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Welcome to Doll Town is a single player survival action adventure game with horror and anime themes. It was developed by Bad Wish Games and was released on February 20, 2026. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Step into Ningyōmachi, once a thriving hub of doll-making mastery, now a decaying ghost town haunted by the bloodstained legacy of a twisted craftsman. As you uncover the town's dark secrets, you'll confront the eerie remnants of the Hanabira Doll Factory and the lifelike creations that refuse to stay still. Will you survive the horrors hidden within the forgotten "Doll Town," or will you become a…

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66%
Audience ScoreBased on 172 reviews
story34 positive mentions
stability8 negative mentions

  • Strong atmospheric and aesthetic design inspired by classic survival horror games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil, with effective use of fog and muted color palettes.
  • Unique and engaging concept mixing horror elements with quirky wrestling-style combat and finishers, providing fun and memorable gameplay moments.
  • Story addresses heavy themes such as bullying, suicide, love, and mental health with earnestness, eliciting emotional responses and complimented by a fitting soundtrack.
  • Very short gameplay length with limited combat encounters and content, leading to a lack of replay value and feeling incomplete or like a tech demo.
  • Numerous bugs and glitches including crashes, camera issues, soft-locks, poor controls, and lack of essential features like adjustable sensitivity, resolution, or full controller support.
  • Disjointed narrative with confusing pacing, underdeveloped characters, tonal inconsistencies, and poorly written dialogue, particularly regarding sensitive subjects and character interactions.
  • story
    160 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story is generally praised for its dark, emotional themes and atmospheric delivery, though it is notably short and at times feels disjointed or poorly paced. While some appreciate its creative premise and impactful moments, many find it underdeveloped, lacking depth, and hindered by abrupt tonal shifts and minimal player influence. Overall, the narrative shows promising potential but would benefit from expansion, better cohesion, and additional content to fully realize its concept.

    • “The storytelling felt beautifully dark romantic, almost like wandering through a fragile dream that slowly reveals its cracks.”
    • “For the price of lunch you can experience an indie gem that includes a story that will have you pondering it long after the credits roll if you can tolerate something more serious at the moment, and that soundtrack!”
    • “Welcome to doll town delivers a chilling, atmospheric experience driven by strong environmental storytelling and subtle sound design.”
    • “The entire story can be easily finished within an hour even if you take your time, though some parts of this game (a labyrinth and a scene in which you get scolded by a teacher at the local school) feel like they were purely added to pad out the runtime, offering little in gameplay other than keeping you unnecessarily engaged for longer.”
    • “The poorly written and poorly delivered story quickly devolves into some nonsensical lesbian murder-suicide plot that makes no sense.”
    • “The dialogue is low effort, poorly written, and the entire story gives me no reason to care about any of the characters or the story as a whole for that matter.”
  • gameplay
    54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay is largely criticized for its short length, lack of depth, and minimal combat that feels clunky and underutilized, with much of the experience consisting of walking and dialogue-heavy cutscenes. Players note missing mechanics, poor pacing, and bugs that disrupt engagement, though some appreciate the nostalgic horror elements and see potential if the game is expanded and polished in future updates. Overall, the gameplay feels incomplete and unpolished, leaving many expecting more from the advertised features.

    • “The gameplay loop consists of simple combat (blocking and striking mechanics) and puzzles.”
    • “There is a parry mechanic that is not explained, where if you press block just as an attack is about to land, it will stun the enemy backwards for a moment allowing you to land more strikes.”
    • “The only boss fight in this game relies on this mechanic to complete it, which is weird because again, this is not taught to the player beforehand so there can be some confusion on how to beat this boss as her normal attacks deal extremely high damage.”
    • “The entire story can be easily finished within an hour even if you take your time, though some parts of this game (a labyrinth and a scene in which you get scolded by a teacher at the local school) feel like they were purely added to pad out the runtime, offering little in gameplay other than keeping you unnecessarily engaged for longer.”
    • “The game keeps its integrity for maybe 10 minutes or less of gameplay, not that there's much gameplay.”
    • “I followed the development and had high hopes, to be honest. The marketing of this game was around the combat and costumes, but you barely fight, and your gameplay is 90% flashbacks with barely any possibility to enjoy your costumes or actually explore the game. What you saw in the demo is as far as the exploration and open world goes; the game really ends 30 minutes after that. There are barely any secrets or rewards for exploration, which is disappointing since the developer said they liked open world and exploration in games and tried to bring a PS1-era feeling to Welcome to Doll Town. You can run around, but without a purpose or anything to do, it isn’t that fun after 10 minutes.”
  • graphics
    42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game features a distinctive, atmospheric art style with strong gothic and retro PS1-inspired aesthetics that effectively evoke horror and nostalgia. While many praise its unique visuals, foggy town ambiance, and charming doll-like character design, some note graphical limitations such as low detail, occasional bugs, and lack of clarity in navigation elements. Overall, the graphics set a compelling mood but could benefit from improved optimization and clearer visual cues.

    • “Atmosphere: the game uses a lot of grayscale coloring, which lends itself to both the horror and gothic aesthetics.”
    • “With the PS1 style graphics, the camera, the music, the heartbreaking backstory, and the eerie atmosphere, this game sure was worth waiting for.”
    • “Walking around town feels very spooky because there is a thick fog enveloping the area and the graphics are very stylistic, which I love.”
    • “Graphics: the dolls have the same level of expression as a cheap store mannequin.”
    • “Everything looks like the graphics engine is running on a scientific calculator.”
    • “The graphics were unique, but end up being a hindrance later on as you can't make out doors or stairs.”
  • atmosphere
    37 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game excels in creating a moody, eerie atmosphere reminiscent of Silent Hill and classic survival horror, using grayscale visuals, unsettling sound design, and nostalgic camera angles. While many praise its strong environmental storytelling and aesthetics, some feel the atmosphere is occasionally undermined by inconsistent tone, immersion-breaking dialogue, and sparse scares, leading to mixed experiences overall.

    • “The game absolutely nails the atmosphere, visuals and music, obvious homage to Silent Hill and it does it well.”
    • “With the PS1 style graphics, the camera, the music, the heartbreaking backstory, and the eerie atmosphere, this game sure was worth waiting for.”
    • “Welcome to Doll Town delivers a chilling, atmospheric experience driven by strong environmental storytelling and subtle sound design.”
    • “The story should talk about the profound and serious matter of suicide, so I was expecting a serious atmosphere, and sometimes there is, but it's interrupted by very stupid segments like the persona's one... C'mon man, why did you do this?”
    • “I got a few jump scares, and I was happy, but then no more horror atmosphere.”
    • “The atmosphere is nonexistent, but it has a couple of creepy moments.”
  • music
    29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is generally praised for its atmospheric, eerie, and emotionally impactful qualities, with several standout tracks that enhance the horror and nostalgic vibes reminiscent of Silent Hill and other classics. However, some players find the soundtrack sparse or mismatched at times, noting a lack of variety and ambient sounds during quieter moments. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a strong highlight that significantly contributes to the game's mood and storytelling.

    • “The game absolutely nails the atmosphere, visuals and music, obvious homage to Silent Hill and it does it well.”
    • “The constant menacing background music gives an air of malevolence as if dark forces are hiding in every dark corner of town.”
    • “In conjunction with an amazing presentation that borrows from classics like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and even Persona with a phenomenal soundtrack.”
    • “It's boring and it has those stupid musics that totally ruin the mood of the game.”
    • “The music… well, if the goal was to make you uncomfortable, they nailed it.”
    • “Lack of music, sound effects, there really isn't any tension in the game.”
  • humor
    21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is characterized by a mix of childish internet memes, dark and meta humor, and playful references to popular culture, which many players find amusing and enjoyable. It balances silliness with some heavy story elements, enhanced by funny emotes, quirky combat moves, and clever flavor text. However, some critiques mention that certain jokes feel out of place or that humor is limited by the game's short length and sparse combat encounters.

    • “It's got rather responsive controls, every piece of flavor text is hilarious, especially if you play horror games regularly, the camera option is fine since the day 1 patch, and the story is lovely, heavy, and you can feel the love put in to the game.”
    • “The game was full of good memes, humor-wise; many references to other popular titles, either direct or subliminal.”
    • “The game also knows how to be fun, silly game with hilarious implementations like going gangnam style over an enemy's corpse, getting taunted by a boss, finding yellow paint.”
  • optimization
    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game suffers from poor optimization, causing graphical glitches such as disappearing objects and inconsistent rendering distances, even on high-end PCs. While some users did not experience lag or FPS drops, performance issues and bugs are commonly reported, indicating the game struggles to run smoothly across different systems.

    • “Performance wasn't an issue, but elements disappearing near the camera's edge, some walls disappearing when approached, and the rendering distance being iffy with some elements (things suddenly snapping into existence at 20ft away) did bug me, but nothing broke for me and I had no dips with fps.”
    • “Purchased day 1, and like others have stated there were a handful of performance issues present.”
    • “Given the art style of the game, it could have used more optimization to reduce the size.”
    • “Because of the lack of optimization there are also moments where the game just breaks on you.”
    • “Also the game is just really badly optimized and doesn't look good, despite being made for low-end PCs (I have a high-end PC for reference).”
    • “Purchased day 1, and like others have stated, there were a handful of performance issues present.”
  • stability
    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game suffers from numerous stability issues including frequent bugs, glitches like black-screen and clipping through walls, poor rendering with flickering lights, camera lag, and problematic controls. These technical problems significantly disrupt gameplay, requiring frequent restarts and detracting from the overall experience despite the game's potential and enjoyment factor.

    • “Have severe oversight glitches and bugs. In the school portion, if you leave the school when asked to go to the roof, you get teleported to the entrance of the city and can only return by reloading the game. Textures glitch, V-Sync doesn't work, causing screen tearing in certain scenes. Controller support is limited, with PlayStation controllers only partially functional via third-party software. The cat section is buggy with frequent wall clipping and a laggy camera. Mouse sensitivity issues cause the camera to 'fly away'. Visual bugs include flickering lights and unreadable text notes.”
    • “Some areas of the environment look inaccessible but still allow entry, resulting in strange black-screen glitches.”
    • “The cat section is buggy; the camera in this section can noclip.”
  • emotional
    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users find the game emotionally promising, with a captivating atmosphere, music, and backstory, but many feel disappointed by its lack of depth and emotional weight in the story. While some praise its unique features and potential for emotional engagement, others are left wanting more connection to characters and narrative. Overall, it evokes a mix of intrigue and frustration.

    • “I want to get deeper into this game world, I want to learn more about the characters and everything else... I want to love this game and that is why it is heartbreakingly disappointing.”
    • “With the PS1 style graphics, the camera, the music, the heartbreaking backstory, and the eerie atmosphere, this game sure was worth waiting for.”
    • “Just really fantastic and emotional, you can perform wrestling moves!!!!”
  • monetization
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Monetization is criticized for being misleading, with advertised gameplay elements and features either missing or limited, giving the impression of a cash grab rather than a fully realized experience. The game's ads promise more content and variety than is actually present, leading to player disappointment.

    • “This was clearly just a misguided cash grab masquerading as something cooler.”
    • “While in itself, enjoyable, the marketing and overall advertising of it is just kind of off-putting.”
    • “Notable missing features from the social media advertisements - no skateboarding, no emotes beyond the initial 4 you have (despite having more in ads), no difficulty selection.”
  • character development
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development is generally appreciated for its appealing and memorable designs, as well as creative references and outfits. However, some feel the story lacks sufficient buildup to fully support key plot twists. Overall, the character design contributes positively to the game's atmosphere despite limited narrative growth.

    • “The character designs are nice and I like the setting.”
    • “The character designs were also serviceable and I thought the main character and the references to other horror IPs within the game's dialogue were pretty cool.”
    • “The outfits and character designs are genuinely cute and memorable.”
    • “There isn’t enough buildup or character development to support that twist.”
  • replayability
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Replayability is currently limited, with users hoping for future DLCs that expand exploration, unlock unused locations, and add more missions or story content to enhance long-term engagement.

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4h Median play time
4h Average play time
4-4h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Welcome to Doll Town is a survival action adventure game with horror and anime themes.

Welcome to Doll Town is available on PC, Windows, Xbox and PlayStation.

On average players spend around 4 hours playing Welcome to Doll Town.

Welcome to Doll Town was released on February 20, 2026.

Welcome to Doll Town was developed by Bad Wish Games.

Welcome to Doll Town has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its optimization.

Welcome to Doll Town is a single player game.

Similar games include Hollowbody, ANNO: Mutationem, The Outbound Ghost, Artis Impact, SILENT HILL f and others.