/vr/ - Retro Games

Now, see, I can't actually like this game purely on principle. I spend a lot of my time playing video games so I can get away from whatever real-life romantic hellholes I tend to dig for myself - I certainly don't want the two worlds to mix. A game based on dating is like emulating one of the most painful processes in human existence - Konami may have well made a game where you stick your limbs into a meat grinder, or get slammed in the crotch with a football over and over and I think it'd be about as much fun as this. But there is something oddly compelling about living in complete fantasy world, attempting to woo chicks while being caught in all of the cliches of a shoujo manga or mid-afternoon drama. So Tokimeki Memorial almost gets points for at least being original. But despite the interesting concept, it really is long and tedious, as getting a girl to like you takes quite a bit of effort. And there's not much satisfaction or great payoff anywhere, unless you REALLY want to see your favorite girls dressed in different outfits. But then again, I'm not sure if a concept like this could be executed well to begin with - but overall, it's a pretty underwhelming experience.

My issue with TokiMemo is way less of LOL JAPAN and more of my general dislike of life/dating sims - it's the same kind of reason I hate Animal Crossing, actually. The girls in TokiMemo aren't so much characters as much as a set of logical IF-THEN statements, with a bit of artwork and a voice actress associated with them. When these aspects are fleshed out, like in The Sims, or made a smaller part of a bigger game, like Persona 3, I think this is OK. Similarly, I can excuse visual novels, because their strength comes in their writing/narrative. But when it's the crux of the "gameplay", it comes off as really, really fake. It doesn't help that TokiMemo is quite tedious to play.

Virgin TokiMemo series vs Chad Doukyuusei series

>>6008413
>>6008415
>>6008420
>>6008450
I concur.

>>6008415
>I can't actually like this game purely on principle
Now, instead of writing 3 autistic posts, you could've just wrote this one line.

It tells us all we need to know about you. You're not the target audience for this game, you're some kind of pathetic loser who thinks romance in video games is something icky or whatever. I'd like to imagine you'd have no issue with some chick flick romance topping the box office, but for some reason you are emotionally stunted and you dislike the very concept of "love". Maybe you have some hangups about fiction, maybe you've just been jilted at the altar one too many times, either way, you have no qualifications to review a title like this. Hopefully you're just a woman, but god help you if you actually have functioning testicles. I haven't read something this cucked in a fucking while.

Best dating sim (and best girl) coming through

>>6009748
You posted the wrong picture, my dude.

>>6009756
I posted the right one.

>>6008415
>I spend a lot of my time playing video games so I can get away from whatever real-life romantic hellholes I tend to dig for myself - I certainly don't want the two worlds to mix
For me dating in the 90s was just sex sex sex so it would have been nice for these sweeter more innocent kind of dating dims to have been available in English but I guess ymmv

note : this post-ironic comment is meant to be taken humorously

>>6009780
all these uncut dicks you sucked, you're a manwhore gramps!

I just wish someone would translate Mitsumete Knight because I like the battle phases.

>>6009748
>marble-kitchen-counter-with-handwritten-note-anon still hasn't dumped the gallery(?) CDs he mentioned months ago
Sad!

>>6009859
These CD-ROMs contain more than just galleries, they also have desktop themes (screensavers, and other stuff), and sometimes even mini games I think.
I hope he dumps them sometime.

>>6009743
lol GOTEM

>>6008413
Dating sims taught me I don't actually like girls.

>>6009859
>>6009863
also the mahjong game

>>6009945
How so?

>>6009945
There are dating sims for girls where you woe handsome guys.

Not like EOPs will ever be able to tell.

Who the fuck are you and how do I unsubscribe?

>>6010956
You can't unfollow who you are.

>>6008413
>Some dating sims are notable for their deep and emotionally involving stories
I would challenge this assertion, actually. There is probably not a single dating sim that is considered notable for having a "deep" or "emotionally involving" story. The genre is nigh-universally scorned by visual novel ("ADV") players for consistently having shallow, rushed stories. Doukyuusei 2 is one of the better dating sims I've played, but the stories are anything but deep and pretty much only 2 heroines had any degree of emotional weight to their stories, though even then it was super basic surface level stuff - I don't think anyone except someone who has played maybe three total VNs before will be emotionally moved by this game. If you can name a dating sim that's actually well written on a deep level, I'm all ears, but I don't you'll find one. Especially among retro games.

>>6010981
The best that dating sims can ever really aspire to is DQ tier writing. It's perfectly servicable stuff, but if you want some edgelord DEEP shit, you've got to play VNs, because they have 50 hours worth of exposition on a common route to work with.

Dating sims are, by necessity, simpler in scope. Maybe the chick has some issues, and you either solve them or put her on the route towards doing so. The game isn't going to do a sudden genre shift into hard SF with giant robots or something.

It's like expecting an Arnie flick to be cerebral. You're not going to get a wall of dialogue about the duality of man, you're going to get Arnie shoving his fist through a dude's chest and popping a one liner. But a work can still be emotionally moving, even if it isn't in the same ballpark as another medium.

>>6010993
>But a work can still be emotionally moving, even if it isn't in the same ballpark as another medium.
Yeah, much like people can be emotionally moved by B-movie comedies, people can get emotionally moved by dating sims. I would posit that's in an entirely different ballpark from "some dating sims are notable for their 'deep and emotionally involving' stories" though. I don't think a single one comes close to that, unless people getting pissed at how bad Kakyuusei 2 is counts as it being "emotionally involving". All the most popular dating sims like Doukyuusei, Amagami, etc are all mainly known for being fun or some such, not being deep or emotional.

>>6010997
It's pretty obvious that some people consider visual novels such as Clannad dating sims since they have "heroines" you can technically "seduce".

>>6011010
I don't think anyone familiar with the genre would, and a discussion shouldn't be particularly influenced by the existence of uninformed people who are wrong.

>>6011023
Then you shouldn't have come to 4chan if you have low tolerance to ignorance.

>>6011040
I don't have a low tolerance for it, I'm just stating what's what.

I've only played a handful of dating sims but I've generally found it to be a very fun genre. The lewd ones don't really appeal to me any more though, but there are a bunch of chaste ones too.

VNs on the other hand bore me stupid though, even the ones with branches or some bland interactivity. It's always like watching some shitty movie but having to click to advance the story every minute.

>>6010981
> for consistently having shallow, rushed stories.

The thing with dating sims that hobbles them is the 'sim' part. You are supposed to hit events for a certain girl and each event is twenty, thirty lines at best, and usually has to be pretty self-contained (since the player might not hit every one, or get them in order either.)

This really doesn't give much room for depth.

ADV thanks to its linearity at least has consistent narration... and a lot more of it too. The writer can treat it more like an ordinary book, which opens up a wide range of options.

Wasn't Tokimeki Memorial pretty much one of the very first dating games?

>>6008413
Maybe you should play real games like Doom and Fallout.

>>6011135
Did you play any of the card battle ones? Particularly the one 4chanbfell in love with with the crossdressing prince. That was pretty cool and funny.

>>6011392
It spawned a genre, yeah
Mechanically it was inspired by the character-raising genre that Princess Maker started

>>6011392
Virgin TokiMemo 1994
Chad Doukyuusei 1992

>>6011418
I'm interested in that er for research reasons. Can you recall name?

>>6009994
>>6009863
Makes me even sadder!

>>6011806
I actually cant remember the name or find it on danbooru

>>6012190
>>6011806
Princess Waltz

>>6011135
No wonder you find them boring if you can only read one line per minute.

>>6011809
Me too!