With dating sims becoming more popular on steam and mangagamer.com I am wondering is there are any good ones to play. I am looking first and foremost for emotional depth with good characters not it being hentai, but if it is then that is fine too as long as hentai is not the main focus. I've not played many but I liked Katawa Shoju and I have no idea where to go from there. What I liked about that game was the emotional impact.

Reading the comments on steam doesn't help since most of them are just jokes about boobs or how they need tissue paper.

Hatoful Boyfriend

Apparently it's actually pretty good.

I haven't read it myself but Clannad is probably what you are looking for.

Fate/Stay Night is worth checking out. It's not a dating sim but it does have elements of it, including each route being focused on a different girl.

There are very few non pornographic romantic VNs due to that being what the market demands and even VNs that aren't designed with sex scenes will have them added (including the aforementioned FSN). Also very few dating sims have been translated into English.

Aren't dating sims supposed to have stats and shit like that? What you guys are talking about seem to be more like straight up VNs.

Yes, but dating sims in America generally means romantically focused VNs since there are incredibly few actual dating sims that make it over here.

@corevi: Yeah, I guess the terms are interchangeable in a way.

https://vndb.org/v/all

Here is a link to the visual novel database. If you like the genre, this should be your first stop online.

it's very good. real talk.

Gonna recommend if my heart had wings. You can get it on mangagamer or on steam.
It's a pretty light hearted story about a group of students building a glider and getting to know each other through the process.

The art is really really well made and the voice actors do a good job of bringing the characters to life.
it's also on sale on steam :P

Clannad and Little Busters.

Most of the top VNs aren't really dating sims (I woulden't call FSN one), but the 2 I mentioned are considered some of the best.

Also Hatoful Boyfriend. Check out the QL :)

Kawata Shoujo

While not a dating sim, Steins; Gate is a very good visual novel.

Just seems like a lot of VN are dating sims....

If My Heart Had Wings seem really interesting. Does it have choices? Many visual novels have barely any choices at all. I like to have choices so I can replay and go for a different girl.

EDIT: It has on sale on steam so I got it. Hope it is good it seems like that kind of VN i would like. Now just debating if I should get the adult patch or keep it like it is.

The uncut patch (which also fixes some translation problems and adds back in some scenes that aren't adult) requires you to have your PC set to Japanese System Locale.

Also saves aren't compatible between the cut and uncut version so decide before you play.