OK, well one great thing about Tokimemo is that the gameplay is pretty self-explanatory as far as the sim part. You choose what to do during the week and weekends/holidays, and these raise your stats. You can also work part time to earn money (and spend time with the character you like) and buy clothes to wear on dates. There are also several school events that have special minigames.

Some things that a first-time player might wonder about:

Dates and ‘skinship’: This strange word means touching a guy. There’s a tutorial at the beginning (which is pretty funny, it made me laugh), here’s the summary:

There are 5 places to touch: Hair, eyes, mouth, body, and arm.

There are 3 ways to touch: A light tap, a pull, and a long touch. The long touch has to be used carefully, because it’s pretty bold, so you need to have a high affection level with a guy, and have the ‘mood’ be right, to get it to work well.
If you’re having trouble or think it’s a pain, don’t worry! It doesn’t affect affection levels, it’s just for fun and to get ‘daisekkin’, which is basically an ultra-skinship event (remember kids, this is a PG game, nothing risque here!).

Horoscope:

This is the computer report that shows your luck in various areas through the weeks. You should use these as a guide for what to focus on. From top to bottom they are:

Benkyou (Study): Good for studying, geijutsu (the painting), and culture clubs
Gyouraku (Pleasure): Good for fashion and doing stuff with Karen or Miyo
Kenkou (Health): Good for exercise and sports clubs
Renai (Love): Good for Miryoku (the liptstick button) and asking people out on dates

For more specific info, including date answers, I found this wiki really helpful.

I’ll post more if anyone’s interested, right now I’m in a love triangle with Ruka and Kouichi

I must say though, it looks great on the PSP – very clean and crisp. I also got Dear Girl Stories ~Hibiki~ at the same time, so I’m kind of comparing it to the DS as well. By the way, apparently DGS doesn’t really have any romance in it – d’oh! It’s just a stat-raising game with some almost-romantic-but-not-quite moments in it.

I also got some new magazines, and ooh good stuff in them! Girl’s Style came with an 8-page book about Kazukiyone and Hakuouki, as well as Hakuouki bookmarks and Starry Sky stickers! It’s probably because there’s no CD or DVD-ROM.

I didn’t even realize that Starry Sky got animated, but um yeah, it is! Haha. Girl’s Style also had info on the PSP versions, which will have several additional scenes, backgrounds, and other changes (one is that you can choose to show the heroine’s face, which is good, but sounds creepy that she didn’t have one before )

Storm Lover had some info as well, it will not only have routes leading up to a relationship, but will be about maintaining the romance or breaking up if you fail, and maybe even getting back together later! Interesting.

There’s also an article on the game system and some of the scenes in Xechs, it seems kinda complicated so I think I’ll post on that later.

Oh, and Mahoutsukai to Goshujin-sama has a release date! It’s set for July 31.

Details? All I could find is that it’s from Namco Bandai – I couldn’t find a site for it

Fall 2009

• Signal – for the DS from D3 Publisher – set as a kind of sequel to one of their first otome games, Backlash
• Crazy Rabbits – for the PC from Tiaramode, this R18 game involves a company that specializes in…making couples break up. Interesting!

Winter 2009

• Last Escort -Club Katze- for the PS2 AND the PSP (at the same time!) from D3 Publisher
• memories – R18 game for the PC from Chocolatier, a new otome game brand. The basic story is of a heroine who transfers to a new high school and meets several guys, all different ‘types’ – the ‘cool guy’, the smart student president, the playboy, the cute innocent guy, and the older man.

Lots of news about other, not brand-new games as well, including…a Hiiro no Kakera 2 remake!!! Not a port or adaptation, this is a pure remake…I might do a post on this later. In fact, just look at all those HnK releases – I think I’ll name October 1 Hiiro no Kakera Day!

Other news on release dates and adaptations:

• July 24: Souten no Kanata for the PC from Mi-o (YAY I was waiting for this!)
• Sept 17 2009: Hoshi no Furu Toki Portable for the PSP from Otomate – woot! I tried to order this (the first Otomate game from Kazu Kiyone) and they couldn’t find it – apparently they are starting to re-release old titles as “Otomate Classics”
• Oct 1 2009: Hiiro no Kakera  Shin Tamayorihime Denshou for the PS2 from Otomate
• Oct 1 2009: Shin*Hiiro no Kakera 2 for the PS2 from Otomate
• Oct 1 2009: Hiiro no Kakera (original) Aizouhan (Perfect Edition) for the PS2 from Otomate
• October 2009: Death Connection for the PS2 from Otomate
• Fall 2009: Nade Pro (the seiyuu game!) for the PS2 from Gungho Works

The art is pretty simple, but I can see it working on the DS. And the saikin are so cute! Apparently they’re little creatures that the main character sees when someone she’s talking to feels a certain emotion – there are angry saikin, sad saikin, etc.

If you’ve played Panic Palette, the concept is somewhat similar – when you’re having a conversation with someone and they feel a strong emotion, a saikin for that emotion appears. If you ‘catch’ it with your DS pen, you can collect that saikin for later use. Unlike Panic Palette, however, you need to talk to different people to get different saikin.

Later, when you’re talking with a boy and a star appears near him, you can then use one of your collected saikin to make his mood change for a moment to that feeling. The guy might show or tell you more than he would normally.

Haha, I should really play that again, right now I’ve only gotten one character…I am too easily distracted…

Aug 21
Uwasa no Midori-kun 2 DS
Harutoki Yume no Ukihashi DS

Aug 28
Heart no Kuni no Alice PS2

Sep 11
Hoshizora no Comic Garden DS

Sep 18
Hakuouki PS2

Sep 20
Neo Angelique Special PSP – hmm, the site says that the 4 new characters from the anime show up here in special events, but I don’t *think* they’re available as character routes.

Sep 25
Kanuchi (White Wing)
True Fortune

Oct 9
Will o Wisp Easter Miracle

Fall
Bakumatsu Renka DS
Hoshiiro no Okurimono PSP
Hoshigari Empusa PSP