Whether it's a survival horror game like Fatal Frame or an RPG Maker game like Ib, many horror games feature creepy dolls to some extent. Because of supposedly haunted dolls such as Annabelle and the general uncanny valley feeling caused by dolls, players can find themselves being unnerved by dolls even if they don't have a particular fear of them.
While most of these games only include short sections with dolls, however, there're also certain horror titles that primarily feature creepy dolls. These titles, which includes Emily Wants To Play, will make sure that players never look at dolls the same way again.
The Doll House (2020)
Released towards the end of 2020, The Doll House is a DLC campaign for the 2015 parody horror game Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion. Known as Spooky's Dollhouse in the 2017 remake Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion: HD Renovation, this extra adventure has the player enter a strange house-like place while navigating the labyrinth of floors within the titular mansion.
While avoiding murderous dolls, the player will need to use one particular doll to progress through the facility, which will slowly uncover the hidden truths behind Spooky's past. Depending on their actions, the player could finally destroy the mansion and save the trapped spirits, but they can also doom the planet. With certain surreal aesthetics that seem to be referencing Kitty Horrorshow games, this DLC provides a perfect end to Spooky's long-running story.
Don't Toy With Me (2022)
While there are many games that contain body horror, the 2022 visual novel game Don't Toy With Me does something unique by containing body horror imagery of toys rather than organic lifeforms. Since Dahlia, who is a porcelain doll, has been feeling lonely for a long time in her dollhouse with only the small stuffed rabbit Wisker for company, the human owner decides to introduce a clown puppet named Huxley to the household.
Although the two characters get along at first, they soon begin to clash, and the owner's choices will determine who lives and who dies. Despite being a horror experience, the main highlights are the nuanced characters, their interesting interactions with each other, and the way the game tackles serious subjects such as emotional abuse.
Ceramic Soul (2022)
Created as a student project, Ceramic Soul is a 2022 free horror adventure game about a porcelain doll named Yu, who is meant to be a perfect version of her mother's estranged daughter. To escape the Victorian manor she lives in, Yu must explore the mansion, solve puzzles, and avoid her patrolling mother. Since Yu is a doll, she can detach her hand from her body, which she can then control as a separate entity that can crawl through small spaces and reach items.
As she explores the manor, she slowly learns about the struggles her mother had to endure and the history between the mother and daughter. Besides being a free game, the Alice in Wonderland-esque aesthetics and interesting puzzles make this experience worth a playthrough.
Darkness Under My Bed (2021)
Created by Desert Fox, who also made the Bad Dream series, Darkness Under My Bed is a 2021 monochromatic point-and-click psychological horror game about a young boy who built a massive labyrinth under the bed to try to imprison the monsters lurking within. Despite the convoluted maze, the monsters were still escaping and stealing the boy's possessions and memories.
After one of the monsters steals one of the most precious items, the boy finally gathers the courage to use a remote-controlled robot to explore the labyrinth and rescue the thing that was lost. Since the developer based the graphics on real photos, the creepy experience feels real as the player explores the unrealistic space, solves puzzles, and meets many creepy dolls. Shortly after this title, the developer released two short sequels titled Game For Anna and DUMB: Treasure.
The Doll Shop (2018)
Created by Atelier Sentô, who also developed the 2017 game Yûrei Station, The Doll Shop is a 2018 psychological horror point-and-click adventure game that takes place in a rural Japanese village. The protagonist is a lonely doll maker who lives in the village and also collects butterflies as a hobby. When his childhood friend visits the area during the winter, he thinks he might have finally met someone he can connect with.
But, over the course of several days, the player will realize that there's something more sinister going on in the doll maker's life than just loneliness, and it has something to do with a girl who went missing last summer. Along with an intriguing mystery, all of the graphics were hand-drawn and watercolored, which gives the game a distinct storybook-esque art style.
Emily Wants to Play (2015)
Released in 2015, Emily Wants To Play is a survival horror game where the player is a pizza delivery man who visits a house to complete one final delivery late at night. Since the order requested that he enter the house, he goes inside and is immediately trapped. To escape the house, he must survive from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. while "playing" with the titular Emily and her three living dolls.
Although the characters are introduced individually at first, the player will eventually have to deal with all of them together and juggle their various deadly "games." After the success of this title, the game received a 2017 sequel titled Emily Wants To Play Too.
Noctambulant (2021)
Released in 2021, Noctambulant is a 2D hand-drawn survival horror mystery game where the player controls a young girl named Renee. After a tragic event leads to her parents' deaths, she moves in with her grandmother, who treats her kindly. But, she also always forces Renee to go to bed early every night and even locks her door, so Renee decides to escape her room one night to solve this mystery.
Shortly after leaving her room, she quickly discovers that a lanky and creepy doll with blonde hair and a snapped neck is patrolling the halls, and the doll wants to kill her. Now, Renee must avoid the doll and solve puzzles to uncover what the doll is and why it's attacking her, and her choices will lead to one of several endings.
Tsugunohi: Whispering Toy House (2020)
Tsugunohi is an ongoing series of browser-based walking sims about how supernatural horror can gradually seep into a person's ordinary life. Each game has the player continuously walk to the left through a short repeating segment that slowly becomes corrupted as the story unfolds. Some of these games were released on Steam as a collection in 2021, which includes the installment titled Tsugunohi: Whispering Toy House.
In this episode, the player is a young girl who discovers a house filled with antique dolls and toys. As the whispering voices guide her deeper into the house, she soon discovers that she may the collection herself.
Alisa (2021)
Inspired by late '90s PS1 survival horror titles, Alisa is an action-adventure game that truly tries to be a retro game rather than a modern game with a retro filter. Taking place in an alternate history version of the 1920s, the game follows an Elite Royal Agent named Alisa who's chasing down a criminal who stole some blueprints.
While searching a weirdly eerie rural town that's mostly abandoned, Alisa follows the criminal to a Victorian mansion, which is where mechanized dolls kidnap Alisa. When she wakes up, she finds herself dressed up in a blue doll-like dress and attacked by other dolls. Now, Alisa must explore the "dollhouse," solve puzzles, and uncover the mysteries behind the mansion.
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark (2017)
With Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II scheduled to release at the end of this year, now is the perfect time to play the original 2017 visual novel adventure game Spirit Hunter: Death Mark. Originally released on the PS Vita, the game follows an amnesiac man named Kazuo Yashiki who discovers that he now bears a Mark, which means a malevolent spirit has cursed him and he will die soon.
With the help of a life-sized talking doll named Mary, Kazuo must team up with other Mark bearers to deal with various spirits and find the one that cursed him. Depending on which characters the player teams up with, which items they find, what choices they make, and how the spirit battles go, the player will obtain one of several endings.