The Shall We Date? franchise is a series of Dating Sim visual novels. All of the games are made by NTT Solmare Corporation, a Japanese gaming company.
The series includes the following games:
- Shall We Date: Ninja Love
- Shall We Date?: My Sweet Prince
- Shall We Date: Heian Love (no longer playable)
- Shall We Date: KONKATSU for Marriage (no longer playable)
- Shall We Date: Actor in Love (no longer playable)
- Shall We Date: Destiny Ninja
- Shall We Date: Mononoke Kiss
- Shall We Date?: Magic Sword
- Shall We Date?: Can't Say No
- Shall We Date?: Angel or Devil
- Shall We Date: Hero in Love
- Shall We Date?: My Fairy Tales
- Shall We Date?: Lost Island
- Shall We Date: Never Look Back
- Shall We Date?: Ninja Assassin
- Shall We Date: Scarlet Fate (licensed port of Shirahana no Ori - Hiiro no Kakera 4)
- Shall We Date: The Niflheim
- Shall We Date: Guilty Alice
- Shall We Date?: Wizardess Heart
- Shall We Date?: Blood In Roses
- Shall We Date: Castle Break
- Shall We Date: Demon's Bond (licensed port of Toki no Kizuna)
- Shall We Date?: Destiny Ninja 2
- Shall We Date: Love Tangle
- Shall We Date: Seasons of Love
- Shall We Date: War of Prayers
- Shall We Date: Pirates -Treasured Love in the Ocean-
- Shall We Date?: Oz
- Shall We Date: Eternal Vows
- Shall We Date?: Ninja Shadow
- Shall We Date: Guard Me, Sherlock!
- Shall We Date: Modern Cinderella
- Shall We Date: Lost Alice
- Shall We Date: We the Girls
- Obey Me! – One Master to Rule Them All!
- Obey Me Nightbringer
The Shall We Date? series includes the following tropes:
- Allegedly Free Game: Most games in the series are released as free-to-play social games or have a "plus" version in that format. These games do not require a purchase to play the story, but limit the player's progress by day and sometimes offer "premium" story content or other extras which have to be bought.
- Better Partner Assertion: With the premise of Love Tangle being love triangles, this happens a few times...
- In Cody's route, he and Ryan are arguing when Ryan catches the main character's eye. Facing her, he claims that he would make her happier than his brother, which shocks her. It turns out Ryan was just helping Cody with lines for his new role.
- Nolan's route: After coming home from a formal party where Nolan introduces the main character as his girlfriend to his father to get him off his back, Miguel tells her that he would never make her upset or use her like Nolan has. Then, he follows it up with What's He Got That I Ain't Got?!
- Bittersweet Ending: Usually reached by doing well enough to avoid a Downer Ending but not well enough to get the happiest ending, though sometimes the worst endings are more bittersweet than total downers.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The number of male characters to choose from will vary from three to sixteen candidates.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: The love interests won't be too happy if the heroine attracts another guy's attention or if she interacts with another guy.
- Downer Ending: Some of the Normal/Bad Endings will be this.
- Dude Magnet: More often than not, the entire cast of love interests is openly interested in the player character no matter whose route she choses.
- Featureless Protagonist: In most games, the protagonist/player character is never shown on-screen except in CGs, which are typically framed not to show her face. The protagonist of The Niflheim has a sprite which appears on-screen, but as a reverse-painted silhouette which does not show any facial features. The protagonists of Blood in Roses and Destiny Ninja 2 have full sprites.
- The newest games, Ninja Shadow and Modern Cinderella, avert this. Heck, the Ninja Shadow heroine's bifauxnen looks are a plot point.
- Genre Shift: Castle Break is described as a mixture of Romance Game and "escape adventure" game, where all other games in the series are straight romance games.
- Harem Genre: Reverse harem, given how most of the games in the series surround the protagonist with men who are romantically interested in her.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Although most games provide a default name for the protagonist, the player may change it at any time.
- Love Triangle: Some routes will include another guy chasing after the heroine. Additionally, Love Tangle runs on this trope. There are four different love triangles available, one of them being a Sibling Triangle. Shall We Date?: Blood In Roses is one instance in which some endings actually feature one as a good thing instead of a disturbance.
- Microtransactions: The standard format for all games in the series. In the paid versions of the games, the player downloads a free prologue and then buys the individual routes they want to play. In the "plus" games, the story is free, but the player can purchase "coins" with which to buy extra content or items that make it easier to advance the story.
- Multiple Endings: There are usually at least three possible endings. Some games have as many as five, from Downer Ending to Golden Ending.
- Nue: Mononoke Kiss and Wizardess Heart both have them, but the two instances are very much opposites. Wizardess Heart's nue are malevolent bringers of nightmares who trick humans so they can steal their souls, and in Mononoke Kiss, the nue is a Bishounen love interest who is brightly colored, cheerful and heroic.
- The Rival: There may be a female character added to the game to provide drama to the love story.
- Secret Character: Certain games have bonus love interests that can be accessed after completing a route.
- Shipper on Deck: There will be typically be a character that support the main character and whoever they choose to pursue.
- Aiden from Modern Cinderella starts off trying to help the heroine find her ideal job. Once she expresses an interest in her selected love interest, he does what he can to support her blossoming relationship with him.
- While she is a rival, Falitna from Shall We Date?: My Sweet Prince can be supportive of Mai and her guy. In "Chezem the Jealous", she gets embarrassed upon walking in on Mai and Chezem almost kissing and tries to give them some privacy.
- Sibling Triangle: This series loves to use this one. Just about every visual novel features the heroine being involved with at least two brothers.
- Spin-Off: A lot of their games include bonus stories for the love interests. Some of the games could require a purchase in order to read the stories while others are free. The more recent games allow you to get the stories by doing minigames and using the in-game currency.
- Thematic Series: With the exception of Destiny Ninja and Destiny Ninja 2 (the latter game's protagonist and love interests being descendants of the protagonist and love interests of the former game), the games in the series have no direct connections to each other beyond all being romance games with female protagonists and male love interests.
- Tsundere: There's usually at least one guy among the main love interests who tries to hide his feelings for the heroine with brusque or blustering behavior.
- Virtual Paper Doll: These games feature a "dress-up" feature, which allows the player to customize the avatar however they want. The items they get can boost the protagonist's charm level and increases the chances of winning the novel's mini-games.
