We all have regrets and things we wish we could change from our past; unfortunately, we don't have the ability to time travel (yet) to fix our mistakes. That is not an issue for Yui though.

YesterMorrow (2020)
Developer(s)	Bitmap Galaxy		Publisher		Blowfish Studios
	1		Everyone		6-10 Hours
System Availability		Steam, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch

Story

A peaceful mountain village filled with kind people and a cute puppy. Children playing hide and seek as the village prepares for a special celebration...however, 

Yui discovers the ability to travel back in time to hopefully discover the source of the darkness that attacked her village and to save her father and friends. Unlike many action games, you will not fight in the tradition sense; you will need to use the environment to battle foes and powers granted by the Everlight. No guns or no melee weapons except for Everlight bombs and a couple other abilities later in the game.

Shift between the past and present as you travel across forest, deserts, tundra, and a mysterious island. Will you be able to help Yui change her villages fate? I won't spoil the story beyond what I have said that, which is seen in the first 15-30 minutes of the game. 

Game Mechanics

As I mentioned, there are enemies, but you won't be fighting them in the traditional sense. You will gain a few Everlight abilities that allow you to free creatures from the control of the darkness. 

Yui basic move set includes:

• Moving - Basic movements to explore the area.
• Jumping/Double Jump - A staple in platforming game allowing you to maneuver through the environment. Not much of a spoiler, but you will eventually obtain the ability to double jump providing access to new locations. 
• Wall Jump - You can jump off of walls; you can also repeatedly wall jump if two walls are close enough together. You can also slide down walls. 
• Rolling - Basic roll that allows you to squeeze into tight spaces; it can also be used to roll off platforms and jump (think Donkey Kong Country style). 
• Climbing - There are many places where you can climb vines, climbs, and fence like structures.
• Everlight Bomb - One of the few abilities that will allow you to directly harm the enemy. The secondary (maybe more important) function is to open paths to new areas. 
• And more that I won't spoil. 

Most enemies are less of a threat themselves, but the way you have to move around enemies is the bigger challenge, which is really nice actually. Most enemies are just creatures possessed by the darkness so fighting will be a two step but simple process.  

Boss battles will require some of these abilities, but more often, these battles require more platforming skills and using the environment to defeat the bosses.   

Platforming was certainly tricky in the game; there were a few places where you needed to have very accurate timing to make certain consecutive jumps, and I certainly got frustrated during 2~ of those situations where I felt like I spent way too much time. 

Artwork

The visuals of the game are like many other indie projects going with an 8~16-bit visual style. I like the character and creature designs in the game; they are simple but get the job done. The level background is nice, but I did find it sometimes a little hard to tell the difference between the foreground and background. 

The game does shift between day and night as you play; there is also a major different between the past and the present visually as much as changed in the world. 

Minor Issues

I ran into a few minor issues some worse than others; I am playing on the Nintendo Switch so some of these issues may be limited to the Switch platform while others are not. 

1. The first issue I ran into and am happy I discovered less than an hour into the game. If you open chest with heart pieces in them, make sure to actually collect the heart piece because if you leave the area or die while in that area, you will miss out on that heart piece. I discovered that when I collected what I thought was my piece only to remember I died in the first Trial Room after opening the chest. So I ended up starting over; so learn from my mistake and be sure to collect items from chest.
2. I ran into a laser puzzle that become unsolvable at one point because the buttons I needed were entirely blocked (couldn't even roll to them). Luckily, I was able to restart from the last checkpoint. I also discovered an odd bug that if you die while on top of a laser, you can be reduced to 0 hearts and still be alive. Again, minor bug luckily thank to the checkpoint loading option in the menu. 
3. I ran into a boss encounter where the boss just stopped moving and could not be defeated; luckily, I was able to restart the checkpoint, which was just before the boss. 
4. I ran into a handful of graphical glitches where the screen would flash and times when the framerate would drop considerably. These didn't make the game unplayable, but it was certainly not as enjoyable as the rest of the game when these issues weren't present. I think this is some sort of issue with the particles on screen and the Switch optimization. I am sure this is addressable via a patch. This is probably the worst issue I ran into and hope to see addressed as soon as possible. 

*After I finished writing this review, YesterMorrow had an update on my Nintendo Switch. I was able to check a few places where some of these issues were very obvious, and they appear to be gone. I can't say if they are all fixed, but I will update this section once I play through the game again. 

Final Thoughts

The game overall has the feel of a light metroidvania game though I didn't really find myself traveling back to previous locations that often to find any hidden secrets. I found the story to be enjoyable; the characters included some funny jokes, interactions, and references to other video games; and the focus on exploration over combat was refreshing though not entirely absent. I really enjoyed the game despite some of the perform issues I encountered during my initial playthrough, and if they can/have addressed those issues, I would likely enjoy it even more. I can't say it is the best in the genre, but for its price and length of the game, it is a good game that provided me an enjoyable experience and is one I would play through at least one more time.  

Links/Media

 Publisher Product Page

Disclosure

We received the product key in order to write an honest review; all reviews reflect the honest opinions of the writer.

Images used were provided from the press kit as they provided many similar images as I had taken during my playthrough.