Dating sim
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Dating sims, or romance simulation games (恋愛シミュレーションゲーム, ren'ai shimyurēshon gēmu), are a
Dating sims are often dialog-heavy and focus on time management. The player must befriend and carefully build and maintain a relationship with one or more characters.[1] The gameplay is largely dependent on statistics.
History
The dating simulator genre was preceded by the
The first game that set the standard for the dating sim genre was Dōkyūsei (1992), which relied more on timed events than dialogue choices. However, Tokimeki Memorial (1994) truly popularized dating sims in Japan, in which the player, a high school student has the ability to date a dozen different girls.[3] The goal of the developers was to hearken back to high school days. Konami director Akihiko Nagata said "the person who created the game wanted to have experiences like this back in his high school days".[2] The was a strong hit in Japan, with 1.1 million copies by 1996.[2]
In general,
Games such as Sakura Wars and Persona (both series started in 1996, the latter would add dating sim elements in 2006) are RPGs with dating sim elements.
Characteristics
In a typical dating sim, the player controls a male avatar surrounded by female characters. The gameplay involves conversing with a selection of girls, attempting to increase their internal "love meter" through correct choices of dialogue. The game lasts for a fixed period of game time, such as one month or three years. When the game ends, the player either loses the game if he failed to properly win over any of the girls, or "finishes" one of the girls, often by having sex with her, marrying her (as in Magical Date), and/or achieving eternal love.This gives the games more replay value, since the player can focus on a different girl each time, trying to get a different ending.
Dating sims often revolve almost entirely around relationship-building, usually featuring complex character interactions and branching dialogue trees, and often presenting the player's possible responses word-for-word as the player character would say them. Dating sims such as Tokimeki Memorial, and some role-playing games with similar relationship based mechanics to the genre such as Persona, often give choices that have a different number of associated "mood points" which influence a player character's relationship and future conversations with a non-player character. These games often feature a day-night cycle with a time scheduling system that provides context and relevance to character interactions, allowing players to choose when and if to interact with certain characters, which in turn influences their responses during later conversations.[5]
While
There are many variations on this theme: high-school romances are the most common, but a dating sim may also take place in a fantasy setting and involve such challenges as defending one's girl from monsters.
One game series that often includes dating, with the goal of marriage, is the
Some Japanese dating sims may allow the player to have romantic or sexual relationships with characters in their teens.[
These games also often involve raising stats that reflect the player's skills and can be combined with other genres. Series such as Sakura Wars and Persona combine role-playing game (RPG) gameplay with dating sim gameplay.[1]
Examples
- Girl's Garden (1985)
- Tenshitachi no Gogo (1985)
- Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School (1987)
- Dōkyūsei series (1992 onwards)
- Tokimeki Memorial series(1994 onwards)
- True Love (1995)
- Magical Date (1996)
- Sakura Wars series (1996 onwards)
- Thousand Arms (1998)
- Persona series (2006 onwards)
- Summer Session (2008)
- Amagami (2009)
- Love Plus(2009)
- Conception (2012 onwards)
- Hatoful Boyfriend (2012 onwards)
- Boyfriend Maker(2012)
- Mystic Messenger (2016)
- Doki Doki Literature Club! (2017)
- House Party (2017)
See also
References
- ^ OCLC 706802880.
- ^ from the original on January 29, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
- ^ Barnholt, Ray (2012). The National Girlfriend: The Not-So-Innocent Story of Japan's Puppy Love Video Game Phenomenon. Bipedal Dog.
- ^ "Games the World over are not the Same". Kenosha News. 2006-02-17. p. 47. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
- Gamasutra. Archivedfrom the original on 2012-05-13. Retrieved 2011-03-30.