Best Text-Based games on Steam
Unlike generic lists, our text-based game recommendations are based on a rigorous analysis of Steam user reviews. We believe that player feedback is the most reliable indicator of a game's true quality and enjoyment. Our algorithm evaluates user reviews to identify text-based games that consistently deliver exceptional experiences. This means you can be confident that our lists feature only the best text-based games on Steam, validated by the community itself.
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Anon's Neko Waifus
Discover an enchanting world where cute neko girls await to steal your heart. Immerse yourself in a tale of romance and emotions. It's the perfect getaway for a good time.
A Date with Death
Fight against & romance the one hunting for your soul in A Date with Death, a romance chat simulator where you date(?) the Grim Reaper himself. Create your own character, decorate your apartment, and chat away with the charming yet dangerous Grim Reaper through text and video calls.
A guard walks into a tavern
You are a guard whose job is to post bounties. Try your best to deal with various matters and make money to raise your family. But remember, when various factions come to you, you will have to make choices!
Hira Hira Hihiru
"Hira Hira Hihiru" is a visual novel set in a fictional Taishō Era. It tells the story of its two protagonists' struggle against Aerodema, a terrifying disease which brings the dead back to life.
Football Manager 2024
Build a world-class team ready to dominate your rivals in football’s most prestigious competitions. Progress never stops when you’re pursuing footballing greatness.
UsoNatsu ~The Summer Romance Bloomed From A Lie~
This is a story about finding love to overwrite the feelings for the one they held dearest. A girls love visual novel about summer, love and adolescence.
AI Roguelite
World's first RPG in which all entities are AI-generated and all game mechanics are AI-directed.
Romance Club - Stories I Play
Immerse yourself in romantic visual stories where you control what happens!
Heads Will Roll: Reforged
Hardcore survival RPG with non-linear story that lets you play as a young medieval soldier who over the course of battles and adventures becomes the most formidable and respected knight of his era. Or, if he’s not lucky enough, perishes in the chaos of the Hundred Years' War.
Vampires' Melody 2
Emerald seas! Blue skies! Sandy beaches! An island adventure in the ocean sounds like a trip to paradise. However, the place is a nightmare with no one to provide any blood for Raylan to feed on after he turned into a vampire by accident, especially since he has another hungry vampire at his side.
Wolvesville
Wolvesville is a multiplayer game for up to 16 players. Each game has different teams such as villagers or werewolves all fighting to be the last team standing. Use special abilities to uncover the roles of other players and convince your fellow players to work with you.
Myths of Rules
This is a text-based adventure puzzle game, where you must struggle to survive in a world filled with ghosts and urban legends. While collecting clues, you'll uncover the truth behind the world and find the way out. The game features a wealth of levels, unconventional rules, and a touch of horror.
ghostpia Season One
"In my dreams, I can get out. In my dreams, I can fit in." 'ghostpia' mixes the adorable art style of an illustrated book with glitches-and-noise effects. There are no choices to be made. There's only a lonely girl in a ghost town and her story full of mystery, friendhood...and a bit of violence.
Art Reborn: Painting Connoisseur
Dear curator, you are about to embark on a journey to captivate the audience! You will be in charge of an art gallery.Impress the museum curators around the world with these masterpieces, collect badges, apply for support funds, and learn the value of art!
The Shell Part I: Inferno
Unravel a string of gruesome murders terrorizing Tokyo in this mystery-thriller visual novel. The secrets of a case from six years prior may just be the key to the current unending cycle of tragedy—and the thing that cracks this woeful world’s shell may be one girl’s smile.
Stone Story RPG
An auto-RPG with strategic combat, deep crafting and programming elements, animated entirely in ASCII-art. In a realm of perpetual darkness, a single stone could change everything...
STONKS-9800: Stock Market Simulator
Simulator of an 80s Japanese stock market businessman. Chill, catch a retro vibe and watch your profits grow in the text-based game STONKS-9800.
Nodes Escape
The game presents realistic game graphics through sound effects, narration and imagination. The level design is subtle and challenging, allowing players to challenge their intelligence and logic skills in solving puzzles.
It gets so lonely here
A yandere yuri visual novel with a fairytale theme. Can you escape from your mysterious pursuer?
