Tokimeki Memorial: Densetsu no Ki no Shita de

"Dating sims at its best!"

Tokimeki Memorial is a great dating sim where you, the main character guy, tries to get one of the many girls within several years of high school. Unfortunately, it has not been released in the U.S., so Japanese reading skills are a necessity unless you don’t mind relying on internet translations. Dating sims are obviously not for everyone. It is similar to the Harvest Moon series, and if you like that, you’ll like this.

Graphics - 7/10

Not the best graphics ever, but very good anyway. Konami decided to use super deformed character sprites for cuteness, which I liked. Special and dating scenes use full-blown anime drawings in shoujo style. I might add they are very good drawings, too. I’m sure a lot of guys found the girls in the game attractive. It’s obvious the artist they hired was no simple novice. No wonder Tokimeki Memorial came out with its own OVA anime series later on.

Tokimeki Memorial does lack animations, however. Most character actions are depicted with two frames alternating, which is not enough. The characters’ cloths and background scenery (if any) change according to season, but they are pretty bland overall.

Sound/Music - 9/10

Music shines in Tokimeki Memorial. Sometimes I just let the game sit there and listen to the music. I even thought about getting the soundtrack, but couldn’t find a copy anywhere. Shiori’s theme was one of the best tracks I’ve ever heard in a SNES game. Other notables are Summer theme, Winter theme, and park theme. There are no annoying tunes, and you’ll want keep the music loud most of the time.

As for sound effects, well there really aren’t many. The ones present are hardly noticeable, and they’re nothing more than average beeps. Most of the time music will make sound effects insignificant, anyway.

Gameplay/Controls - 8/10

The gameplay of Tokimeki Memorial consists of making your school stats (Japanese, sports, science, etc.) go as high as possible and impress one of around twelve girls. To date them, you must first get their numbers from your know-it-all best friend after you meet them at least once. (Except for several girls whose numbers you’ll automatically know when you meet them, such as Shiori and Yumi.) Then you can call them up and ask them for a date; sometimes a girl will ask you on a date as well. In the beginning there are only a few dating locations, but as the game progresses and you look at more ads, more locations become available to you. Each girl likes a different place, and going to the right place will make them happier. You can also choose to give them a present on their birthday. Again, you have choices that will trigger different responses. In the end, if there is a girl who loves you, you’ll get an ending with that girl. Otherwise you’ll get the loser ending. *snicker*

For control, all you’ll be doing is selecting buttons/choices on a menu. If anyone has problems with this then I suggest you go see a doctor.

Characters - 5/10

Each girl has a different personality and such, but they’re simple with only one or two distinguishing traits. They each belong to a different school club (except for the main girl, whose club will be determined by the player’s birthday.) and likes different things, though these things will hardly make a difference in the mind of the player, even less if you can’t read Japanese. Most of the time looks will determine which girl a player will go after, and I think that’s what they intended, so it’s okay. There’re also other minor characters who are hardly worth mentioning.

Challenge - 9/10

Tokimeki Memorial is a hard game. Every girl has a different difficulty level to impress, but overall they’re ALL hard. At first it may seem easy and players will want to impress all the girls. But be warned - if you try to pimp your way through, they’ll find out from each other and all begin to hate you right before graduation. Same goes for if you try to impress one girl and ignore the others. The one girl you want will hate you because of the gossip she hears from the others. If you turn down a date with one girl, half of them will get mad. That must be the way things work in Japan, I guess.

Either way, even if you try to just “be nice” to everyone, you’ll find that your schedule is all filled up and you’ll have to make someone mad eventually, which is not a good thing. Not to mention if everyone just likes you at the end, you still get the loser ending. :P Be prepared to play this game a couple of times before upgrading from the “loser” category.

OVERALL - 8/10

Overall, Tokimeki Memorial is a great dating sim. It would be better if it was in English and we can understand more than translations can offer, but being Japanese it is still fun. This game is in par with Harvest Moon, the only different is you’re in a school instead of on a farm, and there are a lot more girls. I AM a girl, so I didn’t really care has found some of them rather annoying (I’d rather be playing as a girl), but I’m sure guys are happy to see how many girls there are. :)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/12/02, Updated 05/12/02