Down-bad Monster Hunter Wilds players brute-force the ‘Dating Sim’ tag onto Steam mere days after meeting Gemma the Smithy

Monster Hunter Wilds fans have officially added the ‘Dating Sim’ tag to the game on Steam, and there’s one big reason why: Gemma the Smithy.

Monster Hunter Wilds just received a new trailer last week at PlayStation’s State of Play showcase, boasting vast landscapes, brand new monsters, and even a new mount that can sniff things out across the map. It also showed off Gemma, the new blacksmith for the next game in Capcom’s series, and we’re now seeing the effects of Gemma among down-bad fans.

Just below, one Twitter user has shown how they attached the ‘Dating Sim’ tag to Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam. This is a bit of a joke post, no doubt, but if you look on Steam’s store page for Capcom’s new game right now, the Dating Sim tag is actually there for all to see in all its splendor, ranked highly among the other tags at that, meaning enough players have added the tag for it to automatically crop up for everyone.

Yes, this is probably entirely down to Gemma the Smithy, as you can tell just from the reactions below, where Twitter and Reddit users are predictably smitten with the new character. No, you can’t actually date Gemma in Monster Hunter Wilds (one would assume, based on the series so far), but that doesn’t mean players don’t wish they could. 

How long are people gonna simp for her? from r/MonsterHunter
Gemma appreciation thread from r/MonsterHunter

The fan adoration extends beyond just the replies to the official Monster Hunter Twitter account. Below, you can see some of the plentiful fan art that was whipped up incredibly quickly after the new trailer, as well as someone else who’s just plain old lovestruck and clearly in good company based on the post reactions. We know next to nothing about the newcomer, but she’s already a hit.

That might not be entirely the case, actually. Some fans are saying Gemma looks like the spitting image of Monster Hunter 4’s Little Miss Forge, leading them to believe Capcom’s latest is secretly a follow-up to the older game. Others reckon that the Hunter’s Handler in Wilds, Alma – who no-doubt has a fan base of her own – could be overtly based on the Guildmarm from Monster Hunter 4, adding more fuel to the speculative fires, to say nothing of other lookalikes. 

Stay tuned for another Monster Hunter Wilds trailer this week, coming June 7 at the Summer Game Fest 2024 event. 

The Monster Hunter series recently surpassed a total of 100 million sales, with Monster Hunter World contributing around 25 million alone.