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Strive for perfection, settle for a D. Is there any reason why the above screenshots came out at a 480x270 resolution instead of 480x360?
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Dec 1, 2013 08:06
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ElTipejoLoco posted:Strive for perfection, settle for a D. It's probably a quirk of the emulator I'm using to take screenshots - as I mentioned, I may just bite the bullet and hook up my streaming rig to the PS3, since I downloaded both TokiMemo 1 and TokiMemo 2 today. Just need to figure out the screenshot button in Xsplit, since their support site is down! With 30 minutes to go, it looks like I'll be doing a perfection run of the first TokiMemo - though I can definitely talk about how insane Yuina is, since you'll be meeting her in the Perfect Run too. I'll have the screenshots ready on Monday, but I can still make a post about how to aim for Shiori's heart and why her route is so drat difficult ready for Sunday.
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Dec 1, 2013 08:24
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Is it too late to request a reset tally?
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Dec 1, 2013 08:32
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As an artsman myself I would usually vote for the artistic path, but if my long and embarrassing experience with this type of game has taught me anything, it's that the Art Routes are filled with the worst kinds of tedious melodrama you've ever seen (as well as a severe lack of any actual art) So i'm going to go with C) Sports! Because I also happen to really enjoy Baseball and Swimming.
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Dec 1, 2013 09:04
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BlitzBlast posted:Is it too late to request a reset tally? Yes. Perfection wins, 13-10 over Science. Although, if this goes as quickly as I think it does, I may have enough time to go through two routes. Coming Sunday: Bombs, and Why They Make Shiori Nintendo Hard
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Dec 1, 2013 09:05
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Er, actually I meant a count on how many times you had to reset your game on the endless journey to get Shiori to notice you. Or did you mean that too?
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Dec 1, 2013 09:11
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BlitzBlast posted:Er, actually I meant a count on how many times you had to reset your game on the endless journey to get Shiori to notice you. Oh! I guess I can do that.
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Dec 1, 2013 09:22
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Planning for Perfection: Or, How I Learned to Start Worrying and Hate the Bomb Since D won the poll, we're going to need to go back in time and retcon a few things in order to fulfill the requirements of UTTER PERFECTION. First: I mentioned that there is a special event that you can see with Shiori if you set her birthday to be the same as yours. To see this special event (which is exclusive to the Forever With You versions of the game), you also have to fulfill the following conditions: 1) The shared birthday has to fall on a Sunday or holiday in 1995, 1996, or 1997. 2) Your relationship status with Shiori has to already be at friendship level. 3) You can't have any dates on that day. 4) If that day happens to be the third Sunday of the month, when most clubs have their compulsory activities/practice matches/swimming meets/etc., you will be kicked out of the club if you see this event instead of choosing the club activity. Because of the demanding requirements of the special event, most people set this shared birthday in March to give themselves the maximum amount of time to meet the requirements. Second: Because of the previously mentioned (day + month*3) mod 11 formula, Shiori routes depend on certain birthdays in order to isolate Shiori to a club activity that won't gain the notice of anyone else. This is because the game scales in difficulty with how many girls you have met. Allow me to explain: In TokiMemo, you meet certain girls by either sharing a club activity with them or fulfilling a minimum stat requirement and performing the generic activity on a school day. The exceptions to this in TokiMemo 1 are Shiori, who you've known forever, and Yumi (Yoshio's little sister), who is a year younger than you and automatically meets you at the beginning of your second year. But here are all of the girls and the conditions to meet them (skip to Spreading Yourself Too Thin if you don't care about this list): There is a third way to meet girls at random - if you're at the Christmas party and you know fewer than three girls, the game will introduce them to you at random until you know three.  How to meet Mio method 1: Study Literature on a schoolday while your Lit stat is 55+ (75+ if you've already met two non-Shiori/Yumi characters) How to meet Mio method 2: Join the same club as her (Drama club or Lit club, depending on where Shiori is) and choose club activities 5 times, or she will automatically appear in the club's summer camp)  Yuina method 1: Study Science with Science 60+ (85+) Yuina method 2: Science club or Computer club  Ayako method 1: Practice Art with Art 50+ (65+) Ayako method 2: Concert band or Art club  Saki method 1: Do anything with Guts 36+ (96+) Saki method 2: Baseball team or Soccer team  Yukari method 1: Exercise while your Looks are 81+ (84+) Yukari method 2: Tennis club  Nozomi method 1: Exercise while your Guts are 31+ (71+) Nozomi method 2: Swimming club  Mira method 1: Preen while your Looks are 101+ (126+) (there is no method 2 for Mira)  Yuuko method 1: Hang Out with General Knowledge 91+ (there is no method 2 for Yuuko)  Megumi method 1: Special - Shiori will introduce Megumi to you at the Ijuuin Christmas party if you're really standing out in academics and/or your club activities. Megumi method 2: If you don't meet Megumi at the Ijuuin Christmas party, Shiori will introduce her to you on the following Valentine's Day Spreading Yourself Too Thin: or, Why This All Matters Shiori is a very demanding girl - in order to win her heart, you have to be exceptional in all aspects of school life. These are the stats you'll need: Stamina 50+ | Lit 130+ | Science 130+ Art 130+ | Sports 110+ | General knowledge 120+ Looks 100+ | Guts 100+ | Stress 50- If you look at the chart above, you'll note that earning these stats will force you to meet every girl if you're not careful. So, what is it about meeting girls that makes the game harder? Now we'll have to explain how the relationship chart works.  That's not so bad, right? This is Yoshio's graphical representation of how much girls like you. As you can see, it ranges from "Tokimeki" on the left (the girl is in love with you) to "oh god why" on the right (the girl hates your guts), with various levels of friendship in between. For all non-secret characters, you must be at Tokimeki level with a girl in order to see her ending. You raise a girl's affection by going on successful dates, walking home from school with her, and seeing special events. You lower a girl's affection by going on bad dates... or ignoring her for a while (about 3 months, usually) and making her feel jealous and hurt, represented in-game by bombs.  