YMMV / Dream Daddy

• Adorkable:
  • The player character himself, as he's very socially awkward and has a habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. He's also very loving towards Amanda, and thinks the world of her. It's also noteworthy that he really wants to be cool in front of the other dads.
  • Mat, who is as socially awkward as you, rambles at times and loves making puns related to music.
  • Damien absolutely loves everything Victorian, always uses long, sophisticated words, is scared of horror movies and will awkwardly explain to you the Victorian slang he uses if you get a 'S' after his date.
  • Daisy is a very intelligent, polite, but socially awkward little girl who happens to be quite adorable.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Joseph caused this after his third date, when he told the MC he was getting a divorce, slept with him, then decided to patch things up with Mary. Was he planning on leaving his wife but got cold feet at the last minute, or was he using the MC all along?
  • Considering the revelation that Joseph previously slept with Robert, it not only brings the confrontation at the pier into a new light but raises the question of whether or not it was a misguided attempt to warn you about Joseph or even if the sequence of events MC goes through is something that Robert himself went through and Joseph is downplaying what they had as simply a one night stand. Adding credence to this is the fact that on board Joseph's yacht the MC will see a photo of the cul-de-sac dads including Robert and take note of the fact that Robert looks very happy and is wearing a sweater that you have seen before (implied to be Joseph's).
  • Joseph seems to be the prime candidate for Alternative Interpretations, as he even has some in regards to the Non-Canon Cult Ending, from the fans who enjoy it. Was he always a demon, using the dads to his own goals and roping Mary along to create a facade of kindness, or was he once a normal man, who found himself the unwilling host to something beyond his comprehension?
  • Joseph, again, as well as Mary: during the barbecue, when Joseph repeatedly asks Mary to find Crish, it seems like it's establishing Joseph as an attentive father and Mary as a neglectful mother, right? But when you stop and think about it, Crish is a toddler (so a year or two old, at least) in his own family's backyard, with both his parents, all three of his older siblings, and seven adult neighbors who are all parents themselves outside with him! Of course Mary was sure he was fine! Was she really being neglectful, or was Joseph helicoptering?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Damien remarks at one point that he's glad to own period-appropriate binders in the Victorian style. Corsets for men really were in vogue at the time, including over-bust models designed to flatten the chest.
• Awesome Music: DVP by Canadian punk band PUP playing on Mat's route.
• Base-Breaking Character: Joseph, due to his adulterous elements in his route, specially to people who have seen Mary's Hidden Depths, pointing to the fact she isn't a bad woman and actually treats the MC very nicely after he befriends her. The fact that neither of his endings have him and the player character in a happy relationship, as Joseph remains married to Mary in both have people debating whether or not the player deserves it for making the MC go after a married man in the first place — despite said married man's marriage being an obviously failing one and the fact that it's a quite realistic situation that many LGBT+ people of any gender can potentially find themselves into.
• Broken Base:
  • Damien being trans. Some people are celebrating the inclusion of a genuinely trans character, especially one who is only ever treated as their actual gender and whose story arc never treats his transition as an obstacle or an issue. Others feel cheated because Damien never literally states in-game that he's transgender; it's a one-off comment about him wearing a binder. Some people have also expressed annoyance that the trans character has very feminine-coded interests (such as gardening and flower-arranging) compared to the other dads. Others consider a feminine transgender man who happily wears makeup and jewelry (and writes slashfic) groundbreaking and wonderful, because while this is very common in reality, most trans men in fiction are presented exclusively with masculine-coded interests.
  • The Cult Ending. Many people were looking for a genuinely wholesome dating sim with gay/bi dads, while others love it and find it interesting (if not horribly hilarious in its own right). However it should be noted that players can't access this ending through normal gameplay, but only by putting in a specific character customization. On top of that, it was originally cut content and is considered non-canon entirely.
• Crosses the Line Twice
  • In real life, parents competitively bragging about their kids to other parents would wreck their self esteem and pressure them to succeed. Said competition playing out like a Pokémon battle, however? Hilarious and accurate!
