a cook in training from Vietnam, was emailing a “24-year-old musical phase musician from Southern Korea called Zen” who she met online a year ago. She’s developed an enchanting relationship she says with him. “He speaks like a true gentleman and it is sensitive to kitties.” Zen is really a character in an intimate “visual novel” game built to help test thoroughly your ability at relationships.

These games can be obtained on apps such as Mystic Messenger (launched in 2016 by the South Korean Cheritz); Love and Producer (2017; Chinese designer Pape Games), Dream Daddy (2017; US-based Game Grumps), Hatoful Boyfriend (2011; Japanese Developer Digital) and Obey Me (2019; Japanese designer NTT Solmare).

In Japan, they are called otome or maiden games. The figures into the games act as dating simulators, or, merely, sims. These sims run through nuanced scripts; the goal is to allow it to be through different amounts.

In Mystic Messenger [...]