This is a nightmare case and has sabotaged many a Shiori route. Beware the mad bombers! If you ignore a bomb and it explodes, then you will receive an ominous call from Yoshio, who tells you that there's a bad rumor going around that you've hurt <X girl>. When this happens, every other girl's affection for you will go down, often dooming you to the Forever Alone ending. Yumi and Megumi are especially notorious bombers - Yumi because she starts out at a high affection level and has the shortest bomb timer in the game, and Megumi because she gets really hurt every time you walk home with a girl who is not her. In order to defuse a bomb or prevent one from ever appearing, you need to make sure to go on a date with a girl at least once every 4 months, which destroys your schedule - it takes one Sunday/holiday to invite a girl on a date, and another Sunday/holiday to do it. With a full 11 girls, you basically need to take 22 days out of every 3-4 months in order to keep a bomb from forming... and there are only 12-13 Sundays every 3 months, plus a variable number of Japanese holidays. You can see how this can quickly spiral out of control! Time to man up! There is a relatively easy way of winning Shiori's heart while fulfilling all of these requirements. We jokingly call it the Teen Wolf route: what you essentially do is lay low for two years, never standing out in anything and not caring about any bombs that may go off. Then, in year three you suddenly burst out of your shell to raise your stats to ridiculous levels, go on nonstop dates with Shiori (only taking time out to avoid 9 months of bombs from girls you will probably just meet in year 3), and call it a win. We didn't know about this method back in 1995 - the Internet was pretty young and knowledge was concentrated in magazines, books, and mooks (magazine books). This path is also boring, sees very few if any of the special events, and does not fulfill the requirements of Utter Perfection. So, in Monday's update, we will be starting down the path of UTTER PERFECTION and showing you the true path of the High School Superman. Goon, we salute you. You will truly be the greatest of men. vibratingsheep fucked around with this message at 11:42 on Dec 6, 2013 |
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Dec 1, 2013 20:46
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And I here I thought getting 100% Social Link completion in Persona 3 was bad. 
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Dec 1, 2013 21:08
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I have yet to understand, on any level, how Tokimeki Memorial's version of love and courtship at all resembles any real form of human interaction. Just for the record. I mean, sure, I'd find it pretty creepy if my sweetie had literally no interest in other human beings other than myself (and Designated Bestie), but that's about the only way in which this system makes any sense to me. Someone also explain to me why no one ever decides to have an official quote-unquote relationship until the end of your high school life. At least that resembles the anime version of human interaction, where you never confess to your true love until the series ends, no matter how long it takes, how little sense it makes, or how much you both know you're in love with one another. (Plus, it's romantic? I guess? Maybe? I don't think it is, but whatever...) ...personally, I'd rather not go for a girl who will only find you acceptable if you're some kind of perfect human being, and instead go for one that shares your interests, but I suppose it wouldn't be a Japanese video game without some kind of intensely obtuse task you need to perform for completion's sake.
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Dec 1, 2013 21:13
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...Wow, this game seems kind of really in depth. I'm now annoyed that this game wasn't translated because I love resource management stuff like this.
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Dec 1, 2013 21:19
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Junpei Hyde posted:...Wow, this game seems kind of really in depth. I'm now annoyed that this game wasn't translated because I love resource management stuff like this. It kind of reminds me of Princess Maker 2. You'd probably like that.
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Dec 1, 2013 21:20
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WickedHate posted:It kind of reminds me of Princess Maker 2. You'd probably like that. Yeah, I played a bit of that, I enjoy it and games of it's ilk, though Princess Maker can get a bit creepy. Hopefully this game does not.
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Dec 1, 2013 21:29
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FM posted:...personally, I'd rather not go for a girl who will only find you acceptable if you're some kind of perfect human being, and instead go for one that shares your interests, but I suppose it wouldn't be a Japanese video game without some kind of intensely obtuse task you need to perform for completion's sake. This Shiori run is basically the only time in the TokiMemo series we will go for the Utter Perfection route - I honestly think that she was put in there to be Nintendo Hard and keep people playing over and over again, since pretty much none of the other girls are as picky and will hang out with you because you share interests. TokiMemo 2 and TokiMemo 4 have Shiori-clones in the way that Gundam series have Char-clones, because it worked so well in the original that they just have to keep mimicking it to try and match that original popularity. As for your criticism of how real human relationships work, well, I can't answer that one myself. I always shrugged it off and said "well, it's a video game and they needed that stuff there because it needed to have both endings at the same time." e: Actually, now that I think about it more, it's probably because the focus is on the high school simulation portion - subsequent games like To Heart focused more on realistic (or at least believable) relationships, while TokiMemo is more about the game and the re-living of high school in general. vibratingsheep fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Dec 1, 2013 |
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Dec 1, 2013 21:57
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When you mentioned "bombs" earlier, I assumed it was a metaphor, like a "culture bomb" or a "Reckoning bomb". Nope, the interface presents them as an actual, honest-to-God cartoon bomb. For a game with such a dodgy-looking UI, that's actually a pretty smart choice. There's no better visual shorthand for something that will gently caress your poo poo up if you don't deal with it right quick.
