Three years after its initial release, the game garnered international attention and controversy for its content, resulting in it being banned in several countries.

[1] RapeLay is played from the perspective of a recidivist chikan named Masaya Kimura, who happens to be the son of a high-rank public official and has a history of previous arrests, and who stalks and subsequently rapes the Kiryū family (a mother and her two daughters).

In Story Mode, the player controls a sex offender named Masaya Kimura, the protagonist who rapes (in consecutive order) 12-year-old Manaka, 42-year-old Yūko, and 17-year-old Aoi.

Leaving the train at the next stop, he traps Manaka in a public bathroom, rapes her and takes photos of her naked, semen-covered body with his mobile phone.

After getting off the train, she asks Masaya the reasons for his actions, at which point she recognises him as the same man she reported for molesting a woman earlier.

The main story ends with an ominous title card stating that as a new day starts, the Kiryū family horror has just begun.

[6] Equality Now urged activists to write to Illusion and then-Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in protest, arguing the game breaches Japan's obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

[10][11] Citing RapeLay as an example, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, in his concurring opinion vis-à-vis the case Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association wrote, "It ... appears that there is no antisocial theme too base for some in the video-game industry to exploit.

"[12] Articles in defence have also been written, many noting that rape is considered a lesser crime than murder, yet there are thousands of legal video games in which the goal is to kill enemies.