Yaoling: Mythical Journey Review (PC)

As early as the ‘90s, gamers were swept up in the monster-taming haze. Through Pokemon, the genre sprouts wings, elevating turn-based battles and open-ended exploration. Now, Yaoling: Mythical Journey is determined to carve its own path in the creature-collecting subgenre. While there are definitely familiar genre tropes, you also enjoy new concepts that keep you engrossed through to the end. If you’re still on the fence, though, do check out our Yaoling: Mythical Journey review to help you decide whether to settle into the Eastern-inspired world for an adventure of your own.

Yaolings Assemble

You’ve just hit teenagehood, the age at which you can finally wield the power of a Yaoling Keeper. Yaolings are fantastical creatures of all kinds—cute, adorable monsters that range anywhere from beasts to humanoids. And a Yaoling Keeper’s job is to collect and train them to fight in battle. After a quick chat with the Yaoling Master in your region, he sends you off to find and record as many Yaolings as you can in a Yaoling scroll. To start, he lets you choose between three Yaolings: Meep, Flenny, and Bungo. Be careful with who you pick because they will be tagging along with you on your adventures. 

Your decision becomes even more paramount when a dark force envelops the lands. Evil has begun corrupting Yaolings, making them hostile and destructive. It falls on you to round up the fiercest Yaolings and restore world order. Each creature has unique abilities, which will prove useful in different ways. Meep, for instance, inflicts melee damage, pulling in enemies to unleash frost-based attacks. Flenny inflicts ranged damage, unleashing rapid fire-based attacks. Meanwhile, Bungo inflicts melee slash and wind-based AoE damage. If they seem lackluster, don’t worry. Yaoling: Mythical Journey soon unveils many more creatures, to the tune of over 300. 

Yaolings are wide-ranging, with unique types, characteristics, and abilities. Some of them can evolve into more powerful forms. As you progress, you’ll assemble the fiercest team to fight corrupted Yaolings. But you can also challenge other Yaoling Keepers and Yaoling Masters to climb the ranks. These are like boss fights that pit you against powerful opponents. So, in the end, you do have familiar genre tropes. Yet Yaoling: Mythical Journey steers away from the usual turn-based battles, instead carving out its own path via automated battles.

Hands-Off Battles

Normally, battles are hands-on, demanding that you put effort into your strategy and moment-to-moment gameplay. But the auto-battles here have been executed flawlessly, and they are still a blast to watch unfold. Before battles begin, you’re required to drag and drop Yaolings into a grid-like arena, positioning them based on their abilities. So, probably have healers placed at the back and melee attackers on the frontline. It’s not too complex to become a headscratcher. However, the more Yaolings you unlock, the more combinations you have to consider, adding more depth to decision-making.

Anyway, once you’re pleased with your character placements, battles ensue automatically. Your Yaolings will attack the enemy, with often battles evolving unlike how you imagined. It makes watching them unfold more intriguing to pen down how your decisions play out and the possible ways you can switch your strategy in your favor. You do engage in some level of trial-and-error, yet for the most part, as long as you keep leveling up your Yaolings, you should be good to go. As for the AI, it’s pretty competent. Defense and offense showcase tricks up their sleeve, and as a result, they put up a good challenge. Meanwhile, animations are smooth and fluid, with seamless back and forth between teams.

Battles may play out automatically. However, you can tip the scales in your favor mid-battle using Charms. They are like cards that you collect and craft during exploration. Charms vary in use. You have those that heal fallen Yaolings in battle. Others grant Yaolings with elemental attack power. Others still influence the opponent, making them statues incapable of dealing damage. It adds an extra layer to the battle system—some form of real-time strategy that pushes you to consider the right time and place to use Charms.

