11.12.11 / Japanese, Konami, Romance game, Sony PSP, Tokimeki Memorial, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (12)
Tags: fumiko yanagi, tokimeki memorial 4
Is this what they mean by “Too little, too late?” I finally got Fumiko Yanagi and I’m very happy about it, but after goodness knows how many playthroughs, the game is stale beyond belief.
Yanagi herself is very sweet and friendly from the start, no defrosting ice queens here. The downside of that is that even when she falls in love with you, there’s not much difference in her attitude and behavior, so you don’t feel like you’ve progressed much. But I’ll take that over the Tsugumi Godou type any day.
There’s no “story” on this route, unlike how, say, Maki wants to be a nurse or Yuu wants to gather up the courage to confess. You just go out on dates, pig out on sweets afterwards and walk her home. Rinse, repeat. I didn’t get most of her CGs, and the two I did get involved her falling down on you. Ooh, clever. But her low-drama, feel-good atmosphere is precisely what’s so good about Yanagi. Her ability to cheer up the MC dramatically when he’s down makes her an automatic keeper.
In the end she blunders and confesses to the MC in front of the whole school by means of the P.A. system, which I thought was cute. Like Rizumi she didn’t confess under the legendary tree,, so there’s no in-game guarantee that their relationship will last forever. A naive ditzy girl like Fumiko will have lots of wolves after her, so I sent my MC to the best university possible juuust in case. As long as he gets a great job and can afford to keep her stocked up on parfaits and cookies, I think they should be okay.
MOVING ON! But before that! This has been bugging me for a while, but is it really necessary to wait three years to confess in these games? I mean, how dumb are high school students these days if they have to go out on date after date after date and hold hands and spend whole days together and STILL not figure out that this is more than an ordinary friendship? This is high school, teenage hormone central! Where a careless “Hi” in the hallway can power a whole month’s worth of “Do you think he likes me” conferences! And there you go, blithely picking up the phone and inviting girls to spend time with you one-on-one. And not just once, but for three years and you both STILL can’t figure out you love each other until you spell it out? Tut, tut. Kids these days.
Okay, now moving on for real. I tried to go back to Dragoneer’s Aria, but I couldn’t bring myself to continue. Right now I’m juggling between Blade Dancer and Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together. Neither one is doing miracles for me at the moment, but TO has the advantage of being an SRPG (*bliss*) so I might drop BD and focus solely on TO in the coming days.
09.09.11 / Japanese, Konami, Romance game, Sony PSP, Tokimeki Memorial, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (0)
Tags: fumiko yanagi, nanakawa rui, tokimeki memorial 4
“It’s not me, it’s you.”
- Me to Tsugumi, after doing Rui’s route.
I couldn’t tell whether the game or the girl was to blame for my less-than-optimum experience doing Tsugumi’s route, so I decided to play one more time to make sure. And since I’m such a good friend, what better victim test subject than Nanakawa Rui, the cross-dressing twin sister of my bro and best buddy Nanakawa Tadashi?
Actually Tadashi kind of ruined things a bit by being shockingly chill about the whole thing. I even got an event one Christmas where he picks me up and drives me over to their place so I can spend the night helping Rui finish a manga in time for Comiket. He even encourages me to sleep in her room, then wakes me up the following morning and fixes me breakfast! Breakfast, I tell you! I’m dating your sister, man! Why are you so happy about it? Don’t you care about your sister?! Don’t you care about…me?
Hmph. Leaving Mr. No-Fun-At-All out of it, Rui route was fine, but a bit low on content. The girl herself was fun to hang out with, if a bit exhausting. At least I can introduce her to my friends and family without worrying that she’ll be a snooty bitch to all of them. Rui is loud and hyper, but also down-to-earth and honest about her own faults and interests.
