Yui is a young girl who lives in a fantasy village with her family.  One day, during a festival celebrating the light that protects their village and the people who harness it, evil shadow beings come to invade.  They capture a bunch of the villagers, including most of Yui’s family.  Many years later, Yui is older and lives in the crumbling remnants of her town.  One day she stumbles upon living ruins with the power to send her back in time.  Now Yui must travel from the future to the past to stop the shadows and save her family in YesterMorrow.  It’s a 2-D side scrolling action adventure platformer game, and it’s available on most current consoles but reviewed on PS4 here.

At the start of the game, Yui can only jump and climb ropes.  At certain altars, she can travel from the past to the future and back again.  Crumbling ruins in the future may be completely intact in the past, so she must use this skill to bypass obstacles and areas effectively.  As you play, Yui will also learn new skills that’ll help her travel the land.  She’ll be able to jump from walls, dash, do a double jump, and throw light bombs to destroy shadow enemies and things blocking her path.  Both younger Yui in the past and older Yui in the future have the same skills and abilities.  You’ll travel through four islands on your adventures, and the game kind of has a “Metroidvania” feel to it, although you don’t do as much backtracking and the game feels more linear.

I do like the pixel graphics that kind of remind me of an older indie game called Fez.  But YesterMorrow has some problems, too.  One, the controls feel a bit squirrely in places.  Performing actions like climbing ropes and wall jumping don’t feel as responsive as they should be.  You do get a map but it’s also not very useful, you’ll mostly just be following your nose most of the time.  And the bosses are significantly harder than the rest of the game, so some players may come across a roadblock at some point.  If they could’ve fixed the controls and difficulty spikes, this could’ve been a really great game.

Kid Factor:

YesterMorrow is rated E for Everyone with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol Reference and Mild Fantasy Violence.  You can throw light bombs at shadowy monsters that explode when defeated, and when you lose all your energy you just immediately start right back at the last save point.  Some of the people mention drinking plum wine in the town as well.  Reading skill is a must for the text, and younger gamers may find it too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews