I actually played this for curiosity and it’s really an odd experience. The first guy you meet has a really creepy voice, especially on the phone.
The special thing about these japanese games is how they target a specific audience. No one in the western market goes for small niches. For how these games are filled of stereotypes they also have a huge variation in how they specialize.
So much more variation even if they all fall in very closed categories.
Indeed, great work, Angie.
Use them both for the name! 玉球 means balls of jade in Chinese! And maybe “balls de les balls” in Japanese.
And I can’t get over how checking the internet takes no time in this game. Why can’t it be like this IRL!!!
You might not be a cat, but your computer is.
ボールマホーニー
Because in this game, there’s only 4 websites on the entire internet, and except for the horoscope, they update once a month at MOST. That wouldn’t take you any time in real life either!
Child is watching Totoro now, so I’ll play a little more.
Oh yes, it wouldn’t be media featuring a Japanese high school without a sports festival. Every yea this game asks you to choose between a shit sandwich, a huge douche, and uh… I don’t think the South Park reference has three horrible options so we’ll just say a glass of pee. Basically there are three minigames and I hate all of them. So by “doing my best” I mean “Fuck it, I’m not going after anyone sporty, I’ll take the reputation hit and not do any of them.”
So as I am sneaking around school and not participating, I come across Fujii as she turns down a guy who confessed that he was in love with her. She’s not at all amused that I heard her.
Look, lady, no one is getting off on listening to you tell a guy that you don’t love him. Especially not me. Then she gets over it and implies that she is love with someone.
Finally, the sports festival comes to an end and I go join in the big folk dance despite having totally let my classmates down with my non-participation. I get to dance with:
Ok, what the fuck sport did he participate in? The fabulous sprint? No one else showed up because I haven’t be going on enough dates, so I’ll need to fix that soon. But first, another date with Mihara, because the first one was pretty amazing. I ask him to meet me at the museum again, and he gives me the same creepy line as before. What the hell.
So he is an hour late to the date and just as I am about to give up and go home, he arrives. Like this.
WHY DO I HAVE TO DRESS ELEGANTLY FOR THIS GUY? Ok, woodland sprite, lead the way to your world of magic, I guess.
Damn, Angie. Your craving for the Nietzschean gaze of the abyss is freaking me the fuck out.
But before we go to the museum, I get the chance to touch him. So naturally I go right for that exposed cleavage.
HELL YEAH! Mr. Excitement would never say something that shameless!
So on normal dates that don’t have painting molestation events, at some point the guy will ask you a question and you get 3 choices, one of which will make him happy, one that leaves things neutral, and one that will tick him off. For this date, Mihara asks me this:
… you’re the artist, you tell me. So then I look at the choices.
Am I telling him to ride a ball? Oh hell yes I am.
AND HE LOVES IT. The date ends up being a huge success because he loves being goaded into doing stupid things and calling it art.
Foucault’s Pendulum! Don’t you read Eco? This cannot end well. Run before the Templars arrive.
Haha I was looking for a “gazing into the abyss” pic!
Look, I swear I am not cheating on Mihara, I just wanted to go for a ride in a Mazerati with my obscenely hot teacher. That’s all. Look, I haven’t gone on any of his study dates even though he keeps asking, I am being good!
So I invite Mihara out to a concert.
Yes, dressed in a shoulder-less purple button-down shirt. And threatening to faint because there are just so many people nearby. This guy is officially more feminine than I have ever been. But the date went well and he told me ask him out again.
Exams come up, and since I have all my stats at or near 50, I didn’t do too bad.
Didn’t do too well either. Afterwards Hazuki told me that he only failed the first day because he slept through the test. Sorry I haven’t been asking you out on enough nap-dates, asshole.
…
Why is he even bothering to use me as a beard?
I just think Shiki-tan is so adorable!
So I realize that there’s no way I am going to have enough money for a yukata in time for the fireworks festival. Stupid parents, stupid job… I won’t be able to save up for a furude for New Years either, I bet. Oh well, I decide to go buy another outfit so I am not just rotating through the same two things over and over. While I am out shopping, I run into Mihara.
Your what now? It’s not his boyfriend, it is his favorite shade of blue paint.
Could he be more dramatic over this? Actually, the answer to this is probably yes.
So the next day I go to work at the Cafe and oh look who comes in the door.
