Yaoling: Mythical Journey

The controls feel pretty janky whether you use a controller or mouse and keyboard. On controllers, navigating menus is especially painful and you cannot change any bindings. I do not know if a mobile version of this game exists, but it feels like it was created for that type of device. You can sprint, but only some of the time because of a stamina bar that serves no other purpose but to annoy you. The localization is mediocre; typos abound and many sentences are strangely phrased. This is not a huge deal, but from experience, issues like this always make me question whether abilities actually work the way they are described, which is a turnoff. All that being said, the main thing that made me ask for a refund is the battle system. I actually quite like auto-battlers in general, but I think it works in other games mainly because while you do not make decisions in combat, you still have a number of decisions to make between most if not all of them regarding resource allocation, team composition, positioning, etc. This is not the case here: you assemble a party and go through battle after battle without a thought. Maybe it gets better later on - my playtime was short - but the lack of quality in other areas of the game gave me very little hope that it would be the case.

Exquisite art style, lovely world-building and lovely music and sound effects -- this game could have taken the genre to the next level. However, it's all completely ruined by one of the worst user interface schemes I've ever encountered. Everything is sloppy and half-baked. Nothing is more frustrating than a game with minimal controller support -- either put in the work to make the controller a fully viable option, or just don't bother at all. In Yaoling, you can use the controller to do some things, but not everything you'll need to do while playing. Also, there's no way to remap controller buttons. It really, really sucks. So I switched to mouse and keyboard, but that's almost as bad. You see numbers and names everywhere, but a lot of it lacks the detail you need in order to make decisions. Video games have developed some standard practices in this area, so if you insist on going your own way and creating a setup that greatly differs from what people are used to, you'd better have a very good reason. This game deviates heavily for no apparent reason, and it's maddening. And finally, the localization is riddled with a lot of small errors in grammar and punctuation. This alone would not be enough to make me refund or write a negative review, but it's worth mentioning.

Finally, a monster-collecting game that is NOT a clone of digimon/pokemon!! Criminally underrated and an overall incredibly satisfying game! Just add multiplayer and it'll be perfect.

Yet another brilliant game that shows how much a certain other creature collector could be vastly improved. Nearly 400 Yoalings is wild to me, and they're all pretty unique and interesting so far. They also have all kinds of crafting skills and can help out in the town as you upgrade it and add helpful npc's. And even though the map is huge, you can easily teleport to any unlocked shrine from the map whenever. I was a little worried that it might be too simple combat wise, but then I got rocked by the first major School Leader so... clearly I have a lot to learn still lol. Absolutely pick this up if you've been looking for a great creature collector.

Besides the cute art style this doesn't have much to offer. The controls feel unresponsive, the translation is mediocre and the gameplay is boring. I slapped together a team from mostly starters and cruised through everything until lvl 30 without struggling in a single fight. There is basically no strategy needed in the first few hours.

Lets start with pros. The game is unique, the team building variety is plentiful, and the story is charming. When i say unique i mean, in every aspect. The style of combat, the sprite design and systems in place in the game are endearing different then other titles. when i say variety is plentiful, i mean pick you favorite and then go ahead and build a team. More then one fave? great there is a lot of room in your party to make that happen and you can even use talisman to support your favorite in whatever its trying to do. Talisman as well are a refreshing item/crafting based system in the game that lacks no charm or novelty. The story is anything but a classic. No spoilers but the things your used to seeing and experiencing in the best of ways. its nostalgic and cute. Now the cons which are unfortunately more plentiful. To be brief and direct... *team building has variety, however that variety is hindered by archaic and old school mechanics of progress with little resources to spare or the ability to acquire intentionally. to be honest, the breeding in this game is atrocious and farming gems to get the perfect set of skills on a creature are unreliable. whats worse is both of these systems have partial limitations based on irl time. yes waiting with no way to speed up shop resets or egg hatching. an this game does not even behave like an idle game where you can amass resources passively with no input or in the background. you will twiddle your thumbs and be forced to do its maintenance elements. *this game pushed novelty. it forces a contrived fishing game that is anything but relaxing or even easily executed. lets not even mention the base building elements and camp management that requires you to run around without any way to simplify this process over time. to manage everything you have to run around and tediously do every last thing in your base with no sense of automation or convenience. do you need items to craft, money to burn, new skills, new eggs? you have to go to these locations like its a gemeboy game with no timers or systems to even use as a benchmark while exploring the world. just forced to be mindful about all your stations and when there ready or available to use or retrieve those resources. *progression occurs if your lucky when using your favorites. you could become hard stuck at anytime especially as the game hits its more intermediate difficulty curve. remember those archaic team building and creature hatching mechanics? well when you happen to hit a wall you have to resort to the absolute worst grind i have experienced. an not one that rewards for exploring systems with milestone rewards or any hidden secrets (there are a few but nothing that truly justify this requirement). *the story is cute but, it doesnt change. its the same. its nothing that has not been done before. this be fine if the flow of the game was more seemless and the pace was better. but it is not. and that takes what is a good quality initially and sullied it. \ tldr. you wont get through this game, unless you truly dont have better options. an trust me, you likely wont get to the end of this game before realizing your forcing yourself to continue going. unfortunately the systems theyve created imo are beyond saving. this game would have to be an entirely different game for me to like it. but hey, heres the silver lining. if i hate it? that means you might love it. maybe someone truly does miss the pain stacking management elements and slow progressing story of yore. however, if you think this game is a reinvention of the creature collecting genre, its not. its like the games you liked as a kid with all the same kinks and issues. its a no for me, a yes for you if you liked those old games. but if your even half doubting, dont get it respectfully. i got my moneys worth for sure, but upon the completion of this game i felt no satisfaction. its worth to start and not to finish. so in that sense not worth to get personally. as they sale, wait for a sale.

