Other creatures are more attuned to sound, requiring tiptoeing past, while still more ghosts just tool around minding their own business but utterly indifferent to mowing down whoever gets in their way. Their invisibility doesn’t make them any less dangerous, and that’s particularly tricky when they hang around more visible supernatural creatures who are triggered by light. Some ghosts are always visible but most only show up in the beam of her flashlight. Most of the time, thankfully, the girl is exploring the town, picking up keys and collectibles to help her on the way, all while using the flashlight to scout the ghosts ahead and plan the least confrontational way around. Thankfully it ends on a touching story note, but Yomawari is at its best when not putting its controls to the test. The ghost’s attacks are quick enough that it’s easy to accidentally waste the tiny moment of Run that’s available before fear eradicates the stamina bar, making for a section that’s wildly aggravating. The third chapter of the game see the girl running from the persistent ghost of a young woman who died after falling off a cliff, and it’s here that the game shows its controls are better suited to doing anything but action.
For most ghosts this isn’t too big a deal, seeing as walking speed is just barely quick enough to keep her out of their grip, but there are a few encounters where this mechanic is maddening. When running her stamina bar shrinks down at a pace that’s determined by how frightened she is, and when her heart is pounding with fear it dissipates almost instantly. She mostly runs away from the ghosts, but hiding in bushes and signs works too. The nameless girl isn’t entirely defenseless, but it’s close. It’s dangerous out there, but the occasional Jizo statue acts as a temporary checkpoint (not, and this is very important, a save point, despite the text saying “quick save”) on the many, many times you get the poor girl killed off. All the horror staples make an appearance- creepy schoolgrounds, haunted downtown area, shadowy shrines, abandoned factory, windswept rice fields, and plenty more all crawling with an assortment of the hostile undead.
It’s a mix of wonderful ideas, janky execution, emotional moments, and plenty of jump scares, set in a desolate open-world town and its surrounding areas. Yomawari: Night Alone is a strange stealthy nighttime horror-adventure. The ghosts are pure Japanese in origin, making them infinitely weirder than the “glowing translucent people” of western mythology, and when the sun sets they turn the town into a freakshow of shadows, specters, multi-legged demons, possessed items and other surprises waiting to jump out at a young girl who just wants her sister back.
When a young girl first loses her dog and then her sister disappears while looking for it, she has just the right combination of those two emotions to head out into the darkness after them. The shadowy dead stalk any who cross their paths, making going outside a task for only the bravest or most desperate people.
The town at night is empty, but its darkened streets aren’t completely free of activity.