Yesterday Origins sends John Yesterday and his girlfriend Pauline back through centuries of his endless life, and Pendulo Studios manages to make the trip feel like both a prequel and a sequel at once. The game is a graphic adventure from Spanish developer Pendulo Studios, published by Microids, and it lands on PS4, PC (Windows), iOS, Mac.
Trailer, via IGDBcom.
John’s Long Life
John becomes immortal in an occult ritual gone wrong. The story splits into two timelines. Centuries ago, he escapes the Spanish Inquisition with Father Ginés, who translates the Book of the Flesh to brew a potion of immortality. In the present, John and Pauline sell rare artifacts for a living until John finds a clue tied to that ancient book.
“When Ginés asks John to torture a child for the entertainment of the call, John refuses and helps him escape.”
That refusal changes everything. The game spends its runtime tracing the consequences backward and forward, from Ginés’s old age and death to Pauline’s own return from the dead.
Two Timelines, One Story
The plot moves between past and present without losing its thread. John escapes the Inquisition, meets Ginés, and reads the Book of the Flesh to become immortal. Then the game jumps to the present, where John and Pauline sell a huge Japanese sculpture to Baxter, an eccentric millionaire heiress.
John finds a book with the tattoo of the Book of the Flesh and tracks it to New York. He is kidnapped by Baxter’s head of security and brought back to France, where Ginés is now old and decrepit. 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. Pauline swaps out the coin of judgment, one of the central ingredients. After being forced to drink the potion and murdered, Pauline returns to life and Baxter commits suicide, unaware Pauline was already immortal.
A Mixed Reception
Reviews were generally mixed, according to Metacritic. The game was among the highest-scoring Spanish-made games on the website by 2017.
What Works, What Doesn’t
The puzzle-solving and item-collecting hold up better than the pacing. Conversations with non-player characters can drag, and some sections rely too heavily on reading text rather than showing action.
| Timeline | Event |
|---|---|
| Centuries ago | John escapes the Spanish Inquisition with Father Ginés |
| Present day | John and Pauline sell a Japanese sculpture to Baxter |
| Present day | John finds a book with the tattoo of the Book of the Flesh |
| Present day | Baxter kidnaps John and brings him to France |
The Verdict
Yesterday Origins earns its place as a curiosity rather than a classic. The storytelling is ambitious, and the split timeline gives it a distinct identity. The execution stumbles at times, but the ambition shows through.
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