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Posted 10/23/2018

Review Copy provided by NIS America.

Yomawari: Night Alone

Story
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Our story opens up with a small girl and her dog standing in front of a tunnel during a walk in their quiet neighborhood.

 

The young girl, with the day ending and not wanting to journey further, begins to head back home.

 

On the way a traumatic event occurs, and our protagonist is knocked unconscious.

 

After waking she realizes her dog is gone and she is left with nothing but the collar.

 

With a brief tear shed from losing her dog, she continues to head home.

Upon arriving home she is greeted by her older sister, who questions why the dog is gone.

 

Unsure of what truly happened, we inform our sister that the dog must have run away, and she goes out in search of the lost pup.

 

Time passes and our sister hasn't returned home.

 

Anxious that she is out at night trying to fix our problem, we head out in search of her.

 

After a short search we run into our sister again, only now she is acting different.

 

She tells us to hide in the nearby bush and not come out no matter what happens.

Hidden by the bush we hear rustling noises and fear overwhelms us as our heart starts pounding.

 

Then it all stops.

 

We step out of the bushes to find that our sister has disappeared once again, and all that is left from her is a flashlight.

 

Now, with the night well upon us, we pick up the flashlight and head home, but with our new found tool we start to see ghostly apparitions and ghoulish creatures.

 

Knowing that we must find our sister and our dog, we set out into the town, embracing the long night and the challenge ahead of us.

Gameplay
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The gameplay in Night Alone has the fundamentals to be a great horror game, but is held back by some conflicting design decisions.

 

Movement is split into three different speeds.

 

You can walk at a standard pace by tilting the left joystick in any direction, which can then be modified to a tiptoe or a run by holding down the left and right shoulder buttons respectively.

 

While tiptoeing you can strafe left and right which is useful when needing to keep your flashlight facing a certain direction.

 

Running lets you move at a quicker pace at the cost of a steadily depleting stamina bar, which empties faster while frightened.

 

Your flashlight, while typically facing directly ahead of you, can be controlled by the right joystick to angle the direction left or right.

 

This lack of motion with your flashlight, which is used to reveal spirits, creates an interesting and much more terrifying dynamic when running away from enemies.

 

Being around enemies, or anything that scares the young girl, will cause your heartbeat to speed up and is accompanied by an ominous audio queue.

 

NIS makes use of this mechanic beautifully by playing it even when no spirits are nearby, making every moment the protagonists is terrified a stressful one.

 

Spirits will come in different shapes and sizes, each with unique attack patterns, triggers, and avoidance mechanics.

 

While a lot of enemies will run at you once you've been spotted, some will only notice you when you make too much noise, and others may even actively avoid you.

 

Most of the time you can escape from an enemy by hiding behind the nearest bush or sign, but sometimes other methods are required.

 

Useable items, thrown with the Y button, are scattered throughout the world map, symbolized by tiny lights on the ground that sparkle when your flashlight hovers over them.

 

Harmful spirits can be distracted when alerted of your presence by using these different items.

 

However, collectable items are also represented on the map in the same way, which can lead to you being surrounded by spirits in a mad dash to collect what may be a rare item, or simply another pebble or coin.

Speaking of coins, you can offer them to Jizo statues, found in various locations around town.

 

Offering a coin to a statue will allow you to quick save, and after finding multiple statues you unlock the ability to fast travel.

 

Using an item to save, similar to the ribbons from the Resident Evil series, could add to the horror of the game.

 

However, unlike ribbons, coins are quite common and Jizo statues are abundant, making death only a slight setback, and often allowing the use of "death warping" to bypass unforgiving sections.

 

All of these things combine to create solid gameplay that just falls short of being great.

 

Some enemy encounters feel more like getting lucky is the requirement to beat them, but this can be forgiven because of the multitude of save locations.

Audio & Visuals
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The use of audio in Night Alone is fantastic.

 

Spirits make noises that send shivers down your spine, and they are recognizable to the point where you will know how afraid to be just by the sounds you hear.

 

The heartbeat sound to convey terror is spot on, and often made my own heartbeat quicken.

 

The art direction makes the game feel like you’re watching an animated horror film.

 

However with a flat surface that is given depth by a realistic background, there can be some times where it feels like moving around is a little jarring.

 

Most enemies are hand drawn, and often look like a child’s rendition of something that would scare them, which I enjoy as it gives the enemies a style that is believable when imagined in the eyes of a young girl.

Final Thoughts
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Yomawari: Night Alone is a good game that is just shy of a being great.

 

Featuring an artstyle that is both cute and terrifying, and gameplay that, while offering some challenge, is mostly forgiving.

 

I would highly recommend this game as an introduction to the horror game genre.

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