Each chapter will see you exploring further afield from the safety of your house, retreading your earlier excursions as you go. The town in Yomawari: Midnight Shadows is a small scale open world, isn’t everything the days, and your base of operations is your house. These mechanics certainly ramp the tension up, but make the game less enjoyable to actually play.
This instant death situation isn’t helped by the sporadic saving system, you can only save at set locations if you first pay the coin toll. This lack of guiding adds to the sense of terror but does make the game frustrating to understand.Īdding to this frustration is the way the monsters will kill you instantly and often will materialize out of thin air to do so. This game doesn’t hold your hand at all and there is a startling lack of any kind of instructions or explanation. Other than avoiding enemies you’ll be traipsing round town in an almost lost way. It is a nice effect which helps to emphasise your vulnerability in a terrifying way. When you do hide the screen zooms into your location and the monsters are only vaguely shown as red blurs in the screen. With no offensive actions you are limited to hiding behind bushes and signs to avoid the monsters. The moment to moment gameplay sees you slowly walking through the town avoiding the enemies. They reminded me of some of the stuff you’d see in Studio Ghibli movies, and this is a great strength of the game. There is some excellent art design on display here an none moreso than in the enemies. The fear of the unknown is one of Yomawari’s strengths. It is a great effect which really gives the game a great scary vibe. As you wander around the map you have a torch which can be controlled with the right stick, this allows you to probe the oppressive dark and find your way forward. The game is claustrophobic with a lot of the screen given over to the pitch black shadows. This sets the tone for the game and control is passed between the two characters on a level by level basis. As they set off together though they bump into a monstrous creature and get separated. The story being told is the tale of two school girls finding their way home after watching some fireworks. Immersion into the world of Yomawari is everything and before the game starts proper you are asked to play the game in a dark room and focus solely on the screen. The action here is super slow and deliberate with the two main characters purposely limited to a vulnerable walking speed, or a highly limited run. Mostly played from a isometric style view there are a few instances of side on action, but this is resolutely not a platformer. The game is deliciously retro with a nice detailed 2D art style. Yomawari : Midnight Shadows is a horror game which ticks all the boxes for me and is a follow up to the cult horror favourite Yomawari: Night Alone released in 2014 for the Vita. The mix of Japanese folklore, with the vulnerability of youth is something which absolutely petrifies me. There is something I find appealing with traditional horror from Japan, loads of my favourite scares have come from that culture.
#YOMAWARI NIGHT ALONE JAPANESE FOLKLORE PS4#
Octoin PS4 tagged 2d / haunted / hiding / horror / japanese by Steven
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