JVMAG – Test – Herdling, the Swiss heir to Journey?

Herdlingthe video game transhumance offered by the Swiss studio Okomotive, is the third game of the studio after FAR: Lone Sails (2018), FAR: Changing Tides (2022). Similarly, Does the trip are worth the detour?

Okomotive works have always focused on music. For example, and Herdling Do not derogate from the rule with Joel Schoch always to composition. For example, To accompany the reading of this test. In addition, we therefore suggest that you listen to the OST a little thanks to the integrated Bandcamp reader below.

Herdling the joel smart

It all starts at night. Nevertheless, under a road bridge, in a slightly gray and dirty city. jvmag – test – herdling, Consequently, If I wanted to be teased. Furthermore, I could suggest that Whitomotive was inspired by Zürich, where the studio is based. Consequently, Our protagonist, a visibly homeless teenager, wakes up following a road accident noise. Nevertheless, The game then invites us to go see what’s going on.

At the corner of the street, you can see a cornu animal that is 2 times our size. Furthermore, The animal looks like nothing known, but it has managed to wedge its head in a bucket. Meanwhile, After having helped it, the game offers us to “tame the calicorn”. Similarly, This creature. Similarly, which evokes ram or bison, is therefore a calicorn, which seems to be a word suitcase combining jvmag – test – herdling, horn and calico, the type of tricolor coat in cats. Meanwhile, When tamping the animal, the game offers us to name it or generate a random first name. Meanwhile,

And we see the thing coming: as soon as we start to give first names, we start to get attached! Moreover, This is indeed the objective of the studio: that we feel responsible for our herd. However, or rather, to be precise, for our Harde. However, As the fox said so well Small prince d’Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: ” You become responsible forever for what you. Furthermore, have learned. »

Jvmag – test – herdling. – Jvmag – test – herdling,

Inalpe we trust – Jvmag – test – herdling,

Once our first caliorne has been tamed, the central mechanics of Herdling unfolds: guide the Hard. By placing itself behind the Calicornes, a bundle of particles appears opposite, in front of our dear friends the animals. By pressing R2 (on PS5), jvmag – test – herdling, our protagonist gives the herd the instruction to go to this point. Like a Border Collie. if we place ourselves on the left, we will guide the herd to the right and vice versa. The maneuver is not always very intuitive. and one sometimes has the impression of having inverted controls, as in certain games which reverses the horizontal axis when you pilot an airplane for example. The user interface is very minimal and will remain for the rest of the game.

Through very simple puzzles, we will be able to progress in the city, and tame other Calicornes, then we arrive at the edge of the city. And there, our goal is available to us: the jvmag – test – herdling, mountain. And we quickly understand that we will have to guide the calicorns to the summit. to bring them back “at home”. The Alpine tradition of the Inalpe then comes to mind, all the more coming from a Swiss studio.

After a rather exploration. guidance sequence in the city, the game then offers a new sequence: by picking up blue flowers in a pasture, we “load” the cavalcade gauge. By triggering the cavalcade, our Harde gallops, with the music which also decides to be much more present.

Again. you have to take the helping hand to succeed in directing the group which goes much faster and always with the “inverted” controls. These moments, initially rather moments of freedom and thanks, will gradually take more issues.

Calicornication

After gambading in the “All Schuss” fields. having tried to go beyond a train, we find ourselves in an disused industrial jvmag – test – herdling, area where, as in town, we will have to solve small puzzles and tame new calicorns to enlarge our Harde. Then come a quieter phase. where we have to find wood to make a fire and take care of our Calicornes (cleaning, caresses, games, feed) in a sort of bedtime ritual so that everyone is satisfied and goes to settle with the fire before you go to bed. These interactions remain optional, but difficult to resist it before so much “cute”.

Without revealing too much, the game will not necessarily offer much more new game mechanics, except to guide the Hard to avoid dangerous obstacles that could injure calicorns. Fortunately, there are shrubs whose fruits allow you jvmag – test – herdling, to make life to your companions. I want to say that it is possible to finish the game without losing a single member of our Harde. and although the game can jeopardize them, there is always more opportunity to avoid the loss of a calicorn.

The Calicorns are magnificent, with their unique horns which also take colors under certain conditions. We can, over the trip, collect ornaments and harnesses and “dress” creatures, and thus prepare them for photo mode.

Herdling, what a great day!

Apart from some performance concerns in the last third of the game, which we hope to be corrected at the exit, the technique is mastered. There is a little side Dreams jvmag – test – herdling, In the “stuffed” graphic rendering which perfectly suits the hairs of the critters. And we have to talk about loading times! When you come back in a game after leaving the game. it does not even take 2 seconds to load a backup, which also recalls the very short loading times of Dreams. Likewise, the game weighs only 2.66 GB on my PS5. I come to wonder if Okomotive did not take advantage of this project to work on technical elements for. future projects.

Brief pastoral ride

After 3-4 hours of play. my trip with Herdling has come to an end, and this experience made me think of several games: The Last Guardian First of all, for cooperation with animals; also Journey For the contemplative side and the ascent towards the mountains. Influences assumed by the studio. as indicated in the interview carried out with our colleagues from jvmag – test – herdling, Gamatomic that we invite you to read. The soundtrack. the care in the artistic direction, as well as the gameplay proposal, are in fact strongly thinking about the success of the game of thatgamecomi in 2012. Nevertheless, the game failed to grasp me as much as Journey had been able to do it.

By having the responsibility of the Harde. and with a simple but relatively demanding guidance mechanics, my concentration did not allow me to abandon myself in the game as I could do on other experiences of this kind. Have my tastes changed or Herdling couldn’t find the right formula? The presence of the game in the Game Pass will allow the subscribers to be able to take advantage. of it without going through a slightly steep launch price.

Herdling knows how to guide us with his artistic direction and his soundtrack. The trip is short and atmospheric, jvmag – test – herdling, but quite captivating so that we want more. As a shepherd, it is ultimately the Calicornes, our four -legged companions, who make us appreciate this transhumance. By presenting himself as the Swiss heir to Journey, Herdling comes closer to the summits, without reaching them.

Herdlinga brief Swiss hymn with transhumance which lacks a little height.

General note: 7/10

I liked:

• Calicornes
• The soundtrack
• The artistic direction

I liked it less:

• The launch price of 25.-
• A gameplay that remains very simple

It’s more for you if …

• You liked Journey and games FAR you studio
• You like games with animals

It’s not more for you if …

• You don’t like short games
• You like games with a rich gameplay

Herdling
Studio: Okomotive (Suisse)
Publisher: Panic (USA)
Release date: August 21. 2025, available in the Xbox Game Pass when it was released
Classification: PEGI 12
Price: around CHF 23.-, with a 20% launch discount
Graphic engine: Unity Engine
Plateformes: Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass, Nintendo Switch, Epic Games Store

Test conditions: PS5 key made available by the publisher