Yesterday Origins
{{Infobox video game
| title = Yesterday Origins
| image = Yesterday Origins PC-MAC box art.png
| caption = European cover for the computer version
| developer = Pendulo Studios
| publisher = Microïds
| director = Ramón Hernáez
| producer =
| designer =
| programmer =
| artist =
| writer = Ramón Hernáez, Josué Monchán
| composer =
| engine =
| platforms = {{ubl|macOS|Windows|PlayStation 4|Xbox One|Android|iOS|Nintendo Switch}}
| released = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|November 10, 2016}}|macOS, Windows{{vgrelease|WW|November 10, 2016}}Xbox One{{vgrelease|WW|November 17, 2016}}PlayStation 4{{vgrelease|NA|November 17, 2016|PAL|November 21, 2016}}Android, iOS{{vgrelease|WW|October 19, 2017}}Nintendo Switch{{vgrelease|WW|May 31, 2018}}}}
| genre = Adventure
| modes = Single-player
}}
Yesterday Origins is a 2016 graphic adventure game developed by the Spanish company Pendulo Studios and published by Microïds. Both a prequel and a sequel to Pendulo's earlier Yesterday, the game follows protagonists John Yesterday and his girlfriend Pauline as they try to unravel the mystery of John's immortality. The player takes control of John and Pauline and explores the game world, solves puzzles, collects items and converses with non-player characters.
Yesterday Origins began development in November 2014. It was the first new title that Pendulo had embarked on since 2012, when financial problems had forced the company to restructure.
Reviews for Yesterday Origins were generally mixed, according to Metacritic, although its release for Xbox One won positive reviews and was among the highest-scoring Spanish-made games on the website by 2017.
Gameplay
{{expand section|date=July 2019}}
Yesterday Origins is a graphic adventure game.
Plot
{{More plot|date=July 2019}}
Yesterday Origins focuses on both the events that occurred centuries ago when John Yesterday became an immortal and the present timeline after the first game.
Having been caught by the Spanish Inquisition, John escapes with the help of Father Ginés. Ginés takes Yesterday to a noble estate, where he translates the Book of the Flesh in order to create the potion of immortality. When Ginés asks John to torture a child for the entertainment of the call, John refuses and helps him escape.
In the present day, John and his girlfriend Pauline sell a huge Japanese sculpture to Baxter, an eccentric millionaire heiress. While meeting her, John finds a book with the tattoo of the Book of the Flesh and tracks it to the author in New York. When leaving New York, John is kidnapped by Baxter's head of security and taken back to France, where he meets father Ginés, now old and decrepit, who only lives two or three weeks before dying and returning as a frail old man. Ginés begs John to read the book again to find a potion to reverse immortality. Baxter interrupts the process, planning to take the potion herself to become immortal.
However, as shown in a flashback, Pauline had swapped out the coin of judgment, one of the central ingredients. After being forced to drink the potion and being murdered, Pauline returns to life and Baxter commits suicide, not realizing Pauline was already immortal.
Yesterday reads the Book of the Flesh again, and realizes he's been immortal even before he met Ginés, instead returning as a child rather than an adult. After making the reversal potion, Ginés shoots John and then commits suicide. Pauline briefly considers drinking the potion as well, before John reappears as a baby.
Development
Following Pendulo Studios' unsuccessful crowdfunding campaign for its project Day One in September 2012,{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722170554/https://vandal.elespanol.com/noticia/73096/la-financiacion-de-day-one-fracasa-y-el-juego-queda-cancelado/ |url=https://vandal.elespanol.com/noticia/73096/la-financiacion-de-day-one-fracasa-y-el-juego-queda-cancelado/ | title=La financiación de Day One fracasa y el juego queda cancelado | date=September 17, 2012 | author=Leiva, Carlos | language=es | work=Vandal | archive-date=July 22, 2019 | url-status=live }} the developer neared bankruptcy and entered a two-year period of inactivity.{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712205639/https://www.eldiario.es/juegoreviews/noticias/Pendulo-Studios-trabaja-aventura-grafica_0_333167305.html | url=https://www.eldiario.es/juegoreviews/noticias/Pendulo-Studios-trabaja-aventura-grafica_0_333167305.html | title=Pendulo Studios trabaja en su nueva aventura gráfica | author=Alonso, Álvaro | date=December 9, 2014 | work=El Diario | language=es | archive-date=July 12, 2019 |url-status=live }}{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722164431/https://vandal.elespanol.com/avances/ps4/yesterday-origins/31155/1#p-73 | url=https://vandal.elespanol.com/avances/ps4/yesterday-origins/31155/1#p-73 | title=Impresiones Yesterday Origins | author=Cano, Jorge | date=August 30, 2016 | work=Vandal | language=es | archive-date=July 22, 2019 | url-status=live }}{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712205624/https://www.lavanguardia.com/tecnologia/videojuegos/20141212/54421343639/pendulo-studios-nueva-aventura-grafica.html | url=https://www.lavanguardia.com/tecnologia/videojuegos/20141212/54421343639/pendulo-studios-nueva-aventura-grafica.html | title=Pendulo Studios trabaja en una nueva aventura gráfica | author=Garciá, Albert | date=December 12, 2014 | work=La Vanguardia | language=es | archive-date=July 12, 2019 | url-status=live }} Crowdfunding had been the company's attempt to survive after it was unable to secure a traditional publisher.