YMMV / Yomawari: Night Alone

• Demonic Spiders: The "Siren Spirits". At first they are stationary, but once you approach them they will instantly make a beeline towards you. They move extremely fast, and more than likely they will be hot on your heels. If you try and hide in a bush to get away from them, they will stand there and camp outside the bush. What makes this worse is that these spirits often block paths, so you have to either toss pebbles to keep them distracted for a short amount of time, or try and maneuver past them, which is easier said than done given how fast they are capable of moving.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: One of the most common criticisms, and likely why the US version came packaged with an extra game.
• Moe: The little girl. The artist designed her to be a cute grade-school girl and the scares and losses that she goes through ensures that the player will want to do everything to keep her safe and find her sister and dog.
• Narm: Players not terrified or heartbroken over Poro's death found themselves chuckling due to how spontaneous the scene was. What were the odds of a truck appearing that fast and that suddenly? The Dusk trophy that appears immediately afterwards can also feel hilariously misplaced.
• Nightmare Fuel: The game does an amazing job of pulling the player into the deserted night-time town, with oppressive shadows and supernatural beasties wandering. Couple that with the Little Girl's frantic heartbeat from fright and the very atmospheric audio backdrop, and it reaches right for the Primal Fear button and jams on it hard.
• Player Punch: Poro's death less than a minute into the game. No one expected that the game would start out with something so terrifying and tragic. The worst part of it all is that it is all part of the tutorial. The little girl and the player were railroaded into tossing the pebble that Poro decides to play a fatal game of fetch with. No wonder the girl is in such denial over his death.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The fact that you're only able to save at the little girl's house (the Jizo statues are only quicksaves which are cleared upon returning the house) is seen as annoying. Combined with the PS Vita's tendency to crash, and you've got a recipe for an irritating mechanic. Thankfully, the sequel rectified this.
• Signature Scene: The game's tutorial when Poro's absent-minded attempt to fetch the little girl's pebble ends up becoming fatal. Absolutely no one saw the scene coming, especially since trailers and promotional material kept it a secret, becoming one of the most memorable moments in the game.
• That One Achievement: The "Long Night" trophy requires players to have 50 hours of playtime logged in the game. The problem is that the game is very short, requiring a little under 10 to 20 hours to complete everything. Also, the player has to be in the game world for it to count, so they cannot pause it, minimize it, or go into sleep mode (which is frustrating for Vita owners since sleep mode cannot be disabled). What's worse is if the game shuts off at any point and nothing was saved at the desk, any progress made towards the trophy is gone.
• The Woobie: The little girl. It's bad enough that she watched Poro die. Her denial over his death and her constant concern about her sister just wants to make you hug her and tell it'll be alright.

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