Nippon Ichi’s deceptively cute survival horror returns inYomawari: Lost In The Dark,and like its predecessors, its art direction belies a darker story of the occult and spirits. Players will follow a young schoolgirl who is being bullied and seeks sanctuary on the school roof, only to fall asleep and awaken in a mysterious and darkly vignetted world. Coming, the protagonist finds out she is cursed and the only way she can return is by finding all her memories. If she fails to collect her memories by morning, she is fated to run fromthe unleashed spiritsin the town forever.
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Yomawari: Lost In The Dark,follows its predecessor’s footsteps by offering a thrilling adventure through the winding, dark streets of a nameless town inhabited byunsavory spiritswhose sole purpose is to scare the life out of the protagonist. Players will be armed with a flashlight, the few items they find while exploring and their nerves to collect the protagonist’s memories. And these tips of course.
7Save The Stamina
Stamina is a golden resource within the gamethat players must keep an eye on when journeying through the world or escaping from the apparitions that haunt its corners. The white stamina bar at the bottom of the screen indicates how long the protagonist can run.
The stamina barcan run out quickly, and it is vital to understand how far and long the main character can run. Most of the spirits are slower than the protagonist, however that extra bit ofspeed can be the difference between a near miss and certain death.
6Be Wary Of New Areas
Diving in head first may be the player’s first instinct, however inYomawariwho knows what could be lurking around the corner? It is important totake things slowly when progressing to conserve stamina, just in case players meet a spirit.
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It is important to get a lay of the land, to catalog the places where spirits can suddenly appear, as they can hand out death like it is candy on Halloween.Surveying the area and learning the movement of all its pieces can be highly beneficial,so when revisiting the area people know what to avoid and how to approach the spirits in question.
5See No Evil, Fear No Evil
When encountering evil spirits throughout the world,players must take creative ways to escape danger. A flashlight isn’t much of a weapon, and the protagonist isn’t a fighter, thereforeYomawariemploys different tactics to get past grueling confrontations. From floating heads to black masses of writhing arms, each spirit operates in different ways. Some have to touch you to kill you, while others can simply look in your direction.
If the player sees a spirit then theycan cover their eyes and try to sneak past. And if that doesn’t work then the flashlight has other uses to hide or throw rocks in a different direction to try andsurvive the horrorsthat haunt the next objective.
4Death Isn’t A Dealbreaker
As a schoolgirl, the protagonist does not have the heartiest of constitutions, which means death comes quickly and often. From misreading how a spirit moves to running out of stamina when being pursued,Yomawarihas a lot of ways thatthe player could die.
However,death isn’t a major setback. Players should get used to the idea of dying, picking themselves up by the bootstraps and continuing onward. Traversing back to where the player died can be quick and easy, andthankfully no items are lost on death. The only time death is a problem is when the last save was a while ago and quite a trek away.
3Piggy Bank Your Progress
Saving inYomawariis rather unconventional. Located around the map are Jizo Statues which act asweird save points.To save at a Jizo statue, the player must pay one gold coinwhich can be found around the map. Fortunately, gold coins are relatively easy to find, especially around the Jizo Statues where there is always one in relatively close proximity.
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Plus,Jizo Statues have the added bonus of acting as fast travel points. When approaching a Jizo Statue, the player can opt not to save and, instead, be pointed in the direction of jumping between other statues that the player has located around the map.
2Items Are A Girl’s Best Friend
The phrase curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back resonates withYomawari: Lost In The Dark. Players should ensure they explore every nook and cranny of the cursed town to gather puzzle pieces and take in the full breadth of what the game has to offer includingatmospheric rural locationsand aptly eerie apparitions.
Besides searching for the protagonist’s memories,the town is rife with gold coins, rocks, and other collectiblesindicated by sparkling spots on the ground. Players can collect pieces forpuzzle gamesto find out more about the world and where the memories are located.
1Crayon Cartography
Following the tradition established by the prequels,Yomawaricontinues to create childlike maps for its games. Rendered in crayon and thick black lines, the drawing of a map is a crude one, andit can be easy to get lost when navigating the game’s streets.
Even when stumbling upon a street map, the only information players are given is their current location. It’s a sort of homage to pre-internet way of route finding, and it can be quite complicated.Yomawarialsodoes not update your map in the menu with the street maps you find in the town, meaning the player must remember which way to go when they set off.
Players could use the screenshot function on whatever platform they are playing on. Referencing a screenshot of a street map can aid in staying on course.
Yomawari: Lost In The Darkis out now on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and Microsoft Windows.