Is… is my adorable little fabulous-kun trying to be tsundere? He’s just following me around everywhere I go. I think I’ve been spending way too much time with Mihara and it’s starting to get a little weird, so I call Hazuki and ask him to go to the zoo with me. Maybe he’ll take a nap in the lion enclosure?
No, he spends the whole date paranoid about what the animals are thinking about us. Why is this the guy on the box again?
This is inaccurate, madame. The TM series has never been pornographic.
There were, and most likely will be all kinds of pornography whose names begin with “tokimeki”, because tokimeki is just a onomatopoeia for heart beating, signifying anxiety. Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial series should always be known as TM, or “Tokimemo” (because that’s how abbreviations are generally created in Japanese).
I stand corrected!
The second semester begins and while I am flipping through a magazine afterschool, this happens.
Why hello there, tall, dark(ish) and handsome. This is Kijyo and he asks me on a date and then immediately breaks it because he has a job interview. I don’t care, I’ll be seeing more of that one.
Sure enough, a few days later I see him…
… with a motorcycle? Wearing a jacket with extraneous zippers EVERYWHERE. He’s not actually riding that motorcycle, by the way. He’s walking it to work because he doesn’t have a license. He’s a bad boy, in a “follows all the rules” kind of way. And he even spontaneously asks me out on a date to get coffee, instead of making me waste a whole day asking him and then another day to actually go on the date. I like this guy.
But don’t fear, Fabulous, I am still willing to date yo–
WHO IS THIS HANDSOME AND STYLISHLY DRESSED POSSIBLY-A-MAN AND WHAT HAS HE DONE WITH MY MIHARA? The date goes well, even though it’s in a spot that Mihara doesn’t care for. When I get home, I am so confused that I check in with my little (stalker) brother to see how my relationships are coming along.
Yes, my little brother keeps charts that demonstrate exactly how much guys like or hate me. The yellow side of the heart is for friendship, the pink side is for love. No one really likes me much yet, probably because I am keeping my stats somewhat balanced instead of just blasting up whatever I think the dudes will like.
And dude, Hazuki, you’re not supposed to hate me just because I’m constantly trash talking you behind your back.
Also, “chinderwear” is FUCKING AWESOME.
Alright, so having a guy go down to hate with you is a bad thing in these games. You see, if you neglect a guy for too long, he becomes a Bomb. If a Bomb goes off, he lowers your reputation with all the other guys by 40%. Basically, he tells everyone you are a whore because you are ignoring him, and people believe him because that’s how high school works.
So that’s how I ended up on another date with Hazuki.
Going out with Hazuki is more like a narcolepsy sim than a dating sim. The next day, Hazuki stops by work for a coffee.
I-is he wearing a chest toupee? Mihara starts dressing well, so now everyone else has to up the ante with the crazy fashion? His birthday arrives and I buy him a cat jigsaw puzzle as a joke. He loves it.
The culture festival comes and I paint a fucking BADASS picture of an apple, which makes the Art Club’s exhibit a total success and impresses the pants off of Mihara.
Another date with Mihara, another blouse. In fact, I am so disappointed by this backsliding into women’s clothes after looking so great in that shirt and vest combo that I ask out Kijyo.
YES I DO. Kijyo has the most fun reactions to the touching. Mihara accepts them as his due, of course all women want to touch him. Kijyo just gets flirty. And Hazuki passes out and drools.
Oh dear God, I love this. I will be tuning in again tomorrow, I have to know what happens!
Finals time again! I did some pretty hardcore studying before the tests this time and saw a pretty big improvement. My balanced approach to raising stats is paying off even if it is making the going slow in the “making high school boys fall in love” side of things.
It’s almost Christmas time. This school has a tradition where the students and faculty all go to a big party and do Secret Santa, so it’s time to go shopping and buy a nice, fancy dress for the party.
I ask Mihara out on a last minute date to the skating rink.
His winter looks are so much better than the woodland sprite thing he had going on during summer. Anyway, Christmas arrives and I realize I SPENT TOO MUCH MONEY. So I am going to give someone a shitty gift. What a bummer. On the plus side, I look fabulous! So I give Hazuki a shitty pencil holder…
AND HE LOVES IT! Game, I am so confused. You can’t even take a nap in a pencil holder, why is he so happy?
And with that, I end my updates for tonight. Tomorrow: New Years, a new school year, and another annoying little boy!