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Dec 2, 2013 08:25
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How did I miss this so far? I'm glad the thread ended up going with Utter Perfection. I think one of the hardest concepts for people to understand with Tokimeki Memorial is that it's also a raising sim. "Romance" wipes that out surprisingly quickly. It's one of the first games I played in Japanese and even as they obviously start pandering to archetypes in later games, the characters themselves are really fun. Looking forward to watching you share the series!
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Dec 3, 2013 06:22
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Chapter 2: Spring 1995, a tale of trumpets and being bad at sports. Enough waffling. It's time to make a three-year plan and put it into action so that we can fulfill the requirements of Utter Perfection while not falling prey to the horrors of the bomb. Inspiration came from the works of Jin Yong, the great wuxia novelist. In the latter parts of Return of the Condor Heroes, the protagonist Yang Guo wears a mask so that girls stop falling in love with his hot perfection, which means that he can stay dedicated to his one true love, Xiaolongnu. She's at the bottom of a cave shooting bees at people with her poison kung fu or something, so the analogy kind of falls off there, but the point is that the plan has been proven to work!  This is obviously the greatest and best plan to hide Goon's smoldering hotness. So here's how it's going to work. Since you only meet girls if you both fulfill their stat threshold and perform the appropriate activity on a schoolday, and because once you meet a certain number of girls, these stat thresholds go up, we're going to choose a couple of stats that are safe to raise and stick to them until year 3, meeting only a couple of girls. That's the plan. Let's see how easy it is to stick to it. The journey begins: April 4th, 1995 to June 3rd, 1995 The first step is to remake Goon from the ground up. We want Shiori's birthday to be on March 30th, so that she joins the Concert Band - this club avoids stats that will attract too many girls to us, and is generally pretty safe. If you look at the first post, you may notice some retconning in order to make sure the path of Utter Perfection starts off on the right foot. Also, you may notice that I've started capturing from my PS3 instead of my Saturn, which should hopefully mean vastly improved screenshot quality. With that out of the way, we can actually begin playing the game! As I mentioned before, the meat and potatoes of the Tokimeki Memorial experience is the building of your character, not the girls or the relationships. Each week, you choose one of the eight basic activities and you perform that action for the next six days, training your stats appropriately. You'll get a graphical representation of how the day went, with a little happy chime for successful training and a game show buzzer for days that went poorly. Every action other than Sleep will lower your Stamina, and most of them will also raise your Stress. All academic stats start at 40, while General Knowledge, Looks, and Guts start at 32, 60, and 5 respectively. We'll start with some book learning in week 1.  Successful days tend to have stronger effects, and are less likely to raise your Stress level.  Unsuccessful days like this one have a lower impact on your stats, while being more likely to raise your Stress level. The main way to improve your success rate with an activity is to keep doing that activity - kind of like real life. At the end of the first week of studying, we have a net of -3 Stamina, +3 Lit, -2 Sports, -1 Looks, -1 Guts, and +4 Stress. Not a great start, but you shouldn't expect miracles in your first week while your stats are low. The important thing is getting to the all-important Sunday/Holiday version of schedule planning.  On Sundays and holidays, more options light up. The six actions at the bottom are: Call a friend | Go on a date | Read Memorial Spot Options | Calendar | Save/Load You'll also note that for the first time, the club activity action is lit up - starting on April 9th, we can join the club of our choice! In this run, Goon has no choice but to join the Concert Band, but we don't have to do it today. In fact, let's go for a run.  Success! The net effect of Sunday is Stam -3, Sports +13, General Knowledge +1, Looks -1, Guts +6. Sundays are vastly more effective than weekdays, making them precious precious resources. After choosing your Sunday activity, you go back to the regular version of the menu, where we can choose the schedule for the rest of the week. But before we do that... hey, let's go look at one of the main easter eggs of the game. Remember how Shiori lives next door? Well, that's her window right there, and if you set your cursor to mouse mode and click on her window at night... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZqdMTlAfA Shiori: Hmm? Having trouble falling asleep? Then I will count sheep for you! Shiori: One sheep, two sheep, three sheep, four sheep, five sheep, six sheep, seven sheep, eight sheep, nine sheep, ten sheep, 11 sheep, 12 sheep, 13 sheep, 14 sheep, 15 sheep, 16 sheep, 17 sheep, 18 sheep, 19 sheep, 20 sheep. Shiori: You're starting to get sleepy, right? What? Not yet? Shiori: 21 sheep, 22 sheep, 23 sheep, 24 sheep, 25 sheep, 26 sheep, 27 sheep, 28 sheep, 29 sheep, 30 sheep, 31 sheep, 32 sheep, 33 sheep, 34 sheep, 35 sheep, 36 sheep, 37 sheep, 38 sheep, 39 sheep, 40 sheep. Shiori: You're finally sleepy now, aren't you? Still not yet? Shiori: 41 sheep, 42 sheep, 43 sheep, 44 sheep, 45 sheep, 46 sheep, 47 (yawn) sheep, 48 sheep... 49 sheep... 