Suggested by @moschidae for this list. This probably wasn’t the kind of review you were hoping for, but I must be honest with my opinions.
Warning, this review does talk about suicide in the section about story.
To be honest, I haven’t played that many survival horror games. I’ve played a few Resident Evil games, Parasite Eve II, and little else. However, I think I have a decent grasp of how the genre usually works. Looking at the GameCube version of Resident Evil, you can see a lot of systems working together to make an incredible horror experience. Resource management, tight exploration, a few puzzles, story, atmosphere, etc etc… Maybe I’m being a bit harsh comparing one of the greatest of the genre to Yomawari: Midnight Shadows, but I do think it does a good job to show just how much this game falls on its face.
Let’s start with the gameplay. Most of the gameplay is walking around at night avoiding ghosts, exploration, and a few puzzles. You have a flashlight that can help you see spirits and a few items. As simple as this is, ghosts being invisible without the flashlight does add some good tension to gameplay. Anyway, let’s say you see a spirit and you want to get away from it. What do you do?
1. Just run away from it.
2. Hide in an object and wait for the ghosts to leave.
3. Throw one of two items at it.
This is 9/10 encounters in the game. Very few enemies non-boss have unique properties, and even the ones that do are very simple. Shining the flashlight at this enemy makes it stop. Shining the flashlight at this enemy wakes it up. Etc etc…. Almost all either have a set path/location or will chase you when you get close to them. Maybe if this game was super short this would be acceptable, but it lasts for 7.5 hours according to Howlongtobeat.com (It took me just short of 9 though). Even if it was short, this wouldn’t excuse just how cheap some of the obstacles can be sometimes. Often, the game feels like trial and error, especially since you die in one hit, honestly. This isn’t the worst because of how plentiful save points are, but the abundance of save points also means that there’s rarely any tension. You’ll pretty much never lose more than a minute of progress. The game even did the thing that Resident Evil did where you need a usable item to save, but pretty much every save point had one lying nearby, and I always had more than half of the max. It literally serves no purpose, along with all the other resource management. This is because not only are items plentiful, but most aren’t super useful. Maybe I’d be compelled to use them a little more if there was any tension, but usually just running past an enemy worked fine regardless. The most interesting items were extremely rare. There was one item that’s basically a portable hiding place. In a better game, there would be a few of these strewn about, such that it was a rare resource, but still have an impact on gameplay. Combine this with sparser save points, and this game would automatically be significantly better. Instead, this item only shows up in one area of the game. Why is this the case? Who knows.
Since horror can’t be derived from gameplay tension, it’s mostly done through jumpscares. Honestly, I’m not averse to jumpscares as a concept, but I find them more funny than anything, especially since I’m usually not startled by them, especially when I know it’s gonna show up. It’s not my go-to for what makes good horror, and this game is no different.
Next let’s talk about the exploration. It’s not particularly great. While you can ‘explore’, there are two caveats. One, you must go to a specific location to progress the story, and two, the game aggressively nudges you to go that way most of the time. There’s very little to find exploring. There are a few collectibles, and seemingly many optional areas, but these are not particularly important to a casual playthrough. So, there’s really no reason to actually explore, and the game the game doesn’t want you to anyway most of the time. Cool.
Honestly, the game got ever so slightly better in Chapter 6, as the checkpoints become more sparse, leading to more tension. This gave me a bit of hope. Of course, the game couldn’t let me be happy. First, they introduce an enemy that, while unique in behavior, is completely useless. All it does is block you. It can’t hurt you. WHY?!?!? One of the few unique enemies and it has no impact?!?! Then, there’s another new enemy type. All these guys do is sit there. That sounds easy to get around, right? Wrong, because the hitboxes on these guys is absolutely nonsensical. I know it’s a top down game though, so I thought, “Maybe it’s just perspective”. But just watch this!! Honestly, this would be a slight annoyance in most games, but it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back here! WHY?!?! WHY DOES IT DO THAT?!?! WHY CAN’T THIS GAME LET ME BE HAPPY!?!?!?!?!?!?
