Definitely a well-crafted and engaging time. Really puts the "sim" in "dating sim", considering the fact that its more about making sure your stats are up to par rather than just picking correct dialog options while dating your singular girl of choice. You also can't just nolife on one specific girl, since if anyone else doesn't get enough attention, you bet ur ass they are gonna explode on not only you but your whole ass reputation. The game is made in a way where you are constantly juggling options to balance not only your stat growth to continue hanging out with the girl you do want to be with, but also the relationships with other girls so they don't cancel your ass. Just really well crafted game design all together, I can see why this game is held in such high regard. It's one of those games where I want to see more people play it and hear about their own personal runs, as this is one of those games that no two people play exactly the same. Definitely recommended, though if you are an english only speaker your only option is the super nintendo version which aint the most optimal way to play. The PC engine version is also the only one with an exclusive in-game shmup that you have to really work to play so that's funny.

The girls are cute, and dating sims are fundamentally a pretty fun concept when well-produced. There aren't a lot of games of this genre produced by larger companies like Konami. Sakura Taisen was the biggest competitor of the era I guess, but that had an additional genre (SRPG) and a structured story on top of everything, as is usually the case when big companies incorporate 'dating sim' elements. This is very pure in its dating focus, and it remains the most successful game of its type.

With that said, the system in Tokimeki Memorial is very repetitive and produces most of its difficulty through hiding important information. It's a game about making numbers go up, some of which are hidden numbers, but there's no way to know which numbers need to reach which values, or what reaching those values will accomplish, without trial and error.

The dates are nice and brief to keep things going at a brisk pace, and sometimes some fun unique events will trigger. But to succeed with Shiori for the intended ending, at least, you're actually best off going on relatively few dates with her so you have time to pick options from a menu that make numbers go up instead. And that's not very fun.

The bomb mechanic is a cool way to encourage switching up who you spend time with on a playthrough, but it heavily encourages savescumming so you don't waste a turn calling Yoshio. Any time it costs a turn to get nothing but information in return in any video game, I just wish the game made that information readily available and had some more interesting decisions to make instead.