#not all otome games are dating sims!! some are. the tokimeki girls sides are. but not all

[bmpmp3]

and the thing is i feel so very strongly that there is a difference between a route-structured romance visual novel and a dating simulator but thats literally the least important thing on earth to feel strongly about. but i do.

[pinkprettycure]

Someone on twitter pointed out the reason ppl keep talking about there are no good OELVNs is because the discussions are primarily centered around galge and the people who complain about EVNs are more interested in the sanctity of BISHOJO games and not visual novels as a medium which is why they only ever bring up Katawa Shojo as an example of a Good Indie VN n that made me realize lol....

its not like this is the first time Tokimeki Memorial got anything on switch. Girl's Side got all its games ported before the original AND it got a new entry and literally nobody but me cared about it.

For otome/joseimuke fans it was NEVER a discussion of east vs west or indie vs jvn because we literally had to rely entirely on indie. dude the only officially translated otome i remember from high school is like, Yo-Jin-Bo and The Second Reproduction and both of those were out of print and could only be played from pirated copies. lol I was wrong TSR was a fan translation LMAO

The first 3 Girl's Side games all got fan translations long before the original got one, which I always thought was a little strange but chalked it up to galge fans just had plenty of food and weren't as um... desperate as us otome fans lmao but i still thought there had to be more interest in getting some of these early dating sims translated for history's sake.

But like, you'll see over and over that there are just no good, genuine, indie VNs and theyre all irony poisoned. But if you're into female centered VNs you know thats not the case.Our Life is huge,Studio Elan has been delivering high quality anime styled games consistently, ebi-hime releases VN after VN at an insane rate.

Hanako Games's has always focused on women and a lot of their games are yuri and otome, but I don't think it;s a coincidence that one of their most popular entries is a raising sim a la Princess Maker, Long Live The Queen.

VO is pretty standard and common even in game jams now but Backstage Pass and Seduce Me were some of the first early examples of high quality polished VNs with voice acting at all. For me personally, those games were just as important and big deals to VN history as Katawa Shojo but you won't likely see anyone bring up a joseimuke game as an example. And I use joseimuke and not just otome because I think yuri games and BL get brushed off just as frequently. I barely ever see anyone bring up Dream Daddy anymore, neither as an example of a good VN OR as an example of a jokey one.

[otaku-tactician]

nowadays if im playing an 18+ game i prefer ones with less action elements such as rpg, less drama and extremities, and more of just hanging out with people, exploring places and building long lasting relationships.

wasn't able to find a version of this with a man as the love interest sadly, but im good with fem protags in 18+ games too. with all the epic and top tier otome/amare/bl/dating sims games out there, none had the concept i wanted of just ya know... an interactive slice of life that doubles as an adult game.

it must be out there...???

Tokimeki memorial girls side is like the SFW of my fav genre of dating sim. there must be some kinda nsfw game with a similar daily life concept with guy love interests out there

[specterthief]

pickings are honestly pretty slim for actual dating sims available in english, so not all of these are going to be "personal recommendations" compared to just "these are some of the famous ones you can play without knowing japanese"

what IS a personal recommendation is tokimeki memorial, if you're trying to get into dating sims you can't go wrong with starting with THE dating sim (and it really speaks to how weird western otaku culture is around this genre that the page for the fan translation for it calls it "more than just a dating sim" when it is the most "just a dating sim" a game could possibly be, but anyway.) if you turn out to like the gameplay style and/or you just prefer male love interests in the first place, the first three tokimeki memorial girl's side games (the otome versions of tokimemo, so female protag + male dating options instead of vice versa) also have fan translations.

hatoful boyfriend is also just an unironically good dating sim, and while i think familiarity with otome games would make it land better as a parody, you can absolutely play it as your first otome game and still have a good time with it if you can suspend your disbelief with the concept of all the love interests being sapient birds. (the sequel, holiday star, is just a visual novel, not a dating sim.)

doukyuusei is another very early classic dating sim that had a recent remake that's available in english on steam (with an optional patch to restore 18+ content.) white album also recently had an english translation of its remake published on steam! (it's mainly of the "schedule management" type of dating sim rather than more complex sim gameplay like something like tokimemo, so it might be a good entry point as something closer to a regular visual novel.) amagami is another "schedule management" type that does have an english patch, although it's still (from what i've heard) a bit buggy and unpolished. love plus... exists.

