Japanese popular culture has grown in popularity at rapid speed since the 1990s. Well known gaming franchises like Mario, Pokémon and Final Fantasy turned Japanese video games into a global phenomenon. As a result, Japanese romance games have also become very popular. They used to only be created for a very niche and small market in Japan, but with the growing globalisation of Japanese video games, many people around the world also play Japanese romance games.

Japanese romance games are character-focused games in which players gradually build a romantic relationship with their favourite character over time. They are slow-paced and usually contain lots of text. Despite that Japanese romance games are not associated with typical video games, they have managed to gather a steady fan-base around the globe. If you wish to know what these games look like or wish to learn a bit more about Japanese game culture and their influences outside Japan, you’re welcome to visit the exhibition from May 4th on!

The exhibition is curated by Japanologist Joleen Blom from the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies.