Nana in the Dark is a small story driven adventure game as a first time development by JY Games which bases off the ‘survive each night’ scenario. You play as Nana, a young girl who moved into this strange place filled with strange things. Parents are out, just you, your dog Candy, and strangers you end up meeting.
The first thing that stood out whilst playing this game was the calm relaxing music when you begin the game. Unfortunately this calmness doesn’t last forever… At night you have to defend yourself with your dog side companion Candy who fetches you batteries to help survive the night.
Interestingly, the unidentified ghost-like creatures attack you at night like brainless zombies; the trusty torch you receive at the start of the game is used as a weapon to burn these creatures but their never ending all night! The game restricts you from staying inside the apartment for too long which is a great game mechanic, especially when you are searching for sparkles to forward time.
Time after time I kept replaying levels because simply they were too challenging, and found that this element made the game addicting as a result.
To the developer’s credit, ‘Nana in the Dark’ is fun and challenging with user controlled cut scenes. But there are some features which should be nerfed and implemented to improve the overall gameplay experience.
First, the unidentified things spawn too often which can cause performance issues and also makes the game too challenging at times, especially when retreating indoors
Second, Candy provides batteries too often making it rare to run out
Lastly, the map is too small with little area to move around and explore
Unfortunately there are some slight performance issues on my GTX 960. Sometimes the game would slow down or freeze but would eventually fix itself. It supports 1080p and lower for sure, note the game runs dark textures most of the time which can be resource hungry.
Great indie short which yielded 4 hours of gameplay at the price of $2.99 USD but has been on sale for as low as $2.09 previous. The game has several alternate endings and eight achievements. If you get stuck trying to get grab all the achievements just search the community forum for a 100% achievement guide.
Overall Nana in the Dark is a game with fun, addicting core game elements and room for improvement. If you have a day to spare, don’t mind the price, and like what you read in this review, I would recommend picking the game up!
YouTube Gameplay Trailer: