“Date Everything!” (2025) is, in the loosest possible sense of the term, a dating simulator where you can, well, date everything. It’s the first game from independent studio Sassy Chap Games, and was released in coordination with Team 17. “Date Everything!” received generally positive reviews, particularly for its voice acting and concept. A mild spoiler alert is in effect for this entire review, though I try to avoid discussing anything that is either late game for the entire game, or late route for the individual characters.
You (the player) have just been laid off from your job on your first day, and suddenly receive a pair of “Dateviators” from an anonymous sender. You can use the Dateviators to bring household objects to life – ranging from tables and doors to an “overwhelming sense of existential dread”. I’m not joking with that one. Each of the 100 characters (102 with the DLC) has a unique storyline, usually requiring somewhere between three and seven interactions to complete. At the end of each storyline, based on the dialogue options that you chose, you can receive either a “Love”, “Friends”, or “Hate” ending. To finish the game, all you need to do is leave your house; however, to truly complete the game, you have to reach an ending with all characters, and “realize” them (something that can only be done if you receive the “Love” or “Friends” ending).
The art and voice acting for this game are, in my opinion, some of the strongest moments by a lot. Sassy Chap Games is a studio founded by voice actors, and it shows in how they handled the artistic aspects. The character designs are incredibly well done. They’re very carefully designed based on the character’s object, often incorporating it directly into their style, such as smoke alarm Arma having hair made of smoke, or time capsule Bodhi wearing 80’s fashion while having cassette tape hair. They also do a good job of showcasing different presentations and body types, so that everyone will realistically find some character they like. One of the major selling points of this game is that every dialogue line is voiced, which is highly irregular for games like this; according to the game’s website, there are over 70,000 recorded lines. The voice acting cast is also ridiculously stacked – Matt Mercer, a famous Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master, voices Chance, who plays Grottos and Gargoyles (a D&D parody) with the player, while Stephanie Sheh, who is the English-language voice actor of Sailor Moon for most Sailor Moon shows, voices Hero-Hime, a Sailor Moon parody, to give you an idea.
As you may already be realizing, this is not a dating sim with only one gender of characters (like most dating sims), which leads me into my next point. “Date Everything!” is openly, unabashedly queer. You (the player) can choose a name and pronouns for your character, and when appropriate the dialogue will include the chosen pronouns, but that’s the only extent to which gender is mechanically relevant. It has no impact whatsoever on who you can or can’t date in the game. Several characters (including Bobby, Nightmare, Daemon, and Rebel) use they/them pronouns or multiple pronouns; multiple characters (such as Eddie and Volt or Drysdale and Washford) have canonical queer relationships; it’s possible to end up in a polyamorous relationship with several of the characters who have or want relationships with each other, such as the previous pairs; and a few characters are implied or confirmed to be trans.
Additionally – and this is a large part of why it’s debatable whether “Date Everything!” should even count as a dating sim in the first place – a couple of characters, and most notably Dorian and Wyndolyn, are arguably asexual and/or aromantic, expressing a desire for platonic love and saying that they don’t particularly feel or desire romantic or sexual attraction. In fact, because you can realize characters with a “Friends” ending, it’s possible to complete the entire game with only platonic relationships, making it very accessible to asexual and aromantic players. These aspects are well written, but obviously highly unusual for a dating sim.
The other reason that it’s debatable if “Date Everything!” should count as a dating sim is that there is a whole plot and storyline that is related to the Dateviators, but strictly speaking not connected to the storylines of the characters. I’m not going to get too far into this, because it is legitimate spoilers and I’m trying to keep this very spoiler light, but this aspect has made some argue that calling it a visual novel or pick-your-path is more fair than a dating sim. I would tend to agree with a a pick-your-path being more accurate; however, I do get why the creators labelled it as a dating sim, and I think it was the right call.
Going back to the characters, I think it’s also worth noting that the diversity of the characters goes far beyond queerness. That is definitely the most unusual part of this game, but it goes a lot further than that. Lux and Mac are both disabled characters. Barry is widely agreed on as ADHD. Farya wears a hijab. There are many people of color, including Koa and Kopi as indigenous characters. Several characters, such as Miranda, Keyes, Amir, and Dasha, have countries or places they’re canonically from that are from all around the world. Phoenicia and Vaughn are two of several overweight or obese characters. It feels like a very honest and realistic cross-section of who people can be, rather than catering to a specific audience.
