Backlog Game Reviews 50 : Tokimeki Memorial (PC Engine)

 

Hey there, and welcome to Backlog Game Reviews.

    For this review, let's head over to the PC Engine and take a look at the classic dating simulator, Tokimeki Memorial. It first came out in Japan for the PC Engine on May 27^th, 1994. It never got an international release, but it has multiple re-releases in Japan. It was first ported to the Playstation in 1995. Then in 1996 it got a Super Nintendo and Sega Saturn port, it then got a PC release in 1997, and it even got a Game Boy Color release in 1999. It gained popularity quickly, and by 1996 all versions of the game combined sold 1.1 million copies. When it comes to dating sims, this game is often credited for increasing the popularity of the genre. It's also one of the first games to have gameplay built around raising social statistics, something that is commonly seen in games now. Let's take a look and see what this game is all about.

Story

    In this game, you play as a nameless high school freshman. You have just enrolled in Kirameki High School, and on the first day of school, you make your first friend. His name is Yoshio Saotome, and soon after meeting him he tells you about the school's legendary tree. It's said that if a girl confesses to a boy under the tree, they will happily live out the rest of their lives together.

 Your best friend, Yoshio Saotome.

   You start thinking about who you would like to meet under that tree, and an image of your childhood friend, Shiori Fujisaki, appears in your head. Thinking about how you want to spend the next three years, orientation ends, and your journey through high school begins.

 Your childhood friend and the hardest girl in the game to court, Shiori Fujisaki.

 

   There's not much to say about the story, it's a basic setup for a dating sim. The story never progresses beyond trying to get a girl to confess to you under the school tree. Each girl gets a little bit of character development during their confessions at the end of the game, but nothing major. The story obviously wasn't the developer's main focus, and for Tokimeki Memorial, that's okay as the gameplay more than makes up for the lack of story.

 Your rival, Rei Ijuuin.

The Gameplay

    As said before, Tokimeki Memorial is a dating simulator and your goal is to get one of the thirteen girls to confess to you at the end of your third year of high school. To do this you'll have to raise a girl's affection stat and your own stats to a high level before the end of your high school career. You raise a girl's affection stat by taking them out on dates to places they like and picking the correct conversation choices.

 You can call Yoshio to learn how each girl currently feels about you.

   As I said earlier, just raising the girl's affection stat isn't enough, you also need to raise your own stats to get a girl to like you. This is where Tokimeki Memorial turns into a stat management game. At the end of each week, you're given the choice to pick one stat to increase for the upcoming week. Each girl values different stats, so depending on the girl you’re shooting for you’ll have to prioritize some stats over others.

 You spend the school week raising a stat of your choice.

   Just because the girl you’re trying to court doesn’t value a certain stat doesn’t mean you should ignore it. It's important to keep your humanities, science, and art stats up as these stats decide how well you do on tests. You want to do well on tests because scoring higher than a girl on a test will increase her affection towards you.

 Taking a college entrance exam. If you don't get into the same college as the girl you're trying to court then you might not end up with her at the end of the game.

    You also don't want to fail a test because then you'll be forced to stay after school and study for a week. If this happens you can't go out on dates for that week, so if you already had a date planned then you'll have no choice but to stand that girl up, which will greatly reduce her affection.

 After taking a test you can see how well you did compared to everyone else.

   Another thing to be careful of is not giving enough attention to all of the girls you're acquainted with. The girls will start spreading rumors about you at school if you go too long without taking one of them out on a date. If you wait too long to take her out after she's started spreading rumors, she'll bomb you.

 Once a girl starts spreading rumors you can call Yoshio to see which girl is going to bomb you.

   Getting bombed is the worst thing that could happen to you, it dramatically reduces your affection level with all girls. If you get bombed close to the end of the game you won't be able to recover from it and you'll end up getting the bad ending.

 Going out on a date. To keep from getting bombed it's important to date girls in rotation and not focus on just one.

    Tokimeki Memorial is a fun dating sim. The challenge of raising your stats, and keeping all of the girls happy by taking them out on dates while finding extra time for the girl you want to end up with is a fun one. There are multiple endings and a lot of hidden events, so the game has decent replay value. It's a game I can without a doubt recommend playing some time.

 On new years eve you can invite a girl to go to the nearby shrine with you. If a girl likes you enough she will invite you to go to the shrine.

    Thanks to the multiple endings and many events this game does have good replay value, but I don't recommend playing it too many times. After your third or fourth run through the game, it starts to turn into a slog to get through. Stat building starts to feel like mindless grinding after a while and a lot of events will end up repeating themselves so many times that they get really boring to sit through. This is a game that is worth playing, but not worth completing one hundred percent.

 One of the games many events. Events aren't random and can only happen during certain times of the year, and some events require you to have a high affection stat with that girl.

The Presentation

The graphics here are great. The character portraits are detailed and very expressive. When a girl is happy or angry, it is clearly written on their face. The portraits bring the characters to life and the detailed faces leave little room for confusion in regards to how a girl feels about you. The only nitpick I have about the graphics is that the character's hands look weird, it's a little distracting but not that big of a deal.

 At max affection girls will blush when talking to you. This girl, Saki Nijino will start winking at you. She's the only one that has a special blushing animation.

 

The music in this game is really good. Every character has their own theme that plays whenever you're talking with them. These themes perfectly capture the character's personality and are extremely catchy. My favorite theme is probably Mira Kagami's theme, Temptation in your eyes. I wasn't expecting this game to have this good of a soundtrack, but it was a really nice surprise.

 This girl, Mirai Kagami has one of the best themes in the game.

Conclusion

That’s all I have to say about Tokimeki Memorial on the PC Engine. It’s a great game that you should check out if you ever get the chance. It’s a shame a game as good as this was only released in Japan.

Thanks for reading. Next time we’re going to take a look at a PS1 or Famicom Disk System game. I hope to see you again here at Backlog Game Reviews.