Hotaru: The Shuttered Shrine

The fireflies that light the old mountain shrine have been locked in cages, and now the courtyard belongs to the spirits of the night. Crow guards march the paths. Paper lanterns float about with glowing eyes. Little soot imps wait in every shadow. And you have... a lantern with a shutter. Good luck!

Keep the shutter closed and you are almost invisible. Open it and the cages click open, the shadows shrink back, and every yokai in sight turns its head your way. Your light is your best friend, and also the thing most likely to get you caught.

HOW A NIGHT WORKS

Each night the shrine needs a certain number of fireflies back. Find the faint green cages hidden around the courtyard, hold your lantern open beside one, and its firefly pops free and bobs along behind you. Collect a little glowing trail, then sneak it home to the torii gate in the middle of the shrine to bank them. The counter at the top left tells you how many cages are still closed.

Reach the night's quota and the shrine bursts with golden light. Night cleared!

Between nights you visit the Ofuda shop and trade fireflies for paper talismans. Then the moon rises again, with more cages, a bigger quota and more yokai on the prowl. From the eighth night on the courtyard is as full as it gets, and the spirits get a little quicker and sharper every night instead. Get caught with no protection left and your run is over.

HIGH SCORES

Every run counts toward your high score. Check the leaderboard to see how your best night stacks up against other firefly thieves, then head back into the dark and try to beat it. The spirits are not getting any easier.

YOUR SHUTTER-LANTERN

Shutter closed: you tiptoe quietly, melt into tall grass and carry only a tiny ring of light. Cages stay locked, and somewhere in the dark the soot imps start shuffling toward you.

Shutter open: a warm golden glow blooms around you. Nearby cages unlock, and any soot imp caught in the light turns into a little mossy statue. But crow guards and lantern ghosts can spot that glow from across the courtyard.

Hold the button to peek your light open for a moment, or tap it to latch it open and keep it shining. Knowing when to glow, and when to go dark, is the whole game.

MEET THE YOKAI

Crow guards (karasu-tengu) patrol the paths and stomp across the wooden bridges, sweeping the ground with the light of their lantern staffs. Watch their eye: amber means they think they saw something, crimson means they definitely did. Once they start hunting, run, hide or break their line of sight.

Lantern ghosts (chochin-obake) drift through the shrine wrapped in a soft orange glow. Wander into that glow and the ghost's big eye slowly fills up. Let it fill all the way and it shrieks for help, and nearby guards come running.

Soot imps are small, fuzzy shadow critters who only move in the dark. Leave your shutter closed for too long and they will come looking for you. Shine your light on them and they freeze into stone. A stone imp blocks the path for you and the guards alike, until it shakes itself awake a moment later.

HIDE, TRICK, SURVIVE

Tall grass hides you from every yokai as long as your shutter is closed. Duck in, hold your breath while a guard's light sweeps past, and slip out behind it. Even soot imps lose your trail, sniff around for a bit, and wander off.

Stone pillars and brazier towers block sight lines, so keep them between you and a guard's lantern.

Throw a spark charm decoy and it lands with a pulsing glow that pulls curious guards and lantern ghosts away to investigate. Toss it into the water and the glow spreads across the surface, luring yokai from much further away. Use it before you are spotted: a guard that is already hunting you will not fall for it, and the charm takes a few seconds to recharge.

Two winding streams cut the courtyard into pieces, and arched wooden bridges are the only way across. A crow guard standing on your bridge means waiting, finding another way round, or getting sneaky with a decoy.

OFUDA TALISMANS

Spend your fireflies between nights on nine paper talismans, most with three levels:

Sacred Oil: opening your lantern makes a bright flash that stuns nearby yokai. Higher levels stun for longer and recharge faster.

Moss-Woven Sandals: scurry faster while your shutter is closed.

Paper Ward: shrug off one capture. Carry up to three, and buy them back when they burn.

Wider Aperture: a bigger glow and faster cage unlocking.

Echoing Spark: your decoys sparkle for longer.

Incense Coil: soot imps stay stone longer and creep slower.

Quiet Tabi: guards and ghosts take longer to notice you in the dark.

Offering Bowl: the shrine gives a little back, so every few fireflies you bank earn you an extra one to spend.

Spirit Step: after a ward burns you get a longer breath of safety and a burst of speed to escape.

Every firefly you spend is one you are not saving, so each trip to the shop is a little gamble on how you want to play the next night.

PLAY YOUR WAY

Play right in your browser, no download needed. Sneak with mouse and keyboard, a gamepad or a touchscreen (hold your phone sideways).

Keyboard and mouse: WASD or arrow keys to move; hold Space or the left mouse button to open the lantern (tap to latch it open, tap again to close); right mouse button, Shift or Q throws a decoy toward your cursor; Esc pauses.

Gamepad: left stick or d-pad to move; A opens the lantern; X or RB throws a decoy toward the right stick; Start or B pauses.

Touch: your left thumb anywhere on the left half of the screen is the stick; the big LANTERN button opens the lantern; press DECOY and slide toward where it should land (slide back onto the button to cancel); II pauses.

The title screen has a How to Play panel, a Settings menu with separate volume sliders for master, music and sound effects, and the High Scores board.

LOOK AND SOUND

A hand-painted night shrine: moss on old stone, a torii gate under the moon, winding streams and fireflies drifting through the dark. The world stays shadowy until light touches it, so your lantern, the guards' staffs and the fireflies themselves decide what you can see.

Original music follows you through the night: a gentle theme on the title screen and in the shop, a hushed night track while you sneak, and a chase tune the moment a crow guard spots you.

THANKS FOR PLAYING

We would love to hear how many nights you survived and which talisman you could not live without. See you on the leaderboard!