Ahem
Most Survival Horror games have puzzles, and Midnight Shadows kinda does. There’s few overt puzzles like the kind in Zelda or Resident Evil. The most puzzle-esque moments occur in the ‘boss fights’, where the game foreshadows how to defeat them with cutscenes, books, items, etc.... I like this, despite how obvious some of the hints can be. However, it’s not enough to make up for just how boring the rest of it is, especially since actually executing on the solution to a boss is just as boring and annoying as the rest of the game.
Since I’ve been really negative so far, let me give a positive: The game is really good when it comes to horror by exception. What I mean is that it knows when not to show you something. As I said earlier, you can’t see most spooky creatures unless you shine the flashlight on them. However, to run away from them, you obviously have to turn around. As such, when you’re running, you never know quite where the enemy is. This is pretty effective in a vacuum. A few neat things are done with the hiding mechanic too. Most of the time, it’s not great. You just go in a bush or whatever and wait for spirits to go away. You can’t see them, sure, but you also know they can’t hurt you while you hide. Not super engaging. However, they actually do something with it near the end. Yeah, just sitting there is annoying, but there’s a pretty effective moment later on where spoilers a monster basically kills another one while you’re hiding from them. It was a well-presented moment, and it sold me on the power of the spirit I was running from. Still, this moment wasn’t necessarily effective for gameplay, it was mainly just a story segment presented with a game mechanic.
Speaking of which, let’s talk about the story. Let me tell you, I rolled my eyes when the game opens with a character hanging themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I take this topic seriously. However, this game just throws it out right in the beginning in the most manipulative way possible. Why should I care about this other than basic empathy? I know nothing about this character! I’m fine with a story tackling pretty much any subject matter as long as its done with respect, but there’s nothing respectful about this! It’s manipulative!
Does the story really justify this? Not really, at least not in how voyeuristic it feels. If they wanted this opening, I think just implying suicide would’ve been better. The actual reason this girl hung herself was because her dog and dad died and her friend was leaving town. That and ghosts of course. I can’t really say the suicide element added anything overall, despite a literal noose being in the game logo. So we’re off to a really bad start here.
Okay, what if we ignore all that? The story is still mediocre. Spoilers, I guess? Early on, each chapter of the game goes like this: Haru is trying to find her friend Yui. At the beginning we play as Yui for a bit. Then, we play as Haru searching for Yui. Often Haru goes to where Yui was earlier, but Yui is no longer there. Then, Yui is in a new place now for some reason. There’s other stuff, but it doesn’t matter at all in terms of the overall story. As such, it feels pretty repetitive and meandering. I forgot to mention that there’s another character here, Yui’s dog. It’s a dog. For some reason though, it seems to always know where Yui is. It’s not a bloodhound, mind you, but a little Pomeranian. I looked up the breed of the dog, as I’m not a dog expert. However, the dog is a ghost expert for some reason. Honestly, the dog probably does more to find Yui than Haru does, at least in the first half of the game. Really, the dog is little more than a plot device though. The dog runs somewhere, and you have to follow it. Haru wouldn’t get anywhere without this dog. Why isn’t the dog the main character anyway? It can probably hold a flashlight in its mouth. Just let me play as the dog. At least then I wouldn’t have to listen to Haru’s dialogue, which basically adds nothing. Everything she says is either exactly what you’d expect her to say or is just an obvious observation that feels patronizing when pointed out. Later, they try to give her an arc of becoming braver and not being scared of the spirits, but this comes out of nowhere, and it doesn’t actually change the gameplay. She can say she’s not scared all she wants, but the gameplay still revolves around running away, and the heartbeat effect still gets really fast when a spirit is close. The dog was never afraid of ghosts though. Just let me play as the dog, please.
Anyway, surprise, it turns out Yui has been dead this whole time. This isn’t a surprise, considering she hung herself in the opening (Haru is the friend I mentioned earlier, in case you couldn’t tell. The game seems to imply she was dead for a decent amount of time though, and that her and Haru hung out a little bit while she was a ghost. This doesn’t make sense to me because later Haru can’t see her. What changed? That aside, this implication doesn’t make sense at all. Haru is a kid, so I’m sure she told her parents what she was doing. If Yui was missing or known to be dead, wouldn’t people question her about this? Maybe this did happen, but I’d think Haru would’ve brought it up. I guess there’s plausible deniability in this case.