50 sheep... Shiori: I've gotten sleepy myself. Sorry... good night. I am not embarrassed to say that this sound file is how I learned to count in Japanese, which is harder than it sounds because of some utterly random quirks to the language. Anyway, back to the run! It's time to do some more studying, this time to dabble in some Science! We have to make sure our stats are at least a little decent in order to do well on midterms.  Net result: -4 Stamina, +4 Science, -4 Sports, -3 Looks, +1 Guts, +3 Stress. Not the greatest, but we have plenty of time. We shouldn't just reset the game over tiny stuff like this, or the LP will last forever. Alright, it's April 16th and we might as well go ahead and join the same club as Shiori! To the Concert Band!  -1 Stam, +1 Science (?!), +3 Art, +1 General Knowledge, +1 Stress. Welp. Time to lay low in the brass section for a while, Goon. Perfection can wait. Note that the only time we can save is AFTER we've already taken our Sunday activity. This is something of an anti-save scum measure, since calling a girl and inviting her out on a date take an entire Sunday, and if she turns you down, the game wants us to suffer through an entire week again before we can retry. The same goes for choosing the wrong option on a date and making a bad impression - we'll get to that shortly. Let's hit the books again! Another week of study yields -5 Stam, +5 Lit, +1 Art, -2 Sports, +1 General Knowledge, -1 Looks, and +5 Stress. Next, let's take a look at Memorial Spot, the magazine that tells us all the local hangouts! This is important to check once every three months since it unlocks new locations, tells us what movie is playing, and says which musical act is in town - all of which will help our hero Goon be successful on dates. We'll have to remember to do it diligently.  Memorial Spot In this corner, we will tell you all about the latest hot spots. Starting next issue, we'll start telling you all about special events. Watch for it! Current movie playing: None Concert hall: KNM Symphony (Classical) And yes, that's an ad for the first Suikoden RPG. It actually came out a few months after the original PlayStation version of Forever With You. Do you feel old? I do. Goon: This is the latest issue. Goon: Oh yeah, I can check my biorhythms on the calendar, too. Oh hey, there's a symphony in town? Didn't Shiori say she liked listening to classical music? Let's invite her to the concert hall! From the menu, we make sure to call Shiori - calling Yoshio is important later, and talking to Rei only matters if we want the secret, really-boring ending.  Phone: Trrrr... trrrrr... Shiori: Yes, this is Fujisaki. Goon: Um... this is Fudo Gunpei. Shiori: Gunpei-kun? Is something the matter today? Seriously? You've known each other for how long and you still have to act all formal on the phone? We will have to do better than that, Goon. We'll make a Superman out of you yet.  Anyway, this is a screen we're going to get pretty familiar with over the course of the next three years. We need to pick a date and a location to invite a girl out. Let's ask Shiori to go to the symphony with us on Saturday, April 29th! Goon: Want to go to the concert hall with me on April 29th? Shiori: Let me check... yes, that's fine. Goon: Alright, let's meet in front of the concert hall on that day. Shiori: Yes, let's. Don't forget, okay? Goon: No way will I forget. Okay, talk to you later. (click) Goon: Yes! I can't wait for the 29th. SUCCESS!   There's now a giant heart mark on the 29th to remind us of our date with Shiori. Don't forget, or things will get real bad real fast. And that does not suit Perfection! Sadly, the act of calling Shiori and talking to her for 20 seconds took up Goon's entire Sunday. This is another part of why knowing a lot of girls makes the game difficult - we don't have time to work on our stats if we spend 4 days a month on the phone!  Let's hit the books before our date with Shiori - this week is good for -5 Stam, +5 Lit, -2 Sports, +1 General Knowledge, -1 Looks, and +5 Stress. From this point on, I'll start glossing over the individual stat gains/losses more, but it's important to note that we probably can't choose to study lit on weekdays anymore, because at 55 we are in very real danger of meeting Kisaragi Mio, who we don't want to deal with yet! Guess we'll have to sneak in our study sessions on the weekend.  Goon: (Today's the date with Shiori) Yes, we can choose not to go on the date and do something else instead. Yes, this is a very bad idea, though later in this playthrough it can lead to the best part about meeting Ayako. Goon: (Well, let's go meet up with Shiori at the concert hall.)  Goon: Have you been waiting long? Shiori: No, I just got here myself. Goon: Phew, glad I wasn't late. Shiori: Oh, the doors just opened. Let's get inside. Goon: Yeah, let's go. Yes, that building is almost 100% based on the Nippon Budokan. I love that place - it's a very up-close-and-personal venue with a ton of history. For musicians, the Budokan is kind of a sign that you've "made it" - there are much larger and more profitable venues, but the Budokan is sort of like the Hollywood Bowl or Carnegie Hall in that there's a lot of prestige associated with the place. We should probably stop gawking and find our seats, though.  Goon: Hey, Shiori, our seats are over here. Goon: (The KNM Symphony Orchestra is one of the best orchestras in the country; they've even worked with Mr. Osawa.) The KNM Symphony Orchestra is a please-don't-sue-us version of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and we think that Mr. Osawa is a reference to Seiji Ozawa, a world-famous conductor who has a building named after him in Boston.  And here comes the other core mechanic of Tokimeki Memorial. Once per date, we will have to choose from one of three responses. Depending on the response, we'll make some degree of a favorable impression, a neutral impression, or a bad impression on the girl. In general, taking a girl to a place she likes is more likely to produce better impressions or have multiple positive choices, while taking her somewhere she doesn't enjoy can give us two bad answers and a neutral response. When it comes to the stadium, the movie theater, and the concert hall, though, our choices will almost always be: Choice 1: Wasn't that concert/game/movie great? Choice 2: That concert/game/movie was kind of average. Choice 3: That concert/game/movie was boring. Since Shiori likes classical music, the obvious answer is 1.  