“It’s not me, it’s you.”
– Me to Tsugumi, after doing Rui’s route.
I couldn’t tell whether the game or the girl was to blame for my less-than-optimal experience doing Tsugumi’s route, so I decided to play Tokimeki Memorial 4 one more time to make sure. And since I’m such a good friend, what better victim test subject than Nanakawa Rui, the cross-dressing twin sister of my bro and best buddy Nanakawa Tadashi?
Actually Tadashi kind of ruined things a bit by being shockingly chill about the whole thing. I even got an event one Christmas where he picks me up and drives me over to their place so I can spend the night helping Rui finish a manga in time for Comiket. He even encourages me to sleep in her room, then wakes me up the following morning and fixes me breakfast! Breakfast, I tell you! I’m dating your sister, man! Why are you so happy about it? Don’t you care about your sister?! Don’t you care about…me?
Hmph. Leaving Mr. No-Fun-At-All out of it, Rui route was fine, but a bit low on content. The girl herself was fun to hang out with, if a bit exhausting. At least I can introduce her to my friends and family without worrying that she’ll be snooty to all of them (*cough*Tsugumi*cough*). Rui is loud and hyper, but also down-to-earth and honest about her own faults and interests.
She would be my favorite if I hadn’t raised Fumiko Yanagi’s affection all the way to Tokimeki level by accident. That’s right, I took her on a couple of dates, hung out with her during the school trip and took her to the shrine the second year all by accident. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Yanagi is so sweet! In-game, when your mood is at its lowest she’ll often show up and cheer you up considerably, but even as a player I always felt much better after hanging out with her. She’s got easy-to-be-withability, if there’s such a term. When her affection got too high, I had to stand her up on a few dates to lower it, but even then she was unfailingly sweet. Like she was just worried about me, the poor sweetheart (btw don’t try this with Satsuki-sempai. She will be PISSED and she’s scary when pissed). If I had to pick one girl for the MC to marry in ten years, it would definitely be her.
Err, oops, anyway, this isn’t a post about Yanagi. It’s about the game-loving, cosplaying Rui, whose route had its funny moments. I’ve seen the Valentine’s scene on the right twice, but I laughed out loud both times. It’s also hilarious the way the girls in your school think you and Tadashi are in a relationship because of how close you are to Rui. And Tadashi seems to enjoy the misunderstanding, which is like, hmmm…
Some of her more otaku-oriented events reeked of “trying too hard” syndrome though. Rui works at a maid cafe, sings only anime songs at karaoke, draws doujinshi, loves going to the arcade, etc etc. A few incidents and its cool, after that it’s like “Okay, okay, she’s an otaku, I get it already!” Everything in moderation, Konami.
It’s not all bad news, of course. She’s fun to hang out with, she’s happy to show off her curves to you (oh, the possibilities!), and since she starts out at high friendship with the MC, even on the worst dates she’s usually pretty upbeat.
On the whole it was a fun route that restored my faith in Tokimeki Memorial 4 as a good game. You can’t win them all, but it’s comforting to know girls like Tsugumi are an aberration rather than the norm. Now for another break, after which I’ll do Yanagi (<3) and possibly Doyama-sempai.