The ending is honestly alright. It does one unique thing regarding actually taking advantage of being a game, and I liked how it ended with Haru having to let Yui go. It’s nice, but it’s also connected to the rest of the game and the actual message wasn’t built up to particularly well. So overall, the story is not great either.
I think the best part of the game is the audiovisuals. All of the backgrounds and monster designs look really good, and the game has some really good sound design. I really love how the menus are made of the main character’s drawings, as it really reminds you that you are indeed playing as a kid. I only had one problem with the audiovisuals, honestly. Occasionally the layers of objects will be off, like an object that should be behind Haru will appear in front of her, for example. Other than that, it’s really great, and it contributes to a decent atmosphere. It seems that this was the bulk of the effort, but it makes me wonder why the creators didn’t just make a manga or anime, considering how basic the gameplay is. It doesn’t really take advantage of the medium in any way that a show or comic couldn’t, and the best parts are the audiovisuals and story, which is perfectly doable in a show.
Anyway uhh… This game is awful. It’s a failure on almost every level. 2/10, although much closer to a 3. It’s saved by the audiovisuals. It’s been a while since I played something this bad. Play Luigi’s Mansion instead or something. Sorry @Moschidae. At least I enjoyed reviewing it.
Warning, this review does talk about suicide in the section about story.
To be honest, I haven’t played that many survival horror games. I’ve played a few Resident Evil games, Parasite Eve II, and little else. However, I think I have a decent grasp of how the genre usually works. Looking at the GameCube version of Resident Evil, you can see a lot of systems working together to make an incredible horror experience. Resource management, tight exploration, a few puzzles, story, atmosphere, etc etc… Maybe I’m being a bit harsh comparing one of the greatest of the genre to Yomawari: Midnight Shadows, but I do think it does a good job to show just how much this game falls on its face.
Let’s start with the gameplay. Most of the gameplay is walking around at night avoiding ghosts, exploration, and a few puzzles. You have a flashlight that can help you see spirits and a few items. As simple as this is, ghosts being invisible without the flashlight does add some good tension to gameplay. Anyway, let’s say you see a spirit and you want to get away from it. What do you do?
1. Just run away from it.
2. Hide in an object and wait for the ghosts to leave.
3. Throw one of two items at it.
This is 9/10 encounters in the game. Very few enemies non-boss have unique properties, and even the ones that do are very simple. Shining the flashlight at this enemy makes it stop. Shining the flashlight at this enemy wakes it up. Etc etc…. Almost all either have a set path/location or will chase you when you get close to them. Maybe if this game was super short this would be acceptable, but it lasts for 7.5 hours according to Howlongtobeat.com (It took me just short of 9 though). Even if it was short, this wouldn’t excuse just how cheap some of the obstacles can be sometimes. Often, the game feels like trial and error, especially since you die in one hit, honestly. This isn’t the worst because of how plentiful save points are, but the abundance of save points also means that there’s rarely any tension. You’ll pretty much never lose more than a minute of progress. The game even did the thing that Resident Evil did where you need a usable item to save, but pretty much every save point had one lying nearby, and I always had more than half of the max. It literally serves no purpose, along with all the other resource management. This is because not only are items plentiful, but most aren’t super useful. Maybe I’d be compelled to use them a little more if there was any tension, but usually just running past an enemy worked fine regardless. The most interesting items were extremely rare. There was one item that’s basically a portable hiding place. In a better game, there would be a few of these strewn about, such that it was a rare resource, but still have an impact on gameplay. Combine this with sparser save points, and this game would automatically be significantly better. Instead, this item only shows up in one area of the game. Why is this the case? Who knows.
Since horror can’t be derived from gameplay tension, it’s mostly done through jumpscares. Honestly, I’m not averse to jumpscares as a concept, but I find them more funny than anything, especially since I’m usually not startled by them, especially when I know it’s gonna show up. It’s not my go-to for what makes good horror, and this game is no different.
Next let’s talk about the exploration. It’s not particularly great. While you can ‘explore’, there are two caveats. One, you must go to a specific location to progress the story, and two, the game aggressively nudges you to go that way most of the time. There’s very little to find exploring. There are a few collectibles, and seemingly many optional areas, but these are not particularly important to a casual playthrough. So, there’s really no reason to actually explore, and the game the game doesn’t want you to anyway most of the time. Cool.