Goon: Wasn't that concert great? Shiori: Yes, it was quite wonderful. I love this kind of performance. Goon: (Looks like I made a great impression!) This is the primitive ancestor of "Morrigan approves (+5)". Shiori: Today was a lot of fun. We should do this again some time, okay? Goon: Definitely. I'll call you again some time. Shiori: We should head home, Gunpei-kun. SUCCESS!  After this, it's back to playing trumpet in the Concert Band. Note that every once in a while you're given the opportunity to quit a club and join another one if you want to; this is never really a recommended action, but hey, the option's there. Actions over the next few weeks: 4/30 (Sunday): Concert Band 5/1-5/2: Concert Band 5/3 (holiday): This is our first chance to check out the new issue of Memorial Spot, so let's go!  Memorial Spot June/July/August Introducing Kirameki Central Park! Current movie playing: "We're doin' it" (comedy) (based on a Japanese comedy catch phrase; a modern English equivalent would be a movie called "Git 'er Dun") Concert: Morita Chisa (idol) (Moritaka Chisato was a big-name act in the late '80s through the late '90s) Events: Starting in August, the amusement park will be holding night parades! August 6th is Ennichi at the shrine! Ennichi is kind of a catchall term for a local shrine's festival in Japan, since they're all dedicated to the local Shinto gods. Some shrines have multiple Ennichi in a year, and the commonness of summer Ennichi are behind the huge number of anime episodes that involve people dressing up in fancy-looking yukata and going to their local shrine to play festival games, eat festival food, and at the end of the night, watch a fireworks show. It's one of the highlights of Japanese summers. We'll definitely want to invite Shiori there when it's time. Also, the Konami ad for the quarter is Parodius. I miss that game sometimes. 5/3 (holiday):  5/4 (holiday): 5/5 (holiday): Rest 5/6: back to Concert Band 5/7 (Sunday): Preen 5/8-13: Preen I should probably talk a bit about why there are so many holidays back-to-back at the end of April/beginning of March. This is known in Japan as Golden Week - it's basically a cross between Spring Break and the week between Christmas and New Year's, with so many national holidays packed close together that most people just take the whole time off and go on vacation. It's a huge boom for the movie industry and for any kind of travel. For many school kids, though, it's mostly just a bunch of days off really close together - public school kids in particular have to go to school on the 1st and 2nd, which really seems like it sucks. 5/11: Event! Goon: (School's finally out. I'm so sleepy...) (THUD)  Female Student: Oh, I'm sorry! Goon: Nah, I'm fine. Female Student: Oh no, I'll be late for the movie! Goon: What was with that girl? Hi Yuuko. Thankfully, this doesn't mean that she's officially met us yet. Call it a warning shot. 5/14 (Sunday): Study lit This brings Goon to 56 in his Lit stat - that means that if we take the Study Lit action on a school day instead of a Sunday, we will meet Mio. 5/15-5/20: 5/21 (Sunday): Preen 5/22-5/27: Concert Band 5/28 (Sunday): Study lit 5/29-6/2: Concert Band Gotta get ready for midterms while we can! Still dodging Mio like a boss. 6/3: Event!  Kirameki's taiikusai, or Sports Festival, is another of those super-common annual events in Japan, and almost all schools have them from Kindergarten on up. The Sports Festival is like Sports Days in other countries, where all the schoolkids are compelled to compete in races (potato sack, three-legged, egg-and-spoon, etc.) and other competitive events. In-game, though, the Sports Festival means one thing: mini-games! Goon: Which event should I take part in? Option 1: Egg-and-spoon race Option 2: Scavenger Hunt Race/Karimono Kyousou Option 3: Three-legged race Option 4: Ball-rolling race I chose Option 2 for this without asking people what they want to participate in, since the other three minigames are pretty familiar to people outside of Japan. However, a Karimono Kyousou isn't something you get much of in the states, so it's nice to be able to explain what it is. The reason I call it a Scavenger Hunt Race, even though the term literally means "Borrowed items race", is because the rules require all of the racers to run up to a table and open up a sealed envelope. Inside that envelope are instructions to bring a specific item to the finish line. Racers need to run up to one of their friends or classmates and, depending on the rules of the race, they either need to borrow something from them and race to the finish line with the item in hand, or take that person to the finish line with them. Common items in a Scavenger Hunt Race include hats, umbrellas, "someone wearing glasses", "someone who has traveled overseas", etc. In the case of Tokimeki Memorial, though?  You're supposed to find girls. Rules for the Scavenger Hunt Race Search for the girl listed in the sealed envelope using the D-pad, then bring her to the finish line. Press the Circle button to choose the girl, and then press the Circle button repeatedly to run! Pretty simple, but almost every Sports Festival mini-game is affected by your Sports stat. With only two months to build stats, the first year's Sports Festival is almost always a guaranteed loss.  It's okay, Goon. Your time will come. Keep that mask on.  Oh look, we're supposed to find Shiori in that crowd of sprites. It sure is a good thing that anime girls have such wildly different hairstyles or colors, that makes this one easy!  