What are you playing today?

[cloverff]

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’ve been playing the Tokimeki Memorial remake for switch. It’s been one of those games I’ve known about for a long time, but in previous attempts to play it, I’ve bounced off because of too many kanji in the interface. (Plus, I love the Action Button video about tokimemo.)

SO when the remake was announced, I decided now was the time. I’m finally going to play tokimemo. And… IT’S GREAT! I love it!

In honor of the Action Button video, I decided to attempt to romance box cover art girl Shiori Fujisaki.

After some experimentation, I decided my preferred way to play is with the original pixel art but the new, non-pixel font because it is easier to read. Also, I want to just say the voice acting is great. They also have this emotional voice system where you can teach the game how to say your name, and it works seamlessly 90% of the time. Shiori knows my name.

I fumbled around for most of the first year. I joined the literature club, met library girlfriend Mio Kisaragi. Then I met art girlfriend Ayako Katagiri. I didn’t realize there was a second page to the date spots until halfway through the first year.

Ayako has impeccable fashion sense. I did Mio dirty and never took any pictures of her outfits.

But somehow, I made it into the fancy-pants Christmas party!

Shiori’s dress for the Christmas party is so cute.

New Year’s came and I started my tradition of doing my hatsumode shrine visit with Shiori. I somehow got daikichi all three years.

Shiori’s kimono is cute

Year 2: The WORST character in the game showed up, the little sister girlfriend Yumi Saotome. (She’s not the MC’s little sister, she’s the best bro’s little sister.) Just imagine someone constantly yelling and that’s her.

Anyway, we went on a class trip to Kyoto where I got attacked by a giant deer. Things were not looking good until a guy showed up and summoned a bunch of birds to attack the deer.

It’s a really big deer, okay?

And at some point during Year 2, I achieved perma-blush with Shiori Fujisaki.

Yes, every date starts off with them having a conversation about who waited up for who. Don’t worry, my guy is a polite boy and is never late.

My guy was not handsome enough to make it into the Christmas party this year, but I was stopped at the gate by a certain someone…

It’s shy girlfriend, Megumi Mikihara! Going back through my photos, I realize I only saw her wearing this sweater this one time…

Also, Shiori’s skiing outfit is A+. The summer/winter seasonal date spots are open for such a short time, I didn’t get to see most of the girls’ ski/swim outfits.

(This is Shiori’s swimsuit BTW)… (Yes, I do really like the outfits in this game and I will take pictures of all of them.)

ANYWAY, onto the final year… Year 3!! My final year line up is library girlfriend, art girlfriend, obligatory little sister girlfriend, shy girlfriend and Shiori Fujisaki. I get the occasional bomb notification and they are almost always from library girlfriend Mio Kisaragi who keeps happy bombing me.

I’m obsessed with this outfit of Megumi’s

I decide I’m going to college to win Shiori’s heart and start cramming to raise my science stat.

I took Ayako out to karaoke and to my SHOCK she actually sings. Not just a CG of her singing, but an actual song sung by her voice actor, I mean, by Ayako.

I go on a double-date with best bro Yoshio and get immediately sick right after. (Yoshio gave me bro disease, I guess.) I’m in bed for weeks and miss most of my final chance to see the girl’s cute swimsuits.

Yumi kept coming over to check on me. Girl, you saw me yesterday why are you surprised I’m alive.

Christmas rolls around and I’m handsome enough to get into the party again.

Megumi is here and she’s wearing TWO sweaters?! Anyway, I get her present at the gift exchange which cues a cut scene when I walk her home.

She finds a kitten!!

After Christmas, it’s time for the final sprint for the end of game since the last day is 3/01. I take the exam to get into a first rate college and do okay. I’m feeling okay about my chances to win Shiori’s heart, but my art stat is a little low… I receive a letter inviting me out to the Tree of Legend and a girl is waiting for me there…

It’s shy girlfriend, Megumi Mikihara!

So it’s not Shiori, but it’s also not Yumi. And I do think Megumi is actually pretty cute. One day I’ll intentionally romance her.

I can’t decide who I’m going to romance next, so I’m just going to play a jock and I’ll see what happens.

[bbo]

@cloverff

I decided to attempt to romance box cover art girl Shiori Fujisaki

You know. I had forgotten the cover art girls name. But reading “Shiori Fujisaki” gave me flashbacks to the Action Button review. I really liked that video!