{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120821050623/https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/22157 | url=https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/22157 | title=Day One - Pendulo Studios Interview | author=Allin, Jack | date=August 15, 2012 | work=Adventure Gamers | archive-date=August 21, 2012 | url-status=live }} Pendulo's Juan Miguel Marín recalled the period as "a bad time",{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712214444/https://blog.game.es/charlando-pendulo-studios-nos-habla-yesterday-origins-pasado-presente-futuro/ | url=https://blog.game.es/charlando-pendulo-studios-nos-habla-yesterday-origins-pasado-presente-futuro/ | title=[Charlando] Pendulo Studios nos habla de Yesterday Origins, de su pasado, presente y futuro | author=Rodriguez, Lara Isabel | work=GAMERzine | date=October 16, 2016 | language=es | publisher=Game España | archive-date=July 12, 2019 | url-status=live }} while Albert Garciá of La Vanguardia noted that "the future of this company was uncertain" at the time. The developer's disappearance ended in mid-December 2014, when the studio signed a deal with Microïds to create an unannounced new adventure game. Its development began "immediately", according to Pendulo. The project was revealed as Yesterday Origins in May 2015.{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712205639/https://www.eldiario.es/juegoreviews/noticias/Pendulo-Studios-trabaja-aventura-grafica_0_333167305.html | url=https://www.eldiario.es/juegoreviews/noticias/Pendulo-Studios-trabaja-aventura-grafica_0_333167305.html | title=Pendulo gets started on Yesterday Origins for 2016 | author=Allin, Jack | date=May 22, 2015 | work=Adventure Gamers | archive-date=July 12, 2019 | url-status=live }}
Pendulo attempted to make Yesterday Origins harder than its last several games, following a yearslong trend of reducing the difficulty of each successive title in response to market demands.{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702011813/https://zeroplayers.com/especial-yesterday-origins-entrevista-pendulo-studios/ | url=https://zeroplayers.com/especial-yesterday-origins-entrevista-pendulo-studios/ | title=Especial Yesterday Origins: entrevista a Pendulo Studios | author=ZeroAdmin | date=December 5, 2016 | work=ZeroPlayers | language=es | archive-date=July 2, 2019 | url-status=live }} The company's Josué Monchan estimated that the game was at least "twice as long as its predecessor".{{cite journal | author=Staff | title=En primera persona; Entrevista a... Josué Monchan | date=October 2016 | journal=PlayManía | language=es | issue=216 | pages=14, 15 }} Pendulo chose the prequel-sequel format in an effort to make the game equally understandable and enjoyable for both series newcomers and players of the original Yesterday, according to Monchan.{{cite AV media | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712212957/https://www.revogamers.net/noticias-w/revoradio/revogamers-radio-4x31yesterday-origins-nube-de-nintendo-switch-20912/ | url=https://www.revogamers.net/noticias-w/revoradio/revogamers-radio-4x31yesterday-origins-nube-de-nintendo-switch-20912/ | title=Revogamers Radio 4x31: Yesterday Origins y la nube de Nintendo Switch | people=Mena, Manuel Luis | work=Revogamers Radio | date=May 25, 2018 | language=es | time=14:42 | archive-date=July 12, 2019 | url-status=live }}
While Pendulo had previously developed games with a proprietary game engine, Yesterday Origins was made in Unity. The team later called this "the most brutal change" in project management that Pendulo had undergone.{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128083230/https://as.com/meristation/2020/11/28/reportajes/1606550515_914667.html | url=https://as.com/meristation/2020/11/28/reportajes/1606550515_914667.html | title=Pendulo Studios, los españoles que quisieron competir con LucasArts | author=Oller, Martin | date=November 28, 2020 | work=MeriStation | language=es | archive-date=November 28, 2020 | url-status=live }}
Reception
{{Video game reviews
| MC = 74/100 (PC){{cite web | url=https://www.metacritic.com/game/yesterday-origins/critic-reviews/?platform=pc | title=Yesterday Origins for PC | work=Metacritic | access-date=July 8, 2020 }}
73/100 (PS4){{cite web | url=https://www.metacritic.com/game/yesterday-origins/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-4 | title=Yesterday Origins for PlayStation 4 | work=Metacritic | access-date=July 8, 2020 }}
76/100 (XONE){{cite web | url=https://www.metacritic.com/game/yesterday-origins/critic-reviews/?platform=xbox-one | title=Yesterday Origins for Xbox One | work=Metacritic | access-date=July 8, 2020 }}
