I was surprised to learn how many there were in the Apple app store (I peruse the Malaysian version), less surprised that they were all poorly designed, “in-app purchases” cash cows thinly veiled in moe avatars and your stock standard bishounen.

Despite this, a combination of curiosity and the need to procrastinate led me to download not one but three different games all from different developers to better understand why these games make girls’ hearts go doki doki.

There are a lot of women who play mobile games, and in Japan, one of the most popular genres for that demographic is the dating simulation.

Attractive men compete for your main character's affections, and you can choose which one you'd like to pursue.

These personality points help your girlfriend evolve into different personality types such as Gentle, Flamboyant, Shy, Friendly, Studious, etc. Allowing you to create your perfect “dream girlfriend” just like the title suggests. There are limited time events almost constantly with new items being added.

You have many different slots for dressup such as hair, face, back, body, room, frame, accessories, and more.

mt=8 Get it on Android here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details? This card captor sakura-ish outfit is adorable and it was what I got for free.

Then, someone showed me Usaya's [Free], and suddenly, I need a whole new scale for measuring weirdness.These animated outfits are very rare and set this game apart from Moe Can Change and Ambition’s other apps like My Animal Boyfriend which I reviewed here.Gameplay: 7/10 So aside from getting outfits for your girl, you can also study, work, and take part in events to earn items and personality points.An otome game literally means “girl game” and is part of the larger subset of simulation games made popular in Japan.Although visual novel/simulation games exist for almost every genre, the otome style typically has the main goal of developing a romantic relationship between the female character and one of several love interests (usually all males, occasionally females).You can see their relationship chart on Sanrio Danshi website.Sanrio characters such as Hello Kitty or My Melody will also appear as a collection avatar in this game.