She would be my favorite if I hadn’t raised Fumiko Yanagi’s affection all the way to Tokimeki level by accident. That’s right, I took her on a couple of dates, hung out with her during the school trip and took her to the shrine the second year all by accident. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Yanagi is so sweet! In-game, when your mood is at its lowest she’ll often show up and cheer you up considerably, but even as a player I always felt much better after hanging out with her. She’s got easy-to-be-withability, if there’s such a term. When her affection got too high, I had to stand her up on a few dates to lower it, but even then she was unfailingly sweet. Like she was just worried about me, the poor sweetheart (btw don’t try this with Satsuki-sempai. She will be PISSED and she’s scary when pissed). If I had to pick one girl for the MC to marry in ten years, it would definitely be her.
Err, oops, anyway, this isn’t a post about Yanagi. It’s about the game-loving, cosplaying Rui, whose route had its funny moments. I’ve seen the Valentine’s scene on the right twice, but I laughed out loud both times. It’s also hilarious the way the girls in your school think you and Tadashi are in a relationship because of how close you are to Rui. And Tadashi seems to enjoy the misunderstanding, which is like, hmmm…
Some of her more otaku-oriented events reeked of “trying too hard” syndrome though. Rui works at a maid cafe, sings only anime songs at karaoke, draws doujinshi, loves going to the arcade, etc etc. A few incidents and its cool, after that it’s like “Okay, okay, she’s an otaku, I get it already!” Everything in moderation, Konami.
It’s not all bad news, of course. She’s fun to hang out with, she’s happy to show off her curves to you (oh, the possibilities!), and since she starts out at high friendship with the MC, even on the worst dates she’s usually pretty upbeat.
On the whole it was a fun route that restored my faith in Tokimeki Memorial 4 as a good game. You can’t win them all, but it’s comforting to know girls like Tsugumi are an aberration rather than the norm. Now for another break, after which I’ll do Yanagi (<3) and possibly Doyama-sempai.
07.09.11 / Japanese, Konami, Romance game, Sony PSP, Tokimeki Memorial, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (1)
Tags: tokimeki memorial 4, tsugumi godou
I said I wasn’t going to start a new game, but strictly speaking Tokimeki Memorial 4 isn’t new, so it doesn’t count.
Since I had fun replaying Ranshima Monogatari, I thought I’d see if I could recapture the magic with TM4 as well. The experiment was a partial success. The game itself felt a little fresher and newer after a month away, but the girl I got? Not so good.
Tsugumi Godou is Maki’s neurotic, sarcastic best friend. I decided to go after her because she looks cute, no other reason. She’s also supposed to conform to the tsundere (i.e. bint that blows hot and cold) stereotype, but even though I dislike that kind of personality, I decided her looks made up for it.
Having dated and actually gotten her, I have to say she has a very high opinion of herself, but nothing to actually back that up. Yeah sure, she’s cute. She’s smart but not that smart, which is why it’s funny that she throws a mini hissy fit if you pass her in the exams. Miss, I was number 1 and you were number 50. We don’t really have anything to talk about.
I got a couple of her CGs. She…really doesn’t have a life outside studying, working in her dad’s cafe and crushing on Maki. That’s kinda sad. And since her life is so devoid of content, her route was devoid of content, and this post is devoid of content too. I really should have played something else…
05.07.11 / Japanese, Konami, Romance game, Sony PSP, Tokimeki Memorial, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (0)
Tags: kyouno rizumi, review, tokimeki memorial, tokimeki memorial 4
I’m happy I got her, but doing four routes in quick succession has robbed me of any and all desire to continue this game. It’s all over for me now, so this will be my final post about Tokimeki Memorial 4 for the foreseeable future. Rui and Tsugumi, I’m sorry. Maybe in a couple of months we can talk about doing this again.
Notable things about Rizumi’s route? Nothing remarkable. I got almost none of her CGs naturally, and couldn’t be bothered to FAQ it. Not that I don’t like her or anything, I’m just tired. The girl herself is okay. I love her fashion sense, and she’s really sweet even on dates that don’t go so well. I can live without the constant references to music, but that’s her “gimmick” so I get it.
