The Doll Shop is out now on PC. Atelier Sento released the horror visual novel on Steam and itch.io on October 11, 2026, with a 10 percent launch discount running until October 20, 2026.
The Doll Shop went from a free prototype to a commercial release in a little over two months of coverage. Atelier Sento, the French comic duo of Cecile Brun and Olivier Pichard, first surfaced on the Yomimono beat in July 2026 when their horror visual novel was set for an October Steam launch. The hook then was the pair's visibility through Death Stranding 2, where they appear as NPCs. The game itself was described as a Japanese countryside story with hand-drawn art in a warm, colorful style that runs against its horror themes.
By October 11, 2026, that release was live. The Doll Shop is available on PC through Steam and itch.io, priced at 1,700 yen on Steam with a 10 percent discount to 1,530 yen through October 20, 2026. A free demo is on Steam, and the game supports Japanese display. The launch story also filled in the game's structure: a snowbound rural village, a quiet doll craftsman who repairs eerie dolls and returns them to their owners, and a childhood friend whose return forces the protagonist to choose between the doll he loves and the hope for a new life. Players walk the village, visit shrines and shops, soak in public baths, and talk with residents, with dialogue choices leading to unexpected outcomes. Three normal endings are in the game, and seeing all of them unlocks a hidden ending.
The two stories agree on the premise and the October window. The later one adds the price, the storefronts, the demo, the ending structure, and the prototype-to-commercial history: the release grew out of a free prototype the duo built during a master class with students, then rebuilt with new artwork, music, and dialogue.
Written with AI from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself sourced.
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Oct 11
Atelier Sento, the French comic duo of Cecile Brun and Olivier Pichard, released the horror visual novel The Doll Shop on PC. The game is available on Steam and itch.io. On Steam it is priced at 1,700 yen, with a 10 percent discount to 1,530 yen running until October 20, 2026. The story is set in a snowbound rural Japanese village and follows a quiet doll craftsman who keeps a secret. He repairs eerie dolls and returns them to their owners, and the plot moves when a childhood friend comes back to the village. The protagonist is then forced to choose between the doll he loves and the hope for a new life. Players walk around the village, visit shrines and shops, soak in public baths, and talk with residents. Dialogue choices can lead to unexpected outcomes. The game has three normal endings, and seeing all of them unlocks a hidden ending. A free demo is available on Steam, and the game supports Japanese display.
Jul 16
French comic artist duo Atelier Sentô, known for appearing as NPCs in Death Stranding 2, will release their horror visual novel The Doll Shop on Steam in October 2026. The game is set in the Japanese countryside and features hand-drawn art in a warm, colorful style, contrasting with its horror themes.