Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side First Love
July 2007 Issue
![Cerise Issue 3 [July 2007]](http://cerise.theirisnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/cerisejul07_tn.jpg)
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Sunpaint T-shirts
- Gaming in the Media: To Wii, or Not to Wii?
Interviews
- Jess Hartley [Tabletop RPG writer]
- Robyn Bremner [Game tester, Capcom Interactive Canada]
Articles
- Inviting More People to the Game
Author: Cherie Thomason
- Racial Inclusiveness in Gaming
Author: Latoya Peterson
- Does Inclusive Game Design Make Sense?
Author: Andrea Rubenstein
- The Women of Twilight Princess
Author: Ariel Wetzel
Cherie proposes some simple ways to make games more inclusive.
Latoya explores the problems that the industry has with race and proposes some solutions.
Andrea takes on some of the common stumbling blocks that hinder inclusive game design.
Ariel breaks down the major women of Twilight Princess and examines how the game uses female characters in general.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
- Nintendo Wii and Wii Sports
- Shadowrun
- Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side First Love
- Retro Review: The Dreadnaught Factor
Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side First Love, Konami, Nintendo DS, 2007
Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side First Love, for the Nintendo DS, is an extremely well-executed port of Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side, one of the first games in the dating-sim genre which catered to girls. In this combination life-sim/dating-sim, the player is placed in the shoes of a girl just entering her first year of high school in Japan. She has three years to build herself up through classes, make friends, and hopefully find and date a guy who will ask her to be his forever in the quaint church behind the school. Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side First Love is an interactive, entertaining experience perfect for anyone who enjoys simulation games like The Sims or Princess Maker.
Touching
The use of the touch screen in this game is amazing, as everything is managed solely with the stylus. Whether it is plotting activities for the week or weekend, searching the web, buying clothing and accessories, interacting with characters or playing minigames, the stylus manages it all. The most intriguing aspect of this is “skin mode.” The DS is held like a book during play, and when a male character appears on the touch screen, the player can then “touch” him with the stylus. Touching can elicit different responses, positive and negative, based on where and when you touched him, and will help influence his feelings towards you.
Vocal Talent
Another amazing feature is the vocal talent appearing in this game. A number of popular Japanese voice actors, for example the voices behind Inuyasha from Inuyasha, Shigure from Fruits Basket, Aya from Weiss Kreuz, and Tamahome from Fushigi Yuugi, all lend their talents to voice the characters. A nice touch which helps engage the player is the fact that the characters in the game will talk using the player’s name, based on the katakana and hiragana entered at the beginning.
Replayability
This expressive game is only made better by all that it offers players. The game offers 8 “main” guys to chase after and 3 “secret” guys, with one secret guy added to the remake who didn’t appear in the original game. Each guy also has a new cutscene added, with an album option available to encourage seeking out each one. With over 30 different endings and an impressive 24 save slots, no two games will be alike.
It is a shame an amazing and intriguing game such as this will never make it out of Japan; however the Nintendo DS is region-free and ambitious gamers can easily import the game. While all the text is in Japan, and the game is text heavy, it is easy to navigate provided the player has a basic knowledge of katakana and hiragana and takes the time to visit the informational Utsukushiki Sekai website. With the assistance of the guides there and help from players at the tokimogs LiveJournal community, anyone can enjoy this game.
