Oct 072022
Today’s review is Towayami, a horror adventure game with a unique twist.
Towayami is set in a small town engulfed in a deep, impenetrable darkness.
It’s been cut off from the rest of the world, and no one is coming to help.
You play a character trying to find a way out and perhaps learn the truth about what caused this darkness.
Since the darkness is so all-consuming, no one can see anything. Fire and lamps do nothing at all.
As a result, you play with a black screen.
I’m not exaggerating.
An official and accurate screenshot
The upper corner lets you know where you are, and your cursor changes when your hover over something you can interact with. Right-click lets you examine things, while left-click lets you interact. It’s important to examine everything first, since some spots are dangerous.
In this way, you need to slowly examine each black screen to find items and use them to explore.
There are occasional sound cues, as well, which I would have liked to see more of, but most of the game is handled through careful clicking.
This was a very strange game to play. I went from feeling completely disoriented at the start to having a mental image of how places were laid out, enough to backtrack without too much difficulty. At the same time, I found it somewhat frustrating – it felt like pixel-hunting, albeit without actually being able to see the pixels.
My playthrough took me about two hours. From the ending screen, I learned I had missed some things along the way, but I don’t think I’ll go back for them. Nevertheless, Towayami has to be one of the most unique horror games I’ve played.
If you’re interested in horror games, stick around for more reviews and discussions throughout October, and don’t forget to check the introductory post to learn about this year’s contest and the prizes you can win!
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I think this would have worked better with a 3D game, especially if there was a good amount of sound clues. I like the idea of a horror game where it’s really hard to see, since not knowing what’s there is unnerving. This game does just sound more frustrating than anything though.
Definitely, the handful of times where it did use sound cues were pretty neat.
I’ve always thought that designing a game where your protagonist is blind would be a very interesting concept, but also a very difficult one to actually execute on and make sure it’s fun. I guess in this case, they’re not blind but it’s the same effect.
I figure for this game that you’d want to do it all in one sitting, because if you end up taking a few days break or more, it might be quite difficult to go back to.
I’ve heard of a handful of games with similar concepts. There’s a horror game called Perception in which you’re blind but use some sort of echolocation, and a mobile game called Papa Sangre where you navigate by sound, although I haven’t played either.
Yeah, taking a break from Towayami could have been rough.
This game seems interesting but probably would drive me insane playing it :X
Yes. XD Definitely a game you need to go into with a great deal of patience.