Land of the Ancients

Exploration is where all the goodies and secrets are hidden. You’ll find Yaolings scattered all across the lands, with unique types tied to specific villages. Villages vary too, with 30 explorable areas within five distinctly themed regions. You can take on exploration at your own pace, with no restriction on which objectives or regions to tackle first. It provides an open-ended form of exploration where you’re free to go anywhere you want. But, of course, you have to be careful, as you might run into hostile, corrupted Yaolings. Alternatively, you may also stumble into one of 13 unique schools, where you can challenge a Yaoling Master. There are also five demon lords to defeat. 

In short, Yaoling: Mythical Journey has no problem keeping you busy. You’ll almost always find something to do. You even have a base-building section of the game where you can have some of your Yaolings, who have nothing to do, keep busy building your village. If they are not constructing different structures that grow your village, they can mine resources, go fishing, and even farm fruits and vegetables. There truly is potential here to expand a solely monster-taming adventure into a full-blown ecosystem of survival and exploration with lots of things to do. Fortunately, you have a map to guide you across its vast lands. Plus, shrine-like structures that act as fast-travel points. 

Lackluster Story

It’s sad, therefore, that the story fails to match up to the bar set by the auto-battle system and vast exploration. Beyond the premise, the story just kind of trails off in momentum. It’d have been great, for instance, to learn each Yaoling’s backstories, with distinct personalities that foster bonds. Hardly any Yaoling makes a deep connection to you, and it feels largely thanks to a story told sparingly. Perhaps the lack of voice acting too is to blame for the minimal connection you make to Yaolings. They do make jibbery noises, though, so adorably cute they grow on you. So that’s a plus.

Still, it feels like a lost opportunity to craft an endearing story. A mystery looms in the background about where the dark force has come from. But the execution and unraveling of it left a lot to be desired. Overall, the story is linear, leaving you no choice but to follow along. But your attention to follow through isn’t necessarily because the tidbits of information you find out are intriguing, but rather because of how excellent the worldbuilding and battle system are, and you can’t wait to jump back at it. If anything, worldbuilding could add plenty of more story beats that build on top of the demon lords and Eastern-inspired Yaolings lore.

Charmingly Beautiful

Yaoling: Mythical Journey looks stunning. It depicts a charming and vibrant world inspired by Eastern Asia. With popping color that bring out the foliage and characters, alongside the vastness of space filled with diverse creatures, the visual design hardly disappoints. From dense forests to snow-laden flatlands and gloomy gorges, Yaoling: Mythical Journey’s regions are diverse enough to hold your attention throughout its run-through. Moreover, while Yaolings may be in 2D, they jump off the screen in 3D environments. In the same breath, the music score sounds enchanting, immersing you in an adorable world. Though I wouldn’t say the gameplay is cozy, it does ease the nerves with the beauty in the visuals and the obvious effort put into crafting a charming world.

Verdict

At least Yaoling: Mythical Journey crafts a story that gives purpose to your monster-taming adventures. You galavant across the Land of the Ancients, collecting and training Yaoling fantastical creatures, and for the most part, it never gets boring. You’re always excited to add one more distinct creature to your collection and discover how badass they are on the battlefield. Speaking of the battlefield, while at the start it can start off slow, merely dragging and dropping Yaolings on the arena and watching the combat unfold. Later on, it becomes more tactical, with plenty of more widely-ranging Yaolings to mix and match. Some combinations are simply more effective than others, and so coming up with the best team can be an engaging affair. 

With Charms, you enjoy even more depth to combat, debating the best moments to turn the tide of battles. You can choose to bolster your team or throw off enemies, making them statues unable to do anything or ganging up on larger enemies who are more threatening. Yaoling: Mythical Journey is stepping away from the usual turn-based battle system and crafting its own path. It’s taking auto-battles by the horns, and the results are beyond pleasing. When you consider the visually stunning art style and fun exploration mechanics, Yaoling: Mythical Journey climbs up the rank of monster-catching games. With just a little more polishing of its lackluster story, it’d be simply perfect. Then again, it’s only $17.99—definitely a steal, if you ask me.