Some are stationary until disturbed by a light source, while others show no signs of even seeing the small girl slink around in the shadows, but still offer a game over screen should their sporadic, unpredictable movement patterns so much as graze her. Some work purely through line of sight, while others hunt by sound alone, making a tip-toeing girl invisible. Yomawari knows that these obstacles are prone to provide plenty of deaths as you’re forced to learn each monster’s quirks through trial and error. The girl can sustain short bursts of speed to try and get away, but her already lacking stamina is further depleted depending on her fear level, which is measured by the intensity of her heartbeat. It’s creepy, but it’s still perfectly safe (so long as you don’t emerge until the threat’s wandered off) the real challenge is getting there.

Aside from a red blip mapping out the rough location of the threat that flickers in time with her thudding heartbeat. There’s things like bushes and signs dotted generously around the town that she can cower behind, giving her complete safety but plunging the outside world into comprehensive darkness. Her only real defence is to either sneak through the monsters undetected or to run away once spotted and hide. She can’t fight back and she’s not sturdy enough to withstand any kind of attack. Poorly-sketched hanged men float about the streets, rushing towards the girl only should they catch sight of her. Sometimes, these are purposefully simplistic monstrosities, depicted in a rough caricature of a child’s drawing. Forced to explore her town at night to track down her missing dog and the older sister who went searching ahead of her, she shares the streets with things that have no real right to exist. She’s adorable, resplendent in her pastel-shaded pixels, armed with her floppy hair bow and cute rabbit backpack. Some of that resonates due to how hard it fosters a sense of protectiveness between you, the player, and the unnamed little girl who serves protagonist.

Of exploring a twisted world dressed up in normality, but, at the same time, being completely wrong on almost every level. Instead of being in your face the entire time, Yomawari specialises at putting you in a constant state of unease. Rarely, if ever, will you find yourself overly disturbed by some perverse grotesquery or suffer a cheap jump scare at something lurching suddenly out of the shadows. Yomawari: Night Alone is creeping horror done right. 'From the sadistic minds that brought you htol#NiQ: The Firefly Diary.'

Yomawari night alone review