to understand who is behind the terrible danger that the hero’s traveling companions have done and what their past is alive is alive but is soon put on the background by an infinite series of those fetch the quest that so much waste of time in the GDR. Yonder is a perfect title to break the rhythms, to relax and enjoy the breathtaking views that Gemea hides behind every corner, but do not ask him what emotions.
During the classic assignment that obliged me to recover two nails and axes to give a sailor to repair a boat, I lost more time wandering in nothingness, climbing up a hill and watching the ruins standing in the background , collecting several MB of screenshots.
Artistic speaking, Yonderis a small masterpiece, a real cure for the peace of the senses, able to calm and relax with its moody and enchanted atmospheres even the nerves most thirsty after a day spent in the chaos of a frenetic metropolis.
Gemea is also a large island, an open world characterized by its many biomes, able to pass from the plain stretches of sand by the sea to the freezing and snowy peaks without losing the soft and green hills. Each area is then distinguished for its own wildlife, perhaps not very numerous, but certainly well-made, a small zoological almanac made by strange crosses between animals.
To embellish the whole thing, they think of the day-night cycle and the atmospheric effects, yes of aesthetic elements, but able to give even more life and tone to the work of Prideful Sloth.
