Yomawari: Midnight Shadows

This is truly one of the best games I've ever played. The art is gorgeous, the story is rich, and the mood is perfect. Everything down to the most minute detail is well polished and after completing the whole trilogy I will look back at this game fondly in particular. It held onto that spark the first game had but expanded on it thrice-fold in story, character, and world-building/expansion. With references and special appearances from the first game, it stood out from the other two games. Don't get me wrong, I would suggest that anyone play the whole trilogy from start to finish so they can truly appreciate this game. In the end, Yomawari Midnight Shadows is a game I will remember long after playing it. It might not be like that for you, but it is for me, so why not give it a try? It might surprise you.

This game is amazing! The story, art, and gameplay are all improved from the first game. The enemy designs are much more creepy and varied. The boss enemies feel unique and are somewhat fun to beat. I loved exploring the map and seeing the various spirits in their surroundings. Something about it just feels so right, reminds me of my old hometown before it got developed. Super creepy at night.
The sound design could be better improved. The heart thumping sound is rather annoying when you hear it for 90% of the play through. The save system are much better than the first game, however save location could be better placed. I also wished we had a cutscene skip option.

This is a perfect example of how a single mechanic can undermine an otherwise unforgettable experience. In this case, it's the boss fights—or rather, boss "events".
For most of the game, you're immersed in beautifully eerie nighttime settings, avoiding spooky ghosts. You wander through dark streets, listening for the sound of your heartbeat as it warns of nearby danger. Along the way, you collect trinkets, admire the "child's drawing" art style which I loved, pet the cats, grow close to your friend and, of course, to the adorable pomeranian.
Then, out of nowhere, you're thrust into what feels like a Dark Souls boss fight—but without rolling, without stamina, without a weapon, and without fun. You’ll die over and over, trying to figure out the boss’s patterns, only to dodge with your sluggish speed.
This game wasn’t built for these kinds of encounters. It could have been an incredible horror experience, but they squandered that potential by forcing in frustrating "boss action" sequences that, quite frankly, no one asked for—or enjoyed.
--- EDIT after I beat it:
I got a little bit emotional after the last chapter and ending, so in the end I'm left with a positive experience rather than the negative one.
But those bosses are unforgivable. Don't do that BS.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☑ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☑ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10
---{ Author }---
☑

This game is so cute!!! but it's kind of hard when you encounter the ghost. And also, it have a few unexpected jump scares which are scary. I like the late night atmosphere that this game gave me.More than that, I love how the story written. Overall i give this game 100/10 XD

i think id call this the best of the 3 games. The story, mechanics, and vibes are all spot on.

This is a review I felt like I need to do- now that I bought the game twice (here, and on the switch). I used to have a love-hate relationship for this game: it's not like the first game, blabla.
Now that it's been years, I feel like I can objectively talk about it.
I want to say that I enjoyed the first Yomawari, but it's not needed to complete it to play this one. There's only one easter egg (a really cute one) for people that have played the first one. If anything, I recommend this one over the first, as the gameplay is much less frustrating.
Unlike the first game, this one has a long and complex story. I mean, the first had a story too, but clearly not as complex as this one (you have 2 different PoVs after all!). On top of that, you get more systems like bonus items. This comes with a big problem: you are handholded through a good chunk of the game. And this is why I could never fully love this game; The first game letting you explore felt really immersing as you desperately tried to avoid monsters and ghosts and get lost in an oppressive night, but this one locks you into specific paths to make sure you cannot avoid to go to the next part of the story. I enjoyed the story and it's honestly one of the best I've seen from how emotional and tragic it is (especially with legit 8 yrs old children??), but to go from the sandbox first game to this was something I couldn't readily accept.
Besides that, the game also introduces new ghosts on top of the ones from the first games. I personally liked them. The level design though was fantastic- as long as you properly used the Jinzo statues (the temporary quick save points). This makes it this game can be very hard to put down: not in the sense that it's gripping, but because you need to save the game (at the house only) and you just cannot, because you are too deep inside a level. My personal favourite was the haunted house as the game uses its atmosphere perfectly.
Gameplay-wise, it's similar to the first Yomawari Night. However, due to its nature of being separated by chapters, the game is much less punishing than the first one, who was... rough around the edges, and much less polished. It is still very much a die and retry, but I'd still recommend it over the first due to all the QoL and polishing it got. The graphics are however, very much improved, with a lot of shading to each asset compared to the first Yomawari. The game is a treat to look at and I loved taking screenshots of it, especially the train level!
On a final note, I really do recommend this game the most over any of the other Yomawari games, as it is genuinely a really good game (if you don't mind the die and retry), and a good first entry point into the series (even if realistically, none of the games connect to each others deeply).