Since I watched it, I had a PC Engine (I believ) version emulated, but never really played it. I don’t think I’m ever going to. Though I feel almost little tempted to rewatch the action button review.

Would you say you have spend about 8 hours with the game? (Compare How long is Tokimeki Memorial? | HowLongToBeat). I was surprised you had already played through it. But I guess your other post is already 21 days old. I presume you didn’t feel very tempted by the new art? I wish it was made more attractive, more details, rendering, ilghting like in Doukyuusei (whatever, I’m no artist). Just higher resolution seems a bit plain, no way that can compete with the charm of old pixel art…

Have you watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbVsYcYaL4k? That video also has something on Tokki mekki memorial as well as a sequel.

[earwen]

While I didn’t play it, I actually like that the new art of tokimemo closely resembles the old one. I am not a fan of the new art of doukyuusei in comparison to the classic.

[eefara]

@cloverff

After some experimentation, I decided my preferred way to play is with the original pixel art but the new, non-pixel font because it is easier to read.

Oh, I love that they allow you to really customize like that!

And I love the pictures and write-up, thanks for sharing!

[暁のルナ]

@cloverff

Year 2: The WORST character in the game showed up, the little sister girlfriend Yumi Saotome. (She’s not the MC’s little sister, she’s the best bro’s little sister.) Just imagine someone constantly yelling and that’s her

So the child of Ranma & Akane? That tracks (idk if they ever have kids, but like if they did…)

@cloverff

They also have this emotional voice system where you can teach the game how to say your name, and it works seamlessly 90% of the time.

That’s amazing. I always find the silence in place of one’s name amusing in voiced games

[kanjicolossus]

Since it’s appropriate for this time of year, I’m playing なつもん for the Switch and it’s endlessly charming. I highly recommend it for anyone looking to enjoy Japanese summer through the eyes of a mischievous elementary schooler.

[cloverff]

@bbo

Would you say you have spend about 8 hours with the game?

At first I thought 8 hours was a little long, but then I checked my play time and it was a little over 8 hours. But that was only for playing through to one ending.

@bbo

I presume you didn’t feel very tempted by the new art?

I started playing with the new art, but pretty quickly realized I preferred the old. I was playing in handheld mode though, so maybe if I was playing on the tv, my opinion would change.

@eefara

And I love the pictures and write-up, thanks for sharing!

Heheh, no problem. I’ve started my second play through, so I’ll try to share some pictures from that. Although I don’t think I’ll do all three years in one go.

@暁のルナ

@cloverff

They also have this emotional voice system where you can teach the game how to say your name, and it works seamlessly 90% of the time.

That’s amazing. I always find the silence in place of one’s name amusing in voiced games

The only time I noticed that it wasn’t actually the voice actors saying my name was the 10% of the time it was a little off. Really cool, even in 2025, if you ask me.

[PrinceSugarBun]

My host family helped me find a 3DS LL at a 古本屋 (or a secondhand entertainment store, I guess)

Right now, I’ve only been playing those edutainment games: 漢検トレーニング２、漢検プレミアム、文章読みトレーニング. I really appreciate being able to write out the kanji like this. The Ringo app just doesn’t do it for me especially since they don’t have example sentences to derive the reading of the kanji from (not that one needs it 100% of the time). Being able to read explanations in Japanese from the reading training app is really nice too.

Thinking of some games I would like to play instead of buying this and then shelving it for a year or so. I’m kinda interested in The World Ends With You but I’m expecting a lot of language that I don’t know. I know they got a math guy in there. I think there’s 8 Crayon Shin-chan games for the DS and 3DS combined?

I’m looking into BoxBoy series but I know the most I’m likely going to get out of those are UI in Japanese and maybe… some dialogue.

[マイク]

I love my Japanese 3DS LL - just playing around in the home interface is a joy

The game I’ve enjoyed the most is Detective Pikachu (名探偵ピカチュウ) . Good mix of simple sentences with a puzzle story. There are occasionally animated sequences that are fully voiced and subtitled but unfortunately they can’t be paused.

I’ve also got Animal Crossing (とびだせ どうぶつの森) and Fantasy Life Link (ファンタジーライフ Link) - they look good but I’ve not played them much yet.

[shitsurei]

I sorta remember Super Mario RPG not being too terribly hard to read. I think it’s just a regular DS game but you should be able to play it in your 3DS.

I’ll poke around through my DS games later and see if there are any more I remember being able to play…

[cloverff]

The 3DS was region locked, wasn’t it? I only have some jp DS games, nothing for the 3DS… alas!

