From my point of view, dating sims have declined in popularity over the past two decades. The west has always had a niche following, but Japanese titles rarely made it over here, and indie dating sims exist in a community that's quite disconnected from the one this title invokes the idea of.
In Japan, dating sims used to be huge, Tokimeki Memorial being notably famous. Unfortunatel, there seems to have been a quite aggressive decline.
When thinking of currently running dating sim series, I can recall Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side, ×CATION, and a recent trend of remakes (such as Doukyuusei). However the fervour the genre once had is noticeably absent from current releases.
With rare exceptions (like Hatoful Boyfriend) these joke dating sims feel pretty fake. They comment on a genre they struggle to properly portray or understand. The most egregious cases parody galge or otomege and erroneously label themselves as dating sims.
As an example, Doki Doki Literature Club (for all its merits), suffers from being described as a dating sim when it clearly isn't one.
To be clear, while pure daring sims kind of barely exist, they do pop up from time to time as secondary gameplay loops in hybrids. The Persona series (3 and onwards) as well as the Fire Emblem series (Awakening and onwards) do this.
In Japan, dating sims used to be huge, Tokimeki Memorial being notably famous. Unfortunatel, there seems to have been a quite aggressive decline.
When thinking of currently running dating sim series, I can recall Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side, ×CATION, and a recent trend of remakes (such as Doukyuusei). However the fervour the genre once had is noticeably absent from current releases.
With rare exceptions (like Hatoful Boyfriend) these joke dating sims feel pretty fake. They comment on a genre they struggle to properly portray or understand. The most egregious cases parody galge or otomege and erroneously label themselves as dating sims.
As an example, Doki Doki Literature Club (for all its merits), suffers from being described as a dating sim when it clearly isn't one.
To be clear, while pure daring sims kind of barely exist, they do pop up from time to time as secondary gameplay loops in hybrids. The Persona series (3 and onwards) as well as the Fire Emblem series (Awakening and onwards) do this.