TMGS should be in the Dark Romance Genre
I absolutely adore the Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side games, but does anyone else think the mechanics are kind of… insane when you really think about them?
Your character transfers to a new school and then spends the next 3 years laser-focused on one guy. She chooses her part-time job based on his preferences. Joins clubs he likes. Develops her skills based on what he finds attractive. Buys clothes in his favorite colors/styles. Sometimes even matching items so she can “accidentally” show up coordinated with him. Plans every weekend around raising affection points and engineering encounters.
And it’s cute! I genuinely love these games. They’re lighthearted and charming and super addictive.
But the older I get, the more I think: this formula would make an amazing psychological horror romance.
Like imagine reframing the usual stat-raising gameplay as the POV of a genuinely obsessive protagonist. Instead of a passive, clueless heroine who “just happens” to become his ideal girl, the player is consciously sculpting herself into whatever her obsession wants. Every mechanic suddenly becomes unsettling instead of sweet.
Changing your personality stats?
Wearing his favorite outfits every day?
Scheduling your life around his routines?
Learning all his preferences?
The scary part is that mechanically it’s barely different from the actual gameplay loop.
I feel like there’s a lot of potential in a game that starts off feeling like a normal shoujo dating sim before gradually revealing how unhealthy the protagonist’s behavior really is. Especially if the player is rewarded for escalating obsession because that’s what dating sims traditionally train you to do. The earlier games are so hard that I did feel like an obsessive little stalker going "He wants me to have 200 intelligence so I guess I'll just spend the next year studying with no breaks.", "I'll join the baseball team as a manager because he's on the team and then he'll have to earn affection for me."
Would anyone else play something like this? I'm genuinely thinking about starting the writing process.