  • Joseph gestures to the hand-painted banner hanging above the church doors. It reads JESUS IS CUMING.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Mary. Initially, she was a more controversial figure due to her marital problems with Joseph and condescending behaviour in her first appearance. However, after she reveals her Hidden Depths, including her relationships with Robert and Damian (to the point of asking the player to take care of them, during their routes), the fact she's never actually brought a man home, and her Action Survivor behavior in the non-canon cult ending, many have warmed up to her. Some fans have even wish she were a romance-able option, rather than her husband.
  • Saul is one for people who know and/or enjoy the Cult Ending to any major degree. He only makes an appearance in said ending, and barely has any defining character moments, outside of the fact that he is also a widower with a kid of his own (Barry), and he is not only investigating the case on Joseph, but seems to know what Joseph actually is in regards to the Cult Ending reveal. However, his character design, and voice clips have him sounding like he's voiced by Jacob Anderson, a long-time friend of the Game Grumps who's best known as playing Grey Worm from Game of Thrones, have many fans hoping he'll become a secret date option.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The "good" ending of Joseph's route. Though opinions about his route are contentious enough, many argue that by choosing to stay with Mary for the kids, he's more likely prolonging an unhappy marriage. Even if they repair their marriage, there is little shown that the two will be truly happy or loving with each other, which is felt to be more of a Downer Ending for everyone involved. Not to mention, while divorce can indeed be rough on the children involved, a loveless, unhappy marriage can be infinitely worse.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Robert/Joseph has a large fanbase due to their clashing personalities. This despite Joseph being married to Mary and deciding to stay with her no matter how you play his route.
• Friendly Fandoms: Pretty much all of Overwatch's LGBT Fanbase turned its attention to this game due to the similarities between both games' character designs^note Comparisons usually going as: Robert = Reaper, Damian = Hanzo, Craig = Genji, Joseph = Soldier 76, Mat = Lucio, Hugo = McCree, and Brian = Reinhardt.
  • Also with Monster Prom: both are light-hearted, comedic, LGBT+ friendly visual novels, featuring input from the Game Grumps and a bunch of their regular collaborators.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The "Space Warrior" character creation options make your character look like Son Goku; "Space Warrior" is what the Saiyans were called in the French dub of Dragon Ball Z.
  • Damien's complaints in his Establishing Character Moment were probably right. It actually is very common for "Victorian" fashion to actually look like the epitome of Edwardian.
• Glurge: For fans who didn't consider Joseph's Good Ending a good ending in its own right, or an Esoteric Happy Ending at worst, it's almost always considered this instead. The fact that the devs gave an interview that explained they chose not to give Joseph a "Good Ending" because they didn't want to give the impression of breaking up marriages as a good thing really didn't help some fans see Joseph's Good Ending in any better terms.
• Good Bad Bugs: Joseph's Creepy Twins can follow you around◊ for no reason◊. However, this was patched in the July 30, 2017 update.
• Gotta Ship 'Em All: The fandom is really loose with shipping, allowing not only ships between the Dadsona and the as, but also among all the other dads.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Robert's No Romance Route/Fuckbud Ending, as well as his Bad Ending, were already rather painful to experience on their own. It only serves to become worse when you trigger Robert's confrontation on Joseph's third date, revealing the two were once a thing, and Robert holds intense loathing and distrust on Joseph as a result. Because of this, it seems likely that Robert acts the way he does during those outcomes because of what happened between him and Joseph.
  • All of the Death Endings have this in spades. Both Brian and Joseph's are obvious in how so, as you end up dying in front of your daughter, Amanda. However, Craig's is possibly one that hits the hardest when it dawns on you, not only did you die on the date that was intended to help Craig take some time off for himself for once, but you also die a few scenes after Craig expressed worry about something wrong happening, mostly in regards to his kids, where he'll need phone service to call or text in response, and asked if you two can camp in a place with a signal. If you group this up with the idea that Craig had a crush on the MC since college, which is hinted at quite a few times throughout the game as a whole, you dying on the date where he seems like he was finally gaining the confidence to admit to this feels like an extra kick in the face.
  • The main protagonist has a celebrity crush on Mario Batali and Brian has been mentioned to look like him, being a heavyset redhead. However, as of December 2017, Batali has had accusations of sexual harassment against him brought to light, making this a lot less amusing.
