Editing Dating sim (section)

== History ==
The dating simulator genre was preceded by the [[raising simulation]] genre best codified by the ''[[Princess Maker]]'' series by [[Gainax]], which focused on [[child raising]] rather than dating.<ref name=":02">{{Cite news |last1=Pollack |first1=Andrew |date=1996-11-25 |title=Japan's Newest Young Heartthrobs Are Sexy, Talented and Virtual |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/25/business/japan-s-newest-young-heartthrobs-are-sexy-talented-and-virtual.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129152846/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/25/business/japan-s-newest-young-heartthrobs-are-sexy-talented-and-virtual.html |archive-date=2018-01-29 |access-date=2018-05-30 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Other games such as Sega's ''[[Girl's Garden]]'' (1985) and  JAST's ''[[Tenshitachi no Gogo]]'' (1985) include elements of dating sims, though they have more adventure/arcade gameplay.

One of the first games exclusively centered on dating was ''[[Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School]]'' (1987) released for the [[Famicom Disk System]], about a boy trying to date a girl at his high school who looks like pop idol [[Miho Nakayama]]. Unlike more modern dating sims, the game's plot is progressed through text choices, and as such plays more like graphical text adventures of the time (similar to games such as ''[[Famicom Detective Club]]''.)

The first game which set the standard for the dating sim genre was ''[[Dōkyūsei (video game)|Dōkyūsei]]'' (1992), which relied more on timed events than dialogue choices. ''[[Tokimeki Memorial (video game)|Tokimeki Memorial]]'' (1994) truly popularized dating sims in Japan, in which the player, a high school student has the ability to date a dozen different girls.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The National Girlfriend: The Not-So-Innocent Story of Japan's Puppy Love Video Game Phenomenon |last=Barnholt |first=Ray |publisher=Bipedal Dog |year=2012}}</ref> The goal of the developers was to hearken back to high school days. Konami director Akihiko Nagata said "the person who created the game wanted to have experiences like this back in his high school days".<ref name=":02" /> The game was a strong hit in Japan, with 1.1 million copies by 1996.<ref name=":02" />

In general, [[simulation games]] (such as ''Tokimeki Memorial'') or the [[Train simulator|train sim]] like ''[[Densha de Go!]]'' were more popular in Japan than in America which preferred more action oriented video games.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2006-02-17 |title=Games the World over are not the Same |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/kenosha-news-video-games/79459914/ |access-date=2024-06-08 |work=[[Kenosha News]] |pages=47}}</ref>

Games such as ''[[Sakura Wars]]'' and ''[[Persona (series)|Persona]]'' (both series started in 1996, the latter would add dating sim elements in [[Persona 3|2006]]) are RPGs with dating sim elements.