New Horror JRPG on Steam Channels Doki Doki Literature Clubbing excitement in a game where the choices are life or death

Doki Doki Literature Club redefined what a “sweet” visual RPG could be by weaponizing player attachment, and while Unfriendly friend seems to do something similar, it certainly seems a bit more serious in its intentions. The upcoming horror RPG adventure on Steam from solo developer/self-publisher betetiro is targeting a Q2 2026 release, and the available demo is a breath of fresh air in terms of polish. Polish visually, sure, but just as much for what Unfriendly friend is mechanically a choice-driven horror RPG where the decisions you make put real characters at stake; the limited demo already shows that the tension is baked in from the very first scenes.

Many people can be hurt by YOUR decisions. Can you save your friends or at least save yourself from the horrors that await?

Unfriendly Friend Features at a Glance:

Branching, consequent selection
Atmospheric environmental horror
Puzzle solving woven into exploration
Inventory and item management
Environmental storytelling via journals, characters and puzzles

Unfriendly Friend builds its horror through characters you care about

The DDLC (Doki Doki Literature Club) comparison is apt because, beyond its unique meta-game, its broader genius rooted horror in real emotional investment before the rug was pulled. If Unfriendly friends demo is anything to go by, it will follow the same structure. The difference in this mix of JRPG, visual novel and horror game is the level of difficulty of the carpet drawing, as with Unfriendly friendthe expectations are a little clearer from the hope.

Dakota's home life with her (implied to be) widowed mother is bleak, and the dusty bottles, packed boxes, and generally beautiful black-and-white hand-drawn visual style suggest as much in their own sad way. Dakota has friends: Rina, Freddie, Jeff, and Luke, but depending on the choices made, it's clear that there's a history, one that has left the group tense, bickering, but specifically prone to these traits. One boy, Jeff, clearly shares an even deeper tension with Dakota that changes the game drastically depending on the player's choices.

Where unfriendly friend takes a turn

The main cast of characters in Unfriendly Friend

Demon's inciting hook arrives with Dakota's school day: rumors of a missing junior, an impromptu trip to the abandoned St. Mercy Hospital and the long walk there through the rain. The horror of this new indie horror game has yet to show its face, but the horror is already in the demo in spades. It's going to be a lean title, as the demo states it's about ~15% of the entire game and ends before the hospital, but the full weight of this horror speaks to what's still ahead, and the groundwork is clearly laid to ensure what comes next lands hard.

Unfriendly Friend's demo proves that Dakota's choices actually matter

The idea that choices matter in a title is an oft-overused promise, but two radically different playthroughs of the demo were enough to prove that what Dakota says and does produces genuinely different character dynamics and outcomes. How players interact with the world is significantly altered by what Dakota says to those who inhabit it, and gameplay beyond walking and talking is varied. In the demo alone, there's a drawing section, a series of puzzles, an item-based puzzle, and a clue-based puzzle.

The gameplay is meaningfully varied enough to keep the pace interesting, but the quality of these individual systems is what propels the demo ahead of other JRPGs in the horror genre. The mechanical polish of each of these systems was flawless, but depth is what quality means in this case. A good example is a combination lock puzzle towards the end of the demo that provides background on the world of Unfriendly friend and changes information from the very first scene in the demo.

The less narratively influential moments of interactivity, like the drawing bit, or the Walkman music selector in the first area, aren't mundane either – they deepen immersion rather than pad runtime. It is not unlike how DDLC uses its poetry writing mechanics to meaningfully connect the player to the world of the game. The full game also promises an expanded inventory system and more interactive elements beyond the demo.

Mysteries in the making

The game's music selector is also particularly interesting, as it speaks to meaningful world-building in a way that raises questions just as well. The Walkman sits among other items on Dakota's desk, and while one might expect a range of dour playlist options, the tonal contrast between the seven different song options swings for the fences. There's a creepy jukebox of Clair de Lune next to cheery big band tunes like Cup of Champagne or Kukuruz, and it's a compelling choice – one that feels like it'll pay off somehow down the road.

The visual style does a lot of heavy lifting

In addition to story and gameplay, Unfriendly friends black paper/white pencil, hand-drawn art style is striking, distinctive and tonally perfect for the subject matter. Despite a general lack of color, there are shadowy blues and warm yellows at times, but the shadows and pencil stitching make the world visually rich and worth exploring just to look around on its own. There seems to be a deliberate contrast between the cozy/mundane (Walkman, home life) and the encroaching fear, which is reinforced by the monochromatic aesthetic.

Based on the title, another color also seems to lie ahead: red. It's easy to see why crimson would come into play in other Indie horror games like Unfriendly friendbut how it's implemented here seems a bit more opaque. The demo makes it clear that whatever happens next, blood or not, is up to the player.

The best of unfriendly friends lies before you

Unfriendly friend has a demo available on Steam now, but it looks like the best is yet to come, arriving sometime in the second quarter of 2026. The full content advisory is pretty huge, signaling that the game intends to follow through on its darker promises. If DDLCs brand of emotional horror (where you like the characters before the game starts hurting them) is your thing, Unfriendly friend really looks like it belongs in the same conversation.