Creepy Creepy Love

Creepy Creepy Love is a psychological horror dating simulator that quickly devolves into a brutal love thriller, starring Rosa Akuma, a yandere protagonist fiercely devoted to her childhood friend, Samon Ribasa. Players guide Rosa as she eliminates romantic rivals through intense one-on-one combat, reminiscent of Punch-Out!!, featuring dodges, precise attacks, and ground finishers, all presented with an anime/manga art style. Player choices in the visual novel narrative critically shape the plot, leading to one of three ‘crazy’ and shocking endings as Rosa strives to defeat her enemies and win Samon’s affection.

Creepy Creepy Love: A Brutal Symphony of Obsession

The annals of video game history are replete with tales of love, loss, and heroism, but rarely do they delve into the raw, unsettling depths of unchecked obsession with the visceral punch of BYYONI Entertainment’s Creepy Creepy Love. Released in its full, remade glory on October 7, 2024, this indie title defies easy categorization, weaving a psychological horror narrative with arcade-style beat ’em up combat, all driven by the chilling premise of a yandere protagonist. Far from a mere dating sim, Creepy Creepy Love is a stark, brutal exploration of toxic affection, where every choice is a potential descent into madness. As a game journalist and historian, I find its blend of thematic intensity, genre-bending design, and unapologetic brutality to be a compelling, if deeply uncomfortable, experience that carves its own bloody path in the indie landscape. This review will dissect the layers of its development, narrative, mechanics, and reception to understand its unique legacy.

Development History & Context

Creepy Creepy Love emerges from the creative crucible of BYYONI Entertainment, primarily the singular vision of the developer BYYONI themselves. Initially a more modest affair, first released in February 2023 for Windows, the game underwent a significant transformation. A remade demo hit Steam on February 14, 2024, culminating in the full game’s release on October 7, 2024. This iterative development speaks to BYYONI’s commitment to refining their unsettling vision.

The choice of the RPG Maker engine for Creepy Creepy Love is both a testament to indie ingenuity and a source of some of its unique characteristics and limitations. While RPG Maker is often associated with traditional role-playing games, BYYONI leveraged its flexibility to craft a visual novel framework integrated with a surprisingly robust, if unconventional, combat system. This engine choice, however, presented technical hurdles, particularly for implementing player-friendly features like keybinding options and advanced gamepad support, as noted by the developer in community discussions.

BYYONI’s creative inspirations are a fascinating blend of diverse influences. They cite Konami games of the PS1 era, the cult-favorite works of Suda51 and Swery65, the surrealism of David Lynch, and the raw spectacle of professional wrestling. This eclectic mix manifests in the game’s “strange and slightly mad atmosphere” and its capacity for unexpected twists. The genesis of Creepy Creepy Love itself is particularly telling: it evolved from an initial concept for a UFC simulator with trash talk, inspired by the controversial Khabib vs. McGregor fight, before BYYONI decided to make it “crazier” and infused it with the yandere dating sim elements it’s now known for.

Contextually, Creepy Creepy Love finds its place in a burgeoning niche of indie games that combine visual novel storytelling with interactive, often violent, gameplay. Its explicit yandere theme and psychological horror bent align with a growing player appetite for darker, more challenging narratives. Furthermore, the game exists within a broader “universe” connected to BYYONI’s larger project, Mind Control: Bloody Renaissance. As the developer explains, Creepy Creepy Love is actually a video game developed by one of Mind Control‘s playable characters, Samon Audley, and the shared universe is more of a “vibe” than a direct narrative continuation, offering subtle thematic echoes rather than linear plot progression. This meta-narrative layer adds another intriguing dimension to the game’s identity.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

At its core, Creepy Creepy Love is a chillingly direct and brutal love story, where love is less an emotion and more a violent imperative. The game’s premise is established immediately: Rosa Akuma is consumed by an all-encompassing love for her childhood friend, Samon Ribasa, and she will stop at nothing, including extreme physical violence, to eliminate any perceived rivals for his affection. The narrative takes the form of a visual novel, punctuated by brutal one-on-one duels, where the player’s choices directly dictate Rosa’s path and the game’s shocking conclusions.

