Best Retro Dating Sim type games?

[4ppleseed]

Hi chaps, I've never played a game from the Dating Sim genre (except Rub Rabbits/Feel the Magic NDS) - are there any which actually have a good/intersting game behind the titillation? I'm not so interested in a good story - more a playable, engaging & fun game mechanic.

From the S/NES, Master Sytem/Genesis era would be cool too. Although I hear there's quite a lot of these games on the PCEngine?

Plus what would you consider the 'classics' on those systems?

Thanks!

[ninjainspandex]

here is a good one. http://www.buzzfeed.com/babymantis/hato ... g-sim-1opu

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I was interested in the visual novel style of storytelling, so I've ended up playing a few dating sims. I like VNs with plots, though, so most of the games have a substantial story with branching routes that you can play to learn the entire story. I'm not interested in titillation at all, but sometimes I like a girl's character enough to play to the end.

Some of them are actually huge productions. It'll take you 60 hours to see everything in ever17. Usually, I pick my favorite girl's route and the main route. Unless it's particularly excellent there's no reason to see everything.

Free games have are marked.* All of these have an English version somewhere.

Straight dating sims:
Katawa Shoujo*
Love Plus
Clannad (anime is pretty popular. OVAs are excellent.)

VNs with plot:
Steins;Gate [Time travel sci-fi] (Anime is mind-blowingly awesome)
G-Senjou no Maou [Detective/Psychological]
Tsukihime [Horror]
Ever17 [Trapped in underwater complex]
Chaos;Head [I don't even...]
True Remembrance* [memory editing]
Narcissu* [just read it]
Narcissu Side 2nd*

A list of 7 more games to try: http://www.bishoujoproject.com/the-comp ... tion-list/

Anything at http://www.insani.org/ is something a bunch of VN lovers thought was worth translating in their spare time.

A similar style of storytelling is also used in Snatcher, Policenauts, Famicom Detective Club II, and other cool adventure games.

[lisalover1]

There's always the grandaddy (grandma?) of console dating sims, Tokimeki Memorial for the SFC and PCE.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

That game's not in English, but someone is working on a patch right now. Looks hilarious, though. Instead of picking a girl, you have cheat and date a lot of them. Otherwise, the girls you reject will all get together and ruin your reputation. Pretty cynical for a classic dating game!

[noiseredux]

I was always surprised none of the JPN Dreamcast games got translation patches.

[lisalover1]

That game's not in English, but someone is working on a patch right now. Looks hilarious, though. Instead of picking a girl, you have cheat and date a lot of them. Otherwise, the girls you reject will all get together and ruin your reputation. Pretty cynical for a classic dating game!

Huh, I always assumed it would have been translated by now. My mistake!

[flojocabron]

theres some Love Hina games for the Gameboy and Gameboy Advance that got translated.

Just look for the roms.

Theres also tons of fan translated computer games too. Too lazy to link those right now.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I was always surprised none of the JPN Dreamcast games got translation patches.

I think they're ports of PC games, some of which are already translated.

[Nemoide]

If you can't read Japanese, good luck playing visual novels on a console; there's Sakura Wars ~So Long My Love~ for PS2 and THAT'S ABOUT IT AFAIK. And honestly the game isn't even a FULL visual novel.

If you're comfortable reading Japanese, some classics are Tokimeki Memorial and Welcome to Pia Carrot - I have them both for Saturn but I believe they're for PC Engine as well. There's also games by a studio called Key, which are really famous for taking the genre to deeper levels than most dating sims. I haven't played any of them, but Kanon and Clanaad are both highly regarded. I'm pretty sure that Kanon is available on Dreamcast.

If you're willing to play games on PCs (which really makes things a lot easier) I've heard good things about Fate Stay/Night.
Lastly, you might just want to browse the web sites for Manga Gamer or J-List. That will give you a good idea of what's easily available in English. I'll trust that you'll be able to tell that games like "Boob Wars" or "Do You Like Horny Bunnies?" are bottom of the barrel titles...