Talking a bit more about the characters’ storylines, like I said, there are at least 100, and each has a unique storyline. These often interact with each other, such as Beau and Jacques both wanting an adventure, or Keith being needed to find certain characters. They also often include things like fetch or visit quests, like Daisuke needing you to make some deliveries, or Gaia wanting to meet characters from around the world. Some of the characters, such as Shelley or Dunk, have storylines that can offer legitimately good advice about things like burnout, self-management, self-expression, letting go, and setting boundaries. Others, like Parker or Jean-Loo, are just fun, while a couple, most notably Sinclaire and Dishy, are truly ridiculous. There are also running subplots throughout the entire game related to AI and capitalism, and at least Willi has an openly anti-AI and anti-capitalist themes to her storyline.
However, there are a few that get a bit heavier, and potentially could cause issues for people depending on your comfort level. This is where “Date Everything!” adds in a feature called “Content Aware”, where Skylar (the character within the Dateviators) shows up to warn the player that a certain character’s storyline includes [insert topic of concern]. Examples include Dirk and Harper having a toxic and abusive relationship, Fantina being a stalker, and Sophia being a dominatrix. You can use Content Aware to skip over potential areas of concern for these characters, and it won’t count against you when deciding what ending you get. You can also turn Content Aware off if you don’t want it. Personally, I played without ever using Content Aware to skip anything, and I felt fine, but I’m glad that the option was there for those who need it. I think this is a good way to allow them to handle these tougher contexts without alienating their audience. I do think there are a couple of characters, however, who should have this tag as well, if they are going to add this as a mechanic (particularly Hector, as his storyline also felt very stalker-y).
There are, I think, three and a half issues I have with this game, and none of them really ruin my experience; I just think they’re worth addressing to anyone interested in trying it.
The first is that I do think a couple characters are a bit overly sensitive. Now, I actually appreciate a choice-based game where not all of the choices are obvious, and some require you to think a bit if you want to make the “right” choice. My issue is that there are characters whose choices are based on in-universe lore that you, as the player, would not know, and the “wrong” choices that can lead to an automatic “Hate” ending are still choices that seem polite, nice, or otherwise a contextually good response. This is realistic, and may be appropriate in some contexts, but you’re not playing “Date Everything!” for the realism, and in this context, feels a bit anti-fun. Due to the realization mechanic requiring a “Love” or “Friends” ending, you can’t do a completion run if a character hates you. (There is a slight grace mechanic, but it won’t work for every character.) Given these characters are overly sensitive and based on information you couldn’t reasonably know, your ability to complete the game is based almost entirely on chance.
The second and third go hand in hand: Some of the characters’ plotlines are very similar, and the game is on the longer side. Now, I don’t mind playing a 60+ hour game if I’m getting a lot of unique content or a longer storyline. And while some of the storylines were similar, they did have distinct elements, even among the ones that had a lot of overlap. However, given how similar some of the story lines are, I’m not convinced that it needed to be this long. It felt repetitive – Stella and Florence both had storylines about getting scammed by the same pyramid scheme; you have to talk both Hoove and Jerry into getting rid of literal trash they’ve gotten emotionally connected to; and I’m not sure if River is too much like Diana, Diana is too much like Holly, or Holly is too much like River, but all of them are about losing your identity due to people-pleasing and emotional burnout, and I think there were two unique stories among the three. I don’t think I would’ve minded how similar some of these storylines are if it wasn’t for how long the game was and that it felt like it dragged; on the flip side, I don’t think I would have minded such a long play time if the storylines didn’t so repetitive. These issues are really only issues when taken together.
And the half isn’t really an issue, which is why it’s getting a half, I just wish it was a feature the game had. I really wish there was an in-game quest log. As mentioned earlier, this game is extremely information heavy, and it can sometimes get hard to track. Chairemi is only free on certain days, and only at certain times; Zoey has a genuinely complicated visit quest; several characters require you to go back the following day to complete it. An in-game quest log would go far to streamline this. And the thing is, I have an idea for how to implement it. Your character has a smartphone, and interacting with some of the apps is already an important mechanic for certain plotlines and characters. Create a “Notes” app that functions as a quest log and call it a day.
Overall, more than anything else, this was a genuinely funny and fun game that was artistically beautiful and very different than anything I’ve really encountered before. It’s as simple as that, and sometimes, that’s all you need.
(Also, for anyone who hasn’t noticed: I never referenced the same character twice in all of this, and there are still a lot of characters I haven’t even mentioned, to give a sense of the variety of what this game has to offer.)