on the OELVN side, actual dating sims are also not super common and i can't speak for the actual quality of any of these, but sunrider academy, RE: alistair, and backstage pass are a few i know of and have seen recommended in the past.

also, in line with persona 3-5 being rpgs with dating sim elements, another game series that's (other game type) with dating sim elements added in that's worth checking out (and is underrated tbh) is sakura wars! only the first game has a fan translation but the 2019 reboot did get released on playstation in english.

what is your favourite dating sim/do you have any dating sim recommendations

I'm actually not much of a dating sim fan... it speaks a lot to my need for jangling keys that the closest thing I have to an answer is persona 3 (because the social links are explicitly a porting of dating sim mechanics into an rpg)

I'll invite people more into the genre to offer recommendations in the notes though!

[bbnibini]

*sighs* okay Elle. Since you're asking 🙄🙄🙄🙄 /j .Please infodump us about "that one Obey Me CYOA". (I'm just joking~ I loved PSISLY!!!! Mwah mwah! I'm waiting for Lucifer's and the secret admirer's routes >u>~)

Yessssssssssss!!! I have been waiting for this all my life! /j

I have a lot to say so I'm just gonna make like 5 bulletpoints and won't elaborate/overshare any further or at least try to:

The CYOA's affection system is inspired by one of my favourite otome series: Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side. To anyone unfamiliar with Tokimemo, it's a hugely popular dating sim series in Japan credited to be the pioneer/OGs of stat-raising dating games. My favourite is the third instalment of their otome spinoff! c: This is also speculated to be the inspiration for Obey Me universe's Dogi Maji game series.

Fun fact: If the TMGS3 OP somehow sounds familiar to you, I personally think it's because it sounds a lot like Solomon's character song, Our Destiny!

The Overflowed mechanic for the CYOA's hard mode is also inspired by two games: Amnesia and Collar x Malice. (Namely, the Trust system in CxM and the Doubt parameter in Toma's route in Amnesia)

In the earlier parts of the CYOA, Simeon was initially going to be a love interest and @lexsssu was supposed to write his route, but this idea was eventually scrapped. (some censored parts of our chat are plot-heavy spoilers that persist to this day.)

Belphie's "route" was meant to be a red herring. But it kinda evolved into this eerily fitting puzzle piece I needed to tie everything together.

Satan's and Barbatos' routes initially had a smut scene in their respective routes (Good Ending and OE A). But, as I am not confident in writing smut, I scrapped it and made them implied. To my smut writing friends, why are you so talented, and can you please pass your smut writing talent to me? ;v;

And for you, Anon! Since you said you're waiting for Lucifer's "route", Here's a trivia:

Lucifer's route was drafted to be the on-the-nose, mystery 'route' where you can get a more traditional whodunit narrative. And Author is the "final boss". But I'm not sure yet if I have to scrap my drafts or rewrite what I already wrote. We'll find out, haha!

[meredithalden]

DATING SIMS ARE GOOD AND YOU SHOULD PLAY THEM: A MANIFESTO

hello everyone, I am here today to talk to you about the most important literary genre ever created. yes that's right. you know exactly which one I mean.

This write-up presumes that you know absolutely zero about dating sims (to be more specific: dating simulation videogames), except for the fact that they exist. If you didn’t know that, well, now you know that. If any of this is a retread, my apologies. Please feel extremely free to comment, make corrections, additions, pile on, discourse, etc.

Part 1.  JAPANESE DATING SIMS: INCEPTION

Dating sims weren't invented by Konami, but they're the ones responsible for massively popularizing it and establishing all the now-classic genre standards (or genre cliches, depending on how you look at it). Tokimeki Memorial came out in 1994 for PC.

Per Wikipedia, lightly edited for clarity: "In a typical dating sim, the player controls a male avatar surrounded by a variety of female characters. The gameplay involves conversing with these girls, attempting to increase their internal 'love meter' through correct choices of dialogue and action. The game lasts for a fixed period of in-game time, such as one month, or three years. When the game ends, the player either loses the game if they failed to properly win over any of the girls, or they 'complete' one of the girls' routes, achieving eternal love (or getting sex, depending on what type of sub-genre the game falls under). This gives the games more replay value, since the player can focus on a different girl each time, trying to get a different ending."