Character Analysis

• Rosa Akuma: The unhinged protagonist, Rosa is the embodiment of the yandere archetype. Her deep, unhealthy affection for Samon drives every action. Despite her seemingly ordinary high school girl persona, she exhibits immense physical strength, capable of overpowering opponents wielding weapons like metal pipes and knives, and brutally “knocking teeth out.” Her motivations are singular: to make Samon fall for her and marry her “at all cost.” She shows little patience or mercy, and her manipulative tendencies are chillingly revealed in endings like the “Housewife Ending,” where she intentionally becomes pregnant to control Samon. Rosa’s backstory remains largely unexplored, emphasizing her present, all-consuming obsession.

• Samon Ribasa: The deuteragonist, Samon is less a character with agency and more a coveted prize. As Rosa’s childhood friend and the object of affection for all rivals, his passivity makes him a stark contrast to Rosa’s aggressive pursuit. Little is known about him beyond his popularity and his occasional struggles (P.E. grades, math exams), which unwittingly become opportunities for rivals to approach him, thus signing their own violent fates. His presence primarily serves as a catalyst for Rosa’s increasingly extreme actions.

• The Rivals: Each rival is an obstacle in Rosa’s distorted quest for love, serving to highlight her escalating brutality.

  • Yuki: The first rival, attempting to help Samon with P.E.
  • Momo: The second, offering math tutoring.
  • Tsubaki: The third, a Sukeban group leader who confronts Rosa with a metal pipe, requiring Rosa to dispatch her friends first.
  • Emi: The fourth, a new student whose father owns a beauty salon, offering Samon a promotional ticket.
  • Akio (formerly Aki): The fifth, a theater kid with overt sexist views, who offers Samon a rehearsal plan. His sexism serves as a twisted justification for Rosa’s violence in that path.
  • Hinata: The sixth, who plans a concert outing with Samon. Unique among rivals, she declines Rosa’s initial challenge and later attacks Rosa with a knife, explicitly planning to kill her. This makes her elimination feel, paradoxically, the most “justified” from a self-defense standpoint, yet Rosa’s response is still horrific.
  • Ichi: The bonus rival, leader of the Yamamoto clan, encountered only in the “Yakuza Ending.” He represents a full immersion into a criminal underworld.

• Supporting Figures: Ribasu-Sama (Samon’s father) plays a pivotal, unsettling role in the Yakuza ending, showcasing a deeper, darker family connection. Mungo acts as his enforcer. Donald Carpenter, a police officer in the Prisoner ending, is a brief, tragic figure.

Dialogue & Story Progression

The game’s narrative progresses through visual novel segments, featuring character portraits that, as noted by the developer, allow for “funny grimaces” and “leopard-like” facial changes, contributing to the unsettling atmosphere. The dialogue often takes the form of Rosa’s internal monologue or her confrontations with rivals, quickly escalating from insult to challenge. The brevity of character introductions and motivations for the rivals underscores their function as disposable obstacles rather than fully fleshed-out characters, serving primarily to fuel Rosa’s rage and the player’s choices.

Underlying Themes

• Obsession & The Yandere Archetype: This is the central pillar. The game unflinchingly portrays the destructive nature of unchecked romantic obsession. Rosa’s actions redefine “love” as a brutal, possessive force, distorting traditional notions of romance into psychological horror.
• Choice & Consequence: The game’s core mechanic—the “spare or kill” decision after each fight—is designed to highlight moral responsibility. “Every decision you make affects the development of the plot. Take responsibility for your actions, at least in a video game!” the game explicitly states. These choices aren’t trivial; they branch into radically different, “shocking” endings.
• Violence & Dehumanization: Creepy Creepy Love revels in its explicit violence. The descriptions of Rosa’s kills are gruesome: running over and throwing bodies off bridges, shattering glasses and destroying eyes, ripping off jaws with metal pipes, setting opponents on fire, skinning faces, and stabbing to death. This extreme portrayal desensitizes the player to the acts themselves, making the rivals mere targets for Rosa’s wrath, embodying the dehumanizing effect of her obsession.
• Psychological Horror & Dark Comedy: While undeniably a psychological horror, elements of “dark comedy” and “parody” are present. The exaggerated violence, the developer’s penchant for “funny grimaces,” and the overall “schlocky” feel (as one player described it) suggest an intentional over-the-top quality that borders on satire, albeit a very dark one.

