4 sapphic horror games to kick off spooky season
Whether you go out collecting candy or dress up for spooky parties at home, there is one activity that all queer gaymers can agree is a great way to celebrate the Halloween season — playing LGBTQ+ horror games!
We’ve seen this subgenre bloom in recent years, with every October offering a new round of queer-themed terror that audiences love to play. And this is especially true for sapphic horror games; it’s been amazing to see so many chilling projects that center women who love women.
These range from inspiring stories of heroines tearing down monsters to slackers in their mid-20s balancing a dead-end job and appeasing otherworldly demons. No matter their premises, though, the best of these games merge representation with terror, furthering our communities’ presence in this genre while respectfully portraying each character’s identity.
There are so many sapphic horror games that you can enjoy this Halloween season. Let’s take a look at some of the best now to help you decide just how horrific you want this October to be!
Sorry, We’re Closed
In the neon-drenched nightmare that is Sorry, We’re Closed, gamers play as Michelle, a London-based cashier who isn’t over her ex-girlfriend (even though they’ve been broken up for three years). Distraught over this lost love, Michelle has a fitful dream about a hypersexual demon, The Duchess, who offers her a strange solution: fall in love with her instead. Our protagonist wakes up and realizes this was no dream, and that if she doesn’t defeat the Duchess within three days, she’ll share the same ghastly fate of the demon’s previous paramours…
Sorry, We’re Closed combines relationship management, puzzle-solving, and intense combat, with Michelle’s fight to save herself forcing players to explore her dangerous (and extremely supernatural) London neighborhood. The game constantly challenges gamers — with things ranging from a constantly shifting camera view to complex mechanics like Michelle’s ‘Third Eye’ — while offering a steady stream of punk, candy-colored artwork.
Add to all of that a chaotic queer woman as its protagonist, and it’s no wonder why Sorry, We’re Closed has become a fan-favorite for LGBTQ+ gamers in recent years.
Fear the Spotlight
There are almost no horror games with LGBTQ+ kids as protagonists, which is why Fear the Spotlight is such a refreshing addition to the genre today.
Fear the Spotlight follows Vivian and Amy, two very different friends — Vivian is a bookish worrywart while Amy is a hardcore goth — who sneak into their school library to hold a seance. Their supernatural shenanigans work a little too well, and the pair are thrust back to 1991, just before a group of students were killed in a gruesome school fire. Separated in this ghostly dimension, the girls must uncover who started this fire to save themselves…all while each is wondering if this is the right time to confess their true feelings.
Vivian and Amy are two of this genre’s most endearing protagonists, with the pair’s love for one another making Fear The Spotlight’s narrative resonant for all. The story pairs their romance with a stealthy gameplay style that focuses on each girl staying hidden while solving 90s-themed puzzles and avoiding unsettling monsters.
All of this is told through a retro, blocky style, with the game never losing its impact despite its polygon-heavy appearance.
Little Goody Two Shoes
In Little Goody Two Shoes, players take on the role of our titular character — otherwise known as Elise. Raised by her adoptive grandma in an eerie forest, the game takes place just days after her guardian’s death, when Elise realizes that she’ll have to begin finding work (and fending off the wilderness’s many monsters) if she wants to survive.
A mixture of minigames and dating sim mechanics, Little Goody Two Shoes provides an adorably creepy ambience for gamers who like to be just a little bit scared (rather than outright horrified). Along with navigating the woods and handling jobs, players can lead Elise down one of three romance routes with girls in the village: the hardworking Freya, the deeply haunted Rozenmarine, and the spiritual Lebkuchen. Each romance path offers a new ending and unique gameplay, with Elise having to make time for these love interests as well as the ongoing challenge of making it through each night in the forest.
This all makes Little Goody Two Shoes as wonderfully queer as it is deeply eerie, perfect for an LGBTQ+ gamer’s cozy spooky season.
Hollowbody
In the tech-fueled dystopia of Hollowbody, gamers play as Mica, an intergalactic courier whose girlfriend has gone missing after leaving to explore the infamous ‘Exclusion Zone.’
It’s a haunting premise that becomes even more unnerving as players begin navigating this abandoned zone to figure out what happened to Mica’s girlfriend. Inspired by horror classics like Silent Hill, Hollowbody is filled with ravaged neighborhoods, abandoned factories, and more dark places filled with mutated monsters you’ll be forced to explore. Featuring great versions of the survival mechanics (resource management, combat, puzzles) that gamers love, where Hollowbody truly shines is its unnerving settings and heartwrenching romance.
Every new area of the Exclusion Zone introduced gamers to the horrific effects of this tech-driven society. These speak to a universe filled with terror that grows every day, making Mica — and the player controlling her — grow more and more scared of just what kept her girlfriend from returning home. It’s an increasingly creepy style of gameplay, one grounded not only by its many scares, but the sapphic relationship at its center.
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