EDITOR'S NOTE:
It's terror time again, and that means we've played the Steam version of a Yomawari game. As ever, out screenshots are taken with the Steam overlay at 1280 x 720, so click on them to make them larger and more prone to jumpscaring you. Not really, that's a joke. Anyway, since this is the third in the Yomawari series and it hits many of the same notes, you might want to read up on the first and the second games for the very basics, this overview goes for the jugular, i.e. what's changed. Mostly. Probably.
Also, in case you somehow skipped our warning...
POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD. AND SORTA-SCARY-BUT-NOT-FULL-FAT-SPOOPY SCREENSHOTS TOO.
ALSO, PLAYERS WITH STRONG TROPOPHOBIA SHOULD NOT PLAY THIS GAME.
YOU WERE WARNED, PUNKS.
For the third time, we head to the cursed town. A different cursed town, actually.
After Yomawari: Midnight Shadows was something of a disappointment, I had all but forgotten about the franchise, even with rumours of a third game on the way. It turns out so did Nippon Ichi, as it wouldn't be until 2021 that the next title in the series, Yomawari: Lost in the Dark (released in Japan as Yomawari III, and the way the front cover is framed reminds me of something else) would be officially announced, later released worldwide in 2022 (although Westerners had to wait until October, the scariest month of all, to play it) for Playstation 4, Switch and Steam. Sadly, in that timeframe the Vita had passed on, joined the choir invisible, so the platform that started the series didn't get to see it continue. While the adorable (and horrifying) character design would still be by Yu Mizokami, directorial duties would fall to Munenori Hirose instead, who had previously worked on Tantei Bokumetsu / Process of Elimination as director, The Guided Fate Paradox and The Awakened Fate Ultimatum as programmer and the first Yomawari as support staff. Would a new director see dramatic changes for the series? Only one way to find out...
This time, the heroine of the story is you! While the first game's protagonist had no name (well, I called her Ribbon-chan) and the second had named heroines, this time you can decide your character's name and appearance (the latter can be changed from your room, and there are more accessories to unlock later) but you're probably better off not seeing this as a wish fulfilment story- your character's got it rough. Relentlessly bullied at school in the intro for what appears to be no good reason, she skulks off to the school's roof, reaches the edge, looks up to the sky... And vanishes. The next thing she knows, she's in a snow-covered forest with a mysterious older girl leading her out. She's been cursed- her actions on the school roof lead to it, you see- and the only way to lift the curse is in your character's memories... Which she's conveniently lost. She has until 6:00 AM to break the curse or who knows what might happen, although lucky for us this is purely a narrative device and there's no real time limit. Thus, our plucky elementary schooler must brave the horrors of the night, trying to find her memories and not be killed to bits by the the monsters in her town (and if the flashbacks prove anything, this quaint Japanese countryside town has been cursed for a long time, always was haunted).
So, what's new? Not too much, honestly. The core of the game remains in-tact and works as effectively as in previous titles- using your flashlight and listening to your heartbeat to keep track of dangerous spirits is as tense as ever, you slowly draw a map of the town in a child-like way and accumulate trinets from your journeys- but a few mechanics have been revamped and removed. The biggest change is that there's no longer any bushes or boxes to hide from enemies in, and instead you have to close your eyes. This reduces your walking speed to a crawl, but it also means some enemies will ignore you and let you amble by. To be honest, for the vast majority of game time I didn't find this too useful, as most enemies can be out-manouvred or avoided in other, faster ways. It is, however, exceptionally good when being used in story sequences for making you feel truly alone in the vast darkness of this town, and there's clever use of it throughout for narrative purposes (and it also means that you no longer think there's an item ahead when you see a ? appear, only to be disappointed it's just a bush). The item-holding mechanic of Midnight Shadows has also returned, seeing a bit more usage for things like emergency flares in the ship area and ghost-warding scarecrows in the rice fields, and does a good job of building tension as usually you don't have a light source while you're carrying stuff around. Finally, indoor areas are back with plenty of doors to slam shut behind you, although I really wish maps were provided for these places (only the school has a basic map you have to check on the walls). However, one improvement from Midnight Shadows is completely gone- you can no longer equip charms for little boosts like being able to hold more items or increase your stamina. While it wasn't a huge thing, it was nice to give the items you collected more of a purpose, and it's a shame it's gone, seemingly replaced by optional, cosmetic accessories you can find after clearing each area and returning to them.
One other slight change is to the structure, at least on the surface. No longer divided into chapters, the game feels like it's trying to present itself as open world, with you sent on your merry way after the lengthy intro pretty much by yourself. As with previous games, you'll find no waypoints or objective markers here but the way the game guides you is pretty interesting- you need to explore the town and find items that remind you of an event, then go to the site of that event based mostly on the visual clues you get in the memory cutscene. However, it is a bit of an illusion- segments of town are blocked off by an eerie mist (step beyond it and you'll be killed shortly after) that only lifts once you've done certain things, limiting your options. You will spend at least the first hour or so bumbling about as with others in the series, but you can make things easier by looking at the town maps dotted around the place that mark key locations and putting two and two together to figure out your next destination. Paying attention to what you've seen and where you've been is key! One annoyance in this department is that when you do find where you're meant to be, only then does the game start holding your hand a little too much, with most key items required for progress being turned into mini-cutscenes or your character remarking what you should do out-loud with items you find. It's probably what a little kid would do when exploring at night, but it can feel a little condescending.
What Lost in the Dark does have over Midnight Shadows, I'd say, is gentle refinement in balance and difficulty. While exploring town itself, many of the more infuriating enemies from the previous games like the shades that only move when not in your sights or the 'runner' spirits are gone entirely (the flaming tyre can appear but I saw it exactly once, outside of a funny gag appearance involving a zebra crossing) which make exploration significantly less frustrating. Taking them out entirely is perhaps a bit drastic, but they were a little overused previously, and there's still challenge to be had here even if it's lessened, as just because you can close your eyes and try to stealth it doesn't mean you're invulnerable- if something's chasing you, you can't outrun it with your peepers shut. If you're a veteran of the series though, in the main town sequences you'll be seeing a lot of familiar faces, which is fine if, like me, you haven't played the older titles in a while, but they perhaps don't have the same impact as before. However, the game remains challenging in what I guess you'd call its 'dungeons' (the seven main areas where your memories take place) but they're not nearly as frustrating as Midnight Shadows... For the most part. Each area generally has you solve a few puzzles and evade a few new ghost types until you reach the climax that usually ends in a chase sequence, but they're plenty varied with their own little narrative and elements that keep things interesting- the starfish caves mess with your perception (and your controls), the bamboo forest has you collecting clues to figure out how to not get whisked away, the ship and cove have you play with a wind-up camera to take out water ghouls, and so on. Some can be frustrating for sure- the ship area's light-flashing scenes have very tight timing, the seven mysteries of the school gang up on you at the end with little room for error and the final gauntlet at the end is brutal, as are most of the chases the first time. I think the difference between these chases and the Midnight Shadows autoscroller is that while yes, you do have to effectively figure out where to go and memorise patterns and tells through a couple attempts, they're about half the length of that autoscroller nightmare, and while it can be frustrating to get to the end and have to restart, it's not as huge a time loss and so you're a little more OK with going back in. The final, final gauntlet of challenges is as close as it gets to breaking point and it just barely manages to not be game-ruiningly frustrating by being the shortest.
As for the story... It's certainly less of a jumbled mess than Midnight Shadows but it definitely lacks the punch of Night Alone. Similar themes are explored, focusing on a child learning about loss and mortality (with a bit of courage-building thrown in for good measure), and while you slowly unravel the truth about your character and her mysterious older friend, it takes a lot longer to get going than it probably should. It doesn't help that there's a final quest where, after finding all your memories, it turns out it was an illusion and a trap devised by Satan you did it wrong and the curse remains. Figuring out what to do next leaves you almost entirely on your own with very little in the way of direction- even less than the series is known for- but honestly, the game does at least try its best to give you the clues you need to figure out what to do with your collected memories. Once you do figure it out, you get closer and closer to the truth with some very clever ways of interacting with the story which I felt was a pretty good payoff, even if the ending itself might leave you a bit forlorn. The mini-stories in the 'dungeons' are cute too, with some of them oddly focusing on whether your character's actions are right at all as some rituals appease some ghosts but anger others, and in particular I enjoyed the spin on the 'seven mysteries of the school' story we've seen before. However, once you're done, you can return to them and try and set things right so all the spirits are happy, a nice touch. They are somewhat detached from the main narrative though, and it's easy to forget exactly what all of this is for when you're doing them. At the very least, by the end the loose ends are pretty much tied up, and the post-game is just mopping things up like the first game rather than returning to the previous town as in the second game, although good luck with that- there are way, way more items to find this time, a little overwhelmingly so.
