#I thought you were going for the skeleton dude in the prologue lmao

[phoenixcatch7]

That reminds me. I finally see why people have been simping over botw Ganon now.

That Is A Demon Lord.

[acealistair]

Heyhey, so what are some of your favorite dating sims? I've only played Mystic Messenger and I don't know any others that measure up to it.

Oohhh I’ll be happy to share what I play! I don’t play any that aren’t free, so that’s probably good news, but that also means there are probably a lot of quality ones I’m missing out on. 

It’s worth noting that Mystic Messenger is my all-time favorite, though. I don’t know if any of these will truly measure up to it, mostly because MM is just so unique in its concept as well as the depth of characters and story. I think we are truly blessed to have access to MM’s level of quality for free. (thank u cheritz for my life)

Anyways! I’ll list these from my most favorite to least favorite (however, I do like all of them to some degree because I regularly play all of them). Under the cut because I talk too much :’D

Midnight Cinderella

This one was my top favorite before Mystic Messenger came along! The premise is that in the country of Wysteria, if the ruling monarch(s) grow to a certain age and there is no heir, a “princess elect” is chosen from the common people. Of course, your character is chosen, despite not being interested in the position at first. Also of course, the princess is expected to find a “prince consort” along the way. (I’m kind of a sucker for a “commoner thrust into the world of the rich” story, myself. >v>)

Each character has a distinct personality and each route has a significantly different story. The main character has a decent amount of development, as well! It’s also very well-translated, and the art is lovely. I’ve played through every character’s route at least once and have just started going back for round two for everyone – each character has two different endings that are each good in their own way, rather than the standard good and bad endings. Louis is my favorite, by far. i’ve played his route four times no joke ha The app is regularly updated with fun side-story events, and they’re also coming out with after-story routes for all the characters!

Guard Me, Sherlock!

…listen. The stuff you start reading/watching/playing as a joke are always the ones you end up loving the most, right.

I thought this one was going to be utterly ridiculous and horrendously out of character. I WAS WRONG. Pretty sure it’s based a lot on BBC Sherlock, because the personalities of the characters are spot-on. Sherlock is just as rude and insufferable and weird as he should be. The most ridiculous part about the whole thing is just the aging-down of all the characters to be young and hot and anime, pffft. Each character’s route is centered around a case, which is pretty fun. 

So far I’ve just played Watson’s route, and am about halfway through Sherlock’s. I feel like I haven’t played enough routes yet to pick a definite favorite character yet, but both routes have successfully given me the doki-dokis, haha. There are four routes out so far (Sherlock, Watson, Moriarty, and Mycroft), and three of them have a “season 2″ sequel to their routes. So lots of content!

The Niflheim

This one’s fun because it has a pretty unique concept (it’s the land of the dead; essentially the afterlife, though apparently some people come back as zombies, mummies, and other types of undead, while others just look like normal people? It’s never really explained lol), and the art is really gorgeous! It’s also just a bit silly in general; definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously. The characters have a surprising amount of depth, though. Unfortunately, I think the developers have pretty much abandoned it, though. You can still play it, but there aren’t anymore events and I don’t think they’re coming out with anymore characters/routes.

If nothing else convinces you, you can romance a skeleton. ;D

Wizardess Heart

This was my first dating sim I ever played! At first glance it looks like a wannabe Harry Potter knock-off. And it is… to a mild extent. They’ve managed to put their own spin on things to keep it comfortably out of the “painfully blatant” zone, so that’s what matters in my book. Anyways, the gist is you’re a new student at a wizard academy. There’s a thing called the “Buddy system” (lol) where two students’ fates are connected, and they’re supposed to help each other succeed at the school. So of course it’s just used as a plot excuse for you to be connected to whoever’s route you’re doing.