[マイク]

@cloverff

The 3DS was region locked, wasn’t it?

Sadly, that’s right. But it makes importing a Japanese 3DS even better. It has convinced me to get a Japanese-only Switch 2 at some point.

[shitsurei]

Ugh they region locked the Switch 2?
Even more reason for me to not want one.

@マイク

@cloverff

The 3DS was region locked, wasn’t it?

Sadly, that’s right.

3DS is region locked, BUT you can play regular Japanese DS games on a 3DS iirc, just not 3DS games.

[マイク]

@shitsurei

Ugh they region locked the Switch 2?

It’s not too bad. There’s a worldwide version and a Japanese only version. The Japanese only version is much cheaper but is locked to Japanese eShop, Japanese accounts and Japanese language. But I’m cool with that.

[Legato]

@shitsurei

Ugh they region locked the Switch 2?
Even more reason for me to not want one.

As far as I know… “yes”, but not like you assume.

There’s an international version that isn’t region locked in any way. You can play anything on it, including Japanese games.

There’s a domestic version that is region-locked to Japan-only. I assume it’s cheaper to account for the weak yen.

So in this scenario, getting the domestic version is the one where you’re locking yourself out of something.

[shitsurei]

@Legato

As far as I know… “yes”, but not like you assume.

@マイク

It’s not too bad. There’s a worldwide version and a Japanese only version

Ahhhh. ok ok, that makes sense, I forgive them.
I honestly want a Switch Lite bc even in my grown ass adult hands, the Switch feels too big to play for a long time, but you can still only have 2 Switches tied to a Nintendo account… but maybe the next time I go back to Japan I can go to Book Off and poke around in the used consoles section…I do have a Japanese eShop account for buying Japanese games digitally… but then I just play them on my normal account

[Legato]

I’m not a fan of holding the switch either, so I’m setting it down and just hold the controllers. I love how flexible it is.

(But of course you can’t always set it down, so yeah, I get it.)

[shitsurei]

Mine lives docked 99.99% of the time. On planes I try and set it up on the tray table and such but it’s too low and I usually end up just holding it after a half hour or so.

[マイク]

@shitsurei

the next time I go back to Japan I can go to Book Off and poke around in the used consoles section

I did exactly that - I had a nice Switch Lite in my hand in Book Off but I convinced myself I didn’t need any more consoles…grrrr. Still, I got my 3DS LL off Mercari for a good price.

[暁のルナ]

Playing SIMOUN 異薔薇戦争〜封印のリ・マージョン〜 - a PS2 game the シムーン S1 | L31 anime (which I absolutely loved, but had to resort to EN subs, b/c there are no JP subs ). Photos & basic background synposis here: SIMOUN - SHOUBI SENSOU - FUUIN NO REMERSION - (NTSC-J)

Game is a mix of ADV (interacting and building friendship w/ the characters) and turn-based tactics. I’ve been really enjoying the tactics - it hits the perfect balance of streamlined, slightly challenging, and fun for me - which is a first. Also I feel like I sorta get Fire Emblem: Three Houses a bit better now. The story and interactions are pretty decent - not quite to the level of the anime (and I’ve probably made it less interesting by always choosing the “make the character happy” dialogue choices). That said there are no guides, onboarding, or explanation of any kind (not even online afaict)… which actually, besides the crafting system (that I only discovered halfway through the game) has been kinda fun. The crafting system is just video game logic at it’s finest:

Photo of you aircraft fighter ships + firearm magazine = “A book children are forbidden to read”:

Lubricating oil + glass bullets = enemy nation’s war tactics manual

Unlike the anime, the game doesn’t show any of the external political stuff, which reduces the difficulty a lot. Also everything is voiced - so it’s a lot more fun than "fully voiced VNs. Like the anime, it’s pretty low on the fan service. I’ve pulled about 180 words from it into an Anki deck so far - most of which seem like they’ll be useful for watching/reading things in this sort of genre, or in general. It’s fun doing reviews for words I’ve seen in the last 24 hrs, instead of pre-learning words for something I’m planning to read.

Update: finished it after 24 hrs of gameplay. It doesn’t look like there’s much after-story reason to play it. But good to know that if I ever feel like replaying, I’ll have all the characters and stuff built up.

It’s making me nostalgic for SAO: Hollow Fragment… But I’m not about to dive into that rn