Interestingly enough, her confession takes place in the music room and not under the legendary tree. Does this mean our relationship won’t last forever? The MC already sounds a little insecure about her popularity in his ending blurb, which doesn’t bode well for the future. Shame on you, MC, I don’t remember raising you that way!
Final notes about Tokimeki Memorial 4? Skills are a good addition, but I’d like them taken out next time. Once you know what you’re doing, they make things way too easy. I mean, not like the other games were hard either (except TM1, brr), but having 400-600 in every stat by the end of most routes has never happened to me before.
It’s good that the girls change up what they say and do frequently. There are far fewer line and event repeats in one playthrough, although you will naturally see several events over and over on repeat runs. The graphics are simple, but clean. The revolving wheel menu was cool at first, but I was craving a simple straightforward menu after a few days. Battling is fun. Your friends are cool, but I wish you could interact with them even more, ‘cos they were funny. Etc, etc.
Meh, I really don’t have anything left to say about this game. It wasn’t bad, but the girls were all alike: similar faces, similar personalities, similar routes. Some of them seemed a little different, but as soon as they started liking you a bit they became just like everyone else. The stuff I found most exciting on all routes was raising my stats, battling and learning new skills. And if that’s what I want, then any average RPG will do.
Still, I had fun. And it’s motivated me to give Tokimeki Memorial 3 another shot, after a sufficient cooling-off period. I’ll report on that if it ever happens.
27.06.11 / Japanese, Konami, Romance game, Sony PSP, Tokimeki Memorial, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (0)
Tags: tokimeki memorial, tokimeki memorial 4, yu satsuki
I thought she would be harder than that, but she fell as easily as the rest. Joining the student council wasn’t that hard either, plus I joined it in my second year on Maki’s route, anyway so it didn’t feel particularly fresh and exciting. My stats were all close to or over 90 by the time the election rolled around, I didn’t take any part-time jobs or pick up the naughty magazine and I joined the music club, which raised my moral stat as well. Piece of cake.
I thought managing without a job would be hard, but 20-28 rich a month is doable if you don’t go overboard with the expensive dates. I mostly stuck to affordable dates like the library and planetarium, and occasionally treated her to beach and mountain dates. I was even able to spend money on birthday presents for all the other girls and get Satsuki at least her medium present every year without too much trouble. Of course taking part in the “Special Christmas Party” every year (100 rich+10exp, -10 moral) helped a whole lot with that.
No great discoveries on the skills front, though I did unlock several interesting-looking ones. The one that would have helped me most with Satsuki, since it stops girls’ negative skills from activating (心の開錠術) I got too late to be effective. Satsuki’s negative skill is a killer: it removes one of your skills at random and you can’t put it back on till the next term. Oh hey, it’s Satsuki-sempai, fancy meeting you heAAAARGH!
Fending off the other girls was no big deal either. For the most part events and birthdays occurred often enough that I could keep most of them at bay. Maki automatically went all the way up to tokimeki mode without me ever taking her out on a single date (told you she was easy). So to deal with that, I called her up for a few dates and stood her up repeatedly, which somehow brought her affection down without provoking her to bomb me (again, told you she was easy).
Yanagi’s affection also went pretty high, which was actually a good thing because she would randomly show up and improve my mood. Thanks girl. As for the rest of the girls, I dealt with the matter by raising Satsuki-sempai to tokimeki+hand-holding level, then putting on a skill that drastically slowed down the rate at which girls like and bomb you (清廉潔白). And a good time was had by all.
I’d like to say it was worth it, but… Well, I guess it was. She’s the cutest girl of the bunch IMO (Tsugumi is a close second), and while she’s not particularly interesting, she’s all right. I didn’t date her too often, just once or twice a month, so she didn’t get stale as quickly as Maki or Itsuki did. And her CGs were pretty nice, as the picture above demonstrates. As a character she’s a little too ‘perfect’ and her sole flaw, a bad sense of direction, is completely unbelievable. It comes out of nowhere, plays out in one CG and then is never referred to again.
