Imagine this: you wake up as a prince in ancient China and find your kingdom under the threat of an evil force. You’re tasked with tracking down a secret organization while hiding your identity. Along the way, you meet six women who inevitably find themselves drawn to you. Through different dialog options, you unlock multiple storylines, side quests, and unexpected twists.
Welcome to My Journey, China’s latest indie video game—an action-packed adventure featuring murder mysteries, revenge, and romance.The best part? Every scene in My Journey is brought to life by real actors in handcrafted sets. Its first-person perspective offers an immersive gameplay experience. It’s much more than traditional romance games, My Journey is an exciting cross between costume dramas and dating simulators.
These male-targeted, live-action, romance RPGs have taken China by storm. The most popular title, Love is All Around, climbed to Steam’s top ten just weeks after its release in 2023. You play as an average Joe, chased by six beauties with drastically different personalities. Every decision you make shapes your fate through affairs, betrayals, and heartbreaks. You, the player, gets to experience what it’s like to date all six women before finally settling down.
Romance RPGs follow in the footsteps of China’s recent microdrama boom, where low-budget production teams craft addictive soap drama romances. The suggestive and cringy plotlines provide just enough absurdity and intrigue to keep its audience engaged. One Steam user commented on Love is All Around that, “This game is so freaking stupid that it becomes fun.” Another said, “Unironically a good time, also I keep dying of cringe but it’s great.”
Whether or not you think it’s cringe it up to you, and what will help you come to that conclusion—or at somewhat of an idea—is by checking out the official trailer for My Journey below
Romance RPGs, in general, occupy a similar niche to Chinese otome mobile games. A female-oriented and dialog-driven dating simulator where the player’s main goal is to develop romantic relationships with their chosen male NPC. One of the biggest hits, Love and Deepspace, outperformed Douyin (China’s Tiktok) in downloads after its debut in 2024.
By blending live-action story-telling and the illusion of choice, romance RPGs go one step above microdramas and otome games. Seven Lovers in the House, even incorporated AI, allowing players to text with their favorite female characters on top of role-playing options, providing another layer of immersion. The market for live-action RPGs seems to be rapidly developing, with new games coming out each month, but whether it will achieve mainstream success remains to be seen.
Cover image via YouTube/Fwoggie.
