Utsuge

Literally meaning 'depressing game', Utsuge is a phrase used in Japan to describe games that actively seek out to depress and sadden the player. Typically graphic novels or dating simulations, these games often include depictions of both mental and physical disability, life-threatening illness, and abandonment, and frequently have unhappy endings. Those with happier endings are sometimes instead classed as Nakige, though the terms are often used interchangeably.

At the start of the 2010s, games began to introduce similar moods and ideas into Western productions, though the genre remains largely an Asian concern, with Clannad, Air, To Heart, and Ever17 as notable examples.