Tokimeki Memorial (and all of its subsequent sequels and spin-offs) take place during the 3 years of the player character's Japanese high school career, including archetypal events such as the sports festival, the cultural festival, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's day, and (at the end of the game) graduation.

A poster on the Something Awful forums made an extremely comprehensive screenshot & text-based Let's Play of Tokimeki games 1 through 3, and also one of the spin-off games, where the genders are flipped. In that spin-off, the player avatar is a high school girl, pursuing various boys. (In general, gender-flipped genre variants where you play as a girl are referred to as "Otome Games," i.e. "Games for Young Ladies").

These Tokimeki Memorial Let's Plays are archived here.

In order to understand this foundational series, you definitely do not have to read this whole archive (it's approximately 1 billion words altogether. These games are long and text-heavy), but I would recommend reading reading the summary write-ups for each game in the overview page that I linked up above, and maybe the first couple update chapters for each game, so you can get a feel for the overall vibe & conventions of the genre. Or you can probably find a bunch of video LPs on YouTube, if that's more your style! Or you can play them yourself! (I played Girl's Side 2 on a Nintendo DS emulator, and enjoyed myself a whole bunch.)

I like this particular Let's Play a lot because   A. Reading is just personally easier and faster for me than watching   B. The author is really thorough and takes the time to explain all the idiosyncratic Japanese cultural tropes and references that come up, and I think that's neat.

Part 2.  THE CONTAGION SPREADS

Any game with characters that you can "romance," or build up their "affection stats" by making various choices, owes this mechanic to dating sims.

Some examples of games from completely different genres, which nevertheless incorporate dating sim mechanics:

Every Dragon Age game, every Mass Effect game, every Knights of the Old Republic game (thanks for doing what you do, Bioware!), Fallout 4, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto 4, Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, Final Fantasy 7, the entire Persona series, The Witcher 3, indie darlings Oxenfree and Night in The Woods…

And also, there are a bunch of games that ARE straight-up dating sims, but stray from the genre-typical high school setting and genre-typical cast of beautiful hetero romanceable characters. They may also stray from the convention of having every character be "winnable."

You probably already know about Dream Daddy, where you play as a dad, and date other dads: https://kotaku.com/dream-daddy-creators-explain-why-you-can-t-smooch-all-t-1797354455

Rose of Winter is about a female mercenary warrior hired to escort 4 handsome princes: https://kotaku.com/rose-of-winter-is-a-visual-novel-about-first-love-1788036938

Katawa Shoujo is about a boy who transfers to a school for disabled children: http://www.katawa-shoujo.com/about.php

Monster Prom is about getting hot monsters to agree to be your prom date: http://monsterprom.pizza/

Part 3.  HEY YOU. YEAH YOU, BEHIND THE LAPTOP. HEY. YOU. I'M TALKING TO YOU.  

*puts on sunglasses*  Let's get...... metafictional.

I’m not going to say much about any of the following games. Just play them. Play them blind, or as close to blind as possible.

Play this:

don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story

Here is a non-spoilery review if you're curious to learn more first: https://killscreen.com/articles/review-dont-take-it-personally-babe-it-just-aint-your-story/

And then play this:

Hatoful Boyfriend

steam store link (DON'T READ ANY STEAM REVIEWS.)

Non-spoilery review here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/12/hatoful-boyfriend-review-love-pigeons-japanese-dating-sim

And then play this next one.

Be advised that it gets heavy. If you play it at night, maybe don't be alone in the house. Content warning: “This game is not suitable for children, or those who are easily disturbed.”

Doki Doki Literature Club

steam store link (DO NOT READ ANY STEAM REVIEWS. DO NOT READ ANY OTHER REVIEWS. DO NOT READ ANYTHING. DO NOT GOOGLE THIS GAME. DON'T ASK YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT IT EITHER.*)

*If you want to know why it's good, or if you want to know more about the specific nature of the content warning before deciding if this game is okay for you to play, feel free to ask me. I'll let you know whatever you need to know to make an informed decision so you can feel comfortable.

~ The End ~

Thank you for coming to my thesis defense. Everyone, be sure to tell me which dateable dads, pigeons, monsters, and fictional Japanese high school students you think are the cutest and the best and most dateable.

[diversegaminglists]

Games with on-screen kisses

Should be considered story spoilers (except for maybe dating sims), so browse at your own peril.

