Review for Yomawari: Midnight Shadows. Game for PC, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 24/10/2017
The dress does not make the monk: in Epic Videogames Guide we have always supported the videogame translation of this ageless motto, arguing that the technical sector is only one of the elements - probably the most marginal - capable of making a title great. Anyone who has had the pleasure of playing small masterpieces like the first Corpse Parties on PSP will understand on the fly what we are talking about, as well as understand how. Yomawari: Midnight Shadows caught our attention right from the start: don't be fooled by the 2D graphics with super deformed characters, because Nippon Ichi has repeated the little black fairy tale already started in 2015 with the previous Yomawari: Night Alone, capable of terrifying like a Resident Evil or a The Evil Within.
Childhood nightmares
That of the dark is an irrational and ancestral fear: any child has imagined at least once the monster who, under the bed, was waiting for nothing but a foot out of the covers to grab it and devour it in the darkness. Yomawari: Midnight Shadows tells of this fear through the eyes of the two little protagonists. A few minutes of incipit are enough to outline the nightmare in which we will find ourselves wandering: the night city - with some buildings where the darkness will be even more bleak - is full of deformed monsters against which the only defense is escape.
The plot unfolds through a few lines of dialogue full of meaning: even the smallest noise can startle an innocent child, and Nippon Ichi has recreated this feeling of constant anguish. Add that the ghosts of Yomawari: Midnight Shadows are real and (mostly) lethal to the point that a single contact is enough to lead to the game-over and you will understand how much the heartbeat of your helpless avatar will keep you in suspense for the duration of the adventure.
We admit that compared to the previous one Night Alone, based almost exclusively on the search for the protagonist's sister and dog, Midnight Shadows tries to deepen the narration by inserting the different perspectives of the two friends Haru and Yui, with the latter looking for the first, which the player will play for short sections during the adventure.
It is certainly not a question of who knows what innovation, but the possibility of experiencing the plot through the two points of view is certainly an interesting addition that allows twists and suspense, especially when one of the two protagonists is in danger and the game switches to the other, forcing you to end the scene to discover the fate of the character left to his fate.
Between hide-and-seek and survival
The gameplay of Yomawari: Midnight Shadows consists almost exclusively of two components: exploration and escape. During the game it is also possible to encounter some riddles, but it is mostly about following clues that indicate the correct path to continue in the adventure. The protagonists can walk or run, an action that consumes an apparently very large energy bar. Apparently, we said, because in the presence of an enemy the fear of girls will decrease the aforementioned bar much faster, forcing the player to dose well running and walking to escape the fastest monsters.
The most useful object to the player will be the torch: only through the beam of light will it be possible to identify the ghosts and monsters that will threaten the life of the little protagonist. When the heart beats fast, it will be essential to illuminate the surroundings to promptly identify possible threats and react accordingly: the only possible way will be to escape, or possibly distract the pursuers by throwing an object and then hiding in a bush, behind a sign, in a closet or in any makeshift shelter, waiting for the enemy to walk away. We are almost ashamed to confess that we actually felt threatened by those presences, but we assure you that Yomawari knows how to fascinate and that under the apparent simplicity hides a nightmare that is worth trying.
To be convinced seriously, however, you must first be willing to get a little bored about the game: a flaw of Yomawari: Night Shadows is to give few indications, especially initially, on the way to go. While this encourages the player to explore the length and breadth of the game world, it means that taking the wrong path translates into a good half hour spent wandering aimlessly. As the adventure continues, the map is completed and it becomes more evident where to go to continue with the plot, making it possible to use the temples scattered around the city as quick travel points as well as rescue points. Initially, however, many of the most impatient players will risk abandoning the game because they will get bored wandering around in search of Yui's dog.
Doing so will lose a good horror experience, but we certainly cannot blame them: for a moment our patience wavered and, if we had not had to continue for the review, we would have abandoned the adventure prematurely.
Japanese nightmare
The graphic style of Yomawari: Midnight Shadows, as we said at the beginning, should clash with the dark themes of survival horror. It is enough to play for a few minutes to understand instead how the 2D cartoon graphics are still able to convey the feeling of fear and danger felt by the characters: to the most skeptical we guarantee that when the light beam of the torch illuminates an enemy that up to a moment before it was out of the visual field of the protagonists the game gives more than a jump on the chair.
The environments are equally as super deformed as they are well made and rich in details: if you exclude a few recycled elements repurposed during the backtracking along the streets of the city, the game world has several large areas to be explored. The perfect graphic design of the map deserves praise which, during the exploration, is composed with the notes of the protagonist: it is a real diary page, complete with post-it and small drawings, in which little Haru portrays her terrifying nightmares with the help of equally expressive crayons.
Moving on to the enemies, it is a series of ghosts and monsters that take their cue from the Japanese tradition: from the Yo-Kai Watch-like monsters to much more disturbing and splatter presences, all the antagonists carry with them the same component of anguish and fear that permeates all Yomawari: Midnight Shadows.
The sound, except for some sporadic intervention of poignant music, is almost entirely dominated by the steps of our little avatar and the beating of his little heart, also useful to understand when there are monsters nearby. These are not memorable effects, but certainly playing at night with a good pair of headphones is rewarding.
Yomawari: Midnight Shadows is a little black fairy tale that amplifies and deepens what Nippon Ichi had already done with the previous Yomawari: Night Alone. The points of view of the two protagonists and their being totally defenseless in the face of danger returns a feeling of constant anguish that is really scary, despite the super deformed graphics that would suggest a more light-hearted title. If you loved the Corpse Party series this is the game for you. If you are a lover of horror but also impatient players, you are warned: Yomawari needs an initial period of adjustment in which you will have to wander around the game world and explore as much as possible, because only after a good hour of play the plot will resume the fast pace of the first few minutes.
► Yomawari: Midnight Shadows is a Horror-Survival game developed and published by Nippon Ichi for PC, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 24/10/2017
