"the ANTI-dating sim where" please stop doing these games. there aren't enough actual dating sims in english to warrant the sheer number of anti-dating sims there are
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would like to say that i am well aware of the high number of genuine visual novels made by indie developers. when i refer to "actual dating sims in english" i am referring to ones that are in The Mainstream, hence mentioning huniepop, ddlc, etc
i literally can't think of one dating sim in english that plays it completely straight whereas i can think of like. four takeoffs on dating sims off the top of my head? probably more if i dig my heels in and really think
like there's DDLC, i just wanna be single (which inspired this post), needy streamer overload, hatoful boyfriend, class of '09 and all its spinoffs, slay the princess, hell even the one that popularized visual novels in the west was intended as a takeoff (katawa shoujo)
oh and then there's dream daddy, sucker for love, there is of COURSE hunie pop 1 + 2, the monster prom series... it goes on and on i could do this all day
there’s a couple of sincere *furry* dating sims out there like “Mice Tea” and “Adastra”, but those are technically just romance visual novels since they don’t have any simulation elements
In a way, Slay the Princess is the opposite of games like DDLC, that uses the aesthetic and surface level similarities of visual novels to create a horror game. While Slay the Princess uses the horror to tell a love story
Also, there aren’t any transactional game mechanics involved in building your relationship with her. You’re not spamming gifts at her to build up her heart meter. You make choices, the Princess reacts to your choices. You’re creating a story together, not minmaxing stats. It feels way more natural.
Hatoful Boyfriend is a translated game, you can't really compare it to an OELVN written as a parody when the writer was working from a completely different environment with the target demo speaking a completely different language.
Katawa Shoujo was made in earnest- it was based on this sketch Raita made at the back one of his doujins. /a/ liked it, so they formed a team and made the game.
It's far from perfect, (Shizune's route has only one choice) but I do recommend it.
The Magical Diary games are pretty straightforward dating sims. Quite good too, in my opinion! But they're certainly not some kind of industry juggernauts that invite parody.
Oh there's also Roommates, that works mechanically extremely similar to the core of Tokimeki with the stat building and weekly schedules, minus the bombs and the meeting people aspects.
I feel like those Homestuck ones that came out are the only western dating sims that play it straight, or about as straight as a Homestuck product can. Like in the sense its not making fun of the genre.
the way that, even decades later, people still feel a slight sense of shame about visual novels/dating sims to the point where they feel the need to point and laugh at them to put themselves over
They're all written by people that got really angry at a thing they imagined, because they lacked the skill to write a compelling romance.
It's weird how many people still hate VNs on principle, like that "Nintendo eshop fix" that automatically filtered out any VNs/dating sims.
ok i agree with you but also when it comes to the nintendo eshop that's understandable. there is a LOT of low-effort slop released on there all willy-nilly it's kind of nuts
That may be hyperbole, maybe like 20% are written by people with good intentions.
Yeah the eshop is now ~75% shovelware but there are a surprising number of cool Japanese indies/ otome games. This specific fix filtered out all Romance of the Three Kingdoms games because romance was in the title.
Fwiw the filter they're talking about went way overboard even with the state of the eshop as it is, it worked on a "mark everything as shovelware and manually unmark" which meant that hundreds of actually legit games got hidden by default for the crime of being unpopular
dating sims are visual novels, but visual novels aren’t all dating sims—in fact, most of them aren’t, even if they contain romances
For recs, If you think lesbian/sapphic romances are neat, anything by/published by @vnstudioelan.com is worth a shot—especially https://twofold.page, which is peak fiction imo
That’s something I’m really not liking out of western dating sims (and several other indie titles). It always has to be subversive and ironic, it has to be disturbing, or horrifying underneath. It can never just… be earnest and sincere.
The typical straight man has an incredibly distorted view of romance and love. This is a consequence of numerous factors: widespread depression, poor work/life balance, the commodification of romance in the form of dating apps, toxic masculinity and the patriarchal gender roles that enforce it...
Between those impossible to meet patriarchal standards and our capitalist society based around always needing to consume to show your worth, most men have such low self esteem that the concept of someone genuinely caring for them, loving them, and enjoying being around them is immersion breaking.
It's why many of the sincere ones are written by queer folks. Because we're the ones who are usually more open to expressing and exploring our own emotions and sense of intimacy. We're better at writing straight romance than most of the straights because we get them better than they get themselves!
find it rly funny that class of 09 says that in the description but it kind of rly undersells the actual premise and insanity in it. Like it isnt rly an anti dating sim at all nor is it crazy subversive. It’s rly fun but the creator is weird and has weird hangups
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Needy streamer overload strikes me much as a dark spin on raising simulator games (and it was created by a Japanese studio).
It's far from perfect, (Shizune's route has only one choice) but I do recommend it.
a) They can't be sincere about romance/sex to save their lives
b) If they were sincere their game would be filled with alien reptile notions of human behavior, like that Ruthkanda forever tweet in game form.
It's weird how many people still hate VNs on principle, like that "Nintendo eshop fix" that automatically filtered out any VNs/dating sims.
Yeah the eshop is now ~75% shovelware but there are a surprising number of cool Japanese indies/ otome games. This specific fix filtered out all Romance of the Three Kingdoms games because romance was in the title.
Sci-Fi & Horror: Steins;Gate, Saya no Uta
Mystery: Ace Attorney, The Shell
Comedy: Majikoi, 428 Shibuya Scramble
Just some classics you might enjoy that I don't think will be too alienating.
For recs, If you think lesbian/sapphic romances are neat, anything by/published by @vnstudioelan.com is worth a shot—especially https://twofold.page, which is peak fiction imo
just because i am picturing a game that's about trying to break up with people and i don't think that's what it is
Did tokimeki memorial kill their grandma or something?