The danger is lurking in the dark

 Yomawari night alone review

Raise your hand if you have never had to live together with the atavistic fear of the dark in your childhood years. Someone will be shaking his head but it is a path from which – who more, some less – we all passed.

 

The horror genre is the most fertile ground for exorcising rooted ancestral fears, but there are not many titles designed to enhance a single mood and build a whole experience around it. Nippon Ichi tried it with Yomawari: Night Alone, survival horror experienced from a child’s perspective.

 

Born from an idea of ​​the Japanese developer Yu Mizokami, the game tries to take us back in time and make us relive the anxieties born at an early age, when it happened to slip into a broken neck under blankets in fear of being overwhelmed by obscure presences nested in the darkness.

 Yomawari night alone walkthrough

Mizokami is not new to give birth to curious ideas, just think of the unpronounceable htoL # NiQ: The Firefly Diary – 2D puzzle adventure launched in Japan in 2014 and arrived here last spring – also described from the perspective of a girl. The European release of Yomawari: Night Alone is scheduled for October 28 on PC and PlayStation Vita, let’s understand better what it is.

 Yomawari night alone tests who has the phobia of the dark

Yomawari night alone story

The story of  yomawari night alone ps4 begins without many preambles, while a girl whose name we ignore is walking her Poro dog.

 

The streets of the city seem deserted and quiet, but when the child decides to throw a stone it takes only a moment for the pet to be brutally hit by a van that appeared out of nowhere. As soon as the image returns clearly from Poro there is no trace, but a copious blood stain does not presage anything good; the girl returns home empty-handed and after telling the story to her older sister, the latter decides to go out to look for the dog and bring it home, recommending the child not to venture outside for any reason.

 

As often happens when bans are placed on a child,The streets appear sinister, something threatening looms and the beats of the protagonist become more intense.

The danger is lurking in the dark
The danger is lurking in the dark

He wants to escape. After meeting her sister again near a park, the latter tells her to hide and close her eyes; When the sinister noises are over, the child finds herself alone again, at the mercy of the night and increasingly distressing threats. In spite of the description,  yomawari night alone pc starts suddenly, without giving too many indications on what to do or where to go.

 

Factors such as exploration, the search for objects and escape are immediately clear to the player, who nevertheless must begin to orientate himself in hostile scenarios and with limited points of reference. The map is revealed in real time during research activities, in the manner of metroidvania:it is necessary to sift each area one step after another, so as to reveal ever larger portions and move with relative ease. 

 

Branched and interconnected, the city streets are counterbalanced by more isolated places, immersed in the fields or in the woods. Entities are devious, can not be faced and appear suddenly, forcing the protagonist to busy escapes.

 Yomawari night alone guide

The game system is regulated by two indicators: on the one hand the increase in heart rate, thanks to which it is possible to perceive the proximity of threats, on the other the stamina bar, by means of which one has to do is accelerate the step in the right moments and get away as far as possible from the dangers nestled nearby.In the first part of the adventure a very particular atmosphere is created, dominated by the sense of task and the desire to escape.

 

The game uses various tricks, for example the fact of seeing the dangers only at times but constantly perceive their proximity. In some situations the lack of visibility takes on concrete characteristics, such as when the view is obstructed by objects in the scenario. Other times it happens to be suddenly surrounded by spider webs that, changing the game screen, decrease visibility and increase the feeling of oppression.