Back during a Nintendo Direct in July 2025, NIS announced a horror farming sim called Honogurashi no Niwa, and now it confirmed the game will appear worldwide on multiple platforms under the name Village in the Shade. NIS America said it will debut in Fall 2026, months after its July 30, 2026 launch in Japan. In addition to Nintendo’s Switch and Switch 2, it will be on the PS5 and PC too. The Steam page is even live and updated to reflect the reveal.
Village in the Shade features the same sort of artistic direction and atmosphere as the previous NIS America horror games in the Yomawari line, and the approach seems similar in the farming sim since night time is designed to be dangerous and it’s set in a small, Japanese town. The company teased that it could be as scary or relaxing as someone would like. As a resident of Kagatsu, your goal is to maintain a farm and (ideally) follow the rules. That means staying in town, getting home before night falls, and being part of the community by taking part in festivals. However, if someone does venture outside of the village or stays up late, they’ll encounter supernatural and scary elements.
Here’s the first English trailer that shows what to expect from it.
Physical copies of the game will be available, and the NIS America online storefront already has a product listing live for a limited edition. It will come with an art book, a soundtrack CD, an acrulic block showing the village gates and town, five pins, and it looks like a sheet of stickers. That costs $89.99.
Here’s the preliminary photo of that:
Village in the Shade will come to the Switch, Switch 2, PS5, and PC worldwide in Fall 2026, following a Japanese launch under the name Honogurashi no Niwa on July 30, 2026.