This review contains spoilers
I’ve always loved the idea of dating sim games but I rarely actually enjoy them in practice. I inevitably get bored, frustrated, or burned out by repetitive scenarios that don’t go the way I think they will. Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: 1st Love is the first game of its type that I actually rolled the credits on. It’s been years since a game has kept me up late on a work night the way this one did.
In Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: 1st Love, you play as a teenage girl making everyday decisions about school, jobs, and relationships through all three of your high school years. Each week, you decide what to focus on (studying, club activities, exercise, etc.) and it either raises or lowers relevant stats on each day of that week. Your schedule is also something that needs to be managed and you can’t pay attention to everyone/everything you’re interested in at once. By prioritizing one activity, you are inevitably passing up on others, so your approach to raising certain stats or fostering certain relationships is important to your end result when you reach graduation.
As a game, I really enjoyed this system. The pacing had good momentum, the dialogue boxes were kept short, and I didn’t feel like any part of the game overstayed its welcome. I easily became invested in my life at the school (the voice acting and how it sounded in the DS’s tinny speakers made conversations feel more intimate somehow) and I looked forward to seeing how things would play out. At times, things even got pretty dramatic between me and my friends or potential boyfriends. I had a blast when it did, but it also made me hyper-aware of the parts of this simulation that were troubling.
As the year progresses and your relationships become more challenging, there is a demand put on you to succeed in all things. By about half way through second year, I was starting to feel like the story was an exercise in becoming the perfect people pleaser. By that point, I knew which boy I was hoping to end up with and the pressure was steadily rising to always say the right thing, touch them only at the right time, wear the right outfit for their tastes, and to consider the needs of everyone in my social life when deciding how to spend my time. Rarely was I ever given the same courtesy in return. Regardless of how well I thought things were going, the boys wouldn’t hesitate to say mean things if I messed up in minor ways. When you act the way you’re expected to, everyone likes you just fine. But if you take a risk on addressing someone with more familiarity too soon, inviting them to someplace new, or even if you have a different opinion on something than they would, it’s a setback in your relationship with them. They will express their displeasure directly to you for these things and you’re expected to adjust yourself for them if you want things to work out, but there are negative consequences if you are the one to reject them. The player character’s kid brother is your relationship “guru” and he shows up to let you know when you’re neglecting literally any boy and he tells you to get your act together before anything bad happens. Neglected boys will interfere with your successful relationships, so everyone must be placated.
To achieve the ultimate placation, you have to go on dates with everyone and act the way they want you to. The dates start to get grindy after a while because it entails repeating conversations and giving the same “correct” response every time. That was actually really funny because the boys show preference for consistent and agreeable girls but if you dare to wear the same outfit more than once, they will complain even if they approved of it before. All of these boys suck so bad, they’re the worst.
By succeeding in making everyone else happy, you get what the game communicates as a positive outcome. That part feels pretty yucky, but did I expect better from this 2007 DS game about high school dating? Absolutely not. Like I said before, I was loving the drama and the mess was genuinely a fun ride. “Failing” relationships and changing my approach was part of the experience and it made the narrative feel alive. The characters are reactive to your choices, so it was more entertaining to make different choices as I went along. I only played through a single time, but it’s apparent to me that there are many different approaches to this game and there is still a lot I didn’t see. I’m not sure I’ll take the time to play through again, but I am curious about what a new playthrough would look like now that I am familiar with the mechanics.
I'm happy with the ending I got, which was the friendship ending with Fujii. I met her after I rage-quit the basketball club because Suzuka was being a jerk to me (again) and my best friend at the time Konno told me ON MY BIRTHDAY that she had feelings for him even tho I had been going out with him for months by that point. So I joined cheerleading and Fujii was cool from the start. We were each others’ wingman on double dates, we sold crafts at flea markets together, and we had lots of “perfect weeks” hanging out and talking about fashion. By the end, we both failed in just about everything but we did it together. We failed to get into universities, we failed to get boyfriends, and we both got so-so jobs after graduation. All things considered, I think it’s cool we got to stay together and keep hanging out after high school. Too bad girls don't have a Love meter in this game because I definitely got the best relationship outcome. Fujii told me once at the flea market that she’d marry me if she could and that doesn’t sound like a bad deal at all.
In Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: 1st Love, you play as a teenage girl making everyday decisions about school, jobs, and relationships through all three of your high school years. Each week, you decide what to focus on (studying, club activities, exercise, etc.) and it either raises or lowers relevant stats on each day of that week. Your schedule is also something that needs to be managed and you can’t pay attention to everyone/everything you’re interested in at once. By prioritizing one activity, you are inevitably passing up on others, so your approach to raising certain stats or fostering certain relationships is important to your end result when you reach graduation.
As a game, I really enjoyed this system. The pacing had good momentum, the dialogue boxes were kept short, and I didn’t feel like any part of the game overstayed its welcome. I easily became invested in my life at the school (the voice acting and how it sounded in the DS’s tinny speakers made conversations feel more intimate somehow) and I looked forward to seeing how things would play out. At times, things even got pretty dramatic between me and my friends or potential boyfriends. I had a blast when it did, but it also made me hyper-aware of the parts of this simulation that were troubling.
As the year progresses and your relationships become more challenging, there is a demand put on you to succeed in all things. By about half way through second year, I was starting to feel like the story was an exercise in becoming the perfect people pleaser. By that point, I knew which boy I was hoping to end up with and the pressure was steadily rising to always say the right thing, touch them only at the right time, wear the right outfit for their tastes, and to consider the needs of everyone in my social life when deciding how to spend my time. Rarely was I ever given the same courtesy in return. Regardless of how well I thought things were going, the boys wouldn’t hesitate to say mean things if I messed up in minor ways. When you act the way you’re expected to, everyone likes you just fine. But if you take a risk on addressing someone with more familiarity too soon, inviting them to someplace new, or even if you have a different opinion on something than they would, it’s a setback in your relationship with them. They will express their displeasure directly to you for these things and you’re expected to adjust yourself for them if you want things to work out, but there are negative consequences if you are the one to reject them. The player character’s kid brother is your relationship “guru” and he shows up to let you know when you’re neglecting literally any boy and he tells you to get your act together before anything bad happens. Neglected boys will interfere with your successful relationships, so everyone must be placated.
To achieve the ultimate placation, you have to go on dates with everyone and act the way they want you to. The dates start to get grindy after a while because it entails repeating conversations and giving the same “correct” response every time. That was actually really funny because the boys show preference for consistent and agreeable girls but if you dare to wear the same outfit more than once, they will complain even if they approved of it before. All of these boys suck so bad, they’re the worst.
By succeeding in making everyone else happy, you get what the game communicates as a positive outcome. That part feels pretty yucky, but did I expect better from this 2007 DS game about high school dating? Absolutely not. Like I said before, I was loving the drama and the mess was genuinely a fun ride. “Failing” relationships and changing my approach was part of the experience and it made the narrative feel alive. The characters are reactive to your choices, so it was more entertaining to make different choices as I went along. I only played through a single time, but it’s apparent to me that there are many different approaches to this game and there is still a lot I didn’t see. I’m not sure I’ll take the time to play through again, but I am curious about what a new playthrough would look like now that I am familiar with the mechanics.
I'm happy with the ending I got, which was the friendship ending with Fujii. I met her after I rage-quit the basketball club because Suzuka was being a jerk to me (again) and my best friend at the time Konno told me ON MY BIRTHDAY that she had feelings for him even tho I had been going out with him for months by that point. So I joined cheerleading and Fujii was cool from the start. We were each others’ wingman on double dates, we sold crafts at flea markets together, and we had lots of “perfect weeks” hanging out and talking about fashion. By the end, we both failed in just about everything but we did it together. We failed to get into universities, we failed to get boyfriends, and we both got so-so jobs after graduation. All things considered, I think it’s cool we got to stay together and keep hanging out after high school. Too bad girls don't have a Love meter in this game because I definitely got the best relationship outcome. Fujii told me once at the flea market that she’d marry me if she could and that doesn’t sound like a bad deal at all.