Ten Dates Reviews
If you’re a fan of FMV games and dating simulators, Ten Dates is yet another easy recommendation from Wales Interactive’s ever-growing portfolio of published interactive movies. The acting and script are excellent and aside from a few odd musical transitions and dated references, there’s a lot of accessible fun to be had here.
Ten Dates highlights the unspoken "rules" of dating and discusses what is needed in order for a date to go well. Though it does tend to follow a stereotypical heteronormative rom-com storyline, it gives the player enough autonomy to choose exactly what their character wants and doesn't want from their love life through each selection of dialogue. It's disappointing that the devs weren't forward thinking enough to allow players to decide on their character's sexuality and therefore force your Misha or Ryan to play as heterosexual. The way the game includes a chance flirty encounter with the same sex isn't realistic and makes same sex relationships seem lesser than heterosexual relationships, or an afterthought. Overall, Ten Dates is a good adventure to embark on if you like your choices to matter, your dialogue to be witty and your romance to be somewhat predictable.
Ten Dates breaks away from the confines of its predecessor and emerges as a genuinely interesting interactive date movie by way of a reality show.
While it might not beat getting proposed to on Valentine's Day, Ten Dates has more than enough substance to justify a second glance at the bar. It could definitely use more variety in terms of bachelors, bachelorettes, and even venues–with most dates taking place at some type of bar or similar establishment. Nonetheless, there are many, many scenes to unlock and fun conversations to have with the cast as is, and there's even a menu that indicates how much you've seen from what's available for each potential mate. It may not be love at first sight, but Ten Dates does offer an enjoyable way to pass an evening or two as you try to play matchmaker for Ryan and Misha.
Whereas Five Dates was an essential quarantine experience in my mind (so was The Complex, filmed prior to the pandemic but oddly relevant), Ten Dates is an essential “let’s get back out there and get on with life” game. It makes me feel like maybe I still have the ability, hidden very deep down inside of me, to connect with people in person. The two games are on-par score-wise while presenting very different life experiences. In Ten Dates, the characters are all relatable on some level, and the way relationships progress feels natural. The Nintendo Switch handles it very well, and I’d imagine the situation is very much the same on any other platform. All in all: play it! You’ll fall in love.
Just like other FMV-based games by Wales Interactive, Ten Dates is not an easy sell. You need to be into this different kind of visual novel with limited interactivity, you need to like dating sims, and you need to like rom-coms. With all that said and done, Ten Dates might be my favorite Wales Interactive game so far.
Ten Dates is entertaining from start to finish, with a diverse range of characters to date, great acting, and some genuinely funny moments.
Ten Dates is a solid improvement over its predecessor, proving that more is indeed better in some cases. The addition of an extra protagonist, along with the five extra suitors that this naturally brings with it, makes for a more diverse cast of characters and a deeper overall experience for the player. Some of the conversations are a bit lacking in depth and challenge, and the game is currently bogged down by a pretty severe glitch that cycles all conversation scenarios, but Ten Dates is otherwise a fun, relaxing experience that's easy to recommend for fans of the first game.
While Ten Dates loses some of the novelty of the original due to it escaping the confines of pandemic romance, it still manages to be a worthwhile exploration of dating through the lens of an FMV game.
Ten Dates features a solid cast with occasionally great chemistry and believable dialogue, but it misses the opportunity to improve on its predecessor, with a rigid structure and unsatisfyingly short runtime split between two standalone character paths.
It may overstay its welcome in the end, but fans of the first game will have a lot of fun playing this. Are Twenty Dates on the horizon? Only time will tell.
Ten Dates is fun, brilliantly acted and doesn’t shy away from exploring some sensitive real world topics. Interaction between the characters feels natural and the actors involved have to be applauded for bringing such charm and life to the roles they play.
We upset the cliché goth girl who is like, really into horoscopes and stuff. We upset the ow'right guv'nor lad's lad who looked like he was AI generated using only the phrase "probably watches Love Island". We upset the dork student who actually got her book out and started reading it mid-date rather than talk to us. We upset everyone. Speed dating? Spite dating. That's the future.
Although the writing and characters aren't all great across the board, Ten Dates is a surprisingly engaging experience filled with lots of fantastic acting, plenty of content, and some tight editing.
Ten Dates is a lovely but flawed experience that points to a solid future for the series. I got ten dates but wanted even more
This well-timed release drops you into the bumpy ride of looking for love, as you try to make a positive impression on a variety of dates
Ten Dates is a very classic full-motion video experience. It has a clear theme and manages to make the dating elements, especially for the initial speedy encounters, feel fleshed out. There are some interactions that feel forced and a few changes of tone that miss the mark. But this is a competent romantic narrative with light gameplay.
Ten Dates features strong writing sold by actors that genuinely embodied their parts. There were quite a few surprises in the non-linear path to love — some that made me think twice about a candidate before veering off to another — which was embraced by the gameplay and encouraged multiple playthroughs. Although the weighting of the questions wasn’t entirely clear, that didn’t stop me from having a lovely time. If you’re tired of looking for love in all the wrong places, Ten Dates has plenty of singles ready to mingle.
Like its surprisingly solid predecessor, the charming Ten Dates affirms that the FMV game might in fact be best suited to a most unexpected of subgenres – the rom-com.
Ten Dates is a fantastically diverting rom-com that can be used to pilot you into the dating world. Plus, it’s cheap – so, you can’t go wrong. One of the last things you’d want is to possess the stigma of having zero game – on top of being the talk of the town. If you feel that this applies to you, then Ten Dates can be used as a guide to transforming you from a dud to a stud.