Endings Analysis

The game’s three distinct endings are the ultimate reflections of player choice and Rosa’s journey.

• Housewife Ending (Spare all rivals): This path initially appears to be the “happiest” for Rosa, as she successfully manipulates Samon into marriage and pregnancy. However, the horror quickly returns. Hinata, one of the spared rivals, resurfaces in the Ribasu family mansion, initiating a survival horror sequence reminiscent of Clock Tower. Rosa is forced to defend herself again, brutally killing Hinata with a knife, only for Samon’s father, Ribasu-Sama, and his guards to finish Hinata off. The ending implies Rosa has achieved her goal of becoming a Ribasu, but her methods remain violent, and the lingering trauma (suggesting they shouldn’t name a daughter Hinata) showcases the lasting impact of her actions. This ending questions whether Rosa truly found happiness or merely a new form of twisted control.

• Prisoner Ending (Murder all rivals): The most direct consequence of Rosa’s unbridled violence, this ending sees her committed to a prison for the mentally insane. Her escape a year later leads to a terrifying chase sequence where she pursues Samon, declaring her desire to be “together in the afterlife.” In a final, desperate act, Samon kills Rosa with a shovel. The post-credits scene reveals Rosa’s body in a cemetery, but her head is missing, leaving a macabre, unresolved image. This ending fully embraces the psychological horror and yandere tropes, presenting a chilling fulfillment of Rosa’s lethal “love.”

• Seventh Fight + Yakuza Ending (Kill only Hinata, spare other rivals): This path takes a significant genre swerve into action-thriller territory. By killing only Hinata (who attacked Rosa first), Rosa earns the unexpected approval of Ribasu-Sama, Samon’s father. He reveals his knowledge of her actions and, surprisingly, inducts her into the Ribasu family as an enforcer. Tasked with eliminating Ichi Yamamoto, a renegade Yakuza leader, Rosa navigates a full-scale gang war, fighting multiple Yamamoto clan members before finally confronting Ichi in his office. There, she eschews the “spare or kill” option and executes him with his own gun. This ending sees Rosa’s violence legitimized and channeled, transforming her into a yakuza assassin, a dark culmination of her strength and willingness to kill, albeit for a different, more organized “family.”

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Creepy Creepy Love presents a distinctive blend of interactive fiction and arcade combat, creating a gameplay loop that is both unique and, at times, polarizing.

Core Gameplay Loops

The fundamental structure of the game alternates between visual novel segments, where the narrative unfolds through dialogue and character portraits, and one-on-one fighting mini-games. This “key pressing based combat system” serves as the primary interactive element outside of dialogue choices. The developer also hinted at future gameplay tied to “exploration and action,” suggesting an evolving design beyond the initial release.

Combat System

The combat is the game’s most distinguishing mechanical feature. It’s described as “similar to Punch-Out!!” which immediately conjures images of rhythmic dodging, precise counter-attacks, and learning opponent patterns. Players engage in “one-on-one duels with MMA elements,” utilizing “punching and kicking.” A unique “parterre” mechanic allows Rosa to finish off downed opponents, requiring the player to “guess right to punch their teeth out” – a grim mini-game that directly feeds into the game’s brutal aesthetic. In certain scenarios, particularly the fight against Tsubaki’s Sukeban group and the Yamamoto clan in the Yakuza ending, Rosa faces “multiple opponents in Beat em up style,” adding layers of action to the primarily dueling format. The “juicy sounds of punches and blood splatters” are explicitly mentioned as contributing to this arcade street fighting simulator feel.

UI, Controls & Progression

The game employs “direct control” for combat, relying on keyboard inputs. However, a recurring piece of player feedback and a recognized developer challenge was the lack of customizable keybinding options, largely attributed to the limitations of the RPG Maker engine. Players also requested quality-of-life features such as skipping opening cinematics and dialogue, more explicit button prompts during knockdown sequences, and consistent button assignments for different attack types. The game also features a non-deactivatable CRT filter effect, contributing to its retro aesthetic.

