And here I thought my former addiction to Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: 1st Love Plus was bad. I think I've finished this game ten times already, and I've got one of the character's theme songs permanently stuck in my head.
I admit it: I'm a sucker for otome games (female-oriented Japanese dating sim-type games). If they were ever officially released in English, I would probably be broke because of them.
The target audience for these games are teenagers, and I'm definitely not a teenager...but there are other fangirls out there who are about my age (or a little older, even) and still enjoy games like Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side (TMGS). I guess for some, it's fun to relive the old excitement of having a crush on an upperclassman, or falling in love with your best friend.
Personally, I'm just ecstatic about hearing some of my favorite voice actors providing the voices for the characters you get to romance in TMGS. The first game had a bunch of voice actors that are more familiar to my generation in it, like Midorikawa Hikaru, Hiyama Nobuyuki, and Ryoutaro Okiayu. I'm not all that familiar with the voice actors in the second game, but I did recognize one particular voice: Nakai Kazuya. (Hint: )
I found (TMGS2) to be more fun to play than the first game. The TMGS2 characters just seem to be more appealing to me than ones in the first game, plus the relationship developments seemed more believable (especially for the hidden characters). The in-game artwork seems to be much more polished in this game, too.
There aren't a lot of differences between the first and second games with regards to general gameplay, though; the silly Sports Day and Valentine's Day mini-games are still in here, you still need to build up the heroine's parameters (Fitness, Style, etc.) to get the guy you want, and, of course, who can forget about dating?
Wakaouji Takafumi's "accidental kiss" scene
The addition of the "accidental kiss" event in this game also makes life much easier when pursuing a specific guy. This event involves the heroine accidentally kissing one of the guys (who the heroine winds up kissing depends on the choices you make in an in-game quiz). Sharing an accidental kiss with a guy reduces the number of times the heroine has to date him to get his ending (15 instead of 25), which makes things much easier all around.
Skinship has been taken to a whole new level in TMGS2.
Another major difference gameplay-wise is that "skinship" (that's the term used in-game to refer to when you use your stylus to poke/touch your guy) is much more complex. Not only do you get to "poke" your guy with the stylus, but you get to rub or stroke him too (yes, I am aware of just how wrong that sounds, thanks). To see just how far Konami has taken skinship in this game, you can check out .
Final Verdict
Rating: 
I really loved playing this game for all the positive reasons I mentioned above. The only reason I didn't give this a 5-star rating is because the stupid mini-games that I hate (like that Valentine's Day Chocolate game) are still there.
And because shota-bait like Amachi Shouta (lol, I see what you did there, Konami) need to go die in a fire.
Additional note: If you're interested in playing this game in English, there's a TMGS2 translation patch available from the good folks over at . Please don't ask me where you can get the ROM of the actual game, though - you're on your own with that.
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Thanks for the review. I just got the English patch..but for some reason I’m way too excited and nervous to start playing immediately…It’s that jittery feeling when you really are about to go on a real date…I’m such a loser (this is what happens when you haven’t dated in a long time..heheh). I’m not too thrilled with the mini-games, but whatever…that won’t stop anyone from finishing the game. It’s interesting that you found the characters to be more appealing than the ones in the first game. Just based on first impressions, I find the the 2nd Season suitors to be less physically attractive compared to the first game. But I guess their personalities will draw me in. Thanks again for helpful review.
Hey there! Glad my review was useful. The mini-games really are annoying, but nah, they won’t stop me from playing the game over and over. They’re not required to finish the game anyway (except the chocolates thing – that one’s an essential :p).
To be honest I think the improved art style was what made the characters here more physically appealing than the guys from the previous game for me, but really, I find that their personalities are more fleshed out than the guys in the first game. Like I said, it makes the relationship more believable!
But I’m not saying that I dislike the guys in the first game or anything like that – Himuro will always be my #1.