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Yandere Simulator
Yandere Simulator is a 2014-developed stealth action video game by YandereDev for personal computers.[3][4] The story follows obsessively lovesick schoolgirl Ayano Aishi, nicknamed "Yandere-chan", who sets out to eliminate anyone she believes is attracting her "senpai" Taro's attention.[5][6] The non-canon Yandere Simulator: Mission Mode follows Ayano as an assassin pursued by Nemesis, while a prequel, Yandere Simulator: 1980s Mode, following how Ayano's parents Ryoba and Jokichi met in 1989, was soft-launched on October 10, 2021. Beginning development in 2014, Yandere Simulator achieved a considerable amount of attention online the following year, leading to millions of downloads of pre-release versions of the game.[7] The game has also endured a lengthy development, had numerous crossovers with other games, and been subject to several controversies.[8] A spin-off Metroidvania game, Yandertale, was released on November 16, 2016, while a spin-off manga series, Nemesis: Retribution, was published from August 2019 to March 2022. Plot and gameplay 202X ModeIn 202X Mode, the player controls Ayano Aishi (nicknamed Yandere-chan), an apathetic high school girl who has developed a crush on 18-year-old Taro Yamada, a student only ever referred to in game as "Senpai" who is the treatment to her "Aishi Condition", where the women of her family cannot feel emotion until they find their love at first sight.[9][8] Over the course of ten weeks (whilst Ayano's parents are out of town tracking down "The Journalist"), a different girl will fall in love with Taro each week, becoming a target for Ayano to "eliminate". The player has the ability to kidnap, torture, poison, electrocute, matchmake, befriend, betray, frame, and drown rivals, befriend other schoolgirls, play small mini games, access a street where the player can earn money by playing a maid café minigame, spend money at shops to buy different types of items, and more.[10][11][12] On January 1, 2018, the main characters of Doki Doki Literature Club! (Monika, Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki) were added as playable character skins, with permission from Team Salvato.[13][14] 1980s ModeYandere Simulator: 1980s Mode, set in 1989, centers upon Ryoba, the future mother of Ayano, who as an 18-year-old had become obsessed with a popular Akademi Academy student named Jokichi (the future father of Ayano) to treat her own "Aishi Condition".[1] Ten rivals stand in her way and a journalist is watching her every move, aware of her homicidal tendencies. In order to prevent detection, Ryoba must plan her moves out carefully. If she acts suspiciously or does not clean up after her murders properly she will gain a "guilty" point. She can counteract these by befriending fellow students and maintaining a good reputation. Ryoba is eventually brought to trial after eliminating her rivals; if she has collected more guilty points than innocent ones she will be found guilty and imprisoned. If found innocent she will kidnap Jokichi and keep him in her basement until he agrees to enter into a relationship with her. Mission ModeYandere Simulator: Mission Mode is a non-canon storyline and a parody of Hitman where-in Ayano is an assassin hired by Info-chan on behalf of the yakuza to kill various targets around Akademi Academy (with Taro being her first victim), pursued by a rival female assassin known as Nemesis.[15] In Yakuza Mode, the highest difficulty setting of Mission Mode, Ryoba is playable instead of Ayano, depicted as a fully-dressed yakuza with katana in-hand. Characters
DevelopmentYandere Simulator is developed by YandereDev, a freelance game developer run by Alex Mahan and based in Temecula, California.[2][19] He first pitched the idea on 4chan around 2014, and after receiving positive feedback, decided to begin development.[20] Mahan has stated that the series Mirai Nikki and School Days were inspirations for the game. In order to work on the game full-time, Mahan opened a Patreon account in 2016; he has stated that prior to this he worked as a freelance programmer.[21] On November 16, 2016, a spin-off Metroidvania game titled Yandertale was released; a parody of Undertale, it follows Ayano Aishi as she fights Oka Ruto in Sans-inspired battle.[22] On November 16, 2016, a non-canon Mission Mode was released; a parody of Hitman, the mode follows the assassin Ayano Aishi as she is hired to kill various targets around Akademi Academy, pursued by a rival female assassin known as Nemesis.[15] On March 1, 2017, YandereDev announced a partnership with tinyBuild that would help him polish, promote, and publish the game.[23][24] On June 10, 2018, YandereDev confirmed that the partnership with the company had ended in December 2017 due to tinyBuild's programmer and Mahan's code conflicting.[25] On August 31, 2020, the game's first demo was released along with Ayano's first rival, Osana Najimi.[26][27] On October 10, 2021, a prequel game, Yandere Simulator: 1980s Mode, was released.[1] This game is a story mode that follows Ayano Aishi's mother, Ryoba Aishi, and follows the same storyline as the main story, inspired by 1980s slasher films. The developer has stated that this game was created to test the main game's various systems. 1980s Mode features VHS effects and a new soundtrack in order to differentiate it from the main story.[1] In September 2023, after an allegation was brought against Mahan by a 16-year-old girl claiming that he had been grooming her and released a recording and transcript of their conversation, several of the game's developers and voice actors, including Ayano's voice actress Michaela Laws, left the project.[28] In January 2024, Mahan apologised for the "inappropriate" conversation that had occurred, stating that "I did not attempt to establish a romantic or sexual relationship with the girl [but] after having my behaviour explained to me as commonly associated with romance, I can understand how it was interpreted that way [and am] sorry for having stupid, inappropriate conversations I never should have had", and that on opening a dialogue with the girl in question, Yandere Simulator would resume development.[29] On March 31, 2024, on the 10th anniversary of Yandere Simulator, YandereDev estimated that the final game "would come out towards the end of 2026, or maybe the beginning of 2027".[30] On May 1, 2024, YandereDev released Ayano’s second rival, Amai Odayaka. On July 15, 2024, YandereDev released “The Hardware Update”, adding an in-game store at which to spend in-game currency on items.