Yandere Simulator

1980 mode centers upon Ryoba a teenage girl who has become obsessed with a popular male student named Jokichi. Her path to love is not without obstacles, as ten rivals will 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.

In 2020, the game's first demo was released along with Ayano's first rival, Osana Najimi.[17]

A prequel mode, named "1980s mode" was released in October 2021.[1] This mode is a story mode that follows Ayano Aishi's mother, Ryoba Aishi, and follows the same storyline as the main story. The developer has stated that this mode was created to test the games various systems. 1980s mode features VHS effects and a new soundtrack in order to differentiate it from the main story.[1]

The game has received criticism over its content and themes, with the most common criticism centering upon the presence of sexuality and murder.[18] 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 allowed 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".[18]^: 11

Cecilia D'Anastasio, writing for Kotaku, covered the debug version in a 2017 article; they 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."[13] D'Anastasio went on to interview YandereDev in the same article, who stated that the game "pivots on the archetype of an obsessed, violent stalker, rather than female stereotypes."[13]

In 2016 Yandere Simulator was added to the list of banned games by the streaming service Twitch. Mahan was a vocal critic of the ban, stating 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."[6] He further criticized the ban as a result of "self-righteous ideologies".[19]

Fans 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.[14][16]

In late 2023, following the allegations of YandereDev grooming a minor after evidence surfaced, several of the game's developers and voice actors, including Ayano's voice actress Michaela Laws, left the project.[10]