Visual novels are no strangers to controversy and that’s a big part of why these novels are so appealing. It can be looked at like a taboo genre of games that you’re not supposed to play, and that makes them exciting. Then there are the reasons that they’re controversial. If you’re into something that’s not part of the mainstream, then visual novels may just be the best ways to get them. If you want to feel like you’re eating forbidden fruit, then they serve the same purpose. Here are some of the most controversial visual novels of all time.
Maggot Baits
Maggot Baits was released by ClockUp and it stands as one of the most controversial visual novels that you can still play today. It starts with your city being taken into another dimension where tentacle monsters use you as their main food source. It has plenty of things to make it something people can get worked up about. There’s plenty of gore and violence to keep you entertained. It also has sexual content and an antihero as its main character. There’s only one true ending with lots of bad endings that you can get as you work through it.
Cyanotype Daydream
Cyanotype Daydream is a very popular game from Laplacian and it’s controversial for some interesting reasons. The game was released for all ages to the Western world and that rubbed a lot of visual novel fans the wrong way. The publisher was very well known for its adult material before getting to this game. They decided to move away from it and only focus on general audiences with this game. It’s still seen as a game that real fans of visual novels won’t play because they felt betrayed by the move and the lack of sex scenes or nudity.
Sex with Hitler
With a name like Sex with Hitler, you already know that the game is out to be controversial. It’s what gets downloads and Romantic Room went all in on it. It was released for Windows and Mac in 2022 and it’s still going strong. It’s a mix of visual novel and top-down shooter where you’re Hitler. You have to date four women of four different ethnicity. It has lots and lots of negative reviews with people calling it everything from amateurish to non-erotic. No matter what they call it, people are still buying it and playing it to this day.
Shiny Day
Shiny Days is a Western remake of a Japanese game titled Summer Days. The game wasn’t controversial until it was shipped overseas. That’s because one of the game’s routes has your character, Kokoro, having sex with another classmate. While both characters are the same age, it had to be cut from the Western release because it could have easily been taken as child pornography. You have to play the Japanese version if you want to play through the sex scene and you don’t have to look hard to find it. The Western version, however, is the only translation.
Euphoria
Euphoria is a game that was immediately controversial on its release, and it should be no surprise once you find out what it’s about. You play a student who wakes and realizes he’s been kidnapped, along with his teacher and other students. Everyone in the group is forced to take part in both rape and torture if they want to survive. It’s not for anyone looking for a casual gaming experience. It’s a hardcore look at the worst things you can think of, but the game is still widely available, and anyone can start playing it right now. If you are faint of heart, skip it.
Muv-Luv Trilogy
The Muv-Luv Trilogy was controversial when it came out, just for the way the story was written and what happens to the characters. While it’s pretty beloved now, some audiences didn’t know what to make of it at first. Gamers either loved it or hated it with no in between. The story starts out as a straightforward romantic comedy with the first game, Extra. The second game took things in a different direction with an alternate timeline coming of age story in Unlimited. The final installment was a full-blown alien invasion war game with Alternative. Sounds bizarre, right?
Dohna Dohna
Dohna Dohna can definitely be classified as one of the most controversial games, both inside and outside of the visual novel community. That’s because it outright lets you kidnap women and force them into prostitution. It’s not just a mechanic of the game, though. The player has to fulfill specific conditions in order to trigger it and none of the kidnapping is done by the protagonist. Still, you do a lot of other bad things as the character. It’s not a surprise that so many people had a problem with it, but it’s still available for anyone who wants to try it out and see how far they can take things.
Yandere Simulator
Yandere Simulator is controversial for two main reasons. The first is that it’s filled with lots of violence. That wouldn’t be a big deal, but because of it, the game has been banned on Twitch. It gets more confusing, though. If you play the game in “1980s mode”, the streaming platform is more than okay with it. Although we know that the 1980s are a lot controversial times, especially more controversial than 2020s. The second reason is that it’s still an unfinished game. The main character is an obsessed girl who has to kill anyone who attracts the attention of the older man she’s in love with.
Conclusion: Controversial Visual Novels are Fun to Play
No matter how controversial a visual novel might be, it can still be a lot of fun to play. As long as people are buying them, the studios and publishers will make sure that they’re available. Even if you can’t find them on Steam, most publishers have them on their websites. You won’t know if the controversy is overblown until after you’ve tried it out for yourself. Give a controversial game a shot and you might just realize that you enjoy all the things that other people are upset about. It can be fun.