At first I didn't like this quite as much as the first one but I think after finishing my first run I'm pretty sure I like it as much as Tokimeki 1. It's a bit slower paced, and it definitely doesn't want you to date as many girls as tokimeki 1, but I think it ends up making its own style that works out in the end.
Since I've only done one run I can't exactly go super deep into mechanical criticism but it definitely felt like they tuned Tokimeki 2 to be a bit harder to get the best results in. Relationship rating and stats themselves seem to raise a bit slower in this one, and unlike tokimeki 1 where I messed around and still got into a top-rate university, I was unable to even get into an average one in this. Don't really have a problem with this, it's just different from the first one.
https://imgur.com/KIgPFWd
The childhood prologue is interesting and provides some more reasons to care about the childhood friend this time around (I'll admit I ignored Shiori in Tokimeki 1.) It's mostly just walking around and examining locations/talking to people for about 45ish minutes, but it's a nice change of pace. I don't think it has any impact on the main game, but I could be wrong.
On the character side of things I don't have a ton to say although I do think it's interesting that your guy friends will end up dating some of the potential love interests if you don't spend time with them. I'm not sure if it's fixed who they end up with or not, but I kind of liked it. It always felt weird to me in games with romance options when everyone just remained single forever to avoid stepping on the player's toes.
https://imgur.com/WPn2c3n
When you finish the game there's a nice album feature that has images of various events and dates you had with whoever you ended up with. It's cute, and a very nice feature for this sort of game. Also, during the credits scene there's little epilogues for all the characters you met which I appreciate. Since this game felt like it wanted me to focus I didn't hang out with most of them but it was still cool to see what happened to them in the end.
Overall I enjoyed it, I'll probably go back and play tokimeki 1 again before doing a second run though.
Edit: I forgot to mention the Emotional Voice System which uses a synthesized voice program to have the voice actors say the name you input. I don't know enough about voice synthesizers to say whether or not the EVS is impressive for 1999 or not, but it seemed pretty well made for something meant to work on a PS1. Unfortunately it (in my experience, I'll admit I didn't mess with it too much) can only load one synthesized voice at a time so it ended up being more awkward than no voice acting for the main character's name at all. The voice itself of course sounds a bit out of place but I won't complain about that since it is a 1999 PS1 game after all.
Since I've only done one run I can't exactly go super deep into mechanical criticism but it definitely felt like they tuned Tokimeki 2 to be a bit harder to get the best results in. Relationship rating and stats themselves seem to raise a bit slower in this one, and unlike tokimeki 1 where I messed around and still got into a top-rate university, I was unable to even get into an average one in this. Don't really have a problem with this, it's just different from the first one.
https://imgur.com/KIgPFWd
The childhood prologue is interesting and provides some more reasons to care about the childhood friend this time around (I'll admit I ignored Shiori in Tokimeki 1.) It's mostly just walking around and examining locations/talking to people for about 45ish minutes, but it's a nice change of pace. I don't think it has any impact on the main game, but I could be wrong.
On the character side of things I don't have a ton to say although I do think it's interesting that your guy friends will end up dating some of the potential love interests if you don't spend time with them. I'm not sure if it's fixed who they end up with or not, but I kind of liked it. It always felt weird to me in games with romance options when everyone just remained single forever to avoid stepping on the player's toes.
https://imgur.com/WPn2c3n
When you finish the game there's a nice album feature that has images of various events and dates you had with whoever you ended up with. It's cute, and a very nice feature for this sort of game. Also, during the credits scene there's little epilogues for all the characters you met which I appreciate. Since this game felt like it wanted me to focus I didn't hang out with most of them but it was still cool to see what happened to them in the end.
Overall I enjoyed it, I'll probably go back and play tokimeki 1 again before doing a second run though.
Edit: I forgot to mention the Emotional Voice System which uses a synthesized voice program to have the voice actors say the name you input. I don't know enough about voice synthesizers to say whether or not the EVS is impressive for 1999 or not, but it seemed pretty well made for something meant to work on a PS1. Unfortunately it (in my experience, I'll admit I didn't mess with it too much) can only load one synthesized voice at a time so it ended up being more awkward than no voice acting for the main character's name at all. The voice itself of course sounds a bit out of place but I won't complain about that since it is a 1999 PS1 game after all.