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Dating simulators, part of the larger genre of games known as "visual novels," are single-player story video games with mostly simple mechanics. The goal is usually to navigate complex interpersonal interactions with several characters that may or may not result in romance, depending on your actions or dialogue choices.
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Dating sims are sometimes fairly innocuous, but let's be honest – they can also get pretty out there. From dating dinosaurs to a horse (with an anime boy face) to a literal printer machine, dating sims are not afraid to explore some bizarre romantic options. Here are some of the most outlandish dating sims popular on Valve's Steam platform that you can play right now, if you dare.
Updated June 21st, 2020, By Ericka Blye:With their growth in popularity in the West, there has been a wider range of themes dating sims have tackled. And while a lot are still heartfelt stories about love and relationships, there are quite a few that are made with the intent of being absurd and making you laugh while you enjoy romancing your partner of choice. Steam continues to offer plenty of dating sims like this from indie developers all around the world.
14 Negligee
Starting off fairly straightforward (as far as dating sim premises go), Negligee is about playing a young woman named Hannah, the new manager of a lingerie shop. Throughout the game, you have the chance to build relationships with your new female hires, including the buxom exotic dancer, Jasmin, the sweet and shy Charlotte, and the sassy Sophie. Negligee, unlike many traditional dating sims, offers bonus endings where you can have multiple romantic relationships with the available characters, instead of being forced to choose one. What seems to be a thinly veiled pretense to look at scantily clad anime women actually includes some clever dialogue, pretty art, and sweet depictions of female romantic relationships.
13 ~Nameless~The One thing You Must Recall~
Nameless is a dating sim from Cheritz, the same company behind the dating sim mobile game, Mystic Messenger. You play as Eri, who lives alone after her grandpa dies and while her parents are working overseas. Eri spends her free time collecting ball-jointed dolls who she talks to and treats like family to chase away her loneliness.
And then, after a strange dream, she finds that her dolls have come life! While certainly not the weirdest game on this list, a dating sim about dating dolls is a bit off the beaten path of the "norm" for dating sims. And despite its soft and beautiful art style, Nameless tackles some pretty dark themes.
12 Love Language Japanese
Love Language Japanese is both a dating sim and an actual, semi-serious language learning game, which makes it a bizarre crossover in terms of genre. The premise is very familiar for anime fans: you attend a prestigious Tokyo high school for foreigners, meet new friends, and study hard to pass your Japanese lessons.
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Perfect for people trying to supplement some Japanese language study, the game includes more than 50 mini-games and tests. Getting to the rewarding scenes of the dating sim requires actual homework in Japanese, but at least you'll feel like you truly earned it.
11 Kitty Powers Matchmaker
First dates can be pretty awkward, and that's why some people rely on the skills of matchmakers to set them up, hoping that they will pick the best people suited to them. In this dating sim instead of romancing characters, you set up characters to be romanced as you manage your own matchmaking agency.
This quirky game is a combination of strategy, memory, and puzzle gameplay elements mixed with humorous dialogue. You aren't alone when it comes to finding the perfect date for your clients as you're under the tutelage of the Fabulous Kitty Powers!
10 Dream Daddy
Dream Daddy, a dating sim developed by Game Grumps, boasts hilarious dialogue and genre-bending mini-games with every date. You play a single Dad (of any gender identity) who dates other dads, all the while raising your amazing teenage daughter, Amanda. You must choose from one of seven dads, including the cute fitness daddy, the soulful coffee shop daddy, the Victorian gothic daddy, or the controversially married-to-a-woman youth minister daddy. You can earn the Steam Achievement "Bad Dad" if you choose to immediately hookup with the Bad Boy Dad when your daughter is home alone, or you can fight another dad with a daughter brag-off in the style of a Pokémon JPRG battle. The game features some of the best-written dialogue of any dating sim and explores touching moments of dating and parenting.
9 Max Gentlemen Sexy Business!
Ever wanted to know what the cross between a tycoon simulator and a dating sim would be like? Look no further with Max Gentlemen Sexy Business! Your family business has been stolen but you can reclaim it by forming strong partnerships with a wide collection of (attractive) executives.
For those who enjoyed the total customization that games like Dream Daddy offer, you'll find a similar option in this game as you can create your own "Gentsona" and assign them the pronouns of your own preference. While a dating simulator with a Victorian business tycoon theme might not be everyone's cup of tea, it does allow you to set filters for the game so you only see the type of content you're comfortable with.
8 Panzermadels
Panzermadels somehow manages to fall in the middle of this pack in terms of weirdness. Its premise is patently absurd: your character gets transferred to an all-tank high school where everyone is, supposedly, a World War II era military tank. And yet, the tanks all inexplicably look like cute anime schoolgirls.