Graduation day she shows up, blah blah blah didn’t have the courage to confess last year blah blah blah confessing now, oh you love me too, yay. From her monologue and from another event, it sounds like she’s related to Shiori Fujisaki from TM1 and that the MC and Fujisaki are still together and still happily in love. That’s sweet…especially since I never did get Fujisaki myself. And everybody lived happily after, the end.
Next up, I’m going to start all over again because I hear I get a cheap stamina refilling item on my third playthrough. That’s the save file I’ll use to get Rui, Rizumi and Tsugumi before putting the game away for good.
25.06.11 / Japanese, Konami, Romance game, Sony PSP, Tokimeki Memorial, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (4)
Tags: maki hoshikawa, tokimeki memorial, tokimeki memorial 4
She’s all right, I guess. I did her route because she guilted me into it by being so nice to me last time, but I’m not that into her. Maki is the poor man’s Satsuki-sempai – average, but not quite good enough at anything. The girls in this game seem quick to fall in love, but Maki was especially easy, particularly in the face of my almighty stats. Her CGs were easy to get too. I got almost all of them naturally.
The developers often try to include at least one stereotypical “nice girl” in this kind of game, and this time it’s Maki: cheerful, sweet, fishes for compliments by putting herself down frequently, can’t afford to go to a proper hair salon, can only afford a few outfits, etc etc. One day she’s like “I wanna be a nurse!” then later she’s like, “No I suck I can’t be a nurse,” then you encourage her and she goes “Okay I’m gonna be a nurse” and that’s the full extent of her character development. Not that Itsuki Maeda had any development either, but Maki’s supposed to be the “main” girl. I had expectations!
The only exciting thing that happened on Maki’s route had nothing to do with the girl herself. I’d been fiddling with skills for a while, not taking them too seriously. I put on the all-night cramming skill (一夜漬け) that lets you raise your humanities-science-art skills like crazy the night before a test. I also put on a skill that randomly gives you a massive increase in the stat you’re working on (女神の加護). It rarely activates so I barely gave it a thought.
Then, one fateful night, BAM! they activated together! Science and art went up by 60 (!!) each, but that was child’s play compared to humanities: 288 to 520 in one night! That’s two to three years of grinding in ONE SINGLE NIGHT! It took me like a minute to believe what my eyes were telling me. H-how w-what b-b-but– it must be a bug! I saved, turned the game off, put it back on and it was still there. Suddenly Tsugumi and Satsuki were falling all over themselves to please me and the rest of the game was easy-mode. I’ve been trying to reproduce the lucky incident ever since, with no success. Maybe it really was a fluke.
Back to Maki, there’s nothing wrong with her, but there’s nothing right about her either. All that friendly supportiveness gets boring really quickly, which is why I can’t wait to date some of the more prickly types like Tsugumi. My stamina for this game has dropped even further, so I’ve decided to drop Kai, science girl and Yanagi. My final list is Satsuki-sempai (currently working on), Rui (she’s a funny, funny girl. Her Valentine’s Day event is priceless!), Tsugumi (‘cos I like her) and Rizumi (just because).
Should take me another week or two, then I’ll be ready to move on. I’m thinking of either finishing up Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari (urghhh) or starting something new entirely. Speaking of which, I tried to start TWEWY the other day, but four frames later some anorexic kid with a bad dye job told me to get the hell outta his face, so I did. …This is not going to end well.
12.06.11 / Japanese, Konami, Romance game, Sony PSP, Tokimeki Memorial, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (0)
Tags: jeanne d'arc, tokimeki memorial, tokimeki memorial 4
I was hoping to have Jeanne d’Arc finished by now, but I’ve been too busy fighting Free Battles and binding Skills instead of progressing the story, so I haven’t gotten very far. The Human Barbeque scene is long over, and it played out like I’d predicted ~_~. Right now I’m fighting reapers while slowly learning who the real bad guys are. My last game ended at the start of the Luxuria battle.
