Yono and the Celestial Elephants is an intriguing game from a design standpoint. While it looks the part of an educational cartoon meant for toddlers, within it hides a tale with a deep context meant for adults. The action feels like it belongs somewhere in-between these conflicting ideals. But does it work as a whole?
Yono and the Celestial Elephants is the story of the eponymous pachyderm finding his way into a world where he soon discovers he is something of a deity. His appearance forces the folk of the world to take what they thought were fairy tales and legends and put weight behind them, and prophecies foretold. Yono doesn’t completely understand this, but finds that helping people can be his modus operandi.
The visuals of Yono and the Celestial Elephants belie the heavy themes within the plot. There are tales of racial tension between the robotic Mekani, Day of the Dead inspired Bonewights and humans as well as exposition about unfair taxation, the ethics of power and straight up existentialism hidden within its bouncy veneer. None of it is heavy-handed nor ever overstays its welcome, but it’s weirdly powerful for such a quaint looking game.
As philosophical as its plot can get, Yono and the Celestial Elephants is a rather stock adventure game, and for those curious it has more in common with the obscure puzzle game Solstice than The Legend of Zelda. As Yono travels between towns he’s met with a plethora of obstructions on his journey; you reveal paths through environmental manipulation. You must push blocks to open new routes, crack rocks and set up Rube Goldberg-like contraptions to move along. It’s very basic yet endearing, because even though the solution isn’t hard to come by it's still satisfying to overcome. For those hoping for a deep and rewarding combat system, meanwhile, there’s nothing of the sort here. Yono has a charging attack that feels clumsy, but the amount you actually use it is meager, making it easy to overlook.
While Yono and the Celestial Elephants is odd in its prose, the aesthetics are blatantly adorable. This may turn off a lot of gamers and admittedly the degree of challenge follows suit, but there should definitely be a place in the Switch library for such a game. The world feels billowy and soft, with round trees, soft grass and cuddly enemies. The music is very low-key and not remarkable at all, but at least it doesn’t distract from the game as a whole. The saccharine presentation is an interesting juxtaposition from the constant puzzling and abstract plot.
The game does a great job of filling itself out with extra things to do when you aren’t pushing Yono to the next realm. There’s a currency you can collect that unlocks fun new skins for Yono, from making him look as if he’s made of corduroy, to being covered by a constellation or even having him dress like Link, which adds to the charm. There’s a plethora of side quests that often devolve into either using Yono’s small stable of abilities or arbitrary fetch quests, and while they lack any kind of punchy design they often reward you with thought-provoking conversations that really dig deep into the lore of the world or the aforementioned heady social conversations.
Rounding out the extras are some letters that will spill out from vases and pots; you can then take them to a mystic who will reveal more of the history of Yono’s world. Again, nothing out of the ordinary for a video game, but welcome in its ability to bring life to Yono and the Celestial Elephants.
Conclusion
Yono and the Celestial Elephants, while simplistic in design, hides a curiously metaphysical tale behind it. Those looking for a Zelda-lite adventure might be disappointed by its straightforward approach and lack of upgradability, but those who are willing to give its lighthearted and deliriously cute tale a spin will find a worthy game to play.
Comments 29
I was excited for this one since it's so adorable but game play videos make it look far too simple and easy for my taste.
So disappointing. I was really excited for this one but it just looks boring to play. I love the visuals, though. Will wait for a sale.
The elephant had me interested, but after watching videos... I'm afraid to say it just looks boring. It's a no from me.
booooooooooring
So.... is it a Puzzle Adventure games ?
1st screenshot: "Wow, how cute and kiddy."
2nd screenshot: "Whoa, certainly not kiddy."
3rd screenshot: "Wow, how cute and kiddy."
EDIT: wha? someone just rearranged the screenies and now my comment doesn't make sense.
I just finished playing this game this morning.
It was all right, but ultimately nothing too special.
The music was cute, and the puzzles weren't too complicated (a plus for me), even though 90% of them were of the crate-pushing variety.
Graphics were... Game Cube-esque. Make of that what you will. I think more could have been done in this department (see Oceanhorn). Character design was an aspect of the game I didn't like at all (except for Yono himself, who's a total cute, but the rest of the cast... yuck!).