68/100 (NS){{cite web | url=https://www.metacritic.com/game/yesterday-origins/critic-reviews/?platform=nintendo-switch | title=Yesterday Origins for Switch | work=Metacritic | access-date=July 8, 2020 }}
| 4P = 71% (PS4)
70% (PC){{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719050741/https://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/Allgemein/Test/36912/82154/0/Yesterday_Origins.html#/web/20200719050741mp_/https://www.4players.de/ |url=https://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/Allgemein/Test/36912/82154/0/Yesterday_Origins.html | title=Test: Yesterday Origins | author=Wöbbeking, Jan | date=February 12, 2016 | language=de | work=4Players | archive-date=July 19, 2020 | url-status=live }}
| AdvGamers = {{rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719204936/https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/31990 | url=https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/31990 | title=Yesterday Origins review | author=Ruha, Shuva | date=January 20, 2017 |work=Adventure Gamers | archive-date=July 19, 2020 | url-status=live }}
| Gamekult = 5/10{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909052911/https://www.gamekult.com/jeux/yesterday-origins-3050472015/test.html | url=https://www.gamekult.com/jeux/yesterday-origins-3050472015/test.html | title=Test : Yesterday Origins (PC) | author=Gautoz | date=November 25, 2016 | language=fr | work=Gamekult | archive-date=September 9, 2017 | url-status=live }}
| HC = 90/100{{cite journal | author=Ruiz, Clara Castaño | title=Análisis; Yesterday Origins | language=es | issue=304 | journal=HobbyConsolas | date=October 2016 | pages=76, 77 }}
| JXV = 17/20{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329081212/http://www.jeuxvideo.com/test/564203/yesterday-origins-le-grand-retour-de-pendulo-studios.htm | url=http://www.jeuxvideo.com/test/564203/yesterday-origins-le-grand-retour-de-pendulo-studios.htm | title=Test : Yesterday Origins : le grand retour de Pendulo Studios | author=ChewbieFR | language=fr | work=Jeuxvideo.com | date=November 11, 2016 | archive-date=March 29, 2018 | url-status=live }}
| MIC = 85/100{{cite journal | author=Pareja, Àlex | title=Review; Yesterday Origins | issue=260 | language=es | journal=Micromanía | volume=Third Época | date=December 2016 | pages=76, 77 }}
| rev4 = Canard PC
| rev4Score = 7/10{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719190452/https://www.canardpc.com/349/hier-est-un-autre-jour-yesterday-origins | url=https://www.canardpc.com/349/hier-est-un-autre-jour-yesterday-origins | title=Hier est un autre jour | author=Kalash, Maria | date=December 15, 2016 | work=Canard PC | language=fr | archive-date=July 19, 2020 | url-status=live }}
| rev5 = Vandal
| rev5Score = 8/10{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719200320/https://vandal.elespanol.com/analisis/ps4/yesterday-origins/31155#p-73 | url=https://vandal.elespanol.com/analisis/ps4/yesterday-origins/31155#p-73 | title=Análisis de Yesterday Origins (PS4, Switch, Android, iPhone, PC, Xbox One) | author=Varela, Ramón | date=November 11, 2016 | work=Vandal | language=es | archive-date=July 19, 2020 | url-status=live }}
| rev6 = Igromania
| rev6Score = 7/10 (PC){{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223211751/https://www.igromania.ru/article/28489/Morschinki_kak_povod_dlya_samoubiystva_Obzor_Yesterday_Origins.html | url=https://www.igromania.ru/article/28489/Morschinki_kak_povod_dlya_samoubiystva_Obzor_Yesterday_Origins.html | title=Морщинки как повод для самоубийства. Обзор Yesterday Origins | author=Nelipa, Svetlana | language=ru | work=Igromania | date=November 26, 2016 | archive-date=February 23, 2017 | url-status=dead }}
| rev7 = The Games Machine
| rev7Score = 8.8/10{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719220035/https://www.thegamesmachine.it/yesterday-origins/yesterday-origins-recensione-pc-ps4-xbox-one/ | url=https://www.thegamesmachine.it/yesterday-origins/yesterday-origins-recensione-pc-ps4-xbox-one/ | title=Yesterday Origins - Recensione | author=Besser, Paolo | date=November 28, 2016 | work=The Games Machine | language=it | archive-date=July 19, 2020 | url-status=live }}
}}
According to Metacritic, reviews of Yesterday Origins were "mixed or average" across its PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and computer releases. Its Xbox One version scored higher, netting "generally positive reviews" from critics. HobbyConsolas reported that the game's release for Xbox One was one of the 18 highest-rated Spanish games listed on Metacritic by 2017.{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626075628/https://www.hobbyconsolas.com/reportajes/mejores-juegos-espanoles-segun-notas-metacritic-93834 | url=https://www.hobbyconsolas.com/reportajes/mejores-juegos-espanoles-segun-notas-metacritic-93834 | title=Los mejores juegos españoles según las notas de Metacritic | author=Huertos, Alejandro Alcolea | date=March 30, 2017 | language=es | work=HobbyConsolas | archive-date=June 26, 2019 | url-status=live }}
{{Clear}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Pendulo Studios}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Nintendo Switch games
Category:Pendulo Studios games
Category:Video games developed in Spain