This review was originally written on 07/15/2018.

Technical Information

Developer/Publisher: Game Grumps
Release Date: July 20, 2017

A dating sim about dads!
At first, I thought it would be strictly about romance, but it’s not. It focuses a lot on each character’s personality and how they raise their kids. It shows a real “dad side” that few games explore.

Final Thoughts – Analyzing the game as a whole

Graphics and UI

Beautiful art, nice backgrounds, and great expressiveness during dialogues.
Everything visually essential for a good dating sim was done perfectly.

It’s super intuitive and really easy to understand. The minigames have quick tutorials, so no complaints there.

Soundtrack and Sound Effects

Nice music accompanied by good sound effects. I only found the vocal grunts that the characters make during dialogue a bit repetitive; more variety would have made them less annoying.

Gameplay

You start by customizing your character’s appearance and choosing a name. Then the story begins: you are the father of a teenage girl, and you’re both moving to a new town. Like any newcomer, you want to learn about the city and your neighbors. “Coincidentally” everyone around you is also a dad! hahahaha
Each character is unique with very distinct traits, making it hard to decide which dad to pursue.

You can use the mouse or spacebar to advance the text. You can save manually, and there’s an auto-save every so often. There are plenty of save slots.
As the story progresses, you meet the dads and can ask them out! That’s where the game really starts. For every answer you give, the character reacts differently, showing if they loved, liked, or hated what you said. This is accompanied by a sound and a visual cue, making you think twice before answering, after all, you don’t want to disappoint your crush, right?
Besides the dads, you also talk to your daughter, who has a strong personality and can influence your dates. She’s always by your side, giving an advice and opportunities to bond.

There are minigames during the dates that can give you bonus points toward the final score. It’s a nice detail that breaks the linearity of simply reading and choosing answers.

[blur]It was really hard to choose a dad. I ended up going with Brian.
I almost chose Robert, his bad-boy vibe caught my attention, and I figured there might be a sensitive soul beneath that “tough guy” exterior.
Joseph also piqued my interest, but in the end, I couldn’t resist and chose the red-headed bear! hahahaha[/blur]

I was disappointed that there wasn’t a kiss scene at the end. For a dating sim, I think it missed the mark there; the ending should have had at least a little kiss.

Replayability and Game Retention

I felt a bit lazy about seeing everything from the start again. However, regarding new endings and choices, the replay value is very high!