A new Nippon Ichi teaser website could be teasing an announcement for Yomawari 3. The website itself is quite sparse, but diving into its Google Tags JS file reveals some rather interesting information pointing to a third game in the survival horror series.
Is this Nippon Ichi site teasing Yomawari 3?
The website itself shows nothing but a ticking pocket watch against a black background, along with some Japanese text. When translated, the text reads "three days left", suggesting an announcement is coming within the next three days. While no more information is forthcoming, we've done some digging and found some interesting info in the website's Google Tags file, which shows tags the website's owner is using to track analytics.
The Google Tags file contains a number of URLs, including the one listed above, as well as pages for other Nippon Ichi games such as Mad Rat Dead and Maiden and Spell. Most interestingly, the file also lists two URLs containing "Yomawari 3" as a phrase, both of which redirect to error pages. However, the presence of Yomawari 3 as a name in the URLs suggests this is a phrase Nippon Ichi wants to track for analytics purposes, which all but confirms the existence of the game. It looks like you're safe to start getting excited if you're a Yomawari fan. The full list of websites included in the Google Tags file are as follows:
- https://nippon1.jp/consumer/newtitle20211213/ - The page with the countdown timer
- https://nippon1.jp/consumer/madratdead/ - A 2020 Nippon Ichi game for PS4 and Switch
- https://nippon1.jp/consumer/indie_spirits/maiden_and_spell/ - A 2020 game that Nippon Ichi published for PC and Switch
- https://nippon1.jp/consumer/yomawari3 - Shows up twice but leads to a 404 page
- http://test.nippon1.jp/consumer/yomawari3 - Leads to a 403 forbidden page that states "You don't have permissions to access /consumer/yomawari3 on this server"
What is the Yomawari series?
The Yomawari survival horror series began with Yomawari: Night Alone, which was released for PlayStation Vita and PC way back in 2016. The game involves players searching for their lost sister and their dog whilst also trying to evade monsters. A sequel, Yomawari: Midnight Shadows, followed in 2017, again released for PS Vita and PC and tasking players with dodging monsters while switching between two different protagonists. A collection featuring both games, Yomawari: The Long Night Collection, was released for Nintendo Switch in late 2018.
It remains to be seen whether an announcement for Yomawari 3 is forthcoming. Given that both games in the series have titles that don't contain numbers, it's likely that if we do get a Yomawari 3 announcement, that won't be the final title. We'll bring you more on this as soon as we get it, of course. In the meantime, you can pick up the Yomawari collection on Nintendo Switch, and both the first and second games are available on Steam as well.
Are you excited for a potential Yomawari 3 announcement? Let us know in the comments below!