Image: Nippon Ichi & NIS America

An unusual one, this - technically, Village in the Shade has been out on Steam for some time now, just not in English. As someone who only knows one language, that was a problem, as I've really wanted to play it. See, this is the latest (and by far biggest) in Nippon Ichi's underrated creepy-cute series, featuring games like the Yomawari series, A Rose in the Twilight, and the incomprehensibly titled htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary. This time, there's something lurking in the twilight of a small farming village out in the Japanese countryside, and only one amnesiac, cursed child can unravel whatever grudges grow here.

Ryan Gaur over at our sister-site Nintendo Life reviewed it last week, giving it a glowing 9/10 score, with his only real gripe being that this is a story-driven game and will sometimes drag players away from their farming endeavors. Interestingly, that story can even be turned down, with the game opening with a choice to skip the spookier night-time side of the game entirely and focus on the cute and cozy stuff. But that'd be missing half the point of the game.

The game opens on a cheerfully unsettling note. A child harvests some vegetables in their little farm plot, chases an escaped chicken to a strange shrine, then hurls themselves into the gaping pit in the center of it, their body lying broken in a pool of blood. Some time later, they emerge again, seemingly unharmed, and stumble into the local town. The townsfolk seem to realize that something is wrong, but the truth of the matter is only whispered, and dies down when you're within earshot. But hey, one more worker in town, ready to help out on the farm, right? Don't think too hard about it.

While the other spooky games in Nippon Ichi's library have been a bit more aggressively horrific, this is more in the vein of a rural ghost story. Everyone in the town seems to be in on some secret or other, and your very existence seems tied to it.

Strange things roam at night, and you're no fighter, so travel carefully if you want to see what happens after dark. During the daylight hours, the town slowly dials up the pressure with strict rules on what you can and can't do... including that it's forbidden to reveal those secrets. It is forbidden to respond to voices in the mountains. And above all, it is forbidden to search for what has been lost. Which apparently includes you.

By all accounts, this one's excellent, and also huge. I've heard reviewers I trust say that if you play efficiently, this one can still clock at upwards of seventy hours. Which probably goes more than a little way to justifying that game's steep price tag - it's every bit as much of a time-sponge as the likes of Stardew Valley, but with a much stronger narrative bent.

Village in the Shade is out now (in English) for £50/$60. No discounts, but for a 70+ hour horror story, that doesn't seem unreasonable. That said, NIS's horror stuff does go on sale quite often.