Somewhere in a small town in Japan a very long night is about to begin. A young girl is being bullied at school and just can’t take it any more, and as the sun sets she feels she’s only got one option to make things stop. Waking up in a cold, snowy region with no memories, she’s told by someone who seems to be a friend that she’s under a curse and only has the length of the night to remember what happened before her memories are stolen for good. The sun is gone and night fully started, and Yuzu has until 6AM to explore every street and neighborhood of her home town to find the items that will let her remember what happened.
With three games now under its belt the Yomawari series is well defined. Like the previous two entries, Yomawari: Lost in the Dark opens with tragedy and then sets its victim to wander the streets of a deeply haunted town while coming to terms with what happened. The only safe spot is home, and the town is host to every weird ghost, spirit and bizarre urban legend that Japanese mythology can cram into it. Hanged ghosts wander slowly until spotting a victim, the school is haunted with seven deadly wonders, creepy ghost-babies let out haunting giggles, umbrellas come to life and hop after their victims, etc. It’s a nightmare carnival showcasing every possible Japanese horror trope, but made effective thanks to a human story tying the madness together.
Yuzu’s quest to remember herself is a mostly-guided affair that slowly opens up as it goes. Once she’s off the snowy mountain and somehow back in town on the roof of a building, she’s gently nudged in the right direction with sawhorses blocking off the side-streets. There are places to explore on the walk home, and these turn up items ranging from rocks she can throw to distract ghosts, coins to spend at the save-point statues (common and it’s not hard to max out the number you may carry, so saving is never an issue), unique bits of clutter that would catch the eye of a kid but serve no useful purpose beyond having a fun description, and the occasional item that can help recover a memory.
Memory items come in two types, which can be thought of as minor and major. Minor memories point to a section of town where major memories can be found, and major memories slowly piece together the story of how Yuzu got into her current situation. Once a minor-memory item is discovered, Yuzu can remember what it’s trying to tell her back home at her bedroom desk, which removes the barriers from accessing the new section of town. After that it’s time to get walking, because public transportation doesn’t run when the spirits are infesting the town. At the start of the game this means it’s a slow trek to everywhere, but soon enough the Jizo statues that act as save points turn up all over town, doubling as quick-travel spots.
The ghosts are out in full from the very beginning and poor Yuzu is going to die frequently from them, but she does have an unexpected defense in the form of closing her eyes. Most spirits are of the kind that attack when being looked at, so the obvious defense is for Yuzu to throw up both hands over her face. While doing this she walks slowly, but she does have enough perception to be aware of the ground around her feet, plus the spirits appear as floating red auras. It’s an excellent defense for the average street ghost, but does have the downside of not working on all spirits and also dropping the already-slow pace of the game down to a crawl.
Like its predecessors, Yomawari: Lost in the Dark is more an adventure than action game, with no combat to speak of and limited running. The hero is a young girl who lives in a haunted town, and she’s not exactly able to fix her problems with a Ghostbusters proton pack. Survival is about solving simple puzzles that practically have their solutions spelled out for you, plus running away from any hostile spirit that may give chase until they either dissipate or lose interest. Yuzu can run at an acceptable pace but has an energy meter that slowly drops during normal exertions and plummets at an alarming rate when her heart is pounding from fear. Generally she’s got enough energy to escape but the faster energy usage when a spirit is on her tail can make for more than a few tense moments, especially when it seems easier to run past a ghost rather than slowly plod on by with eyes firmly covered.
While Yomawari: Lost in the Dark is a good horror game overall, it’s sadly a step back from the previous game,Midnight Shadows. The problem is that, if you’ve played the earlier ones, places like a haunted school or the downtown streets end up feeling like a rerun. Also, although Yuzu’s adventure starts with a strong hit it settles down quickly, and there isn’t much in the way of mid-story development to make her journey much more than a haunted tour of a lonely midnight town. It’s a strange variation in tone that replaces the actual emotional horror of the opening scenes with nothing more than jump scares, rather than integrating them together throughout the story.
Closing Comments:
Even with the story not living up to previous entries, Yomawari: Lost in the Dark does a good job continuing the unique horror series. Yuzu is a likeable character and the town she has to explore is nicely designed with a good number of points of interest. The puzzles aren’t particularly difficult, but solving them while hostile spirits are chasing after you can add a fair amount of tension to pulling it off. There are even a couple of story choices where the outcome simply can’t be known because ghosts are weird and alien, and there doesn’t appear to be any right or wrong answer. There are bonus items to chase after, mini-quests to complete item collections, a good number of smaller tales of animals, former townspeople and classmates to uncover, and an overarching story that can never shake the nagging feeling that it can’t end well. The Yomawari series is one with its own tone and atmosphere, and the town of Lost in the Dark is a wonderfully spooky place to explore on an inevitable confrontation with a young girl’s trauma.
