Five Dark Yuri Visual Novels to Consider Playing While You're Quarantined / Social-Distancing / Self-Isolating

I’m going to go ahead and date this post by talking about current events. It’s the last full week of March. The world is suffering from a global pandemic and a lot of us are now toughing out a second week of being told to stay at home, with or without pay.

So if you’re bored of being cooped up at home and you’re in the mood to get depressed and distracted by dark yuri visual novels so you’re no longer dwelling on what’s happening all around you, then look no further. Here are five visual novels revolving around gay girls who’re stuck enduring similarly turbulent times.

Don’t worry, this list will have no spoilers! That’ll defeat the purpose of this list, right?

Without A Voice

Released only a few days ago (at the time of this post, of course), Without A Voice takes place within a secluded forest and is about the fated meeting between an exiled princess and a mysterious beauty. Since Cassidy starts off as a somewhat naive and sheltered girl, the choices the readers choose really determine her view of the world and those around her. In other words, we get to see Cassidy grow up during the visual novel, but selecting the wrong choices will cause her to become distrustful (or too trusting), which can lead to misunderstandings (or betrayal), which then result in bad endings.

Be that as it may, there’s a considerable amount of fluff between Cassidy and Elowen in spite of the potential tragedies and the two good endings are both very fulfilling in different ways. I also love how Without A Voice contains good bits of advice without coming across as preachy (i.e. a relationship will have a shaky foundation if it’s solely based on physical attraction, the difference between love and obsession is rather thin, you might have to cut people out of your life if they can’t get over their prejudices, etc). It just so happens that this lovely indie visual novel is free, but I highly recommend purchasing the art book. It’s also the only short visual novel on this list for what it’s worth!

Without A Voice can be purchased on Steam and on itch.io.

Heart of the Woods

Heart of the Woods is more or less a modern fairy tale about Tara and Maddie, two vloggers who report on paranormal activities. While their final trip together starts off as tense but otherwise relatively normal, it quickly spirals into something much more fantastic with incredibly high stakes. Yet amidst all of the craziness and the tragic setbacks, romance blossoms (not between Tara and Maddie, don’t worry).

Shit really gets real in this visual novel so my hands are tied here, but Heart of the Woods is really polished and so atmospheric. You really should play this!

(Please also note that this is the only visual novel on this list with intimate sex scenes. If that offends you just don’t install the DLC, I guess. Heart of the Woods is still great either way).

You can purchase Heart of the Woods on Steam and on Sekai Project.

Nurse Love Addiction

While Nurse Love Addiction is an indirect sequel to Nurse Love Syndrome, the former features no returning characters from the latter so you can just play Nurse Love Addiction if you’re hankering for some grim events. Truly amazing stuff happens in this one, but spoilers suck so once again I can’t really say all that much. What I can say, however, is that this probably one of the darkest yuri visual novels ever made and that the bad endings are morbid yet fascinating…

Nurse Love Addiction is available on Steam.

The Shadows of Pygmalion

The next two on this list are more action-orientated (but still very dark of course). In The Shadows of Pygmalion, the world is overrun by puppets and a normal high school girl gets roped into joining this everlasting battle where humans destroy these fake humans. And yet things are not as they initially seem…

I have to admit, I still get shivers thinking about what happens in this game and it’s been three years since I’ve touched the visual novel. The Shadows of Pygmalion gets genuinely scary sometimes and if you’re afraid of dolls or puppets, you should probably stay away. Furthermore, all of the endings are bittersweet at best (but are closer to being downright depressing). Some points unfortunately are left vague so the reader has to draw their own conclusions, but that also means you can’t really stop thinking about this visual novel, right?

The Shadows of Pygmalion can be bought on Steam and on MangaGamer.

Fatal Twelve

In the world of Fatal Twelve, twelve individuals are forced into a cruel, twisted game by a sadistic goddess. The thing is, all of these participants are already dead. But for the sake of this game, their deaths have been temporarily undone and now they have to kill each other by guessing each other’s names, manner of death, and regret in life. Last one standing gets their death permanently reversed.

Of course, things are different compared to how they are at first glance, but the very nature of this game more or less guarantees that this is going to get very dark, doesn’t it? Alas, the yuri largely plays second fiddle to the overarching plot, but there are lots of blatant hints throughout the visual novel to the point the protagonist just puts the romance on hold due to having to deal with the ongoing ganr and it does come to fruition towards the end of the visual novel (plus also there’s a yuri ship that doesn’t work out despite a direct confession). If Without A Voice left me feeling fulfilled, and Heart of the Woods rendered me feeling fuzzy, and Nurse Love Addiction made me morbidly fascinated, and The Shadows of Pygmalion made me terrified, then Fatal Twelve kept me on the edge of my seat.

Fatal Twelve can be snagged up on Steam.

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Arigathanks for reading.

Stay tuned for another list later this week where I recommend some happier yuri visual novels if that’s more your cham jam.

Edit: stuff happened. There will no list of fluffy yuri visual novels for a while. Sorry.