Kuroinu Redux
Desperate to end a bloody war, the Seven Shields Alliance—led by an elven goddess incarnate—seek out the assistance of the protagonist Vult and his Black Dog Mercenaries. He turns on them and takes control in this visual novel story of betrayal.
Staffer Case: A Supernatural Mystery Adventure
Staffer Case is a new sort of mystery game, asking players to find clues, arrange them into documents, and point out the contradictions between them to solve a series of murders. Each mystery unraveled leads you closer to the truth lying at the heart of each case!
Lightracer Spark
Lightracer Spark is a Sci-Fi Narrative game. You are an amender from a high civilization, descending to various extraterrestrial worlds. Guide living beings to prosperity, or nip a spark in the bud. Accumulate strength through choices and strategies to grasp the rise and fall of all civilizations.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog...was murdered!? Get to the bottom of the mystery in this brand-new adventure!
Misericorde: Volume One
Misericorde: Volume One is the first part of a series of mystery visual novels set in a convent in 1482.
Magic Research
Magic Research is a text-based incremental game about Magic. You are the headmaster of a newly-created institution of Magic. Will you be able to lead your school to win the prestigious Tournament of Magic?
Durka Simulator
A visual novel set in a universe where the orderlies are trying to take over our planet.
HOPE LEFT ME
You wake up in a mysterious place, alone and freezing to death, the only person around seems to be a weird girl with a long sleeve soviet jersey.
PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
How far would you go to bring someone back from the dead? Discover the depths that some will go to in this horror-adventure game.
The Farmer Was Replaced
Program and optimize a drone to automate a farm and watch it do the work for you. Collect resources to unlock better technology and become the most efficient farmer in the world. Improve your problem solving and coding skills.
Fallen Hero: Retribution
So you're a villain now? Let's see if you survive the experience.
Warsim: The Realm of Aslona
Warsim is a deep, rich text based kingdom ruling sim unlike anything else, complete with charming ASCII graphics. Navigate the millions of different procedurally generated races, events and areas with a huge emphasis on player choice. Don't let its look fool you, there is depth in every direction.
CaseCracker
In order to improve the efficiency of selecting talents, the Chicheng police specially developed a test system-the true detection system, with the black robe company. As a tester, you need to complete the cracking of the case under the rules of the system.
Insomnia: Theater in the Head
Hickory dickory dock. The city's deep in sleep. The clock's ticking. The sheep's bouncing. Hickory dickory dock. The girl tosses again, only with more things swarming into her head... In this Point & Click puzzle game "Insomnia", the show in the head is rolling on again. Alas, any sleep tonight...
Buriedbornes - Dungeon RPG
The oldest and most abhorrent Prophecy has become reality. This is endless and merciless warfare for Buriedbornes, army can revive forever.
Arcadie: Second-Born
In this interactive tale of love and war, be the force of reason that your kingdom needs, or perpetuate its reputation as a force of destruction. Find love and weave friendships, or cast it all away for the sake of retribution.
目盲/Blind
「Sometimes what the eye can't tell, the heart can.」 《Blind》 is a light fantasy game for girls set in a modern city. After a childhood accident that left me with a strange face blindness, I was introduced to a profession called "watchman" and since then, the world has taken on a whole new dimension.
Please Be Happy
A comfy yuri VN about the foxgirl Miho and her quest to find the person who's most important to her. This emotional visual novel features two different heroines to choose from, and a story that will make you both laugh and cry!
GOODBYE WORLD
"GOODBYE WORLD" is a narrative adventure game. Play through 12 stages of a puzzle platformer while following the two protagonists through 13 chapters of their story.
The Bible
A digital recreation of The Bible in Kinetic Novel form! Read through and save passages in any order with an original soundtrack, or listen through the greatest story ever told in audiobook form. Featuring an extensive Trivia section to find out how well you really know the stories of Old and New.
Football Manager 2023
Build your dream squad, outsmart your rivals and experience the thrill of big European nights in the UEFA Champions League. Your journey towards footballing glory awaits.
Dark Nights
Nothing is as it seems.
Monster Prom 3: Monster Roadtrip
Embark on a road trip like no other in this co-op narrative survival adventure. Visit fun locations, meet wacky characters, and manage your resources wisely. And yes: you still can date some hot monsters ;)
Heads Will Roll: Downfall
Heads Will Roll: Downfall is a combination of a tactical role-playing game and visual novel, in which you will assume the role of a medieval soldier.