Japanese VR Dating Simulator Lets Players Marry In-Game Girls…In Real Life?!

Technology Has Officially Gone Too Far

You have to love Japanese culture, especially in the world of video games. There are so many wonderful and weird titles to choose from that you can’t help but be in awe about what they have accomplished. However, there are times when you can’t help but be stunned and ponder where we went wrong as a species.

Japanese dating sims are nothing new. Some are pervy, some are cute, some have great plots, some are fanservice hanging on the edge of porn, but again that’s not surprising.

A virtual reality game that arranges marriage in an actual church between a gamer and one of the romance options? All hosted by the developers? Now that’s surprising.

According to an older article on Oddity Central –

To make its newest romance video game stand out from the competition, a Japanese company is giving users the chance to marry their virtual girlfriends in a real life wedding ceremony, with the help of VR technology.

At first glance, Niitzuma LovelyxCation is a romance and dating simulator like many others in Japan. It lets players court one of three anime protagonists – Yuki Isurugi (long black hair), Aiko Kurihara (short brown hair), or Nono Naruse (blond hair) – and eventually get married to them, but in order to make the illusion of a virtual marriage more believable, it plans to organize a real-life wedding for the “grooms” in an actual chapel, where they can exchange vows with their cartoony betrothed.

Niitzuma LovelyxCation is set to launch on April 28th, but Hibiki Works, the maker of the video game, has already announced that the special wedding ceremonies will be held on June 30th, at an undisclosed location in Tokyo. The company is apparently confident that it will find plenty of grooms for its three anime characters, and has released a few details about the proceedings way ahead of time.

The male players/grooms, who will all have to put on a tuxedo for the big event, will put on a virtual reality headset as they make their way to the altar of the yet-to-be-revealed chapel, where their virtual fiancee will be waiting for them. There, they will be able to exchange vows, declare their love for each other and say the phrase “I do”.

Hibiki Works has made it clear that this will not be just a mass wedding, but that every groom will experience getting married in a private event, surrounded by family and friends, or just other fellow “otaku” who share their passion for dating simulation video games.

And in just in case you’re asking yourself “who on Earth would want to do something like this?”, I’ll have you know that this sort of anime-style dating simulators are very big in Japan. Real-life dating is becoming less popular in Japan, with data showing that 1 in 3 Japanese men remain single for life, so many people actually turn to technology to fill the romantic void in their life.

We hope they have a wonderful future together.

If you’re curious, you can check out the video  from LADbible to see a glimpse at the ceremony, while the trailer below should give you an insight into the selection of brides-to-be.