There is no explicit character progression system for Rosa in terms of traditional RPG stats or unlockable abilities. Instead, player progression is primarily skill-based, requiring players to learn the timing and patterns of each rival to succeed in combat. Narrative progression, however, is deeply rooted in the player’s choices, with each “spare or kill” decision shaping Rosa’s moral trajectory and leading to one of the three “shocking endings.” The game features 25 Steam Achievements, encouraging multiple playthroughs to experience different outcomes.

Innovative or Flawed Systems

• Innovation: The fusion of psychological horror visual novel with Punch-Out!!-inspired combat is genuinely innovative, particularly within the RPG Maker framework. The stark, impactful choices that genuinely alter the narrative path are well-executed. The “parterre” finishing move, while morbid, adds a unique interactive layer to the combat’s conclusion. The developer’s commitment to delivering a truly choice-driven experience, where “one mistake and you have made a fatal mistake,” sets it apart from many visual novels.
• Flaws: The primary mechanical flaws revolve around the RPG Maker engine’s limitations, specifically the lack of customizable controls and features like quick-skip for dialogue, which are often standard in visual novels. Some player feedback suggests that certain boss patterns (e.g., Tsubaki punishing blocks) or the general difficulty curve could be frustrating, hinting at areas for refinement in future updates. The developer’s acknowledgement of these issues and plans for future updates (e.g., arcade mode, new opponents) indicate a willingness to improve the experience.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Creepy Creepy Love crafts a world that is both mundane and horrifying, utilizing its artistic and auditory elements to amplify its unsettling atmosphere.

Setting & Atmosphere

The game unfolds in a contemporary Japanese high school setting, quickly transitioning into more perilous urban environments like parks, school rooftops, an old harbor, an abandoned lot, and eventually, the opulent but dangerous Ribasu family mansion or a desolate cemetery. The “Yakuza Ending” expands this to a downtown area rife with gang conflict. This mundane backdrop for Rosa’s extreme actions creates a jarring and effective sense of psychological horror. The developer’s stated aim to create a “strange and slightly mad atmosphere” is consistently achieved, pervading every scene with a sense of unease and impending violence. The game is upfront about its content, featuring “scenes of cruelty and violence, as well as non-censored vocabulary,” making it clear this is a dark and mature experience.

Visual Direction

• Art Style: The visual direction is a striking blend of “Anime / Manga” style for its character portraits and “Pixel Art” for its character sprites and environments. BYYONI themselves handled the pixel art and sprites, while galvanicAnimal contributed the distinctive character portraits and illustrations. This duality between detailed, expressive portraits and more abstracted pixel sprites creates a unique aesthetic that complements the visual novel format.
• Perspective & Presentation: The game uses a “Diagonal-down” perspective with “Fixed / flip-screen” visuals, reminiscent of older adventure games or classic RPGs. This choice provides a somewhat detached, almost voyeuristic view of the unfolding brutality.
• Expressiveness: A hallmark of the visual design is the expressive, often grotesque, nature of the character portraits. The developer’s admitted love for drawing “funny grimaces” and a player’s observation of “leopard-like” facial changes contribute significantly to the psychological horror, depicting characters (especially Rosa) contorting in rage or madness.
• Remake Enhancements: The remake boasts “completely different graphics,” “smoother animations and new special moves,” enhancing the visual fluidity of combat and narrative sequences. Crucially, players can unlock the original classic graphics after completing the game, offering a nostalgic alternative.

Sound Design

The soundscape of Creepy Creepy Love is designed to enhance its visceral impact. The “juicy sounds of punches and blood splatters” are explicitly mentioned, underscoring the game’s commitment to its brutal combat. The music, composed by BYYONI, CtrlWhat?!, and lq54, with trailer music by Sunny Holocaust, plays a critical role in setting the tone. Players have specifically lauded tracks like Hinata’s battle theme, which “just shouts, ‘Kill!’,” indicating the music effectively amplifies the tension and aggression of the fights. The availability of an official soundtrack, including alternate and unused tracks, speaks to the importance placed on the game’s auditory experience.

Reception & Legacy

Creepy Creepy Love has carved out a unique, if still developing, reputation since its launch. Despite being a relatively new title, its reception has been largely positive within its community, hinting at a potential cult classic status.

