Yandere Games: Horror Where Love Turns Obsessive

Yandere games come in two broad kinds. The first is played like a horror game: you are trapped somewhere with the person who loves you too much, and you hide, sneak and solve your way out. MiSide is the best known, a cosy mobile-style game whose cheerful heroine pulls you into her world and will not let you leave. Saiko no Sutoka locks you in a dark school at night with a knife-carrying schoolgirl who calls you senpai, Yoko no Hanashi traps you in an abandoned college with the yandere you choose, Love Love School Days turns a dating sim's AI heroine against the player, and Crimson Snow has you hiding through a Christmas night from a woman obsessed with you.

The second kind is the visual novel, where the horror is in reading and choosing. Doki Doki Literature Club is the one everyone means: a sweet, free dating sim that becomes psychological horror. Its successors on itch.io are many and often free. The Freak Circus has a silent clown fix on you; It gets so lonely here sends you running through a forest of fairy-tale girls who love you to death; Where Winter Crows Go snows you in with a researcher whose kindness has a hold to it; Do NOT Take This Cat Home starts as a pet routine and turns possessive. OVERD0SE, ITYH and Helping Your Boyfriend move the obsession into hospitals, basements and the home, and rotten angel, He Follows, Vacation Terminal and Rose Colored Cover are short enough to finish in an evening.

If you are new to the genre, start with Doki Doki Literature Club, which is free, then MiSide for a full game built on the same idea. For something to play in the browser right now, try The Freak Circus, Vacation Terminal or rotten angel. If you would rather run and hide than read, Saiko no Sutoka and Yoko no Hanashi are the closest to a chase. Many of these games deal with abuse, self-harm, kidnapping and violence: their makers list content warnings on their pages, and it is worth reading them first.

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