Yomawari: Night Alone

Yomawari: Night Alone[lower-alpha 1] is a survival horror video game created and developed by Nippon Ichi Software for the PlayStation Vita and Steam. The game was released in Japan on October 29, 2015 and in English in October 2016.[1] Two sequels, Yomawari: Midnight Shadows and Yomawari: Lost in The Dark were released in the following years.

Yomawari: Night Alone
European cover art
Developer(s)Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher(s)
  • JP: Nippon Ichi Software
Director(s)Yu Mizokami
Producer(s)Sohei Niikawa
Designer(s)Yu Mizokami
Writer(s)Kenta Kobayashi
Hirotaka Mieda
Rie Yamagishi
Composer(s)Mika Koga
Platform(s)PlayStation Vita
Microsoft Windows
Nintendo Switch
ReleasePlayStation Vita
  • JP: October 29, 2015
  • NA: October 25, 2016
  • EU: October 28, 2016
Microsoft Windows
  • WW: October 25, 2016
Nintendo Switch
  • JP: October 25, 2018
  • EU: October 26, 2018
  • NA: October 30, 2018
Genre(s)Survival horror
Mode(s)

The game was released in October 2018 for the Nintendo Switch, alongside its sequel, as part of Yomawari: The Long Night Collection.[lower-alpha 2][2][3]

A third game, Yomawari: Lost in the Dark was announced on May 25, 2022 for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.[4]

Gameplay

Players need to explore the town in order to find the protagonist's dog Poro and her elder sister. To do so, a flashlight is needed to illuminate her path and to look for useful items.[5] Anytime you find an item of interest, a question mark (?) will appear to indicate that it can be checked,[6] which will later change to an exclamation point afterwards.[6]

Players can use items such as stones, money and a shovel, depending on their needs. Stones can be used as thrown items or landmarks, the shovel to dig up specific spots such as sand and money as currency to be used in certain places, such as peace offerings.[7][8] The heartbeat system is used to alert players if a monster is nearby, making the girl move slower and force her actions to be limited.[8] The only way to hide from the monsters is to evade them after observing their patterns or hide in areas like bushes and wait for them to go away with the heartbeat serving as a de facto radar to locate where the monsters are while relying on sounds to make a judgement call to see if its safe to come out of hiding.[7][8]

In case players need to refresh themselves on what happened the previous nights, they can catch up again by reading the girl's diary.[8]

Plot

A young girl takes her dog named Poro out for a walk. When an accident nearly kills her, she finds her dog missing. Her elder sister agrees to go out and look for Poro. After a few hours of waiting, the girl noticed that her sister is out late.

Going out of her house, she explores the town and notices that it changed. The girl later evades monsters prowling the empty streets while finding clues as to what happened to Poro, her elder sister and who or what was responsible for their disappearance.

Release

Physical copies of the game in North America and Europe came bundled with Hotaru no Nikki. Both games are on the same Vita cartridge, while the Windows collector's edition was released with an additional code to download the game.

Similar to other Nippon Ichi Software games, Sega will be handling publishing duties for the physical copies for Nintendo Switch in Asia outside Japan.[9] The Asia release comes with Traditional Chinese and Japanese language installed and was released on October 25, 2018.[9]

Reception

Toshi Nakamura of Kotaku calls it a very emotional game, serving as a "coming of age story of a little girl learning of mortality".[14]

According to NIS, Yomawari sold around 48,000 copies of the game in Japan.[15]

Sequel

On April 25, 2017, Nippon Ichi Software announced a sequel titled Yomawari: Midnight Shadows, which was released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in Japan in August 2017. A western release followed in October 2017, adding Microsoft Windows to the selection of platforms.[16]

Notes
  1. Known in Japan as Yomawari (Japanese: 夜廻)
  2. Known as Yomawari: Night Alone & Yomawari: Midnight Shadows for Nintendo Switch (夜廻と深夜廻 for Nintendo Switch, Yomawari to Shin Yomawari for Nintendo Switch) in Japan.

References
  1. Jenni (February 22, 2016). "Search For Your Missing Sister And Dog In Yomawari: Night Alone". Siliconera. Curse. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  2. Romano, Sal (May 30, 2018). "Yomawari: The Long Night Collection announced for Switch". Gematsu. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  3. "『夜廻と深夜廻 for Nintendo Switch』"夜"を探索するホラーゲームが2本セットになって10月25日発売決定！【先出し週刊ファミ通】". Famitsu (in Japanese). Gzbrain. July 3, 2018. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  4. Nippon Ichi Software (May 25, 2022). "Yomawari: Lost in the Dark - Announcement Trailer (Nintendo Switch, PS4, PC)". Youtube. Nippon Ichi Software. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  5. Sato (July 2, 2015). "Nippon Ichi's New Spooky Night Exploring Game Is Actually Kind Of Cute". Siliconera. Curse. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  6. Price, Zach (July 28, 2015). "Yomawari Gets Additional Details & Screenshots". The Vita Lounge. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  7. Eisenbels, Richard (November 13, 2015). "Yomawari Shows How to Make a Tutorial Meaningful and Shocking". Kotaku. Gizmodo Media Group. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  8. Romano, Sal (July 16, 2015). "Yomawari details exploration, items, and ghosts". Gematsu. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  9. "超越恐懼後的感動篇章《夜迴 & 深夜迴》製作人訪談 談論繁體中文化感想及製作契機". 巴哈姆特電玩資訊站 (in Chinese). October 3, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  10. "Yomawari: Night Alone for PlayStation Vita Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  11. Andriessen, CJ (October 18, 2016). "Review: Yomawari: Night Alone". Destructoid. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  12. Cunningham, James (October 26, 2016). "Review: Yomawari: Night Alone". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  13. Sayers, Jade (October 28, 2016). "Yomawari: Night Alone Review (PS Vita)". Push Square. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  14. Nakamura, Toshi (November 19, 2015). "Yomawari Sure Makes Japanese Horror Emotional". Kotaku. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  15. "個性的な新規IP（知的財産）に挑戦し続ける……日本一ソフトウェア 代表取締役社長・新川宗平氏インタビュー【ゲームメーカー新時代戦略】(1/2)". ファミ通.com (in Japanese). Famitsu. February 1, 2016. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  16. Romano, Sal (April 27, 2017). "Yomawari: Midnight Shadows coming west for PS4, PS Vita, and PC this fall". Gematsu. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
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