[31] On October 21, 2024, YandereDev released the 1980s Revamp, giving the characters of 1980s Mode "a completely new appearance".[32] On October 31, 2024, YandereDev announced the return of voice acting and the addition of visual novel features to the game, along with confirming the game's "supernatural elements" to factor into the main story mode.[33] On January 1, 2025, YandereDev released "a new build [of the game] with various additions, improvements, and fixes", announcing the game would be ported to be playable on Android.[34] AdaptationsWeb seriesYandereDev has released several animated prequel shorts delving into the backstories of Ayano Aishi and Osoro Shidesu: "Yandere-chan's Childhood" in 2017, and "Delinquent Backstory" and "A Childhood Lesson" in 2018.[9][18][17] LoveSick, a web series adaptation of Yandere Simulator written and directed by Abby Roebuck, animated by Sakura Media with permission from YandereDev, and sponsored by Amino, aired for nine episodes from June 6, 2017 to January 24, 2020.[35] MangaA spin-off manga series based on Yandere Simulator: Mission Mode and entitled Nemesis: Retribution, written by Alex Mahan and illustrated by Vanelover and JIBJAB, was published from August 1, 2019 to March 19, 2022.[36][37] Set during the events of Mission Mode, the series explores the origin and motivation of its antagonist Hanako Yamada / Nemesis. CrossoversOn May 24, 2015, Pippi Osu, mascot from the rhythm game osu!, was added to Yandere Simulator as a NPC student of Akademi Academy, with Samantha Chan reprising her role, with permission from the game's creator Dean Lewis "peppy" Herbert.[38] On October 25, 2016, Yandere-chan (Ayano Aishi) and Generica (Kokona Haruka) were added as playable characters to the anime-style idle dating sim Crush Crush, with Michaela Laws and Caitlin Myers reprising their roles.[39] Within the narrative of the game, after Ayano (later renamed "Ayeka") kills the original eighth girl Generica, she begins to date the player, with her primary weapon being a baseball bat. Generica later returns as a ghost to become frenemies with Ayano. On January 1, 2018, the main characters of Doki Doki Literature Club! (Monika, Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki) were added to Yandere Simulator as playable character skins for Ryoba and Ayano Aishi, with permission from Team Salvato.[13][14] On June 24, 2020, Yandere-chan (Ayano Aishi) and Nemesis (Hanako Yamada) were added as playable characters to the French third-person shooter game BITC (Boobs in the City), with Michaela Laws and Dawn M. Bennett reprising their roles.[40] In the game's narrative, Yandere-chan is depicted as an axe-wielding underclassman to the protagonist Coach, aiming to keep all other girls from him, while Nemesis is depicted as being "an artificial lifeform sent from the future to save Coach's life". On January 9th 2019, Yandere-chan (Ayano Aishi) was added as a playable characters to the fighting video game Go All Out! on the Nintendo Switch, with Michaela Laws reprising her role.[41] In her narrative, she is presented as having been isekaied into the realm of the game during the events of Yandere Simulator, aiming to kill Calamity to return to her Senpai. On December 28, 2019, it was announced the characters from Yandere Simulator would be added as playable characters to the puzzle and action role-playing game Project QT early the following years, with Ayano Aishi (renamed Patti) and Info-chan (renamed Emily) ultimately being chosen via poll, with Michaela Laws and Cayla Martin reprising their roles.[42] In her narrative, she is presented as having been isekaied into the realm of the game years after the events of Yandere Simulator, before mistaking the Project QT protagonist for her Senpai. On June 28, 2023, a Yandere Simulator DLC was added to the multiplayer horror party game Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals by Glowstick Entertainment, featuring a Yandere Simulator map with Fun Girl as the boss of Boss Time, Police Officers as the bosses of Trap Time, as well as Senpai (Taro Yamada), Info-chan, and Nemesis (Hanako Yamada) as playable mortal characters, and Ayano Aishi as playable monster character, with Austin Hively, Cayla Martin, Dawn M. Bennett, and Michaela Laws reprising their roles.[43] Critical responseContent and themesThe game has received criticism over its content and themes, with the most common criticism centering upon the presence of sexuality and murder.[44] In their 2022 doctoral dissertation, Kristian A. Bjørkelo noted that some hearing about or playing the game found it transgressive due to the themes of sexuality and murder, while others took more exception to an update that would allow players to kill cats as a way of avoiding police detection. They further noted that Yandere Simulator was an example of a game that conflicted with "the idea that play is harmless fun, something that can be considered for children, a notion that can be referred to as the idealization of play... or the fallacy of play".[44]: 11 Cecilia D'Anastasio, writing for Kotaku, covered the debug version in a 2017 article; she commented that the game had received criticism for "glamorizing suicide, bullying and Bipolar Disorder—allegations that I strongly agree with, despite the game's merits as simulator for sociopathy."[21] D'Anastasio went on to interview Mahan in the same article, who stated that the game "pivots on the archetype of an obsessed, violent stalker, rather than female stereotypes."[21] Yandere Simulator Twitch banIn January 2016, Yandere Simulator was added to the list of banned games by Twitch for violating the streaming service's policies on extreme content. Mahan was a vocal critic of the ban, claiming that Twitch never explained what prompted its addition to the list and that he would have been willing to "modify minor, innocuous things that were never meant to be the focus of the game, but I would not be willing to remove gameplay mechanics, remove core features, or change the focus of the game",[8] further criticizing the ban as a result of "self-righteous ideologies".[8] ProgressFans have voiced concerns over how long development of the game has taken. Mahan initially responded to these concerns with an announcement in March 2017 that he would be partnering with TinyBuild; this partnership ended in December of the same year.[23][25] References
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