Release Date: November 5, 2020
Publisher/Developer: Blowfish Studios/Bitmap Galaxy
Platform: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Price: $19.99

Yui is a young girl from a village that is set upon by a terrible darkness. The evil consumes all she holds dear. However, Yui is bestowed a power to travel back in time, though not physically, but by rewinding whilst holding onto her own memories, to a time prior to the attack. Unfortunately, most people she tries to warn or ask for help take her talk of apocalyptic chaos as the wild imagination of youth, so it is up to Yui to try to overcome the darkness and save the world.

While this is a wonderful premise and something that could really make for an epic story, YesterMorrow, in it’s current state, falls flat. There are some glitches and quality of life issues that have made reviewing YesterMorrow very tedious. A beautiful sprite-based platformer with some very intricate puzzle elements (think Super Meat Boy Lite), YesterMorrow uses the time travel element of the game to shift between two different versions of the same world in order to find a path through. However (at least in the time I’ve gotten to play), this is only done at particular shrines, meaning that you’re basically going through a door to another version of the level, where different enemies are in different places, or certain pathways are open. It may have been more intriguing if it felt more plot-relevant, or if you could do it on the fly, but the time travel doesn’t have much weight in-game.

In the past, most animals are friendly, but are corrupted in the future and will viciously attack you. Yui begins with absolutely no way to attack them, though. After a bit of time I was able to unlock a bomb. This bomb usually requires precise aiming, because if you miss, you have to wait for it to blow up before you can throw another. When you hit a corrupted animal, the corruption shadow flies out of it and begins it’s attack, where you have to throw another bomb to eliminate it. Miss that bomb and you’re dodging until your other bomb blows. Add on that the animals are still there, and may still attack you if you get too close, so sometimes it just feels easier to dodge. Platforming requires precision as well, as sometimes one missed platform means landing back at the beginning of the area and starting all over again. Two or three challenging jumps in succession mean several instances of grumbling as you power your way back up to them.

Unfortunately my biggest takeaway from YesterMorrow is the glitches. After a chunk of time, graphical tears started across the screen that got worse and worse to the point that I would save the game and restart just to get them to go away. It’s like there’s a glowing light graphic that is used to make “shiny stuff” happen that would just tear through and cover half my screen, eventually leading to a slowdown that would impact my jumps. Later, when fighting a worm boss, I was beaten handily several times when suddenly one of the two triggers I could use to actually cause damage to it simply stopped working. It was not a “second level of the fight” or anything, I died, came back, wasn’t working. Now, I find myself at a new boss where I have to deftly get on top of spiky blocks to bounce up high and shoot bombs into a hole in the top of the screen, and I genuinely feel like I’m phasing through these blocks, or getting knocked off of them by absolutely nothing. Finally get the hang of it and the enemy throws an unblockable attack that forces me to start over and struggle through so I can see it again and figure out how to dodge it. In a game aiming for precision jumps and no-hit runs, glitches like that are unacceptable.

I appreciated the ability to use the digital buttons or the analog stick for movement, but at times I felt that the precision required me to jump between them. You don’t just grab a rope, you have to be holding up while passing it. Also, sometimes the ropes are spider silk, which means you have to threaten the spider to drop, grab it’s silk, then climb before it climbs back up. Sometimes you have to swing the ropes, then jump and reattach. I lost my patience several times as I fell down to the start...again.

I also have never seen a map, despite collecting them, going into the menu, and pressing every button I can think of to open them. Sometimes I got stuck and was forced to reset because I went exploring back before I got a power, but was stuck in the other timeline where I needed that power to get anywhere, and ended up in a hole with no way out. Speech bubbles are tied to locations on the ground, meaning when I went back, Yui’s bubbles would pop up like she was talking to someone again. But my frustrating nail in the coffin right now is that last boss I discussed and save states. There’s no turning back. I can’t go out and practice, or maybe collect something else to help me. When I start my save file I’m in the boss room, perpetually until I figure it out or the game doesn’t glitch out my jumps.

Like I said, YesterMorrow is a solid premise. I would love to see where the story goes from here. When not glitched, the controls are precise, but they require a personal precision in using them that almost overrides the benefits gained. I genuinely love the sprite work, and you can see the character instilled in every NPC you meet. As of right now, though, this one needs a little more time.

Pros:
-Beautiful spritework
-Excellent story prompts
-Precision controls
-You can pet the dog (and lots of other animals!)

Cons:
-Save state forces you forward, even when stuck
-Requires an insane amount of precision in movement and attack
-Glitches currently render the game frustrating

Thanks to Blowfish Studios/Bitmap Galaxy for providing a code for review.

YesterMorrow (Switch) Review