8 Great Games to Play From the Toxic Yuri Visual Novel Jam

By Willa Rowe | July 28, 2025 | 2:00pm

Image credits, clockwise from top center: Present Perceptual Consciousness; Aletheia; Cigarettes for Shion; Juliet's Sol

Video Games Lists toxic yuri

8 Great Games to Play From the Toxic Yuri Visual Novel Jam

One of the best parts about itch.io (when it isn’t deindexing games) is the digital storefront’s ability to host game jams. These not only invite developers to create interesting projects based on a theme, but provide tons of great (often short and free) games for people to enjoy. Such is the case for the recently concluded Toxic Yuri VN Jam, which has over 200 entries.

For those unfamiliar, toxic yuri typically describes stories about queer relationships between female-identifying characters that dig into more intense themes. Per the jam itself the theme can be interpreted as “anything from idiots navigating awful inexperienced romance to intentionally abusive violent criminal relationships.” Though with such a huge selection of wonderful games digging into adult themes it is hard to know where to even begin. That’s why I, a toxic-yuri expert (if I do say so myself), played dozens of entries and came up with this list of eight games worth checking out first. There is something here for everyone, ranging from sexy to sweet but all with their own brand of delicious toxicity.

It is worth noting that in the midst of writing this piece, itch’s de-indexing of adult and NSFW games has affected many titles in the Toxic Yuri VN jam. This is a direct result of groups like Collective Shout lobbying to payment processors. It is also a reminder that these efforts, though ostensibly about sexual content, often directly lead to censorship of queerness whether it deals with NSFW themes or not. The games on this list, the other entries in the jam, and all delisted games on itch.io should not be subject to censorship.

Juliet’s Sol

This is a visual novel for all the theater kids out there. It follows two girls, Jinx and Avery, as they navigate a romance during their school’s production of Romeo and Juliet. All the Shakespeare monologues just set the stage for the tragic romance of our two girls, who aren’t quite on the same page about their relationship. Juliet’s Sol is lighter on the toxicity than other entries in the jam, which makes it the perfect place to start if you aren’t ready to dive into the deep end.

The Lonely Dog Yearns for Love

Conversely, The Lonely Dog Yearns for Love is the deep end. A depressed girl named Rachel, with little concern for her own wellbeing, agrees to let a stranger own her for a day. Extremely horny scenarios ensue that include collars and much much more. This is very much a story about giving up freedom and finding pleasure in that and it’s down delightfully well thanks to simple but emotive art and a great script.

Present Perceptual Consciousness

Questionable power dynamics also play a role in Present Perceptual Consciousness, in which you take on the role of a newly created android interacting with your creator. It’s a sci-fi twist on the Pygmalion myth dealing with questions of autonomy. While the toxic tension at play here is especially palpable, again thanks to some truly evocative writing, it’s also a fascinating story to tell in a modern context. Who hasn’t read stories about people falling in love with AI?

Aletheia

Do you remember the bad sci-fi movie Passengers starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence? Well Aletheia is like if that was good and about lesbians. You awake aboard a space ship in which you and two other women (Rina and Rell) are the only residents who have prematurely woken from cryogenic sleep, which effectively condemns you to die on the ship before it reaches its destination. Rina seems to have accepted this fate and even enjoys it, while Rell wants to find a solution or at least discover who could be behind your collective fates. Aletheia is about deciding if you can trust either of them, and accepting you’ll have to live (or die) with that decision.

Connect the Dots

If there was an award for best looking game at the Toxic Yuri VN Jam it would undoubtedly go to Connect the Dots. The visual novel looks like a series of animation cells from an old anime, which is precisely the point. Connect the Dots is a playable fanfiction of Strange Dawn, a slightly obscure show from 2000. This context turns what is already an impressive visual novel into a wonderful piece of meta-fiction. Even if you don’t know anything about Strange Dawn, learning about the show and how Connect the Dots plays with it adds a layer of depth worth engaging in.

Cigarettes for Shion

Amongst a bevy of entries boasting scripts with thousands of words and multi hour runtimes, Cigarettes for Shion only lasts for exactly 100 words. It doesn’t need a single more. It is about the holes people leave in our hearts when they exit our lives and the way in which love can sometimes feel like a harmful addiction. It’s a simple but effective metaphor with a script that packs a heavy punch in a small package. This might just be the highest quality you can get in the smallest amount of time.

Offsuit Pair

While this is a visual novel jam, Offsuit Pair adds some extra spice. The story takes place during a train ride where a couple plays hands of poker to pass the time, so naturally you get to play these hands in a fully realized minigame. The twist is that Audrey, the domineering lover of our protagonist, doesn’t like to play fair. As you try to get the best hand you’ll notice Audrey cheating, often blatantly. It’s as if she dares you to do something about it, which you can try. Offsuit Pair uses its thrilling poker game to represent the ways in which Audrey and the protagonist engage in a high stakes romance that is more of a game than anything else. The challenge is finding a way to beat the proverbial house.

Your Glass Heart in My Hands

If you’ve played your fair share of yuri visual novels before then you most likely already know developer ebi-hime. The developer of games like Rituals in the Dark or this year’s Cage of Roses is something of a star in the genre. So it’s no surprise their entry, Your Glass Heart in My Hands, is a standout. It is something of a sampling platter of toxic yuri, with three shorter stories in a single package. Each story has its own beautiful love interest ready to do horrible things to you. Ebi-hime brings their talent for writing engrossing characters to each and you’ll likely decide by the game’s end that you’d let at least one of them get exactly what they want.

Willa Rowe is a queer games critic based in New York City whose writing has been featured in Digital Trends, Kotaku, Inverse, and more. She also hosts the Girl Mode podcast. When she isn’t talking games she can be found on Bluesky rooting for the New York Mets. (We forgive her.—Ed.)