Silver hair, deep red eyes, chiseled chin and poreless skin — my crush inches closer to me, lips parting as he whispers: “Come here.”

Welcome to an average session of Love and Deepspace, part role-playing game, part sci-fi-themed interactive otome gēmu (literally, “maiden game”) — a genre whose main objective is for players to seek out and develop romantic relationships with one or several of a cast of digital hunks.

Otome games aren’t new. In fact, they’ve been around since the 1990s. However, Love and Deepspace is the first to truly find mainstream success: Since releasing in January 2024, the game has generated $400 million (about ¥62 billion) in revenue, with 36% of this amount coming from outside of China. In Japan, it took until September for Love and Deepspace to be dethroned from the No. 1 spot among the country’s most downloaded interactive story titles on mobile platforms.