I’ve played seven routes (currently on my eighth) out of twelve, and they’ve promised at least three more characters in the future, which honestly shocked me because that’s a ton. The guys are grouped by threes and are called “series”, where their plots, while all different, all deal with the same antagonist/threat/mystery. My favorite character is Klaus… compare him to Louis from above, Gill from Harvest Moon, and Jumin Han and you’ll see why lmao

Modern Cinderella

This one’s so far down on the list only because I literally started playing it a couple days ago. I think it’ll get way higher up once I’m more familiar with it, and if this first route I’m playing doesn’t disappoint! The story for this one is self-described as a “reverse Cinderella”, where the main character is rich and has led a lavish lifestyle until she runs away from her overbearing and controlling mother to start a completely new life. I think that’s pretty interesting itself, but what I really like is that the main character ends up with a different profession based on the route chosen. With the three routes that are out right now, the career options are singer, patissier, and writer. At least two more routes are promised (I’m hoping there’ll be even more).

I wasn’t too sure about the art style at first – the main character starts out with a really ugly dress and makeup, but they make a point of changing her clothes and essentially going “that’s much better” after the prologue. The guy that helps out the main character by giving her a place to stay is explicitly gay and doesn’t seem to feed into any bad stereotypes, so that’s a cool side note! So far my overall impression is that it’s cute.

Lost Alice

An Alice in Wonderland one, yeah. >_> However, it has a somewhat unique twist on the story? Some of the mystery was revealed in the Hatter’s route, but that’s the only one I’ve played so far and I feel there’s more to discover about… the lore, for lack of a better term? If more stuff is revealed then I might get a little more invested, otherwise I’ll probably be a bit miffed, because as it stands I have a lot of unanswered questions about what’s going on.

The art style is nice, and there are currently five routes out with a sixth (and probably more) on the way. Most of the characters are directly out of the original story (Hatter, Cheshire Cat, March Hare), but others are harder to recognize (there’s a dude named Joker who I’m still not entirely sure is supposed to be…?). Haven’t played enough to pinpoint a favorite character yet, but the Hatter was cute.

Oz

My general attitude towards this one is “LMAO”. XD

Wizard of Oz. The premise is that Dorothy comes back to the land of Oz for her seventeenth birthday! And suddenly the scarecrow, tin man, and lion are human (that’s right, they acknowledge that they weren’t human to begin with)! And in this version, there were never any witches – they’re all hot romanceable wizards! including the wizard of the west because of course hgkrhsgnks Every single character’s name is a pun based off who they are! And then, the real kicker is that as soon as Dorothy arrives, she’s told she has to pick a boyfriend out of them all. Because reasons. And she just goes along with it.

So, uh, yeah, the story’s flimsy. And it doesn’t get much better in any of the routes lol… I’ve done three routes and am almost done with the fourth. I play it because it’s funny and… it has a few good moments bahaha. my favorite is heartmann Also worth noting that this one’s dead, like Niflheim is. They stopped having events and updates after they came out with all the characters.

Honorable mention: Notice Me, Senpai!

I don’t really consider this one a true dating sim, but it’s definitely meant for people who like dating sims! This app is one of my favorites ever omg, it’s so great honestly. It’s literally Neko Atsume… except instead of entertaining and collecting cats in your yard, you, the only girl at an all-boys school, run a cafe for personified anime boy tropes!

Instead of just leaving you a gift after a number of visits, each senpai has an affection level and you get CGs as they fall in love with you. At three hearts they leave a personal note, then at four and/or five hearts you get a CG where they confess to you. Then you can get additional CGs for each of their birthdays as well as for visiting a certain number of times after they’ve gotten five hearts. You can dress them up in tons of different outfits, and there are events for all the major holidays and seasons. Now I think they’ve settled into an event and new senpais every other month (so they’ll be coming out with stuff in May). Right now there are 34 senpais and I fear that the devs are going to burn out by releasing more, but hey if they think they can do it I won’t complain hgdgfsgvfsvgg

tl;dr it fulfills my lifelong fantasy of being the protagonist of a reverse harm anime and i love it so much