Not that this actually helps, with the current state of our Sports stat.  Well, there's always next year! This seems like a good time to go into the next poll. We haven't met any girls yet, but we're approaching the thresholds for most of them! What should Goon do? A) Stick to the plan. Let's enjoy more of our high school life and learn more about Japanese culture. There's plenty of time to meet the cast later. B) Learning about all these events is nice and all, but there's more than enough leeway to stop and enjoy the sights. Let's meet and talk to some of the girls early. It can't possibly hurt, right? Goon's stats as of June 4th, 1994: Stamina 67 | Lit 61 | Science 56 Art 57 | Sports 39 | General Knowledge 48 Looks 73 | Guts 9 | Stress 31 The poll closes at midnight Pacific time on Tuesday. The next post will hopefully go up on Thursday! Next time: Midterms, Ennichi, and most likely a whole lot of reloading saves. vibratingsheep fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Dec 3, 2013 |
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Dec 3, 2013 09:08
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Stick to the plan. We gotta be Japanese High School Clark Kent if we want to be Japanese High School Superman.
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Dec 3, 2013 10:30
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Let's meet some ladies! We've got to play the field a little bit, if only so we know what we're comparing our picture of perfection against. Also, the more challenging this play through gets, the more vicariously satisfied I'll be.
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Dec 3, 2013 11:48
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Meeting the rest of the cast is not a good thing if we want to stick to the plan.
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Dec 3, 2013 16:03
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Hmm... yeah, I know "sticking to the plan" is important, but I think I'll vote option B here. I know, I know, not a very nice attitude on what appears to be a min/maxing endeavor, but I've never played this game before, and real life has beaten into me the importance of a "Plan B."
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Dec 3, 2013 17:05
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We have the power to change the past. Do what is more fun right now (B) and then go back and fix it later.
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Dec 3, 2013 17:10
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nielsm posted:We have the power to change the past. Do what is more fun right now (B) and then go back and fix it later. I like this idea.
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Dec 3, 2013 17:38
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nielsm posted:We have the power to change the past. Do what is more fun right now (B) and then go back and fix it later. Sounds good to me. Keep a save handy for here, gently caress around a little to show off the cast a bit, then come back and continue powergaming this poo poo.
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Dec 3, 2013 17:41
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We may wanna be Superman, but that doesn't mean we have to be Clark Kent. let's be Tony Stark instead. B
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Dec 3, 2013 17:46
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Junpei Hyde posted:We may wanna be Superman, but that doesn't mean we have to be Clark Kent. let's be Tony Stark instead. B Hell yes. B!
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Dec 3, 2013 17:48
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The manager needs some love, so we have to meet Saki. Plan B
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Dec 3, 2013 17:56
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B, because I like making things harder on you. 
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Dec 3, 2013 19:04
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A What kind of man ignores his plans at the first possible opportunity?
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Dec 3, 2013 19:09
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B, because no plan should survive first contact with the enemy. Also because "I'll have to stop doing this because otherwise I'll run into a girl" seems like it'd get boring fast.
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Dec 3, 2013 19:12
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Junpei Hyde posted:We may wanna be Superman, but that doesn't mean we have to be Clark Kent. let's be Tony Stark instead. B
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Dec 3, 2013 21:35
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B because this shall be the most  playthrough possible.
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Dec 3, 2013 21:49
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A Looking forward to where this goes.
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Dec 4, 2013 07:49
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A. I like the technical information you've been putting into this LP, Vibratingsheep. Most dating sims I've seen usually have a plot flowchart that only has "If you have 5+ Boyfriend A points, than you get to see the Good ending," but drat, this game actually requires strategy. 
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Dec 4, 2013 08:28
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vibratingsheep posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZqdMTlAfA This is really cool. I recently discovered Japanese audio only ASMR/hypnosis-type recordings, to help you fall asleep (among other things), and have really enjoyed them. This is like the granddaddy of them all. No idea these things went this far back. Thanks for sharing.
