Borrow the form of an otome game, then break romance with it. The subject is suicide and self-harm, and the game says so up front.
First, the subject: Club Suicide is about suicide and self-harm. The developer's own Steam description lists blood, violence, severe self-harm depiction and suicidal suggestion, and its store description adds a note that the game contains some violent and sexual depictions, abusive language and strong expressions. It is an adventure visual novel with branching choices (Japanese Wikipedia lists 25 or more endings for the complete edition, 20 in the 2020 original), and its premise is anti-romance: it borrows the otome-game form and subverts the conventions of romance. The developer is MORPATH, a Japanese game-making circle (Steam developers field and Japanese Wikipedia); the Steam publisher is Celtia. The original came out on October 30, 2020 on DLsite and BOOTH, and the Steam version of June 5, 2023 is the complete edition, with strengthened graphics and sound and a substantially expanded story. Very Positive at 97 percent, 177 of 182 reviews, ¥1,320, not free, not in Early Access. There is a free demo on BOOTH (0 yen, Windows and macOS). By language, 122 of the 182 reviews are Simplified Chinese, 37 Japanese, 12 English, 5 Traditional Chinese, 4 Korean and 2 other: Japanese is not the largest, so this is not a game praised mainly in Japan. Steam supports Japanese only. Japanese Wikipedia has an entry. With 12 English reviews, it has barely reached English-speaking players.
Published 2026-08-21
01First, the one feeling
- The game borrows the otome-game form and subverts the conventions of romance, so the familiar shape of choosing a path toward someone becomes the thing the story takes apart.
- With branching choices and 25 or more endings in the complete edition per Japanese Wikipedia, each choice is a branch in the story rather than a step toward a fixed romantic reward, so the ending you reach depends on the path you chose.
- CG mode and some other game functions were intentionally removed as a mark of respect for the characters, per Japanese Wikipedia, so the game withholds the usual collect-and-revisit layer and leaves the story itself as what you take away.
02Who this is for (and who it is not)
For you
- You want the taste of Doki Doki Literature Club!, a romance-game form that is broken from the inside and deals with suicide, in a branching visual novel made by a Japanese circle
- You like branching visual novels with many endings (25 or more in the complete edition per Japanese Wikipedia) and an anti-romance premise set on the otome-game form
- You want a work whose BOOTH page calls it an anti-romance ADV, and you are fine with its stated subject matter of suicide and severe self-harm depiction
Not for you
- You need English or want to avoid its subject: Steam supports Japanese only, and the content is blood, violence, severe self-harm depiction and suicidal suggestion, with the store's note of some violent and sexual depictions, abusive language and strong expressions
- You want a free game or a Japan-centered verdict: the Steam complete edition is ¥1,320, only the BOOTH demo is free, and of 182 reviews only 37 are Japanese against 122 Simplified Chinese
03The roots of this taste
97% positiveonly 182 reviewsno English support yet — yet almost no one has found it
Club Suicide Buried gem
Club Suicide is about suicide and self-harm, and this page says so first: the developer's own Steam description lists blood, violence, severe self-harm depiction and suicidal suggestion, and its store description adds a note that the game contains some violent and sexual depictions, abusive language and strong expressions. It is an adventure visual novel with branching choices; Japanese Wikipedia lists 25 or more endings for the complete edition (20 in the 2020 original). Its premise is anti-romance: it borrows the otome-game form and subverts the conventions of romance, and the BOOTH page of the original describes it as an anti-romance ADV. The developer is MORPATH, a Japanese game-making circle, and the publisher on Steam is Celtia. The original version came out on October 30, 2020 on DLsite and BOOTH; the Steam version, released on June 5, 2023, is the complete edition, with strengthened graphics and sound and a substantially expanded story. The Steam version is a paid title at ¥1,320, not free, and not in Early Access; there is, however, a free demo on BOOTH (0 yen, Windows and macOS). On Steam it is Very Positive at 97 percent: 177 of 182 reviews are positive. By language, 122 are Simplified Chinese, 37 Japanese, 12 English, 5 Traditional Chinese, 4 Korean and 2 other, so Japanese is not the largest language and this is not a game praised mainly in Japan. Steam's supported language is Japanese only, with no English support.
Give it your first passDoki Doki Literature Club! The origin
The origin of this taste: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Steam app 698780). The link to Club Suicide is this site's own reading, not a claim by the developer: neither the developer nor the reviews are cited as saying Club Suicide was influenced by it or pays homage to it, and it is not a spiritual sequel. What carries over is the shape. Both use a romance-game form and break it, both deal with suicide, and on Steam both carry the Psychological Horror and Visual Novel tags. Where they plainly differ: Club Suicide is a Japanese-circle work whose Steam page supports Japanese only, sold as a paid complete edition of a 2020 original, and its anti-romance premise is stated on Japanese Wikipedia and on the BOOTH demo page (sold by the publisher Celtia).
Give it your first pass04Make this gem shine
If it speaks to you, check it on Steam and give it your first pass. Your push is what makes a buried gem shine.
You gave it your pass. The gem just caught the light.
05The bloodline of this taste
- Doki Doki Literature Club! Root
- Club Suicide You are here
- For the GHOSTs same root
- BAKU same root
- Read-and-build games another taste