Yomawari: Lost in the Dark

About Yomawari: Lost in the Dark

Yomawari: Lost in the Dark was made by Nippon Ichi Software and published by NIS America on October 25, 2022, on PC, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4; NIS America lists a PlayStation 5 version for November 5, 2026. It follows Yomawari: Night Alone and Yomawari: Midnight Shadows with a new story, and the maker says new players can start here. The voices are in Japanese, with English text.

A girl named Yuzu, picked on at school, awakens in a dark, unfamiliar forest with no idea how she got there. A mysterious figure tells her she has been cursed, and the only way to break it is to explore the streets of her town by night and recover the memories she has lost, each tied to an object somewhere in town. The look is soft and almost cute, a small round-headed girl drawn from above in hand-painted streets, which makes the ghosts that come out of the dark all the more grotesque: a giant pale face at the edge of a road, a swirling one-eyed spirit, a huge spider in a web-choked garden.

The night belongs to the spirits. Your flashlight shows secrets and specters alike, and your heartbeat, heard and on Switch felt through the rumble, speeds up as something comes near. You cannot fight back. Each ghost has its own rule to learn: some must be lit by the torch, others only move when you look their way. New to this game, you can close your eyes; the view shrinks, nearby ghosts show as red blurs, and you creep past at a crawl. Pebbles and paper planes serve as distractions, and small Jizo statues act as save points and fast travel if you can offer a coin.

The town is split into areas of an hour or so each, and reviewers took about 10 to 13 hours to reach the end, longer than the earlier games. Some reviews found the last stretch, which sends you around the town again, slow and vaguely signposted. It suits players who like tense exploration of a frightening place, Japanese ghost stories and games about hiding rather than fighting. For the first time in the series you can change the girl's hairstyle, hair colour, clothes and accessories.

How to play Yomawari: Lost in the Dark

1. Choose the girl's hairstyle, clothes and accessories, then set out from the forest.
2. Explore the town at night with your flashlight to find the objects tied to your lost memories.
3. Listen to your heartbeat: it speeds up when a ghost is near.
4. Learn each ghost's rule: some are driven back by the flashlight, others move only when you look at them.
5. Hold to close your eyes when a spirit's gaze is on you, creep past the red shapes, and open them once you are clear.
6. Pray at a Jizo statue with a coin to save and to travel between statues.

Tips

• Watch how each ghost moves before you try to slip past it.
• Keep a few coins: Jizo statues need one to save, and a long walk back hurts after a death.
• Throw a pebble or a paper plane to pull a ghost's attention away from your path.
• Check every glint in the flashlight beam; collectibles and clues are easy to miss in the dark.

Questions