Awful controller support, bad localization, and awful/confusing UI make this game very difficult to enjoy. I bought it in early access to support the game, and it feels like there is a lot of potential, but it feels very clunky and like it wasn't ready for a 1.0 launch.

As far as monster taming games go, this one ticks a lot of boxes for me. Autobattlers aren't my preference for RPGs but this one still manages to be compelling because of the min-maxing you can do with each monster. It's got a ton of different monsters to catch and each of them come with a cool unique active ability. Because of how distinct all the active abilities are it's hard to choose who I want on my team. It's the type of game where you'll run into a new monster, check it's active ability and go "huh, interesting". Each monster will also have 1 to 4 random talents, which offer a wide variety of passive effects. Talents do everything from provide basic stat boosts, "on-hit" type effects, trigger "on kill", defensive/offensive buffs, or buff teammembers.... You can use them to round out a monster's weaknesses or build further into it's strengths. On top of that you can also breed your monsters once you unlock the town building required, allowing you to fine-tune the stats of a monster. All of these things together make building a monster pretty interesting. While each monster is generally "suited" to a particular role in battle, you still have multiple options within that niche. If you don't like a monster's ability you can build around auto attacks instead. Conversely you can also build into activating that ability ASAP and trigger other talents off ability use. It's also got two other pretty different game modes that I haven't tried yet. My one gripe is that battles are pretty easy. It would have been nice if you could boost the difficulty right at the start of game if you want.

As a long-time fan of creature collection games and anything inspired by the Pokémon formula, Yaoling: Mythical Journey immediately caught my attention. I'm happy to say it offers a fresh and enjoyable take on the genre. The biggest downside for me, though, was the difficulty — or rather, the complete lack of it. After five hours of play, I never once encountered a challenging fight. Every battle felt one-sided to the point where even with a weak team, victory was guaranteed. This makes building a strong creature team feel a bit pointless, as there's no real challenge to overcome or strategic depth to explore. (UPD: It's got a bit harder past 30 lvl but still crushing everything with starting team without any strategy) One of the game’s biggest strengths is its departure from traditional turn-based battles. Instead, it introduces a unique and well-designed auto-battler system. This change makes the experience feel original rather than a direct clone of existing games, and in my opinion, it works exceptionally well. At first, the visual style felt a bit strange — the camera angle seemed off and took some getting used to. However, after about thirty minutes, I adapted, and the world started to feel immersive and full of charm. The atmosphere is rich, and you can tell the developers put a lot of heart into the game. That said, there are still some rough edges: for example, five characters may share the same hair texture, while a sixth has a completely different one that doesn’t match the game's overall style, which slightly breaks immersion. [b]Final Thoughts:[/b] Yaoling: Mythical Journey shows great promise, especially with its unique combat system and heartfelt presentation. However, the lack of difficulty greatly reduces long-term engagement. With some balance adjustments and polish, it could easily become a standout in the creature collection genre.

The controls—whether using mouse+keyboard or a controller—can feel a little rough at first, especially when moving through menus or selecting battle items, but they become second nature pretty quickly. Overall, this is a charming and truly unique game that absolutely deserves a full playthrough. I’d love to see the small towns, villages, and campsites feel even more alive, with more merchants and interactions to discover. I really enjoyed the experience and am excited to jump back in as new updates and content arrive!

really fun addictive gameplay loop. having a blast swapping between the town management aspects and the monster tamer/battling parts

I enjoyed this a lot; I feel that it captures the feeling of older Pokemon games while also being its own thing. The art style and music are beautiful. The world is massive, somewhat nonlinear and full of hidden areas, and you're given multiple objectives (defeat "gyms", slay demons, rescue artisans for your village) that you can tackle at your leisure. The Yaolings have fun designs and the majority have three-stage evolutions with an alternate "demon" form that has a different playstyle, which allows for a lot of flexibility. This is the first non-Pokemon creature collector I've played where I spent a significant amount of time hunting for alternate color 'mons, as the alt palettes are often super cool and you can easily pick up an increased shiny rate through food buffs. There's also a few immersive quality of life features that I always enjoy in a creature collector: you can choose a Yaoling to follow you in the overworld and some can be ridden for faster travel, and random Yaolings you've caught will hang around in your starting village. And speaking of the village - by rescuing merchants and artisans during the story, you unlock shops and facilities that I felt added a lot of benefit during the game, such as automatically collecting resources and training benched Yaolings. I returned to the village pretty frequently and it felt like a real hub. It's an autobattler which I didn't think I would like, but I ended up really enjoying it. You can intervene during the battle with spells, but the focus is on making sure your team synergizes well when you let them loose. You can assign a wide range of secondary abilities to your Yaolings, so you have a lot of options when teambuilding. Some negative points: the game gets pretty grindy especially towards the endgame if you're not a fan of that. The translation, while serviceable, is a bit spotty in places and can be hard to follow. And, the story is fairly basic and I felt some of the plot points unfolded a bit abruptly, although it didn't really impact my overall engagement with the game. Ultimately, I really enjoyed taking my team of cute critters and eldritch demons all the way to the final boss. I'm really excited for future updates and seeing what comes next.

10/10 absolutely adore this game. I saw a comment describing it as "Pokemon meets Japanese folklore" and I completely agree.

Holy shit it's incredible. Imagine if pokemon made games this detailed and with this amount of variety in what you can do.

amazing game love Pokemon so this game hits all the strings for me

10/10 Better than Pokemon

Like tem tem with easier control

Good game

Fun.

cool

Chill