  • All the hype and marketing about Dream Daddy being a mainstream dating sim starring a gay male protagonist can come across as such with the reveal that Ding Dong (know for being a guest on Oneyplays) revealed in a 2022 stream that he was approached by most of the dev team to speak their complaints about the game treating the LGBTQ+ community as a gimmick to help advertise it. This lead to a stream where Ding Dong (Who was one of only 2 LGBTQ+ people working in the office at the time) spoke his and others complaints against Dream Daddy. After which everyone who previously approached him refused to acknowledge their previous complaints. This resulted in Ding Dong becoming black listed from multiple game studios and eventually deleting his entire presence off the internet due to the controversy.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: For "DVP" by PUP. The music video for the song pays homage to a lot of 1980s and 1990s video games, kind of like a Reference Overdosed. The song eventually ends up in the game itself, albeit not in the YouTube streaming way.
  • If you didn't know the game came out in 2017, then the MC joking during Mat's first date that people can see a lot of cool movies if they got over subtitles sounds like a reference to Bong Joon-ho's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes.
• Memetic Psychopath: Joseph, largely due to his role as the cult leader in the cult ending, having used Amanda and his children to summon demons. Despite that being not canonical, some people have taken his behavior on that route to be his actual behavior and his real personality, therefore resulting in this.
• Never Live It Down: The Cult Ending. That route caused Joseph's entire character to go into this, and being mostly just considered a crazy psycho rather than the complex character he is painted as in the rest of the game.
• Ron the Death Eater: Joseph gets his treatment most of all. Due to him being married, his route is actually based on you having an affair with him, his route will also end with him deciding to stay with his wife instead of you, so it feels like he has been leading you on to some players, him taking part in the infamous cult ending is also fairly frowned upon. As a result, many people portray him as a heartless evil man. Robert actually takes this stance in-game.
• Strangled by the Red String: Brian's third date comes off as this to quite a few players. You spend the majority of Brian's route seeming to be a constant one-up competition with each other. Even the third date, you two go into this being competitive. It isn't until halfway through the date, the MC finds out that Brian wasn't trying to be competitive at all, and only did so playfully because he thought the MC was having fun at first. However, it dawned on the MC he was acting on his own father's neglect and the issues that arose, as he viewed basically everything Brian did as an evocation of challenge, and it took Brian asking the MC why he hated him to come to terms with this. At this point, you two decide it isn't too late to scavenge a friendship together, and decide to put the past behind one another. Sounds good at first, until the date concludes with a sudden Last-Minute Hookup, as the two share a kiss and seem to find themselves in a relationship just mere moments after coming to terms with one another, and deciding they can still manage a friendship.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel:
  • Best described by Extra Credits when it was an item in their series "Games You Might Not Have Tried": "It's well written, the music is happy and it's just a wholesome good time. Look, life's hard and sometimes you just need a game that makes you smile." The game is inclusive, fun, sweet, with lovable characters, with special mention to Amanda, who is impossible not to care about as you play her dad."
  • The comics are this too; they're one heartwarming moment after the other, mixed with funny and sweet moments among the cast.
• That One Achievement: Yo Ho Ho Ho, the achievement you get for sinking all holes-in-one on Brian's first date. The difficulty comes in the fact that you have to sink 18 holes-in-one consecutively, with any mess up forcing you to start back at the beginning. The fact the minigame seems to love screwing over the player any chance it gets makes this achievement one for the books.
• That One Level: Or, that one minigame. The minigolf game with Brian if you're pressed at beating him.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Joseph seems to be a bad case of this, as two interviews with the devs revealed they canned a plot people were looking forward to with his character right from the get-go, and another potentially interesting plot was never considered an outcome for him, to avoid implications of breaking up marriages as a good thing. The fact that his character also has hints of being a manipulator, if Robert's distrust and warning about him before his third date is any indication, really makes some people feel like Joseph was completely screwed by the devs.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A complaint about Joseph's route has been that, despite him being a minister, the relationship between non-heteronormative behavior and religion as well as how to balance the two of them is not addressed in his plot, which is something plenty of people thought could be interesting, considering the long history of conflict between LGBT people and conservative religious groups.

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