Yomawari: Midnight Shadows

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Two girls, separated after the fireworks, in a town full of spirits.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Switch
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (93% of 992 reviews)
Players: 1
Made by: Nippon Ichi Software
Released: 2017

Get it on Steam PlayStation Store (PS4)Nintendo eShop (in Yomawari: The Long Night Collection)

What frightens After the summer fireworks something attacks two girls and separates them; each has to cross her dark hometown alone, hiding from the spirits and ghouls that come out at night.
Content: blood, violence.

Two young girls walk home from the summer fireworks when something lunges out of the dark and separates them. You take each of them in turn through a night town full of spirits, with a flashlight, hiding behind bushes and signs and using what you find to get past what hunts you.

About Yomawari: Midnight Shadows

Yomawari: Midnight Shadows is a top-down horror adventure by Nippon Ichi Software, published by NIS America in October 2017 on PC and PS4 and later on Switch as part of Yomawari: The Long Night Collection. It follows Yomawari: Night Alone, with a new pair of girls in a new night.

As summer vacation ends, two friends climb to a mountain clearing to watch the fireworks. On the way home in the dark something attacks them, and they are separated. The game then follows each girl through her side of the town as she searches for the other.

You explore streets, woods, shrines and buildings in the light of a small flashlight. The town is drawn in a soft, storybook style, and the spirits stand out against it: a pale shape the size of a house next to a streetlight, a blood stain in an empty corridor. You cannot fight them. You hide behind bushes and signs when they come close, and use items you find in the woods and in town to solve obstacles and distract the ghouls. Notes and strange writings left around the town hint at what is going on.

The fear here is that of a child alone outside at night: the dark past the edge of the flashlight and the thing you only see when it is already near. It suits players who liked Night Alone, or who want a slower, quieter horror game about sneaking and exploring rather than combat.

How to play Yomawari: Midnight Shadows

Walk the girl through the dark town and light the way ahead with her flashlight.
Watch for spirits and ghouls, and duck behind bushes or signs when one comes close.
Pick up items in the woods and the streets, and use them to get past obstacles or distract the ghouls.
Read the notes and writings you find to learn what happened in the town.
Keep searching until the two girls find each other and get home.

Screenshots

A girl with a flashlight walks a night road while a huge pale spirit with a row of red teeth looms by the streetlight

A girl with a question mark over her head stands in a dim wooden corridor next to a blood stain on the floor

Seen from above, a girl shines her flashlight near a railway crossing on a dark street

A girl with a flashlight stands at a small shrine behind a torii gate at night

A blonde girl lights up a dark, overgrown room with her flashlight

A girl sits in a hilltop clearing under a large tree against an orange evening sky

Tips

Watch a spirit for a moment from cover before you move; you cannot fight it, so knowing where it goes is what keeps you safe.
Look for a bush or sign to hide behind before you walk into a new area, so you have somewhere to go.
Pick up what you find; items are how you distract ghouls and open the way forward.
Read every note you pick up; they are how the story of the town is told.