When Yanderes Cry

When Yanderes Cry is a horror game made by Kousuke-shii. As far as horror games go, despite the idea of ''focusing on yanderes'' it is still a pretty typical and generic game. You might have noticed that I put ''focusing on yanderes'' in commas, and I'll get to why I did that in a bit.

The game is about Nishiki, your typical nice-gets-all-the-girls guy. One day, his child hood friend confesses to her and they end up becoming girlfriend-boyfriend. They decide to take a vacation to a cabin up on the mountains. Things obviously go wrong. I don't really want to give spoilers(even though there isn't much to spoil), so all I'm gonna say is: Stabbidy stab stab, main character flees into the woods and that's when the game begins. You are left to wander around the woods, meet the yandere and run to a mansion and stuff.

The game mostly uses RTP graphics with a few custom stuff. Compared to some other games, the tiles are actually used quite well used and the mapping is pretty good. There is nothing too extraordinary with the maps, but they are still enough to satisfy. Though I will admit that the forest maps are... a little weird with the tile usage.


Ever heard of shift mapping, buddy?

I also thought the face generator was used well and actually had some pretty beautiful face sets.

Gameplay wise is where the game is ''really generic''. It mostly focuses around going around a dark mansion and collecting items. It can get pretty boring, as the game's main antagonist barely shows up to give any action. In fact, she only appears 3-4 times throughout the whole game, two of which are just game overs if you get curious and decide to approach her, one is a little stealth section which is relatively easy to get through unless you miss the shadow in the dark of the mansion and end up running into her, and the other one is just a mini chase as she is in a hallway nearby. She is relatively easy to get away from though. However the game has... another threat.


You get these random screamer deaths every once in a while. They are usually out of nowhere and are given no warning to. Even things like just checking a well can give you one of these, which barely makes any sense. Why is she in the well? Who is she(you never do find out in the game)? These little pop-ups were a little annoying in my opinion. Especially the first one. No warning given what so ever and you will have to restart the game if you do end up finding her.


The game features a series of yandere characters. The game's cast is also relatively large. First, we have Nishiki. Believe me when I say, he is SUPER generic. He runs into a mansion to be safe from yanderes, eventually finds out the mansion is even more dangerous but DECIDES TO STAY. He isn't really given much of a charcater, most of the time he's just this expressionless and some times scared dude who is trying to survive. The game has a series of yandere characters. These yandere characters are spin-offs of yanderes from anime series. We have Yuna, who is a spin-off of Yuno Gasai from Mirai Nikki. She even shares a similar personality to the point where she is also a popular girl in school, just like Yuno. We have Sunako, who I believe is inspired by a character from school days(haven't seen the anime). Then, we have Akiko Higurashi, and if her family name doesn't give it away already, she is inspired from Rena from Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Though I am kinda curious why the developer went for Rena instead of Shion since Rena is more of a Yangire than a Yandere(the difference is that a yandere is some one who is obsessed over a specific person while a yangire just goes batshit crazy over anything, not necessarily a person). We also have Rika, whom I believe is an original character(though she does seem to have a similar personality to Oka Ruto from Yandere Simulator. Both characters are socially awkward and into occults). We finally have Mai, who is the only non-yandere girl in the game.

For the most part, barely any characteristics is given to the character except for their descriptions in the tutorial. If you just decided to skip the tutorial you probably wouldn't even know who they are. All characters are only present in the opening and ending of the game, however for 80% they aren't even there, which is weird considering the game is supposed to be based around them.

The last charcater we have is the shadow. Or at least, the last character that you actually get to see. The shadow just feels like a waste of space. While she does work as an obstacle in the game, you also don't get to see her much(see above)and she isn't given any story at all. No backstory, no explanation of who she is, nothing. The only time she does get mentioned as a part of the story is when you read a note telling you that you should avoid her. We also have three characters from the notes you read in the castle. Umi Nishimoto, a maid in the mansion, the master of the house and his wife. Umi, while only seen in notes, atleast has a little bit of a story of her own. We know she comes from a poor family and takes the job in the mansion as a maid to feed her little brothers, but that's also all you learn about her. I feel like the characters were the biggest con of the game.

The story isn't particularly interesting. The twist it delivers isn't a twist at all and even though it does have some good points it could have developed on, it mainly just casts everything except for Umi's story aside. I wish there was a larger focus on the yandere characters and the shadow instead of such a large focus on Umi when her story doesn't even really lead to anywhere interesting.


Speaking of little to no development on characters, this is actually the first time you ever get to see Rika in the game, and she doesn't even get a minute worth of a role. Why add another character into the game if you are just gonna use her as a space filler?

There was also one other huge disappointement with the game: The endings.
The game features 4 endings, and none of these is actually a good ending. Usually, I'm fine with not having good endings in games, but the way When Yanderes Cry pulled it off was really stupid in my opinion. Just in case of spoilers...



Overall, I think When Yanderes Cry is a good first attempt that could have been way better if not for it's lack of character development and weak story. I honestly wish the best for the developer as they have honestly shown their potential, but they just need to expand upon their ideas a little more in my opinion.

Oh and one last thing I would like to point out from the credits.


If you are using some one else's art, you should probably credit them by name with a link to their art blog instead of just giving them a special thanks.