Love and Other Terrors: Intimacy and Vulnerability in English-Language Dating Simulators and Romance Games

This paper examines intimacy, vulnerability, and uncanniness in English-language dating simulators and romance games, a genre that originated in Japan and remains comparatively underrepresented in English-language scholarship despite the prominence of romantic choice in major franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Hades, and Baldur's Gate 3. The authors focus on a cross-section of titles, including the Monster Prom series, Boyfriend Dungeon, Florence, Doki Doki Literature Club!, and Dream Daddy, to analyze how gameplay and narrative construct experiences of intimacy. Drawing on McGlotten's definition of intimacy as an affective experience of connection and belonging, the analysis treats intimacy as closely tied to fantasy, longing, failure, and vulnerability.

The paper identifies three primary affects emerging from these games. Adoration arises from the interplay of player choice, the recognition of familiar character archetypes, and the disruption or subversion of those archetypes. Emotional vulnerability is portrayed through challenging romantic situations such as awkward communication, unwanted advances, breakups, and emotional unavailability, often conveyed by altering or inverting the player's agency through gameplay mechanics. Uncanniness appears through dark themes, including the uncertain presence of monstrous figures, constrained player control, and a pervasive sense that the game environment is subtly wrong.

The analysis builds on earlier scholarship addressing the uncanny in romance games, the shifting between cute and eerie registers, and the role of agency in dating simulations. The authors conclude by considering the broader significance of romance and dating elements in video games, noting their growing acceptance in mainstream culture and the expanding body of research on the forms of intimacy that virtual experiences can foster. The work is presented as an exploratory overview rather than a comprehensive survey of the genre, and it relies on close design analysis of selected games rather than empirical data such as surveys or player sampling.