On-screen means a visible kiss on the lips, in-engine, cutscene or, in the case of visual novels, CG art. Games with descriptions of kisses in text only do not count.

This is far from complete but I think I’ve got most of the obvious ones, as always, suggestions and corrections encouraged (but no suggestions for games featuring unavoidable rape please).

I could really use more examples for the M/M only section as it’s currently mostly porn games in there (where all the smoochy games at?). :/

M/F:

Akatsuki No Goei (M/F)(Hentai game)(CG)(Translation patch)

Always Remember Me (Otome CG)

Alpha Protocol (Several kisses with optional romances as leads into fade-to-black sex scenes.)

Amagami (CG)(Translation patch)

Aquaria (Naija and Li)

Assassin’s Creed 3 (Kenway and Kaniehtí:io/Ziio, Myriam and Norris )

Assassin’s Creed 2 (Ezio and Cristina)

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ezio and Caterina)

Assassin’s Creed: Unity

Batman: Arkham Knight (Batman and Catwoman)

Binary Domain (Dan and Faye)

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (George kisses Nicole while she is tied up and she gives him a rightful bollocking for taking advantage, but later forgives him.)

Brütal Legend (Eddie and Ophalia)

Catherine (Anime style cutscenes)

Contract Marriage (CG)

Dandelion (CG)

The Darkness (Jacky and Jenny)

Dead Rising 3 (Nick and Annie)

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories (In the good ending Adell and Rozalin smooch, CG art)

Dra+Koi (M/F)(CG)(Hentai)(Translation patch)

ef - a fairy tale of the two (dating sim, cg art)

Enchanted in the Moonlight (CG)

Fahrenheit aka Indigo Prophecy (Two optional, one unskippable, two leading into terrible sex scenes, one of which involves QTE thrusting, because of course it does it’s David Cage.)

Final Fantasy VIII (Rinoa and Squall finally smooch in the ending cutscene)

Final Fantasy X (Story cutscene while flying around in a magical lake, very Japanese.)

Final Fantasy XIII (Snow and Sera)

Final Fantasy XV (Noctis and Luna)

GoldenEye (James Bond and Natalya)

Hakuōki Franchise (Otome game)(CG)

Heavy Rain (depends on what choices you pick but they’re all awkward and creepy in context anyway)

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (In the middle of a fight Indiana smooches Sophia, how rude!)

Kaleidoscope Dating sim 1 & 2 (CG)

KatawaShoujo (Hentai game, CG art)

Kissed by the baddest bidder (CG)

LEGO Batman (Batman and Catwoman)

Lego Batman 3 (Poison Ivy)

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (seemingly out of nowhere romance plots with very little build up or logic but does have awkward ps2 facesmushing)

Max Payne 2 (Max and Mona)

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Snake and Eva before a sexy time)

Metel Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Meryl and Johnny)

Metro PD: Close to You (Otome, CG)

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Press X to kiss your wife)

My Guardian Angel (CG)

My Sweet Proposal (CG)

Nameless: That One Thing You Must Recall (CG)

Nicole (CG)(I believe F/F content might be planned in the future)

Office Lover (CG)

Onimusha 2 (Oyu & Jubei)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Story cutscenes)

Princess Evangile (CG)(There are both All-Ages and uncensored versions of this game)

Psychonauts (Raz and Lili)

Resident Evil 2 (Leon and Ada)

Royal Midnight Kiss (CG)

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (CG)

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (at the end of some levels)

Shall We Date Franchise (CG)

Shira Oka: Second Chances (CG)

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (Infamous scene where a human princess has to smooch an unconscious Sonic)

Snow Sakura (CG)(Hentai game)

Spiderman: The Movie (Spiderman and MJ)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Starkiller’s pilot Juno plants one on him)

Storm Lover (Otome)(CG)

Sunrider Academy (CG) (Hentai game)

Sweet Scandal (CG)

Telltale’s Batman (Bruce and Selina)

To Heart 1 & 2 (CG)(All ages and uncensored versions)

Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side Franchise (Otome)(CG)(Translation patch)

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Nate and Chloe smooch fairly early on. Nate and Elena finally smooch on screen at the end.)