Honestly, the game got ever so slightly better in Chapter 6, as the checkpoints become more sparse, leading to more tension. This gave me a bit of hope. Of course, the game couldn’t let me be happy. First, they introduce an enemy that, while unique in behavior, is completely useless. All it does is block you. It can’t hurt you. WHY?!?!? One of the few unique enemies and it has no impact?!?! Then, there’s another new enemy type. All these guys do is sit there. That sounds easy to get around, right? Wrong, because the hitboxes on these guys is absolutely nonsensical. I know it’s a top down game though, so I thought, “Maybe it’s just perspective”. But just watch this!! Honestly, this would be a slight annoyance in most games, but it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back here! WHY?!?! WHY DOES IT DO THAT?!?! WHY CAN’T THIS GAME LET ME BE HAPPY!?!?!?!?!?!?
Ahem
Most Survival Horror games have puzzles, and Midnight Shadows kinda does. There’s few overt puzzles like the kind in Zelda or Resident Evil. The most puzzle-esque moments occur in the ‘boss fights’, where the game foreshadows how to defeat them with cutscenes, books, items, etc.... I like this, despite how obvious some of the hints can be. However, it’s not enough to make up for just how boring the rest of it is, especially since actually executing on the solution to a boss is just as boring and annoying as the rest of the game.
Since I’ve been really negative so far, let me give a positive: The game is really good when it comes to horror by exception. What I mean is that it knows when not to show you something. As I said earlier, you can’t see most spooky creatures unless you shine the flashlight on them. However, to run away from them, you obviously have to turn around. As such, when you’re running, you never know quite where the enemy is. This is pretty effective in a vacuum. A few neat things are done with the hiding mechanic too. Most of the time, it’s not great. You just go in a bush or whatever and wait for spirits to go away. You can’t see them, sure, but you also know they can’t hurt you while you hide. Not super engaging. However, they actually do something with it near the end. Yeah, just sitting there is annoying, but there’s a pretty effective moment later on where spoilers a monster basically kills another one while you’re hiding from them. It was a well-presented moment, and it sold me on the power of the spirit I was running from. Still, this moment wasn’t necessarily effective for gameplay, it was mainly just a story segment presented with a game mechanic.
Speaking of which, let’s talk about the story. Let me tell you, I rolled my eyes when the game opens with a character hanging themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I take this topic seriously. However, this game just throws it out right in the beginning in the most manipulative way possible. Why should I care about this other than basic empathy? I know nothing about this character! I’m fine with a story tackling pretty much any subject matter as long as its done with respect, but there’s nothing respectful about this! It’s manipulative!
Does the story really justify this? Not really, at least not in how voyeuristic it feels. If they wanted this opening, I think just implying suicide would’ve been better. The actual reason this girl hung herself was because her dog and dad died and her friend was leaving town. That and ghosts of course. I can’t really say the suicide element added anything overall, despite a literal noose being in the game logo. So we’re off to a really bad start here.
Okay, what if we ignore all that? The story is still mediocre. Spoilers, I guess? Early on, each chapter of the game goes like this: Haru is trying to find her friend Yui. At the beginning we play as Yui for a bit. Then, we play as Haru searching for Yui. Often Haru goes to where Yui was earlier, but Yui is no longer there. Then, Yui is in a new place now for some reason. There’s other stuff, but it doesn’t matter at all in terms of the overall story. As such, it feels pretty repetitive and meandering. I forgot to mention that there’s another character here, Yui’s dog. It’s a dog. For some reason though, it seems to always know where Yui is. It’s not a bloodhound, mind you, but a little Pomeranian. I looked up the breed of the dog, as I’m not a dog expert. However, the dog is a ghost expert for some reason. Honestly, the dog probably does more to find Yui than Haru does, at least in the first half of the game. Really, the dog is little more than a plot device though. The dog runs somewhere, and you have to follow it. Haru wouldn’t get anywhere without this dog. Why isn’t the dog the main character anyway? It can probably hold a flashlight in its mouth. Just let me play as the dog. At least then I wouldn’t have to listen to Haru’s dialogue, which basically adds nothing. Everything she says is either exactly what you’d expect her to say or is just an obvious observation that feels patronizing when pointed out. Later, they try to give her an arc of becoming braver and not being scared of the spirits, but this comes out of nowhere, and it doesn’t actually change the gameplay. She can say she’s not scared all she wants, but the gameplay still revolves around running away, and the heartbeat effect still gets really fast when a spirit is close. The dog was never afraid of ghosts though. Just let me play as the dog, please.
