Romance has slowly started to encompass a lot of AAA video game franchises as of late, letting the player form bonds and relationships with NPC’s while attempting to power through a main storyline/campaign.
Some franchises step that up a notch though and delve into dating sim territory with their wealth of romance options and content available. While we love these games for the genre they are in more openly flaunting, these are five video game franchises that we low-key love just as much for their dating elements too.
Fire Emblem
Fire Emblem, especially Three Houses, is known for having an excellent cast of characters that stand out from one another in huge ways. You have the quiet and introverted girl with powerful magic abilities, a heartbroken teacher who just wants a faithful companion, a playboy who bleeds confidence, and lots of other distinct personalities.
Of course, the tactical turn-based combat is what makes up the bulk of most Fire Emblem titles but getting to know the cast and forming bonds/relationships with them is something truly special.
In Three Houses alone, you can have tea with the students, give them gifts, and flirt with them, which in turn causes the game to become as much a dating simulator as anything else.
There just needs to be a Fire Emblem dating sim spin-off already so that we can all pick and choose our favorite Waifu’s and Husbandos without the facade of a SRPG.
If you have been on Twitter or have looked at Fire Emblem fanart, you can see that fans of the JRPG franchise are very thirsty for some of these characters, so why not take out the battles and add more dates and such.
You can take Edelgard out fishing, take Claude out for some archery practice, or even go study with Sylvain by the lake –the dating possibilities and match-ups would be endless.
It could even be called: Fire Emblem: One Love –you’re welcome, Nintendo.
Mass Effect
Can we all just be upfront and honest and agree that Mass Effect is basically a hookup simulator? Take away the guns, the sci-fi narrative, and volatile reapers and you got yourself a very steamy video game that lets you have relations with a bunch of attractive humans, and even some freaky aliens.
Thanks to the deep conversation systems and dialog choices in play throughout the Mass Effect series, flirting is typically always happening as you can sweet-talk your way into the bed of whomever you desire.
Developer BioWare isn’t in the best place at the moment due to the lukewarm reception of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem but perhaps a new dating sim spin-off in the Mass Effect universe would put the studio back into the good graces of fans.
Let’s call it ‘Mass Effect: Space Dates.’
The Witcher
The Witcher series is known for its incredible side-quests that aren’t just simple fetch quests, deep combat mechanics, and world-building but you can also romance a couple of the women in The Witcher if you get lucky.
You have the dangerous but beautiful Yennefer, Geralt’s on-and-off-again love interest, Triss, and a couple of other tempting ladies of the Continent.
Considering how popular The Witcher franchise is now thanks to the success of CD Projekt Red’s video game adaptations and the live-action Netflix series, what better time would there be to introduce some new love interests for Geralt in a dating sim?
The Witcher: The Continent’s Finest is what we’ll call it. Now, hurry up and finish up Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red –we have a fantastic pitch for your next title.
Stardew Valley
There’s no better feeling than watching your crops grow and prosper in Stardew Valley but you have to admit that dating some of the townsfolk is a great feeling too.
Since each one has their own personality, along with likes and dislikes, it can be fun to figure out just what to say to them to get a positive reaction or what kind of date they would like to go on.
Imagine a Stardew Valley dating sim that strips away the management systems and farm-building and instead just lets you romance your neighbors.
You can go horseback riding, fishing, cook together, or maybe just sit down and talk about your feelings. It’ll basically just be a special farm edition of The Bachelor/Bachelorette but instead of giving out roses to your potential partners, they’ll get a horse.
It’ll be called ‘Single in Stardew.’
Persona
I didn’t care about beating the bad guys during my Persona 5 playthrough, I was more interested in making sure that Ann Takamaki would become Joker’s girlfriend before the credits rolled and the mission was accomplished. Saving the world was just the cherry on top.
In Persona 5, when you weren’t beating up difficult monsters in palaces, you would spend your free time hanging out with the splendid members of the Phantom Thieves, and some other citizens of Tokyo.
Unfortunately, you couldn’t romance male characters in the game but all of the women were capable of forming a potential relationship with the main character and it’s so difficult to choose one over the other. Unless you know, you didn’t choose and just dated all of them.
Having to juggle Joker’s free time with palace expeditions, Mememto’s, studying, working out, and many other bothersome tasks just got in the way of his dating life, which is why a Persona dating sim would work wonders for those that want more dates and fewer dungeons.
And here’s the name for this one: Metaverse Mingle –make sure to credit my name at the title screen, Atlus.
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