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Elena and Nate again)

Until Dawn (Optional between Chris and Ashley)

Valkyria Chronicles (Welkin and Alicia)

Valkyria Chronicles III (Kurt and one of two possible girls)

War: 13th Day

Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga

The Witcher Franchise (usually before a sexytime)

Wolfenstein: The New Order (Anya and BJ)

Yo-Jin-Bo (Otome game, CG art)

F/F:

Flowers -Le volume sur printemps-

Her Tears Were My Light

Highway Blossoms (Both all ages and uncensored versions available)

Kindred Spirits on the Roof (CG art)

The Last of Us: Left Behind (T_T)

A Little Lily Princess

Love is Strange (Life is Strange fanfic)

Nurse Love Addiction

Slumberparty

Starlight Vega (warning for one step-sister romance route)

why is this dragon so fucking cute?

M/M:

Animamundi: Dark Alchemist (CG)(Adult game)

Bacchikoi! (CG)(Adult game)

Coming Out on Top (CG)(Adult game)

Hetalia Sim Date (CG)

Lamento – BEYOND THE VOID – (CG)(Adult game)(Catboys)

No, Thank You!!! (CG)(Adult game)

Silver Chaos (CG)(Adult game)(Translation patch)

Sleepover (CG)(Adult game)             

Combinations:

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (Roth and Jacob, Evie and Henry)

Backstage Pass (CG)

Bully (M/F and M/M kisses)

Dragon Age: Origins (repeatable smooches wherever)

Dragon Age 2 (Only in romance cutscenes)

Dragon Age 3 (combination of the two, but repeatable kisses only in Skyhold)

Fable Franchise (social actions)

Fire Emblem Fates occasionally gives your player character first person kissing scenes with your chosen S-rank partner.

Heilleen (CG art F/M and F/F)

Hustle Cat (Main character is NB by default)

Injustice 2 (Poison Ivy has a kiss attack)

Jade Empire (Though please note that the same-sex kisses need a mod to display properly without fading to black, see the mod section below.)

Life is Strange (There are options for Max to kiss Chloe and Warren depending on their relationship values.)

LongStory (CG)

Loren: The Amazon Princess (CG)

Lovestruck (This is Voltages’s newer app for games like Astoria and Castaways) (F/F F/M F/NB) (CG)

Magical Diary: Horse Hall (F/M & F/F CG)

Mass Effect (Cutscenes)

Saints Row IV  (Parody of romance cutscenes ranging from romantic kisses, to rough BDSM, to implied robot oral)

The Sims Franchise (So many different ways to smooch!)

Singles: Flirt Up Your Life (This is a game about boinking your room mate, but there’s also smooches and 1 M/M and 1 F/F option each)

Shoujo City 2D (F/M F/F)

Spelunky (Rescuing “damsels” will get you a kiss and an extra hitpoint at the end of the level, you can choose from a lady, a dude, a pug dog, or a combination of all three in the game options.)

Stardew Valley (You can smooch your partner)

Starwars: The Old Republic (Many M/F love interests in the main game. The expansions added some M/M and F/F)

Telltale’s Tales From the Borderlands (Several M/F and one F/F depending on paths chosen)

Mods:

Jade Empire Gay Romance Fix

Kissing - Immersive Lover's Comfort (Smooching mod for Skyrim, no other mods required.)

Icha Love (Alternative Kissing Mod for Skyrim, page is in Russian, requires FNIS, SKSE, and SKY UI mods)

Kiss Em All (Yet another Skyrim kissing mod, requires SKSE)

Kiss Em All SE (Port of Kiss Em All for Skyrim SE, also available for XBox1)

Bastila Romance Enhancement (Adds a visible kiss between Bastila and PC to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)

Carth Romance Fix (Adds a visible kiss between Carth and PC to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)

Juhani Romance Enhancement (Adds a visible kiss between Juhani and PC to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)

Kiss (Adds kissing to Fallous: New Vegas, hosted on an adult site, which needs an account to access downloads.)

Caricature animation (Adds kissing to Oblivion, requires OBSE20)

Special Mentions:

Exstetra is a JRPG where kissing everyone is a key game mechanic, but it’s only been released in Japan and unlikely to be localised into English.

KissMe - Adds Kisses to Minecraft but I don’t know if it’s text only or animations.

LovePlus - First person M/F kissing, only available via translation patch.

nummyz dating sims - Needs more research

Paranormal Kiss - Not in English yet.

Sim Girls Franchise - Needs more research