Japanese have a great fondness for urban ghost stories, each school has its own “seven mysteries” or stories about the dangers of railway tunnels.Yomawari: Lost in the Dark is the third part of the horror series that uses these stories as a basis. You play as an elementary school student, Yuzu, who is severely bullied by other children. When the girl can’t take it anymore and jumps off the roof, she finds herself in a night forest trying to find her way home. She meets a woman who makes it clear: Yuzu has lost parts of her memory and both have been cursed by monsters, which must be broken before sunrise. So the girl goes in search of her memories in the night city while being pursued by ghosts and monsters.
Yuzu has no weapons and Yomawari no fights, instead each supernatural encounter is made into a riddle, for this you use a lamp and small objects like stones or notes. It also sometimes helps to look away: Yuzu can close her eyes – then blindly trudge past the ghosts, hoping the enemy will ignore her. Yomawari Extremely relies on its sound design – it is not for nothing that it is recommended to enjoy the game with headphones at the beginning. It’s not about the sparse soundtrack, but the ambient noise. You must listen carefully to perceive the world and find the spirits. You are often completely blind and then only have to rely on Yuzu’s heartbeat and the vibrations of the controller.
