Yandere School Review

Akari Furutaka is just a normal high school girl who has a crush and will make sure that said boy stays single until she can finally confess her love. I’d say through any means necessary, but it’s murder every time in Yandere School.

Each day is split into levels, with a daytime and nighttime. The first requires you to kill your targets and hide the bodies, the second is a bit more varied, as Akari has nightmares. You don’t always control her, or kill anyone, in the nightmares which makes them quite varied and fun.

Of course, the main aim is to not get caught doing a bit of murder, so you have to do a bit of planning. Can you get them alone? Will they go somewhere for a cigarette? Is there nobody currently around so you can chance it?

There are multiple weapons, or improvised ones, around the school, such as an axe, a knife, or your own hands as you shove them off the roof. Some of them move from day to day, so you can’t rely on the shovel being in easy reach each time!

You then have to dispose of the body, which is always by digging a grave and chucking them inside. Don’t worry about using up all of the good spots; the next day they’re empty once more. Sometimes the body doesn’t land in the hole, or there is a leg still sticking out, but don’t worry about that as you can usually try again.

If you’re spotted, the witness will go and tell a teacher, who will capture you. If you kill the witness, or anyone who isn’t a target, then you’ll be overcome with remorse and will have to tell your crush. Then the game will lock, with no controls working, the crush remaining fixed in place, and you’ll have to force close the game. I tried this a couple of times and it was the same each time.

The menus and on-screen buttons are just clearly upscaled touch screen controls, as Yandere School appears to have started as a mobile game, but released on Android and Steam on the same day in 2017. This means that the graphics are a bit basic, but it appears to be a stylistic choice. You probably don’t want your high school murder simulator to be very detailed.

The voice acting leaves much to be desired, and I was surprised to discover that it’s not text-to-speech. Every character sounds stiff and unnatural, and depending on how long you take to get your target you’ll be hearing them a lot.

How long Yandere School is will vary depending on how long it takes to murder. You can probably rush through it in under 45 minutes, depending on when and where you intend on doing the deed. The school is only three stories tall, and only two of the murders require you to wait for a period of time for the victim to leave a populated area.

There are also coins, used to buy clothes and hairdos, but I honestly don’t know how to earn them. You don’t get enough to buy everything by the end of the game, and there doesn’t appear to be a way to replay a day/night other than the final one.

Yandere School is clearly a bit of a mixed bag. While the gameplay loop can be enjoyable, it also can be repetitive. And in a game that’s under an hour long, that’s a bad sign. The music is decent and unobtrusive, but the voice acting grates. The graphics are fine, with each weapon having a unique animation which are fun to explore. It’s a shame that it’s over so quickly, but it tells its Generic Anime Story (complimentary) and doesn’t hang around.