Critical and Commercial Reception at Launch

As of now, Creepy Creepy Love has not received extensive coverage from traditional game critics, with MobyGames explicitly stating, “Be the first to add a critic review for this title!” This is common for many indie games, particularly those from smaller, independent developers using engines like RPG Maker.

However, player reception has been remarkably strong. On Steam, the game boasts an “Overall Reviews: Positive (92% of 42)” rating, and Steambase reports an impressive “Player Score of 94/100,” classifying it as “Very Positive” from 52 total reviews. The itch.io version, likely the original demo or initial release, also holds a high rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars from 9 total ratings. This indicates that players who engage with the game generally appreciate its unique style and thematic daring.

Commercially, the picture is more nuanced. Despite the positive player reviews, the developer, BYYONI, candidly expressed concerns shortly after the Steam release in October 2024: “I’m still recovering from the release of Creepy Creepy Love, and it’s hard to call it a success. In four days, not many people have played it, and honestly, that’s thrown me off balance a bit.” This highlights the challenging reality for many indie creators, where critical acclaim and strong niche reception don’t always translate into widespread commercial success.

Evolution of Reputation and Influence

Despite its humble commercial start, Creepy Creepy Love‘s reputation appears to be evolving into that of a beloved, if niche, title. The developer’s active engagement with the community on platforms like Steam and itch.io, responding to feedback, discussing inspirations, and even implementing player suggestions through frequent patches, fosters a strong sense of connection and loyalty among its player base. Plans for future updates, including an arcade mode, new opponents, and even a potential fourth ending, demonstrate BYYONI’s commitment to supporting and expanding the game.

Its influence, while perhaps not industry-wide, is significant within its specific subgenres. Its bold fusion of visual novel storytelling with a unique, retro-inspired fighting system, all wrapped in a psychological yandere horror package, serves as a compelling example for other indie developers aiming to push creative boundaries with limited resources. The game’s unapologetic portrayal of violence and obsession, combined with its distinct anime/pixel art style, has resonated with fans looking for unconventional, visceral experiences. Furthermore, its conceptual link to the larger Mind Control universe ensures that Creepy Creepy Love is not an isolated experiment but a foundational piece of BYYONI’s broader creative vision, potentially influencing how future players approach and interpret Mind Control. For those interested in the darker, more experimental corners of the indie scene, Creepy Creepy Love stands as a memorable, if unsettling, landmark.

Conclusion

Creepy Creepy Love is not a game for the faint of heart, nor for those seeking a conventional romance. Instead, it offers a stark, unflinching look into the abyss of obsessive love, rendered with a unique blend of visual novel storytelling and brutal arcade combat. BYYONI Entertainment, largely a solo endeavor, has crafted an experience that is at once disturbing, compelling, and uniquely memorable.

Its strengths lie in its uncompromising narrative that dares to depict the yandere archetype in its most violent form, coupled with a genuinely impactful choice-and-consequence system that leads to dramatically different, “shocking” endings. The distinctive anime/pixel art style, complete with grotesque “grimaces,” and the visceral sound design underscore the game’s commitment to its psychological horror and dark comedy elements. The Punch-Out!!-inspired combat, while simple in its execution, provides a challenging and engaging counterpoint to the narrative segments.

However, the game is not without its imperfections, largely stemming from the inherent limitations of the RPG Maker engine. Quality-of-life features such as customizable keybindings and quick-skip options, common in modern visual novels, are absent or difficult to implement, leading to minor frustrations for some players. Despite these technical constraints and the developer’s candid acknowledgment of its modest commercial performance, Creepy Creepy Love‘s positive player reception and the creator’s dedication to ongoing support and expansion speak volumes about its artistic merit and potential for lasting impact.

In the grand tapestry of video game history, Creepy Creepy Love stands as a bold, if brutal, testament to indie creativity. It is a niche gem, a cult classic in the making for connoisseurs of psychological horror, yandere narratives, and retro-infused arcade action. It challenges players not only with its combat but with its stark moral dilemmas, forcing them to confront the chilling implications of Rosa Akuma’s “Creepy Creepy Love.” It may not be a mainstream success, but its distinct voice and uncompromising vision ensure its place as a fascinating, bloody footnote in the ever-evolving story of video games.