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Dec 4, 2013 08:35
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EagerSleeper posted:I like the technical information you've been putting into this LP, Vibratingsheep. Most dating sims I've seen usually have a plot flowchart that only has "If you have 5+ Boyfriend A points, than you get to see the Good ending," but drat, this game actually requires strategy. Wait until Tokimeki Memorial 4, which has skill trees and specializations! Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and participation, it really helps a lot to know that the long hours I spend on these things aren't being thrown into the void! And it looks like our friend Fudou "Goon" Gunpei is going to be bumping into some more girls soon - B wins. Next time: Songs of Science, Sports, and Summer. The post will hopefully be up by Thursday at midnight - Friday at the latest. vibratingsheep fucked around with this message at 09:23 on Dec 4, 2013 |
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Dec 4, 2013 08:59
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Chapter 3: Summer 1995, part 1 - Close Encounters of the Yuina Kind It's been an interesting couple of months in young Goon's life. He made it into an elite high school with the girl next door and is well on the road to Utter Perfection, but something is missing in his life. Something a little unpredictable. Something a little wild. Something that people might call... mad. 6/4-6/10: 6/11 (Sunday): Sleep 6/12-6/17: 6/16: Event!  Goon: This question is so easy! Goon: Mwahaha... I'm a genius! Make your own Metal Gear sound here Goon: Urgh... Goon: (Someone behind me...) Goon: (Consciousness... fading...)  From her heart and from her hand, why won't people understand her intentions? Goon: (Hey, this is the lab! M...my body won't move!) Yuina: Hmm? Ah, Fudou Gunpei-kun. It seems as though you've regained consciousness. Unfortunate. Goon: Wh-who are you?! What are you planning to do to me? Yes. Yes, Goon, get her to start monologuing. This will buy time. Hopefully the death trap will be elaborate enough that you can escape from it. Yuina: It's fine, you won't feel a thing. Now, just hold still for a moment. Goon: Wh-what're you doing?! Stop it! Yuina: Alright, alright, I get it. Stop shouting! I suppose I'm left with no choice... Goon: Please, please just let me go! Yuina: If ever you tire of the limitations of your body, consult with me - Himoo Yuina. Yuina: I will be waiting for you here... for as long as I need to. Goon: Urgh... (Blacking out... again...)  Goon: Agh! Oh... oh, it was just a dream. Thank goodness... Goon: Hmm? Someone scribbled in my notebook. Let's see here- Goon: "For all requests for 'modifications', contact Himoo Yuina, Computer Club." Now THAT is a first impression. Yuina has introduced herself, which means that she can now be contacted on Sundays and holidays via the phone. But we can't just call her out of the blue - this is an era before cell phones, so we have to figure out what her home phone number is. Now, didn't Yoshio mention that we should call him whenever we needed any information about girls? Time to take him up on that promise! 6/18 (Sunday): Call Yoshio  Yoshio: Hello, you've reached the Saotome household. Goon: Hey, it's Fudou. Yoshio: Ah, Gunpei? I'm glad you called. Goon: You told me once that I could contact you if I ever needed to know anything about a girl... Yoshio: Of course, of course. What did you want to ask about? There are two options here - one to ask about date spots, and one to ask about your status with the girls. While asking about date spots might be interesting, there is one and only one thing we're calling for here. Goon: I'd like to know what the girls think of me. Yoshio: What they think of you, eh? Gimme a second. Yoshio: What the girls think of you is...  Yoshio: Something like this. Goon: (Should I ask him about any one girl?) This is how you get the phone numbers of the girls - you ask Yoshio for their profile. Yes, it's an archaic game design choice. It gets easier in later installments of the game, I swear. Goon: I'd like to know more about Himoo-san, if you can tell me anything. Yoshio: Yeah, sure. Gimme a second. Yoshio: Himoo, Himoo... Yoshio: There she is. Okay, listen up and take notes.  Yoshio: That's about what I know. There's a lot of info on here, so let's start at the top. Himoo Yuina - phone# Triangle Triangle Triangle - Circle Circle X Circle Birthday: July 7th Sign: Cancer Blood Type: A Measurements: 84-58-84 (33-22-33 in inches) Club: Computer club Notes: Seems to be doing some suspicious experiments. All other information is murky at best. Goon: Merci beaucoup~. Sorry for bothering you with this stuff. Yoshio: Bah, it's no problem at all. Ask me any time you want to know about a girl. (click) And with that, Yuina is now available in the address book. We can call her on Sundays and... well, just wait and see. 6/19-6/24: Concert band 6/25 (Sunday): Concert band At this point, Goon's stress level is getting dangerously high - at 30 and above, the success rate of almost all actions goes down - the notable exception is Sleep, which never fails. 6/26-7/1: Sleep 7/2 (Sunday):  Three important things coming up on the calendar: the gift box is someone's birthday. The sheets of paper are midterms, while the school icon is summer camp. 7/3-7/8: Concert Band 7/7: Event!  Goon: It's Himoo's birthday today. What should I do? Option 1: Give her a present. Option 2: Don't bother giving her a present. There is no choice. We are compelled. Goon: (What should I get her?) For all birthdays in this game, there are three options for presents. In all cases, there's a good option, a neutral option, and a bad option. They're all pretty obvious if you have even a basic understanding of the girl. Organized from best to worst, Yuina's options for year 1 are: Option 1: A book about the theory of 6th-generation computing Option 2: A whip Option 3: Perfume Pretty straightforward, ri-wait, what?! We have saved recently. We must know. Goon: (Yeah, let's buy her a whip. This is obviously a good idea.)  