For example: in Fire Emblem: Awakening, pairing up two units in battle improves their relationship, which can grant 'rank' upgrades in the Social menu. These are often found in Tactical RPG games, where unlocking a social link can boost certain stats. Modern games have optional 'social link' features, where you can build up relationships between supporting characters granting different benefits. There have been multiple spin-offs (such as puzzle games) and multiple adaptations (such as an anime, Tokimeki Memorial Only Love.)Īspects of dating sims have been transferred into modern non-dating sim games. Due to its popularity, the game been remade multiple times (Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You, Tokimeki Memorial: Densetsu no Ki no Shita de, etc.) and has been ported to multiple systems (Game Boy Color, PlayStation, Super Famicom, mobile phones, PSP). Tokimeki made it big thanks to word of mouth.
While the genre started in the 1980s, arguably the first dating sim to make it big is Tokimeki Memorial, first released for the PC in 1994.