I’ve never played it before, but I’m estimating I’m at the 3/4th mark, because that’s the point where things always start to fall apart for me. Not that I’m sick of Jeanne d’Arc or anything. Au contraire, I’m having a blast. It’s just that the flush of the new has worn off, I’ve gotten used to the good stuff and slowly the not-so-good stuff is starting to bother me juuuust a teeny little bit.
For example, I’ve fallen into a gameplay rut. My party is largely finalized (Jeanne, Gilles, Marcel, La Hire and Richard, with Colet and Beatrix as subs) and they are pretty strong so a bit of complacency is setting in. There are lots of skills around, but most of them are useless, especially given the tiny number of slots, so my skills are finalized as well. Unless something wonderful comes my way, only upgrades I see myself making are updated versions of current equips, e.g. HP Recovery III instead of II, etc. So since I use the same party and the same skills, it’s only natural that the battles feel the same after a while. It’s not just Jeanne d’Arc, this happens to me a lot in other SRPGs as well.
Little things like frequent loading screens and enemies taking their time thinking before they move are also dragging down the experience a bit. Again this has been present from the start, I was just too excited to be bothered by them at first.
The story is also dragging on a bit for me. From the start I was mainly interested in who would get burned at the stake. Stuff that’s happening now with possession and evil royals and kings with mommy-issues and stuff is barely enough to elicit a yawn from me. I don’t care how it ends, but luckily the battles are still fun enough to keep me moving on. As far as SRPGs go, it’s one of the better ones I’ve played so far.
In other news, I seem to be relapsing into my old habit of starting a new game when I’m about to finish another and then abandoning the old for the new. Jeanne d’Arc supplanted Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari, and now Tokimeki Memorial 4 is threatening to take Jeanne‘s place. Only it’s not that interesting so far, so I’ve been able to keep the change at bay for now.
I love proper dating sims (i.e. not visual novels) but the girls I’ve seen so far in TM4 all look rather homely. And they have near-identical faces, unlike in TMGS or even the original TM. I hope they have unique, likeable personalities to make up for it, or this isn’t going to take very long. It would be a pity though, because the game interface is beautiful. The DS TMGS games don’t come anywhere near the level of polish this game displays. I’m like a country mouse that just went to the city, playing . Too bad there’s more to making fun games than just graphics, eh?
But really, I only just started. I’m only about a “month” into the game. It’s more complex than GS – a few more stats to raise, your cellphone battery dies if you make too many phone calls, there are all kinds of items and skills to juggle, etc. I’m planning to use my first run to get a general feel for it, then I’ll spend subsequent playthroughs actually getting a girl. Usually the sporty character tends to be the easiest, so I’m raising my sports stats as well, just in case. More updates on the story as they occur.
22.01.11 / Japanese, Konami, Nintendo DS, Otome game, Romance game, Tokimeki Memorial, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (2)
Tags: amanohashi, girl's side 3rd story, himuro, oosako, tokimeki memorial, wakaouji
Oosako returned to the wild! I so don’t want him. I put off doing his route as long as I could, and then once I started I rushed through it as quickly as possible just to see the ending. Unlike everyone else’s ending, his doesn’t take place in the church. It takes place on the beach, and instead of him confessing, you confess to him. Then he’s like “Eh, all right, fine.” And you jump on him and that’s it. I wasn’t expecting much so I can’t call it a letdown but still, meh.
What if despite all this you want to get Oosako? He’s pretty easy if you’ve played the games a few times and know how to go about becoming Rose Queen and winning the Sports Festivals:
1. Fail three subjects in your first exam. It’s easy, just don’t raise any stats when you start the game.
2. You’ll have remedials with Oosako.
3. After that raise your stats till you’re first in class to get another scene.
4. Along the way, let your stress get high and you’ll get an event where he lends you a book.
5. Take part in and win an event in all 3 Sports Festivals.
6. Never miss a day of preparation for the Culture Festivals. You should get an event with Oosako every year.
7. During the trip to Hokkaido, turn your friend down when she asks you to take part in the pillow fight. You should get an event with Oosako by the elevator.
