Dating Sims – Uncovering The VN Hybrid
Entry posted by Pallas_Raven in Analysis
266 views
This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.
Making Yourself Desirable
Many outside the visual novel space often make the mistake of referring to romance visual novels as Dating Sims and at a glance it is easy to see why given their shared focus on pursuing a chosen heroine or hero. The two types of game have had a long and connected history with Dating Sims utilising visual novel elements to sell their story sections and building up a sense of who the player is romancing. This leads to some interesting interactions between the two aspects as the emotive narrative is placed next to the cold stat checking without either coming across as out of place. Both sides carry themselves with an understanding of how they fit together to form the final product where the pursuit of love is quantified but never detached for the character’s humanity. Let’s plan out our day and discover what this hybrid brings to the table.
Common Pursuit of Romance
Presenting a believable build up of love between two people is always a challenging prospect and this is even more prominent under the restrictions of Dating Sims. The event centric structure found in them could lead to the execution of the romance feeling bitty and uneven if the pacing is not controlled with a proper escalation in their frequency near the climax. Using visual novel elements for these events helps alleviate these problems by promoting a focus on the scene in front of the player with a personal perspective on the intimate moments of this blossoming love. These scenes also tend to increase in length over the course of the game to simulate the growing time the pair are spending together and this allows for a showcasing of their compatibility from both a mechanical and a narrative level. From moment to moment, there is an effort made to shape a unity between the player and player character via an aligning of the protagonist’s emotions with the intent of player in order to close the perceived gap between the two. Together the two styles of gameplay form a concise reward loop for the player that provides them with the advertised love story without negatively impacting the stat management side which Dating Sims are well known for.
Quantifying Love
Numbers define how a Dating Sims interacts with its themes of love and relationships. They are by nature an attempt to systemise the process of dating and romance which presents a unique blend of opportunities and consequences due to subjects being highly emotional rather than detached like many other sim type games. It is difficult to feel the love between two characters when you are doing the equivalent of your dating tax returns. As alluded to in the previous section, the addition of visual novel elements helps to return a human touch to the game’s tone and progression. These events are not as entirely detached from the number based nature of the Dating Sim as they might at first appear. Take Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side as an example, here the building up of stats by the player is often acknowledged through making the unlocked event be somehow related to stat milestones, a related location or through characters talking about the changes in the protagonist. While each one does not amount to much more than a simple nod on their own, in their totality they form a feedback loop that communicates to the player how the stats they have been working on have a meaningful impact on the shape of the narrative. This acts as a powerful motivator to continue to push towards the requirements for future content as they know it holds some meaning within the context of the protagonist’s personal story.
On the flip side it provides a connection to the player character through the process of self improvement they undergo with your management. It can also feel like you are shaping the protagonist to match the preferences of the heroines and through this demonstrate a commitment to them. This link with the player character is further reinforced in the visual novel sections such as in Love Plus where they utilise the unbroken protagonist perspective to sell the idea that the heroines are talking to the player and lower the barrier between the game and reality. Achieving this requires the abandoning of more intricate narrative trappings like complex introspection or scene descriptions and instead adopting a streamlined approach, much like the Dating Sim itself. This is done in order to remove as many distinguishing features as possible and give the player a large space to insert themselves into and by extension bond with their chosen heroine. A romantic fantasy such as this is at the core of the Dating Sim’s appeal and other forms of event presentation would lack the needed intimacy for the desired results.
Stat Checks and Deadline
Love is not all fun and games when it comes to romance in Dating Sims as the player will have to pass certain stat tests and milestones to process or risk losing their chance to impress their chosen heroine. This is how much of the difficulty is implemented in order to provide a pressure to the time management element of these games while still focusing on their stat based nature. In doing so weight is added to the narrative events by presenting the possibility of failure and allowing it to hang over the otherwise bright and upbeat atmosphere. Rather than undermining the visual novel sections it instead helps support the sense that this romance is genuine through the hardship and risk that exists on the path to its ending. This form of mechanical dramatic tension is key for the pacing of Dating Sims and how it escalates alongside the growing demands for higher stats.
Sunrider Academy provides a good example of this practice through its mixing of club and stats management. Here the player is assaulted on two fronts for stat checks with the clubs demanding ever growing members while the personal stats demand upkeeping in order to pass the various tests the game throws at you and this is all before considering the pursuit of a heroine. This creates a sense of frantic progress which peaks around each deadline and sells the intimate moments with the heroines in the visual novel sections as a breathing room valued by both the player and the protagonist. Through this lens the relationship between the pair is contextualised as an important but fragile thing in the face of the chaos around them and invests the player in ensuring it blooms into something more concrete.
Conclusion
Given the close relationship between visual novels and Dating Sims it is no surprise that the two have developed many interesting interactions to complement each other. Their common focus on romance allows the event centric nature of the Dating Sim to avoid feeling narratively disconnected by constantly presenting a consistent core tone which meets the player’s expectations. Deadlines and stat checks offer tension and a fail state in order to give a sense of consequence that is reflected in both halves of the game and helps invest the player in the value of the relationship when it is threatened. The quantifying of the romance inherent in Dating Sims is played by the visual novel sections as a manifestation of the player’s achievements so a connection can be formed between player and player character. As natural bed fellows there is much for an aspiring Dating Sim developer to gain through integrating visual novel elements into their game and maybe you too can achieve the heights of the titles showcased here.
2 Comments
Recommended Comments