Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator Critic Reviews

Dream Daddy‘s dads are likable and charming, and the storylines that play out are engaging. But for me, DD succeeded not because of its deft handling of romantic love, but on the strength of its portrayal of a healthy relationship between parent and child. And, Internetty as it is, DD represents the best of the Internet — its existence is a gentle, implicit reproach of Trump and those like him who would seek to ‘other’ the vulnerable of our society and stoke the flames of the culture wars. In contrast, DD imagines a world where being queer isn’t even a topic of conversation — its queer characters just are.

With wonderful writing and art, this game is amazing. There are a few flaws in the mini-games that can be mostly forgiven. I would absolutely recommend giving this dating game a chance. Definitely worth it.

Between the delightful little flourishes, this is a game that wants to make you think. And feel.

At its core, this is a game that’s funny and good-hearted, presenting a world where a single queer dad’s ability to be a good father is never called into question. It’s a pretty cool accomplishment for a silly game birthed from a meme.

Fantastically written and life-affirming dating simulator that doesn't use all of its potential.

Dream Daddy is a surprisingly wholesome game about fatherhood, and about finding love again after loss. The well-written dialogue surprised me, and so did the fact that it is an incredibly heartwarming game. Rather than focusing on titillation, Dream Daddy has a cast of characters that are both real and diverse, even if it doesn’t always bring enough depth to the topics it tackles.

By sanitizing the romantic aspects inherent to queer dating, Dream Daddy succeeds in being a feel-good story but not a feel-good story, if you catch my drift. It is, at the very least, wonderfully inclusive, with avatar customization options that allow for significant flexibility in defining your dad's identity. The entirely hunky cast of supporting dads is also quite diverse, though some of their sound bites are unusually low-quality and compressed. Maybe that's something the developers can address down the line. As it stands, Dream Daddy is still a worthwhile endeavor thanks to the quality of its moment-to-moment writing. It's just a shame the romance feels so sterile.

While it succeeds in being a happy, positive game, Dream Daddy's simulation doesn’t go far enough.

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator fulfils its promise of silly dad humour and heartwarming fatherly moments, but just falls short when it comes to the romance.

This might sound like a dating game, it is mostly a story about fatherhood. Beautiful art and entertaining stories, but not enough depth to really shine.

Dream Daddy isn't going to placate gamers that want to see more gay heroes saving the day in cinematic action titles, but as a story-focused game packed with charming, funny, and ultimately very human moments, it's a delight – and as a dating sim, it stands as one of the best in the genre.

Dream Daddy is a breath of fresh air.

A well-written, lovable story gracefully focusing on things that matter in life. The game’s logo is misleading, as romance and sex are kept in the background.

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator is a good visual novel with many interesting ideas. Unfortunately it lacks depth.

What Dream Daddy has to offer is pretty good, but ultimately it feels just a bit unfinished. It feels like this visual novel could have used a bit more time in the oven, fleshing out events and backstories, and providing proper epilogues for the Dads. For a visual novel subgenre that's underrepresented in the West, Dream Daddy is a decent title worth your time, but I can't shake the feeling that it could have easily been so much more.

Dream Daddy is more of a dad sim than a dating sim, as its romance feels artificial on most occasions.

Considering I’ve already written 2000 words on a game with no gameplay that lasted less than two hours, I would say I’ve probably seen enough. Did I learn anything about myself? Would I have enjoyed it more if these people were gay terminators as part of a weird government social experiment? Probably, yeah.

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator has ample promise and a lot of heart, but wasn’t given enough time to grow. Most of the dads are lovely to get to know and worth dating. Players want to spend more time with these guys, but only get three relatively brief dates to whet their appetite. Then there’s the fact that it doesn’t yet feel finished due to a fair share of typographical issues, mishmash of art styles and the amount of gameplay bugs still impacting the experience. Once patches go out these latter issues should be resolved, but nothing short of DLC or a sequel will bring players more time with the cast of dads who simply weren’t given enough time in the spotlight to really shine.