embark

chit chat

My experience with Dating Sims of the joke or parody variety is as extensive as my knowledge of social interaction, which it's to say none at all safe from one or two random facts; in fact I'd go as far as to say that I have never even seen a ''real'' Dating-Sim to begin with.

''Oh wow''

But even then, I've just been looking from afar, not really interested on the act of actually playing any of them, the closes I've ever gotten to touching any of them being that random section in Later, Alligator. I honestly couldn't tell you why, I don't really have anything against them, especially those that as I mentioned before took a more comedic approach, it just... never really called to me.

''You talk a lot''

The Ratchelor was seemingly yet another perfect example of what I said before, a funny looking game that I would only interact with through random reviews on the site and an appearance on a video I saw a while back, but with it being completely free and being super short, it seemed like fine enough really short pastime to clear my head during the last week of uni and have a seemingly funny time, and you know, it's not every day you'd get the chance to date a VeryRealRat so I didn't want to pass the chance,

''Yikes''

It's an absurdly simplistic little game where you get to choose some rodents to date and have three possible answers in each interaction (in that way it kinda reminded me of My Dinner with André funnily enough) and it's pretty much just that, and it's all it ever needed to be. Maybe it's my tired-ass brain speaking in auto-pilot mode and I'm simply delusional but I... enjoyed this a ton! Each rat is charming as all hell despite you having only 5 maximum interactions with each, I adored all the little goobers so much so I played enough times to interact at least once with each of them. Your limited answers prompts a different reaction for each of the contestants, and in a way it's kind of deceptive with its seemingly squalid presentation; there's a quite a ton of work put into this, this is no simple joke game, it's an actual competent and funny one!

''Don't look at me like that''

In the span of like ten minutes I smiled at each and every line, it's just so well-spirited and enjoyable to the point of being super surprising. I actually was playing a joke Dating-Sim AND having a great time with it?

''I can't imagine what that's like''

I'm not head over heels with it nor would I call it a ''super fantastic hidden gem'', but it is... nice, like a small unexpected gift. In theory it's nothing more than a little novelty, but in practice is a wonderful distraction that left me wishing for more absurd and funny lines of dialogue. This hasn't convinced me to play more of the genre necessarily, but it's a damn good first playable impression I think. This was just sweet.

Also EggSalad and Hiberdean are the best characters in this and that's simply a FACT.

''Yuck''