Whispering Willows

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Leave your body to search a haunted mansion for your father.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, iPhone, Android
Stores: Steam, Epic, GOG, itch.io
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (81% of 1,265 reviews); Metacritic 64 (PC); 4.2/5 from 1.39K reviews on Google Play
Length: about 2.5 hours
Players: 1
Made by: Night Light Interactive
Released: 2014

On PlayStation: one of the PlayStation horror games.

Get it on Steam GOG Epic Games Store itch.io PlayStation Store (PS4)Xbox (One and Series X|S)Nintendo eShop (Switch)App Store (iPhone, iPad)Google Play

What frightens Searching for her missing father, Elena explores the Willows Mansion and uses an amulet to leave her body and speak with the spirits that haunt it. In the dark cellars hands claw up from the floor, and early on a hostile ghost in the catacombs chases her.
Content: blood, violence, suggestive themes.

Whispering Willows is a hand-drawn 2D horror adventure by Night Light Interactive. Elena Elkhorn searches the Willows Mansion for her missing father, using an amulet that lets her spirit leave her body to talk with the dead and solve the mansion's puzzles.

About Whispering Willows

Whispering Willows is a 2D horror and puzzle adventure made by Night Light Interactive and published by Akupara Games. It was funded on Kickstarter and came out on Steam on July 9, 2014. The PlayStation 4 version followed in June 2015, Xbox One, iPhone and Android in August 2015, and Nintendo Switch in September 2018. Skyler Davenport voices Elena.

Young Elena Elkhorn has been dreaming of her father, the groundskeeper of the isolated Willows Mansion, trapped inside it. She sets out to find him, wearing an amulet he gave her, and soon learns that it lets her astral project: her spirit leaves her body and enters a ghostly realm where she can talk to the dead. The mansion grounds are full of lingering souls, some needing help and some dangerous, and its history is one of twists and betrayal.

You walk Elena through hand-drawn side-view rooms, gardens, crypts and cellars. Pressing a key sends her spirit out of her body so it can slip through cracks, speak with ghosts and possess glowing objects, but it cannot stray far, and her physical body stays exposed to danger. The music and sound effects are made to be haunting, and the darker places show things like hands clawing out of the floor.

It's a gentle ghost story at heart. Expect mood, sad spirits and old secrets. There's really just a single chase, early, down in the catacombs. GameSpew found the puzzles easy and got through it in about three hours, so it fits a quiet evening. Hidden notes and journal pages explain how each resident died. They're worth hunting for. It suits players who like 2D haunted-house adventures such as Detention or An English Haunting and want puzzles more than combat.

How to play Whispering Willows

Buy it on Steam, GOG, the Epic Games Store, itch.io, the PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo stores, the App Store or Google Play.
Walk Elena through the mansion grounds with WASD or the arrow keys and press Space to interact.
Press Q to leave your body as a spirit, then talk to ghosts, slip through cracks and possess glowing objects.
Open your inventory with E and use the items you find on the world.
Help the spirits you meet; what they tell you opens the way to your father.

Screenshots

Elena crouches in a torch-lit red brick cellar as dark hands reach up from the floor around her

Elena's spirit floats over the fireplace of a red parlour beside a pale ghost in a hat, while her hooded body looks up

In a crypt lined with coffins, Elena's spirit speaks with the antlered ghost Flying Hawk, who has lost his body

Elena walks through a dim mansion study with a bookcase, red armchair, bust and portraits, her amulet glowing blue

Elena's spirit flies past the mansion's cracked spires under a large full moon

Elena's spirit floats beside a large brass telescope in a cobwebbed observatory with a star chart and bookshelves

Elena stands by a window with torn curtains in a dim, candlelit mansion hallway above a staircase

Tips

Your spirit cannot travel far from your body, so move Elena close to a gap before you leave it.
Watch the amulet: it glows when spirits are near.
Read the notes you find; they carry the mansion's history and many puzzle hints.
If the puzzles feel stuck, switch to spirit form and look around: most answers are a ghost to talk to or a glowing object to possess nearby.

Questions

Is Whispering Willows scary?

It is a ghost story built on atmosphere: a dark mansion, haunted rooms and hostile spirits, with no gore or combat. Its store page calls it a horror and adventure puzzle game.

What platforms is Whispering Willows on?

Windows, Mac and Linux (Steam, GOG, the Epic Games Store, itch.io), PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, iPhone and iPad, and Android.

Who made Whispering Willows?

Night Light Interactive developed it. Akupara Games is its publisher on Steam and the other stores today.

Is there combat in Whispering Willows?

No. Elena solves puzzles and talks with spirits instead of fighting.

How long is Whispering Willows?

About 2.5 hours for the main story by HowLongToBeat's count, and about three hours to see everything. GameSpew's reviewer took around three hours.