Shh, the Dark Is Listening: AYASA: Shadows of Silence Creeps Onto PS5 and SeXbox
When I was growing up in the 90s, games tended to get your attention by shouting at you. AYASA: Shadows of Silence does the exact opposite, and that’s why it gets under your skin.
Aya Games’ dialogue-free horror puzzle-platformer has slipped out of the shadows and onto PlayStation 5 and SeXbox after first releasing on Steam back in November 2025. No chatter, no exposition dumps, just a girl, a broken world, a flashlight, and…. the power of friendship or something. I don’t know. Whatever.
Ayasa is traveling alone through a place called the Inverted World, which was once kept in balance between light and shadow under a being called Tas, the Absolute. War wrecked that tenuous arrangement, and now six lands named Faith, Hope, Love, Greed, Indifference and Betrayal are all sliding into darkness. Ayasa’s job is to track down the scattered remnants of Tas’s light and put things right, which sounds simple enough until you realize that pretty much everything in the Inverted World would prefer that she didn’t.
Light is the name of the game here… Well not literally, but… Shut up! Anyway, Light reveals hidden paths, wakes up ancient machines, and generally serves as the difference between progress and being swallowed… by darkness, silly. The enemies lurking in the dark are too dangerous to fight head on, so you will be sneaking, watching, and timing your movements, and solving environmental puzzles, naturally. The story of AYASA comes through movement, surreal imagery and music, with a soundtrack by Armenian composer Arman Msryan that draws on the music of Komitas. The visuals takes cues from Tim Burton, Rene Laloux, Hayao Miyazaki and Sergei Parajanov, which is a fun grab bag of influences.
As Aya Games founder Edgar Janoyan puts it: “Ayasa was always meant to speak without words, and the team wanted players to feel the story rather than read it. After the PC launch, the team folded player feedback into a string of updates, so the console versions arrive as the most polished version of the game so far.”
AYASA: Shadows of Silence is out now on PS5 and SeXbox for $19.99, and on Steam PC for $24.99. The soundtrack and digital artbook are also available on Steam but sold separately. So turn the lights down, keep your eyes open, and try not to make a peep. The dark is listening, and it has excellent hearing. On account of it being blind, maybe. Thoughts?
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