There is the spunky all-American M4 Sherman tank, the tall blonde German Tiger I (and her more basic cousin, popular blonde Panzer IV), the tsundere Russian T-34 tank and more. If you are a World War II artillery buff with a love for anime girls, this game was literally made for you.
7 Nekojishi
To this game's credit, for a cat dating simulator, the cats are actually drawn as cats – buff, masculine anthropomorphic cats. In Nekojishi, you play a young Taipei university student who, through a spiritual dance performance, ends up awakening his ability to see cat spirits.
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Your romantic options are your fatherly guardian tiger spirit, a serious snow leopard, and a spunky leopard cat who was your dance team classmate. Featuring male romantic relationships and a furry-friendly art style, Nekojishi is free to play but does not offer as many narrative choices compared to other dating sims.
6 Purrfect Date
Where Nekojishi has you dating buff anthropomorphic cat spirits, Purrfect Date lets you take your best shot at wooing an island inhabited by actual cats. Playing as a professor's apprentice, you find yourself in the middle of an island mystery that can only be unraveled by romancing the various cat characters.
There's nothing really explicit about the game and it plays more like a visual novel, hiding a compelling mystery beneath absurd humor. Despite being cats, the characters are written with tons of personality and quirks that will endear more than a few of them to you.
5 Pacaplus
In this game, your girlfriend might be an alpaca. "Might," because you are not actually sure, and that is part of the mystery. One school day, on a bus ride back from the "Alpaca Kingdom," your character falls asleep next to your girlfriend Yukari and then wakes up next to a white alpaca who speaks exactly like Yukari. The rest of the game (more of a visual novel than a "dating sim," since your only romantic option is an alpaca) is all about coming to terms with your llama-shaped girlfriend. Unfortunately, the English language localization of the dialogue is rather poor. Some players, however, might consider this a humorous plus.
4 Attack Helicopter Dating Simulator
This game's Steam description really says it all: "As a person who identifies as an attack helicopter, your daily activities may include, morning maintenance, aerial attack runs, and delivering hell-fire missiles on noncombatants for democracy. Or you know, dating other helicopters."
Like Panzermadels, Attack Helicopter Dating Simulator pulls no punches in its absurd tribute to the dating sim genre. The helicopters are anime women, but the game also depicts them as helicopters, elevating this dating sim's weirdness. Based on the problematic "Attack Helicopter" meme, this irreverent game captures the awful spirit of the Internet age into which it was born. With eleven endings, it does offer some actual meaningful story options, so it's not just a joke.
3 Doki Doki Literature Club
This infamous dating sim starts off extremely simple: you meet four female classmates, join their poetry club, and write love poems to your favorite girl in the group based on what she likes. You can choose from the sweet Sayori, the tsundere Natsuki, and the quiet Yuri. There's also the club's president, Monika (just Monika).
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The game goes absolutely off the rails on repeat playthroughs. It would be irresponsible to spoil just how far it escalates, but the Steam description's warning should be heeded: "This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed." A masterpiece of strange, unsettling horror made popular by many a screaming YouTuber, Doki Doki is worth so much more than its free price tag on Steam.
2 I Love You, Colonel Sanders
KFC teamed up with Psyop for this unabashed marketing stunt: it's definitely got everything good (and bad) about dating sims on display, plus some serious Food Wars vibes. The animation is better than it has any right to be, and you get the chance to romance not just Senpai Sanders, but also other characters in your elite culinary school.
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This isn't the first time fast food and anime have crossed paths: one artist created viral fan art of fast food brands as anime characters (and perhaps inspired the marketing department at KFC). Wendy's also released a D&D-inspired RPG guide as a publicity stunt. That said, I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin' Good Dating Sim stands on its own as a complete game, worth the free playthrough.
1 Hatoful Boyfriend
Taking the crown in terms of most popular and most bizarre, Hatoful Boyfriend is the famous dating sim created by manga artist Hato Moa. You play as the only human girl student at an elite all-pigeon high school. The pigeon boys are drawn as both anime boys and actual birds. They represent a variety of pigeon breeds, from the common rock dove to the fantail pigeon to the sleepy button quail. The game offers surprising depth, replay value (including alternative paths that lead to horror and apocalyptic reveals), and genuinely great storytelling and characters. Reviewers are not joking when they say Hatoful Boyfriend made them laugh, cry, and blew their bird brains.
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Vivienne Chen is a Brooklyn-based writer and journalist with a passion for all sides of pop culture, indie gaming, esports, and baking tutorials on YouTube. She convinced Princeton University to let her write a very serious academic paper on Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight as a 9/11 metaphor and will happily examine the social issues in your favorite series. Twitter: @viviennexchen
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