As ever though, the star of the show is the presentation and atmosphere. While the town exploration scenes are generally familiar, albeit with more detail and a little less frustration as mentioned, the new 'dungeons' to explore are great, with my personal highlights being the bamboo forest / kokeshi doll mansion and the port town area. These are mostly new assets, although the shopping district I'm pretty sure has been in all three games by now, and they're plenty varied and detailed to encourage you to explore them. The new monsters in these areas fit right in to the series too, with some standouts being the starfish spectres and the skeletons that only move when your eyes are closed (you even see them move while you're doing it, creepy). The sound design is on-point as ever, headphones basically being a requirement for the full experience, with the inhuman moans and groans of the spectres filling your ears and your heartbeat being your early warning system. There are a fair few cheap jump-scares though, in particular the spiderwebs that sometimes appear when walking down certain roads just to spike your heartbeat, and as with Midnight Shadows there's a bit more blood and gore than the first game, with a blood-splatter effect filling the screen in certain scenes and, ahem, at least one unintentionally-funny usage of it (there are baby chicks in one part of town, but if you drop them they suddenly explode into a pile of gore- I felt bad for laughing but it was so sudden and over-the-top I kinda got caught out by it). Still, I feel the game still manages to do a good job of instilling that feeling of tension and dread when you're exploring these areas, even if the main town areas are less difficult. It also retains the child's view of the world your character has, with map-drawing and item descriptions being as charming as ever.
The biggest weakness of Lost in the Dark by far is the length- it's stretched way too thin. What I loved so much about Night Alone was that it had a relatively simple story to tell, and it did so within about four to five hours. Lost in the Dark, though, has significantly longer areas that while enjoyable for the most part, often have you repeating things- do this task once, great, now do it again, maybe a third time- or just drag on for a while with checkpoints sometimes few and far between (probably more of a problem in the main town areas, at least when you're starting out). However, it doesn't necessarily have a more robust story to back it up- it's pretty simple and if anything the length of these mini-stories in each 'dungeon' detracts from it, distancing you from your primary mission, not unlike a child being distracted while trying to do their homework or somrthing. Add on that final stretch that blindsides you a little and you're looking at anywhere between 12-18 hours which feels way, way too long for a game like this. Short, sharp and effective is the order of the day for me, and while some areas absolutely made an impression on me (the gross mutant-baby maze and the entire port area story) they could've cut a substantial amount and it would be no worse for it, probably a little better actually. Once again, I find myself clamouring for shorter, more impactful games, so I suppose even when playing a modern horror game, I can't shake my arcade rat tendencies.
Overall then... How do I feel about Lost in the Dark? In a way it reminds me a lot of the first game rather than the second, which is a definite point in its favour. It hits the notes that one expects from the Yomawari series- the feeling of uncertainty as you wander around this extremely haunted yet beautifully-realised town at night, the frantic swinging of your flashlight as you try to figure out what made your character jump out of their skin, the distant moans of spectres and ghouls... However, while the eye-closing mechanic has some very neat story-telling applications, it's not a huge overhaul to the game, and the strictly-alright story and overstretched length of the experience kinda hurt it a lot for me. It's less frustrating than Midnight Shadows for sure and has more of a cohesive narrative to tell, but it absolutely lacks the same punch of Night Alone. I mused last time that the first game may have been a case of lightning not striking twice, and Nippon Ichi wouldn't be able to recapture that magic again, but while Lost in the Dark is a noble attempt to do it, in the end it's just... Alright. A completely fine Yomawari experience in case you wanted just a little more but at the same time it's a little less so. The main takeaway is it didn't disappoint me like Midnight Shadows did, but it didn't capture my heart like Night Alone did. Maybe Nippon Ichi will try again, but for now Yomawari: Lost in the Dark ends completely in the middle of the scale.
For being another torch-lit horror-show, Yomawari: Lost in the Dark is awarded...
In a sentence, Yomawari: Lost in the Dark is...
Completely fine.
The Steam version has a digital artbook again, yay!
DARE YOU WALK THE STREETS OF THIS TOWN AGAIN?