8. Last, but not least, be sure to become Rose Queen in your third year.
If you do all that you should get Oosako pretty easily. Make absolutely sure you don’t date any other guy in the process, because every other guy’s ending takes precedence over Oosako’s.
Till the end Oosako’s kiddy looks (fans might call them “boyish good looks”), screechy voice and cheesy lines of encouragement never grew on me, but I’ll give him credit where credit is due: at least he’s decent enough not to date his student while she was his student. As much as I love Himuro, I know in real life he should have been fired and possibly banned from teaching for going out with the MC of TMGS1. And as for Amanohashi, if my 16 year old daughter ever told me her principal had invited her to the pool for the express purpose of checking out her body, I’d be heading over there with a shotgun so fast it would make their heads spin! Heh, maybe that’s why Himuro, Wakaouji and Amano-pervert all went for that student, because she doesn’t have any parents to protest! So kudos to Oosako for having some standards, at least.
On that high note, I say goodbye to TMGS3. Well, not goodbye for ever, I still have it, and I’ll go back eventually and play the 3P mode. For now though, I’m through with it and I need a long, long, long break before I can even think of playing it again.
05.01.11 / Japanese, Konami, Nintendo DS, Otome game, Romance game, Tokimeki Memorial, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (4)
Tags: girl's side 3rd story, kouichi, Taiyo Kasuga, tokimeki memorial
Secret character Taiyo Kasuga. The only character that makes me feel like more of a pedophile than Oosako-sensei. Even though you meet him halfway through your second year, you only start to have anything to do with him in your third year, which makes the first two years of that route very boring. Fast moving, though, since you can just join the baseball club and use that command ad nauseam until the end of the game. As with all the other secret character routes, you don’t get to go on proper dates or trips with Taiyo so his route is very dull.
Taiyo doesn’t care about your stats, he doesn’t care about bombs, he doesn’t care about Rose Queen or anything. As long as you join the club by 2nd Year 9/25 and use the club command repeatedly, you shouldn’t fail his route. The correct answer to give in each case is blatantly obvious, and much of the time either option works just fine.
His route takes precedence over the other secret character routes, so what you can do is take a save from one of those towards September of 2nd Year and use that as your Taiyo route then proceed with whatever else you were doing. Be careful not to date any of the regular guys though. Kouichi came after me on this route and I was hard pressed fending him off, but I made sure I didn’t give him the least bit of encouragement and that worked out fine.
As a character Taiyo is a complete crybaby with a huge crush on you, his sempai. He grows up a little over the course of the game but he’s still a big baby by the end of the game. Dating a guy like that would be a huge drag in real life, and I get the sense from the ending that the main character is just playing with him as a boytoy until someone better comes along (Konno-sempai!!!). Well, whatever. That’s how you learn about life, Taiyo-kun!
Now then, I’ve done all the secret characters in TMGS3 except Oosako-chan (ugh…that predator…do not want…), and I’m right before the last boss in Radiant Historia so hopefully my next update will be about one of these two games. Oh, right, I’m also right before the final boss in Suikoden III, I’d forgotten about that. Lots of games to play in this new year but so little time to do it in. I’ll give it my best shot!
15.12.10 / Japanese, Konami, Nintendo DS, Otome game, Romance game, Tokimeki Memorial, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (0)
Tags: girl's side 3rd story, konno, kouichi, tokimeki memorial
Kouichi’s on my desktop!
See?
Heh heh heh.
I’ve got a Konno-sempai wallpaper as well. I switch them in and out every week. I can’t take any credit for making them, though. I downloaded them from this particular page on Zerochan. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see them. The other guys have wallpapers as well, but who cares about them? :-p
In other news, I’m close to finishing Radiant Historia and I just got through a second playthrough of Shepherd’s Crossing 2. Details to follow, eventually.