Lastly, the game is short and quite easy to 100% in, say, 6 to 8 hours.
This looked good, but the easiness and simple gameplay has put me well off. :/ A shame.
i am mesmerized by the character design. i hope we see more of yono after this. i will probably try this game because cute and easy are things i like.
So this is a rather bland and boring game. Gets a 7. Tiny Barbarian is an excellent game full of polish, charm and amazing music and it gets a 7.
The reviews and scores here seem all over the place.
This looks adorable, but videos of it kind of turned me off. The sound direction is awful and the whole experience seems overly simplistic.
@LemonSlice The screenshots are randomised each time you refresh the page
ZzzzzZzzzzZzzzz!
The game certainly has a lot of charm but disappointed at its lack of pro controller support and often crashings. Hope this stuff gets patched in.
Never quite got the excitement in parts of this site for this one. Looks very poor IMHO
Simple game good to release some hours on.
I love the cute main character and philosophical discussions with robots/zombies. Nice relaxing game after being repeatedly killed off by Wulverblade twins of doom/death at end of level 2.
CT: Treasure Tracker lite.
@Alcovitch Tiny Barbarian is not all you described. A very 'meh' game.
I don't know your ages, but maybe you're all just looking at it with the wrong eyes. I don't think this game could hold me for long, but I'm sure my 8 years old daughter will find it fascinating... maybe, cause she's a Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2 hardcore gamer...
I finished this game few days ago. It's a lovely small game that takes about 4 hours to beat. It is more a Puzzle Adventure game with a bit action. There is enemies, but very little of them. There is a total of three bosses. There is NPC interaction, some involving some scenarios like quests, requesting items in exchange typically for a reward. I personally gave this one also a 7/10. It was just a bit small in the adventure, which was mostly the only thing that disappointed me.
I might pick this one up if it goes on sale or gets a price drop. It seems like a nice little game, but I don't need to pick it up up when my Switch backlog is already growing so fast.
@Alcovitch maybe the price hurt it.
@maruse Agreed, I'm totally thinking of this as a game my 9YO might like and I can maybe spend some time with as well. It's nice to have some cute, simple games from time to time. Not everything has to be hardcore and complicated.
@Pazuzu666
Compared to this game its a masterpiece. Perhaps your taste in games is 'meh'.
Well if most of the puzzles are crate pushing ones then I'm not interested as it sounds boring.
I feel the same way about this game as I feel about cuphead. Let me explain. I think the graphics are gorgeous, but I have to think about if I want a game that plays like this, before if I want a game that looks like this.
@Alcovitch Everyone has a different opinion in games. No one has a wrong or "meh" opinion.
This game intrigued me cause well damnit, I'm not ashamed to admit it-- Yono is adorable as all get out
I was surprised to hear of the mature subject matter relating to race/philosophy/etc, cause I love that kind of stuff. With consideration to my own backlog, and games yet to come, I'll have to give Yono a "one-day-maybe-for-sale" recommendation to myself.
i know im super late to leave a review, but i bought this game the second it came out. i cant remember what but something else came out that i was more invested in and i finally finished the came like 5 mins ago. What kept me playing was the impression the puzzles would get harder and as i kept going i realized they never did. basically every puzzle is just rearranging crates, and it doesnt take long to figure out any of the puzzles. i agree with everyone else’s comments saying the design was cute- which is why i bought it, but imo its not worth it, the most interactive town happens early on and even the villagers problems arent hard, theres also a side quest to find letters to finish a book holding past stories. You wont even have to try to get all the letters, at the end of the game i had over 20000 letters extra which i thought was weird, i thought i would have to be extra through in each dungeon to complete the book. also even like 4-5 years after the release of the game no patches were made, it still crashed or froze randomly. Lastly an aspect of the game was changing your elephant’s skin, theres like 3-5 designs that are fun or cute but the rest are ugly leaving the “coins” (i have no clue what the currency is called) you collect worthless unless you REALLY want to 100% the game, you can get all the coins you need by playing a lame minigame in the kinghtvale (maybe its knighthaven???? idk) city so dont worry about scouring for coins. I know this review was long, but ultimately if you're bored find literally any other game. this one is meant for like 11 y/os who have brain rot or smthn.
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