Goon: Hey, Himoo-san! Yuina: Can I help you? Goon: Happy birthday! Yuina: You have taken the only natural course of action. Let's see what's inside? Goon: Sure, open it. Do you like it? Himoo: This could be a bit useful... Goon: (She seemed happy enough with it. Not bad, I guess.) Welp. RELOAD COUNT: 1 Goon: (Yeah, let's buy her a book.)  Goon: Hey, Himoo-san! Yuina: Can I help you? Goon: Happy birthday! Yuina: You have taken the only natural course of action. Let's see what's inside? Goon: Sure, open it. Do you like it? Himoo: This is perfect! I feel like doing more research in the lab right now! Goon: (She looks so happy. I'm glad I got her that gift.) Cultural/translation note here. The polite and proper way to receive a gift is to ask "May I open it now?" and wait for permission. Yuina has no need of such pleasantries and just declares that she's opening it - with a vestigial question mark at the end of the sentence that assumes a yes and doesn't leave any room for saying no. 7/9 (Sunday): Study lit 7/10-7/15: Midterms  A new, non-optional icon appears during the weeks of midterms and finals. Hurray for high school! These days have no effect on your stats. The results are based on stats, with a tiny bit of RNG thrown in. 7/10 Goon: (The first test is language.) Goon: (It feels like I did okay.) 7/11 Goon: (The second test is math.) Goon: (It feels like I did okay.) 7/12 Goon: (The third test is science.) Goon: (It feels like I did okay.) 7/13 Goon: (The fourth test is social studies.) Goon: (Ugh, I don't think I did well.) 7/14 Goon: (The fifth test is art.) Goon: (Ugh, I don't think I did well.) 7/15 Goon: (The test results are being posted today.)  Japanese schools post their test scores for all to see, and rank the students based on composite scores. Goon has averaged a 60 and falls sort of in the lower middle of the class at rank 137 - not surprising because there hasn't been any time to build stats. We will do better next time! More importantly, with midterms over, it's time to take a break from all this schoolwork. 7/16 (Sunday): Call Yuina Yuina: Yes, this is Himoo. Goon: Um... this is Fudou Gunpei. Yuina: Gunpei-kun. You've been acting overly familiar with me lately. Can I help you?  Goon: Want to go shopping on the 23rd? It may seem counterintuitive, but Yuina does love shopping. Kind of. I'll explain later. Yuina: Your luck has run out.... Oh dammit. RELOAD COUNT: 2 Yuina: ...for I appear to be free on that day. RELOAD COUNT: 1 What a troll. Goon: Okay, let's meet in front of the shopping district on the 23rd. Yuina: You dare to give me orders? Goon: Alright then, where would you like to meet? Yuina: ...Your previous suggestion is acceptable. Yuina: Our business is completed, and I am hanging up. (click) Goon: Woohoo! I can't wait for the 23rd. I don't even know where to start. I just don't. We've gone from Goon being Tony Stark to Goon being Alan Scott. edit: I have been informed that in New 52, Alan Scott has gone from a dude who married his villains to a young gay man. I now amend this to "Goon is Bruce Wayne. We appear to have met Talia." 7/17-7/22: Sleep 7/23 (Sunday): Date night! Goon: (Today's my date with Himoo-san.) Goon: (Let's go wait for her in front of the shopping district.)  Goon: Did I keep you waiting? Himoo: Not really. You're right on time. Goon: I'm glad I wasn't late. Himoo: It sure is hot, isn't it? Goon: Yeah, it's really hot. This... is surprisingly normal. We have to be careful and hope it's not a trap.  Himoo: Very well then. Where shall we go? There are three main places to go in the shopping district, and as you might expect, each girl likes different shops. Yuina does like shopping, but only really in one place. Can you guess what it is? Option 1: Let's go check out the boutique. Option 2: Let's go check out the accessories shop. Option 3: Let's go check out the electronics shop. Yup. We're goin' to Fry's! Yuina: Let's go.  Yuina: If you're talking about shopping, this is, of course, the place. Option 1: I just can't get enough of this place! Option 2: Y...yeah, I agree. This is pretty much the Japanese equivalent of "nod and smile" Option 3: You're really weird, for a girl. Again, it's pretty clear which option is good, which option is neutral-to-bad, and which is bad. Yuina: I didn't think you would understand the appeal of this place. You've surprised me. Goon: (Looks like I made a great impression!)  Yuina: It's nice to take a break like this every once in a while. Goon: Does that mean I can invite you out again some time? Yuina: I can't allow you to get too familiar... but a little bit won't hurt. Goon: Great, I'll call you. Yuina: It's time for me to head home. Bye, Gunpei-kun. Welp. That was a thing. This post went longer than I thought due to the sheer difficulty of translating how weird Yuina is, so I'll continue it tomorrow, with the CYOA coming at the end of that. Next time: Five Times Through Band Camp - summer vacation and Shiori. vibratingsheep fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Dec 6, 2013 |
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Dec 6, 2013 09:49
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I can't see some of the pictures in the earlier posts due to the daily hot link limit with min.us, can you fix that?
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Dec 6, 2013 10:05
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vibratingsheep posted:
If only that was true in real life. Failed my sleep check, stuck reading the LP forums at 3:00am.
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Dec 6, 2013 10:11
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 WHY DIDN'T WE VOTE FOR HER. Holy poo poo that is the best possible match.
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Dec 6, 2013 10:14
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