In 2006, Famitsu's listings for the Top 20 selling love games included seven otome games.Early games borrowed heavily from the iconography and story conventions of "retro shoujo manga", "the archetypical girly heroines, the emphasis on pure, sexless, tranquil romance and on a peaceful, stable setting", but as the category expanded, other narrative and gameplay elements were introduced, including action/adventure, combat and plots in which "the heroine can ‘save the world’ and ‘get the guy’ at the same time".
Neo Angelique and Meine Liebe), and popular manga series getting adapted to videogames (such as Nana).The term "dating sim" is also often used incorrectly in English as a generic term for romance-driven games (ren'ai games), a subject matter which is stereotypically associated with the visual novel genre.This can lead to confusion, as visual novels are considered a subgenre of adventure games and are not technically included in the dating sim genre.In simulation otome games, there is also other gameplay which affects the plot, either by playing minigames or by raising stats.The main character often has several parameters, such as looks, style, intelligence, talent, etc., that can be raised through various activities in normal gameplay.