Yandere Simulator
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Nov. 9, 2016, 11:44 a.m. by DemonDragonJ
Yandere Simulator is a video game that is currently under development, planned for an eventual release on PC, and possibly other platforms. The name was originally intended to be merely a placeholder, but the author of the game has failed to devise a proper name for it, and the fans of the game have become accustomed to that name, so that may very well be its final name. The game is a dark parody/deconstruction of various dating sims that have existed for years. The player assumes the role of Ayano Aishi, better known as Yandere-chan or simply "Yan-chan," a student at Akademi High School. Ayano has never felt emotions for her entire life, until the day that she met Taro Yamada (the Japanese equivalent of "John Doe"), better known as "senpai," a fellow student at her school; meeting him was like seeing color for the first time or hearing sound for the first time; it made her feel whole and complete, so she knew that they were destined to be together forever. Ayano instantly developed an intensely passionate attraction to her senpai, but, around that same time, a number of other girls became smitten with him, as well, and Ayano realized that, if they won his affections, her chance to be with him would be lost forever, so she decided that she would need to eliminate her rivals, by any means necessary...
The gameplay of the game is inspired by that of the Hitman series, in which the player can interact with other characters and the environment. Items can be acquired and used, and interaction with other characters is necessary for the game to progress. There are several important mechanics that affect gameplay, and, thus, Ayano's chances of succeeding in her self-appointed quest. One mechanic is reputation; every character has a reputation, and Ayano's is obviously the most important. Every action that Ayano takes can affect her reputation in some way, so it is important to take actions that will improve her reputation, because having a high reputation makes the game easier, while having a low reputation makes the game more difficult. Ayano can also affect the reputation of other characters by spreading gossip, either positive or negative, about them. If another character's reputation falls too low via gossip, they will leave the school and not return, or even commit suicide, which is a useful way for Ayano to eliminate a rival without drawing suspicion to herself. Another mechanic is Ayano's sanity; whenever Ayano kills another person, she loses sanity, and, if her sanity falls too low, she begins to show visible signs of insanity, which can repel other people, and, thus, make the gameplay more difficult. Thankfully, however, it is possible to regain sanity, which is highly recommended if a player wishes to play the game with minimal difficulty. The third important mechanic is school atmosphere, which begins very high, but can be lowered, if Ayano murders too many people. Having a lower atmosphere makes everyone more paranoid, which, again, makes gameplay more difficult, so it is not recommended that Ayano murder too many people. For players who wish to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, every rival for senpai's affection also has a secondary love interest, so Ayano can play matchmaker and pair her rivals with other men. However, if Ayano pairs too many of her rivals with different men, senpai will become depressed, feeling that the other men are more attractive than he is, so the players will likely need to employ a combination of lethal and non-lethal methods of eliminating their rivals.
I am not certain exactly how I feel about this game. At this point, I have seen countless games whose critics have derisively referred to them as "murder simulators," but I usually ignore such accusations, because I know that most players are able to separate fiction from reality, and those who are not able to do so are a minority. However, I shall admit that I find this game to be particularity disturbing, and I am not easily disturbed. The entire point of the game is for a character to sabotage other character's relationships so that she can have a certain character all to herself, and the game actively encourages the player to ruin the reputation of her rivals, and even destroy their very lives. I do not expect that very many people who play this game shall actually reenact it, but I still feel that the creator of this game must be a very disturbed individual. However, I shall also give the creator credit for it, because it is a fairly brilliant and interesting idea; disturbing, but still brilliant.
The game is currently in demo/beta forms, with no definite release date for the final product, which can be downloaded from the official page to which I provided a link above. I doubt that I shall play this game, because I do not have the time for it and I find its premise to be far too disturbing, but I did wish to share it with everyone here, because of how unique and unusual it is. Also, here is a link to its Wikipedia article, for anyone who wishes for further information about it.
What does everyone else say about this game? Have you heard of it? Have you played any of its demo or beta versions? What is your opinion of it? I look forward to your responses.
Homura_Akemi says... #3
DemonDragonJ I'm so glad I stumbled upon this thread!!! Great job describing the game! As my username suggests, I'm a anime fan. I am also familiar with this game. A lot of people, myself included, believe the game and character were based off of an anime Future Diary with one of the main characters being a yandere. There are different "dere" types in relationships, typically used in romance, and the yandere is the friend or lover who appears to be super cute, friendly, and kind on the outside, but will turn into a psycho killer if anyone gets in the way of his or her senpai (a term used to show affection in this case, but it means older, respected friend/teacher). In Future Diary, Yuno Gasai is a HUGE yandere character. Throughout the anime community she is known as the Queen of Yandere, a rightly deserved title. While she seems extremely intelligent, attractive, and popular to the protagonist at first he discovers she'll do anything to be with him, meaning killing as many people as possible. In this show, though, the characters are in a death game similar to the Hunger Games where only one can survive, so the protagonist is lucky to have her on his side for protection. As to the disturbingness of this game, the creator did not make the idea of this game, he or she just converted it into a video game. I suppose it can be looked at as disturbing, although I will share what I think overall. I feel this game is targeted towards teenagers who have a lot of hormones flying around and as a result can be very lusting for a lack of better words. Most teenagers like someone, some have crushes on others and it can incite a lot of anger, or rather jealousy, when someone flirts with senpai. This game could be seen as a way of venting this anger by just killing people in a virtual game instead of in real life, but I agree the fine line between reality and the game is way too small here, which is disturbing. On the other hand, you can look at how many other popular video games are violent and more violent than this one. It's an interesting topic, especially how violent video games affect people and how their effects could result in real world violence. Yandere Simulator is a little more disturbing because it actually shows ways to kill other people in a school, which could possibly incite school violence and fights among real students if the game has enough of a negative influence. I personally think that in our world's media altogether there is way too much desensitization to violence in tv, movies, video games, books, etc. I hope Yandere Simulator has not and will not provoke anyone to cause harm to others in the real world.
But I still love Yuno. Here is a link to a video of some of her most famous moments, unfortunately French subtitles for most of it unless you speak the language, but you can just see what is going on. 6:20 is a great Yuno moment and 8:15 is basically the disturbingness of Yandere Simulator.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_f930HPMTUU
If you have any questions about this or other topics like what I have mentioned, then feel free to ask them!
On a last thought, I suppose Magic may be violent too, although not as seriously as any video games in my opinion. As once pointed out to me by a non Magic player, essentially the goal of every game is to beat your opponent by "killing" them by reducing their life to 0. And any type of Magic and means to doing this are somewhat justified, or okay in the game (ex: all of the colors, creatures, spells, etc.). I think that overall Magic is a good, fun game that involves a lot of art, language, money management, mathematics, critical thinking, and social interaction which are the benefits to the game and players more than the negative goal of "killing"/defeating your opponent.
DemonDragonJ says... #2
Another aspect of the game that I forgot to mention above is that there are numerous clubs in the school, which Ayano can join; doing so is optional, but it provides her with access to abilities and items that can make the game easier. I suspect that the game will not allow her to join every club, as that would make the game too easy, so the player shall need to carefully decide which clubs to join, depending upon how they choose to play the game (i.e., either super-violently or with minimal violence).
November 10, 2016 3:34 p.m.