if you stay: Free PC-98 Style Yuri Visual Novel on Steam

if you stay (Steam). Hover for a Voidge draft sketch inspired by a fragment of the capsule key art.

if you stay is a free yuri visual novel on Steam, drawn in the style of the PC-98 Japanese romance games of the 1990s. It is winter 1999. You play Fumiko, a former student council president who has been outed by her closest friend and has lost her home life, her friendships and her plans in one go. She has a one way ticket to Tokyo. Her girlfriend, Mika, calls and asks to see her one more time before the train leaves. The whole game is that last date, and the choice in the title.

Solo studio YukimiSoft released it for free on Steam and itch.io in late October 2026 (Steam lists October 21). App ID 4437140. As of about 11:07 BRT on October 29, the store shows 97% of 139 user reviews as positive. Not bad for a week, mate.

Open the clip on X if the embed does not load. Cut from the official if you stay trailer.

One last date in a small snowy town

The structure is simple and it works. Mika wants a proper date, a few hours before departure, and you spend them together: a snowy park with an empty playground, a cafe with a very chatty waitress, a bedroom full of idol posters and a little television, a phone box under falling snow. Along the way you pick dialogue options that change what you learn about the relationship and how much friction comes up between the two of them.

The store describes it as a branching storyline about adolescent drama, nostalgia and the pain of being "seen", at roughly 10,000 words per playthrough. That is one sitting for most readers. There are "Two(?)" endings, each with its own CG and dialogue, and yes, the question mark is the developer's. The tagline adds that no matter what you choose, there will always be consequences. I reckon that is the honest pitch for a story like this.

if you stay (Steam). Hover for a Voidge draft sketch inspired by a fragment of the snowy park screenshot.

The PC-98 look, done properly

The art is the hook, and it earns it. YukimiSoft calls it handcrafted 16 bit pixel art reminiscent of PC-98 romance games, brought up to modern resolutions. In practice that means limited palettes, heavy dithering in the shadows and the snow, big expressive anime eyes, and scenes framed inside a window with a plain black text box underneath. Some shots sit between panels that look like the doors of a train carriage, which is a quiet nod to where all this is heading.

The music matters just as much. The soundtrack is by William Gomez (@WilliamMusiek on X), written to replicate the YM2608 sound chip, so it sounds like it came off an old Japanese home computer. The store calls it melancholic, and that is fair. If you have never played a PC-98 era visual novel, this is a brilliant and very low risk way to see what the fuss is about.

A heavy theme, handled with care

Worth being clear before you download. The story starts after Fumiko is outed and kicked out of her home, so it deals with rejection, family fallout and leaving everything behind. Steam's mature content note from the developer says the game contains some cursing and references (not shown) to violence, domestic abuse, and homophobia. Those things are referenced, not depicted. The automatic age ratings on the store sit at 12 to 15, with no age gate.

What I see in the screenshots and trailer is a quiet, tender story rather than a shocking one. It sits with two girls who care about each other and are hurting, Fumiko angry at the people who hurt her and Mika struggling to say what she feels. There is no AI content disclosure on the store page either.

if you stay (Steam). Hover for a Voidge draft sketch inspired by a fragment of the phone box screenshot.

What our clip shows

Three takes from the official if you stay trailer on Steam, with its own audio. First, Mika in the snowy park asking whether this is a date, then a playful close up as the conversation turns personal. Second, the bedroom scene with the little television, and the cafe with its very chatty waitress. Third, Mika in tears on a station platform beside a red train, with a plain Yes or No choice waiting in the text box. That is the whole game in one frame. No menus, no logo cards.

Free, with an optional way to support

The game itself costs nothing. For players who want to give something back, YukimiSoft sells a creator support add-on for US$5.99 on Steam and itch.io, which the developer says includes a mini art book with developer notes, the full soundtrack and more. Patch 1.02 landed on October 26 with fixes, plus an extra Halloween goodie for supporters. If you enjoyed our Foole's World writeup, this is another free solo project on Steam that punches well above its price, sorted.

How long is it, and what does it run on?

At about 10,000 words per route, expect a short session, and a second one if you want the other ending. It runs on Windows, macOS and SteamOS or Linux, in English, with Steam Achievements and Family Sharing. It is built in Ren'Py, and the minimum is Windows 10, a 2.0 GHz 64 bit processor, 2 GB of RAM and an OpenGL 3.0 or DirectX 11 card. A potato will cope.

Who makes if you stay?

Steam lists YukimiSoft as both developer and publisher. On X, @yukimisoft describes the studio as making homemade anime games, and the launch post blew up, with thousands of likes and coverage from Japanese game news sites and English visual novel accounts. Since then the developer has been posting patch notes and thanking players. For another short narrative pick with a lot of heart under a simple surface, see our Big Dig post.

Is if you stay worth it?

Yes, if you want a short, sincere yuri story with proper retro craft. It costs nothing, the art and music are lovely, and the writing treats its subject with care. Fair warnings: it is brief, English only, and the themes are heavy. Grab it on Steam and give the support add-on a look if it lands for you. Cheers, YukimiSoft.

Image credits & rights

Images on this page are hotlinks from the official Steam store assets for if you stay, used with respect for their copyright.

• if you stay on Steam
• YukimiSoft (@yukimisoft) on X
• Capsule key art and screenshots by YukimiSoft. Music by William Gomez (@WilliamMusiek).
• Screenshot sources remain on the Steam CDN (capsule and store screenshots for app 4437140). Voidge hosts only purple crop-inspired draft sketches for hover and fallback, plus the short blog clip.