YesterMorrow Review

YesterMorrow tells the story of Yui, a young girl who lost everything: her world was destroyed and her family was kidnapped by the Shadows. She’s on a mission to save everything she loves by navigating to the past to overcome obstacles and access hidden locations to salvage the remnants of a world trapped in Neverending Night.

YesterMorrow is a 2D platformer that also implements a few nifty puzzles for some gameplay variety. The core mechanic of the game is the ability to alternate between the present and the past. When enabling a specific device, it will allow you to travel to the past (or present if you’re already in the past). By jumping back and forth between the two timelines, it allows players to solve puzzles and keep the story moving forward.

For example, early on, in the past, you find yourself under your house and listen to your dad and the Grandmaster talking about the Shadows. Once the conversation is over, you can enable the time machine to fast forward to the present where you’ll be able to climb up as the two NPCs will not be there anymore and keep going in your quest.

Note that the game is devoid of combat so you’ll need to avoid enemies as much as possible to avoid damage. You can roll and jump on enemies to temporarily stun them (and sometimes use them to reach higher platforms) but that’s about it. At least, you can increase your health. As you explore the various areas, you can find heart pieces, and collecting three will add an additional heart to extend your health bar.

Unfortunately, as much as the time-traveling mechanic is an enjoyable novelty, it also wears out pretty quickly. Navigating and backtracking through the same areas, even with a different visual style differentiating between the past and the present, still feels like a chore and repetitive.

YesterMorrow’s 2D 8-bit pixelated-like visuals look great. Each area looks distinctly unique making every new area feel new and fresh across its four main areas: lush forests, abandoned deserts, icy tundras, and the Island of Time. Albeit, the game’s visual seems geared toward the background as characters and enemies do look a bit on the small side. The developers did a great job differentiating the backgrounds between the present and the past. The soundtrack is one of the most relaxing, soothing scores I’ve heard in recent memory and goes hand in hand with the exploration of the game’s various levels.

YesterMorrow is a surprising little gem with a unique mechanic and the lack of proper combat actually works here as well. If you don’t mind a bit of backtracking across each area, YesterMorrow is definitely an interesting and unique platformer for players looking for something a bit more chill to sink their teeth into.