Favorite dating sim?

[neromero]

Mine's the tokimeki memorial girls side series, specifically the second game (＾ω＾)

 

[AncientBehemoth]

Old flash game by the name of Sim Girl and Ganguro girl.

 

[Yousef]

I really like Clannad, Kanon, Never7, Ever17, Little Busters and Air.

 

[gekiganwing]

The first Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side. For me, it was the right game on one of my favorite consoles at a good time. The fan translation was completed during December 2010 on the original Nintendo DS. At the time, I'd experienced a lot of good games on the DS. It was a system that helped publishers release experimental and eccentric games that weren't limited to the old "press A to jump, press B to attack, or it won't sell" assumptions. I knew that DS software was fading, and fan projects were being completed. So I bought an R4 card for modded and fan translated games.

TMGS1 is messy. The love interests don't have much characterization. Goro Hanatsubaki is amusing, but he's an early 2000s walking joke, and he's probably better as a side character. Like the second and third Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side games, it's easy for the protagonist to get a job and join a club, but difficult to turn down a guy. While I think TMGS3 is a better game, I spent more time playing the first and second games.

I want to like Monster Prom. The illustrations are awesome. The gameplay options are impressive. If you described the game to me, I would've assumed that it fell apart in development because of its scope. It even works on consoles! The one thing getting in the way: the game needs to slow down here and there, and offer some storytelling to balance out its pop culture jokes.

 

[Num]

my all time favorite has to be ganpare but its not because of the dating sim elements the game is just awesome in general you can spend so much time delving deep into the mechanics. now i just need to spend just as much time trying to raise my right stats to make retrogametalk users hearts go up

 

[DrunkGecko]

doki doki cliterature club

 

[Eclipse14]

I recently went through First Kiss Story on the PC-FX. That game hit a lot harder than I thought it was going to.

Prior to that...I think I only really experienced the genre through the RPGs that were half Dating Sim (Thousand Arms for PS1, Ar tonelico and Sakura Wars for PS2 are the ones that come to mind).

 

[nexy]

I hate how dating sims are such a niche genre in the West, we hardly have any games of the genre to play, exist some tokimeki, amagami, love plus fans translations and the list is over. and for worse, people confuse dating sims with visual novels.
Probably my favorite dating sim of the ones i was able to play was monster prom.

 

[freebie#47]

Harvest Moon/Story of Season games...can't forget your first. Yes, I chose Ann

 

[antii antii]

doki doki cliterature club

Excuse me WHAT club

 

[Prism_Red]

This is kinda hard, my pick would be Majikoi and Snow Sakura.

Majikoi is absurd and very tropey, but in a good way, if you asked me what's the perfect high school life would've been like, this is probably it.
I like how they give almost all of the heroines, even the minor ones, their own route in the fandiscs. There are lots of games and anime references too which can be fun if you get it.

Snow Sakura, well, the first half of the novel is geared for comedy which was pretty entertaining at the time, the romance part starts at the latter half and while some routes are more serious compared to others, it still manage to bring a comedy undertone that doesn't get in the way of the main plot.
Also if you're into voice actress, I believe this is one of the earliest voice work by Rina Satou, albeit under different alias.

 

[antii antii]

My favorite dating sim is real life

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Final Fantasy VII

 

[tropicalavera]

My favorite dating sim is real life

yeah, but are you any good at it? >:3

for me it's the early Sakura Wars games! I love the tokimeki games too, but the setting of SW is a little more appealing to me than high school. The og saturn release is great but I'd like to shine a light on the GBC entry which manages to shrink down such a hefty experience into such a tiny package - complete with that always-lovely GBC color palette and excellent spritework.

Can love bloom on the battlefield?
Sakura Wars says "yes"!

 

[Clippy]

I remember True Love 95 being pretty coolio. Not sure if I should revisit the game after all these years or be content with rose-tinted memories.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Thousand Arms. Play it, awesome PSX(now and forever) RPG with Dating Sim power up mechanics.

 

[TheWanderer]

Don't really play those ,but I did play Sakura wars due to its 90s aesthetics , didn't finish it tho

 

[Clippy]

Final Fantasy VII

CloudxBarret the only viable pairing.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

CloudxBarret the only viable pairing.

Sephiroth keeps trying to sneak into his DMs.

 

[TheWanderer]

Sephiroth keeps trying to sneak into his DMs.

View attachment 11807

You gotta see this

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

They forgot Ehrgeiz, where he also fought Sephy, but had no actual story beats.

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

Hatoful Boyfried due to its sheer absurdity.

I mean c'mon, you're a girl dating pigeons.

 

[MasterEn]

his one:

Night of the Lesbian Vampires by Jaime Scribbles Games, tofurocks, PMscenarios, KonpeiCo., FirahFabe, A Jen Bird, Akua, Odd Lazdo

What’s a girl to do when she gets two visitors at midnight who both want her- and some blood?

scribbles.itch.io

it's short but has three endings and quite a few different dialogue options. Elizabeth is the best one by the way. :)

 

[Zeorymer]

I remember True Love 95 being pretty coolio. Not sure if I should revisit the game after all these years or be content with rose-tinted memories.

It's my favorite too, I have many good memories built in my teenage years playing this game, Mayumi and Chiemi are the best. It's great to see that the game is now on Steam, I hope more people can get to know this masterpiece.

 

[Gorse]

A lot of preteen nostalgia is wrapped up in the (if you’re a kid, don’t read this) Meet and Fuck series of flash games. I still remember the music and all the vocal sound effects from those games like it was yesterday. Essentially everyone I knew had played at least one of them, along with the Frank's Adventure series. (Remember that!?) I think my favourite one was where you’re a rich guy and you bang the maid (one of my life aspirations in general), but they were all just great. Just… just great. I’m sorry.

When I was a kid playing those games on Newgrounds, I remember thinking “Oh my god, the people drawing these things are incredible artists!” It wasn't until about a decade later that I realized “Wait a second, all those assets were clearly ripped from early-2000s eroge.” WHAT A SCAM!!!!!!

Also, I preferred it when the sex minigames just had buttons you press at appropriate times, instead of making you jiggle the mouse up and down to simulate intercourse. Things could get a little confusing during the latter — didn’t the guy making those games realize that!?

Now, immediately forget everything you’ve read above and think of me only as an intellectual and a saint. I would never even consider playing a game where you "date" a "fictional cartoon character" – what am I, some kind of geek!?