>>14338>>14347A dating simulator is not the same thing as a VN. They often overlap or have similar themes and objectives, but they're separate things. Most otome games are visual novels, not dating simulators. Peopl in the west think every anime-style game about romance is a "dating sim" but that's wrong.
Dating simulators are like Tokimeki Memorial, Love Plus or Doukyuusei;
VNs are like Clannad, Katawa Shoujo or NekoPara. All of these games are
galge (the standard romance/erotic anime game with a male protagonist and female love interests, made for straight men) despite being in different formats.
In short, for it to be "simulation" it has to, logically, have simulation aspects (most notably stat building), not just plain reading endless blocks of text and occasionally picking a dialogue option or story action. Galge used to be almost synonymous with dating simulation but after the 2000s the dating sim genre has been dead and almost all galge are mainly visual novels nowadays.
Otome games are the same (but with the sexes inverted), they can be one or the other, but the vast majority of them, like galge, are visual novels, not dating simulators. An otome dating sim is like Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, My Candy Love and RE:Alistair; an otome visual novel is like Hakuoki, Diabolik Lovers or Bustafellows. The Utena game doesn't seem to have any simulation mechanics, so it would qualify as a VN and not a dating sim.