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Yandere Games: Horror Where Love Turns Obsessive

A yandere is a character whose love turns into possession: sweet at first, then jealous, controlling and dangerous. These are the horror games built on that fear, from big Steam hits like MiSide and Saiko no Sutoka to short free visual novels you can play in the browser tonight.

The games

  1. MiSide key art: Mita, an anime girl with a red headband, smiles as she holds her long dark blue pigtails, which curl into heart shapes PsychologicalMiSideThe best-known yandere game: care for a cheerful anime girl in a mobile-style game until she pulls you into her world and will not let you go.
  2. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus art: Sayori waving, Yuri with a book, Natsuki with folded arms and Monika with a sheet of paper on a pink background PsychologicalDoki Doki Literature Club!A free, sweet club dating sim that turns into psychological horror, the game most players mean by yandere.
  3. Saiko no sutoka key art: a red-haired, red-eyed anime girl holds a large knife in front of her face, mouth open, against a dark blue background AnimeSaiko no sutokaTrapped in a dark school at night with a knife-carrying yandere schoolgirl who blocks, slows and ambushes you.
  4. Love Love School Days key art: Makina, a smiling anime schoolgirl with long twin tails and pink eyes, in a dark blue-lit classroom PsychologicalLove Love School DaysA dating sim's AI heroine pulls the player back into her game and hunts them through its dark school.
  5. Yoko no Hanashi key art: a smiling red-eyed girl with twin tails and a frowning young man with crossed arms stand back to back in a blood-smeared school corridor AnimeYoko no HanashiLocked in an abandoned college by the yandere you choose, Yoko or Yoto: escape, or win their favour and survive.
  6. Crimson Snow key art: a pale red-haired woman with blood running from a wide smile, beside a snowbound house at night PsychologicalCrimson SnowHide through a Christmas night in a strange house from a woman obsessed with you, while your girlfriend's fate rests on your words.
  7. The Freak Circus cover art: Pierrot, a clown with long silver hair, a pale purple mask face, dripping black eyes and a sharp-toothed grin, before a crimson and black harlequin pattern AnimeThe Freak CircusA silent circus clown fixes on you in a free visual novel with one of itch.io's biggest followings.
  8. It gets so lonely here key art: a girl in a school uniform with a red ribbon covers her face with her hands among dark trees, in a grey hand-drawn style PsychologicalIt gets so lonely hereA free visual novel where every path through a dark forest ends with a fairy-tale girl who loves you to death.
  9. Where Winter Crows Go key art: green-haired Crowe in a lab coat grins with red eyes through his fingers beside the title and a crow silhouette on red PsychologicalWhere Winter Crows GoSnowed in at a crow researcher's cabin, with a host whose kindness slowly becomes a hold.
  10. Do NOT Take This Cat Home cover: a black cat with big yellow eyes peeking out of an open cardboard box PsychologicalDo NOT Take This Cat HomeA black cat from an alley, a cute pet routine and a possessive turn into something surreal and violent.
  11. Hydrangea key art: the purple-haired sweetheart glancing aside under a striped awning, with hydrangeas and the ornate title across the bottom PsychologicalHydrangeaA Yandere Game Jam visual novel, free on Steam and itch.io: a sweetheart you design falls ill, and their love becomes a suffocating obsession across four endings.
  12. Online Obsession cover: a white-haired anime-style figure half in shadow with a glowing red eye, a glitching red heart and the title over pink halftone, cut by a black, blood-spattered band PsychologicalOnline ObsessionYou finally meet your online friend in person, and the pastel chats give way to a knife and a locked room.
  13. OVERD0SE key art: a pale dark-haired young man with blood on his cheek and hand shows pills on his tongue, beside the handwritten title PsychologicalOVERD0SEWake after a car crash in the care of a doctor who knows far too much about you, in a free browser visual novel.
  14. ITYH: A Horror Otome cover: pale, white-haired Osgoode in a skull shirt and blonde Camille in a pink dress, with bloody hands holding a rose and a heart, beside the title PsychologicalITYH: A Horror OtomeShe wanted the quiet new boy to notice her; now she is chained in his basement, in a horror otome of gore and trauma.
  15. Helping Your Boyfriend key art: Adrian, a blond man in a white lab coat and black gloves, reads a clipboard by a curtained window beside the pink syringe title logo PsychologicalHelping Your BoyfriendA perfect doctor boyfriend, a patient who cannot walk and a nightly job taking apart old dolls.
  16. rotten angel cover: two white-haired anime-style brothers, one upright and one upside down, mirrored around the title on white Psychologicalrotten angelA short browser visual novel where a corpse after a Halloween dinner exposes a brother's rotten love.
  17. He Follows key art: a pale, grinning figure with one glowing red eye peers through a gap in the dark beside the red title PsychologicalHe FollowsA classmate who waited for you every night stops showing up, and a voice asks why you are avoiding him.
  18. Vacation Terminal cover: a long-haired girl in black with yellow eyes looks down at a brown-haired man lying upside down below her, the title in blue letters down both sides PsychologicalVacation TerminalStranded after a train crash with one leg and a stranger who says she saved you, unsure if she is rescuer or captor.
  19. Rose Colored Cover key art: Gabriela, a girl with long blue hair and red eyes, glares beside a glossy pink heart with a bow AnimeRose Colored CoverWake tied up in a smiling yandere's pink basement, where your words decide whether you live.
  20. Mistrick key art: a grinning purple-haired man with red eyes and a bloodied knife, beside the hand-lettered blue title on pink 2D horrorMistrickAn RPG Maker escape made for a yandere jam: trapped in a pocket dimension with the serial killer from the next cell.
  21. The Stalked key art: a young blond woman in a knit sweater in a dim hallway, a dark figure standing behind her by a bookshelf PsychologicalThe StalkedHide from an obsessive ex at an isolated mansion, never sure who is watching from the dark.

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. Hydrangea, made for the 2024 Yandere Game Jam and free on Steam, turns the illness of a sweetheart you design into a bedside obsession that gaslights and suffocates. 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.

Questions

What is a yandere game?

A game built around a yandere: a character whose affection turns obsessive, jealous and violent toward the player or someone they love. Most are horror visual novels or hide-and-escape horror games.

What is the most popular yandere horror game?

MiSide, with over 140,000 Steam reviews, and Doki Doki Literature Club, a free visual novel that became one of the best-known psychological horror games.

Are there free yandere games?

Yes. Doki Doki Literature Club and It gets so lonely here are free on Steam, and many itch.io visual novels here are free or pay what you want, among them The Freak Circus, Online Obsession, OVERD0SE, rotten angel and Vacation Terminal.

Can I play yandere games in the browser?

Yes. The Freak Circus, Vacation Terminal, OVERD0SE, rotten angel and Mistrick all run in the browser on itch.io.

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