On the positive side, I found the story to possess rather interesting themes, and little sister definitely has a surprising character arc that I didn’t quite expect. Getting past those sections felt more like luck to me than skill. Particularly late in the game, there are several enemies that require a high degree of agile movement to avoid, and the game became rather tedious at points. In addition, little sister’s movement is quite slow (even when running) and a bit stiff, which sometimes made evading even the enemies that I was fully aware of a clumsy experience. It can be really frustrating to randomly die to an unseen enemy when you’re busy trying to figure out a puzzle or find an important item that you just can’t seem to locate.
The one-hit deaths in the game are by far my greatest complaint. This is compounded by the fact that the game operates on a one-hit game-over principle, so if a ghost touches little sister, the player is immediately sent back to the last checkpoint. Unfortunately, horror games always tend to walk a fine line between tension and frustration, and at times the invisible enemies can result in a lot of irritation. Furthermore, the flashlight will only shine directly in front of the player, which means that when a ghost is pursuing little sister, there’s a greater sense of suspense, since the player can’t tell exactly where the enemy is behind them. If an enemy is nearby, however, you can hear little sister’s heart beat increase, which is the telltale sign that the player needs to be careful. What really creates tension in the game is the fact that most of the basic enemies are invisible unless the flashlight illuminates them, which results in an atmosphere of suspicion and unease in the player’s surroundings. The encounters with these boss ghosts tend to be a little bit more complex than just running and hiding, and require better reflexes and sometimes puzzle-solving. I guess you could consider these the bosses of the game. In addition to these smaller enemies, each chapter of the game tends to feature a more elaborate monster as its focus. While they’re not at all gory or grotesque, I did find a few of them to be oddly unsettling. Aesthetically, the different ghost types aren’t particularly horrific in appearance. For example, one enemy type is sensitive to sound, while another type stands perfectly still and will only attack if little sister crosses their line of vision. The enemies won’t attack if little sister is hidden in one of these spots, so if the player can reach one, it then just becomes a matter of waiting for the enemy to leave before proceeding.īehavior patterns among the basic enemies are fairly varied. The player is given no means of attack, which means that if a ghost gives chase, little sister has to either run away and lose them or find a nearby hiding spot, which are things like large bushes and street signs. The flashlight is used to illuminate the roaming enemies, while the rocks can sometimes be used to distract them. The girl is armed only with a flashlight and small pebbles. Wandering the town are various ghost enemies that attack if they sense the presence of the player. Yomawari is played from an top-down isometric perspective as the little sister explores her haunted town. (Where the parents are in all of this is never explained.) Venturing out into the sleeping town, she finds it has become infested with dangerous ghosts and begins a long journey to rescue her sister. As time passes and she doesn’t return, little sister becomes worried and sets out into the dark, empty night to try to find out what happened to her. Not understanding what has happened, big sister leaves the house to find the missing pet. Upon returning home, her big sister questions the girl about the dog’s whereabouts, but little sister is unable to tell her the truth. Late at night a young girl, who I believe is only ever called “little sister”, is walking her dog when she becomes separated from her animal companion. First up this year is Yomawari: Night Alone, a Vita game I’ve wanted to try out for a while now.
This year has been kind of rough, and I haven’t had a lot of time to write here, but I’d like to get that back on track, and I’m also hoping these Halloween posts can kick off a reasonable amount of regularity again. For my blog each year, I like to take the month of October to play and write about a few horror games I’ve been meaning to get around to.
But it’s not just the arrival of fall that makes October great, but also the fact that I love the atmosphere of Halloween time. The changing of the seasons always gives me a tinge of serenity.
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