Love is a game, but sometimes you want a game about finding love.
Dating sims can be beautiful and earnest, or completely off the wall. From first romance to dating pigeon professors, here are six dating games worth checking out.
Florence
Annapurna Interactive
Florence is a game about first love. The joy that comes with it, and the annoyances that grow and manifest. Florence is more of an interactive story than a game. While characters do not actually talk, you learn about their hopes and struggles through the game’s art. It is a fun and sometimes sad story, often like a first love.
Florence is a short experience, clocking in at about 45 minutes.That said, the art style is fantastic, and it delivers a lovely story about finding love and loving yourself.
Dream Daddy
Game Grumps
It is difficult being a father and moving to a new community with your teenage daughter. Add trying to date on that, and it all sounds super stressful. Luckily, you moved to a community that is filled with similar fathers, looking to meet their special someone. With so many choices, which will you choose?
Dream Daddy dubs itself as a dad dating simulator. Underneath, it is a fun and heartfelt game, where you just might find your perfect guy.
Hatoful Boyfriend
In Hatoful Boyfriend, you are a young woman who is accepted to a prestigious school. You are also the first human at this school, which is completely run and attended by pigeons. As the semester advances, you develop crushes on a few of your professors. Yes, they are pigeons. Which one will you pursue? What will be their response? Will you stumble upon a deep, dark secret that is undiscovered at the school? You may need to play through Hatoful Boyfriend multiple times to find out.
The Sims 4
EA
The Sims is more than a dating simulator, it is a life simulator.
Create your character and follow your dreams. Choose an identity, career, and pursue a love interest. The Sims 4 has very few gender and sexuality limitations, and players can choose to create straight or LGBTQ+ characters.
You have accepted an invitation from your cousin Jesse to stay in his apartment in Verona Beach for the summer. While there, Jesse suggests you give that whole dating thing a try, since your character has never been on one before. To meet people, Jesse suggests you give dungeon crawling a try. Apparently, some people have the ability to turn into a weapon that you can wield. He sets you up with a friend to give it a try. Before long, you are wielding all kinds of people, trying to find that perfect sword for you.
Boyfriend Dungeon combines a dating sim with a dungeon crawler. Unique characters and a fun combat experience will draw you in, but only you can decide which weapon you will date.
Five Dates
Wales Interactive
Five Dates uses live-action video to tell the story of Vinny, a man in London who finally decides to try a dating app. Taking place during the pandemic of 2020, Vinny chooses between five women to participate in a virtual date.
Five Dates allows you to choose Vinny’s interests, profession and other qualities that would show up in a dating profile. Those attributes will also show up on your matches. From your five matches, the player chooses three women to invite on a video date. The game provides dialogue trees for each date which can either increase or decrease how the other person views Vinny.