Anyway, surprise, it turns out Yui has been dead this whole time. This isn’t a surprise, considering she hung herself in the opening (Haru is the friend I mentioned earlier, in case you couldn’t tell. The game seems to imply she was dead for a decent amount of time though, and that her and Haru hung out a little bit while she was a ghost. This doesn’t make sense to me because later Haru can’t see her. What changed? That aside, this implication doesn’t make sense at all. Haru is a kid, so I’m sure she told her parents what she was doing. If Yui was missing or known to be dead, wouldn’t people question her about this? Maybe this did happen, but I’d think Haru would’ve brought it up. I guess there’s plausible deniability in this case.
The ending is honestly alright. It does one unique thing regarding actually taking advantage of being a game, and I liked how it ended with Haru having to let Yui go. It’s nice, but it’s also connected to the rest of the game and the actual message wasn’t built up to particularly well. So overall, the story is not great either.
I think the best part of the game is the audiovisuals. All of the backgrounds and monster designs look really good, and the game has some really good sound design. I really love how the menus are made of the main character’s drawings, as it really reminds you that you are indeed playing as a kid. I only had one problem with the audiovisuals, honestly. Occasionally the layers of objects will be off, like an object that should be behind Haru will appear in front of her, for example. Other than that, it’s really great, and it contributes to a decent atmosphere. It seems that this was the bulk of the effort, but it makes me wonder why the creators didn’t just make a manga or anime, considering how basic the gameplay is. It doesn’t really take advantage of the medium in any way that a show or comic couldn’t, and the best parts are the audiovisuals and story, which is perfectly doable in a show.
Anyway uhh… This game is awful. It’s a failure on almost every level. 2/10, although much closer to a 3. It’s saved by the audiovisuals. It’s been a while since I played something this bad. Play Luigi’s Mansion instead or something. Sorry @Moschidae. At least I enjoyed reviewing it.
6 Comments
@moschidae It's alright. Like I said, I enjoyed writing about it.
The post-game does seem a bit more interesting, but there's other games I want to play and I can't see any of the improvements being that significant.
I knew Haru didn't move mid-game, I believed that the 'nearby town' was where she moved later on based on what I researched. I can't find anything official that actually says that right now though, so maybe I just mixed up the events of the post-game with what happened after she moved, thinking she made friends with a resident of the nearby town after she moved. Big mistake on my part, I'll remove that section.
As for the story, I can't really make any points because it's pretty subjective in terms of how it treats the subject matter. I'll expand a bit on my review and say that I don't think the first half of the game had much substantial character development at all, and each chapter feels somewhat episodic in terms of the actual events. If the themes of the beginning and end were present throughout the game, I'd probably like the story more.
The post-game does seem a bit more interesting, but there's other games I want to play and I can't see any of the improvements being that significant.
I knew Haru didn't move mid-game, I believed that the 'nearby town' was where she moved later on based on what I researched. I can't find anything official that actually says that right now though, so maybe I just mixed up the events of the post-game with what happened after she moved, thinking she made friends with a resident of the nearby town after she moved. Big mistake on my part, I'll remove that section.
As for the story, I can't really make any points because it's pretty subjective in terms of how it treats the subject matter. I'll expand a bit on my review and say that I don't think the first half of the game had much substantial character development at all, and each chapter feels somewhat episodic in terms of the actual events. If the themes of the beginning and end were present throughout the game, I'd probably like the story more.
As pointed out above, I made a mistake. Haru didn't move to the nearby town, but somewhere else. I deleted the section about it, but I wanted to leave this here for transparency.
Interesting
Also so true on luigis mansion, goated game
In my opinion, it's not so much a survival horror series as much as a sort of exploration game where a kid visits a spirit world, but the second game really tries hard to be a classic horror game instead. Well they're both painful to go through but I think the first game had enough of the audiovisuals aspects to stand out as something unique, this one not.
moschidae
8 months ago