Yomawari: Night Alone from NIS America is a survival horror game with a very interesting art style in the same vein as HtoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary – a game that we really liked. After the main character goes out for a walk with her dog Poro, she comes back home without her beloved dog. Her sister tells her to stay at home and that she will go out to search for the dog in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, her daughter does not return. The girl, in a serious lack of good judgment, goes out back into the night to search for her dog and her sister… but something is wrong. The city does not look the same, and the darkness seems to be consuming everything around her. Intrigued? Then come read our Yomawari: Night Alone review to see why this is a must-have Vita game!
The first few minutes of the game will serve as its tutorial. You can run by holding down the R button, and the more you run the more stamina you’ll lose. You can also tip-toe with the L button in case you want to take things slowly and carefully. If you see something of interest, you can interact with it with the X button once you have an exclamation point over your head. The Triangle button will let you select an item in your possession. Once you confirm an item, you can press the Square button to use it. Once you gain access to the flashlight (after playing for roughly 10 minutes), you can activate it or turn it off with the Select button. Oh, and if at any point you feel lost you can press the Start button to open up your map.
You’ll learn early on that hiding is a very important mechanic since you cannot attack. All the monsters you find during your playthrough can and will kill you if they touch you. Be sure to always know where you can and can’t hide, or else you’ll end up dying a lot! Because of this, you should always be on the lookout for the Jizo statues in each area of town. If you have a 10 yen coin with you, you can do perform a quicksave at the statue. If you die, you’ll respawn at statue in an instant so that you can try again. Another advantage is that once you activate two statue, you’ll be able to warp between all of them to quickly move around the city.
if you haven’t figured it out by now, this is a very creepy game. If you’re not into Japanese lore and the monsters in them, then you’re not going to like your time with Yomawari. There’s many bizarre, creepy and disgusting monsters in the city, and if you’re not always on high alert they will find you and they will kill you. Some can be avoided by not using the R button to run since loud steps attract them. Others will only attack if you turn your back on them. And then there’s some rather large monsters that won’t stop until they kill you.
The game includes a full trophy count with a Platinum, and the good news is that no trophy is missable! The bad news is that one particular trophy requires that you play the game for 50 hours. This is a bit of a hassle since you can’t tell how long you’ve been playing the game for, and because it will probably take you 5-6 hours to finish the game, find every item, use the Jizo statues 50 times, and everything else needed for the Platinum… except for that one.
In the end, I can highly recommend you buy this title. I loved my time with the game to write this Yomawari: Night Alone Review – it’s creepy looks, atmosphere and sounds are something you have to experience. And if you really want to have fun with the game, be sure to play at night, in the dark, with your headphones on. Trust me on this one – you’ll thank me later!
Disclaimer
This Yomawari: Night Alone review is based on a PS Vita copy of the game provided by NIS America.
