The New Age Begins!

At around 8:45am today, a box from Japan arrived by EMS, containing my wonderful New LovePlus+ Rinko deluxe set! Because I'm unwell today and off work anyway, I was able to unpack my new set and play with it (almost) straight away!

This is the outer box of the Rinko deluxe set:

There are even cute chibi illustrations on the box flaps.

Inside the box, there are two more smaller boxes. The one on the left contains the Rinko's Secret art book, the illustrated boards, and a copy of the CD. The smaller box contains the 3DS LL console and the game itself.

This photo shows the back of the art book box. Note the change from winter to summer school uniform when you flip it over.

Here's the front cover of the Rinko's Secret art book (which is beautiful, by the way, with a lot of new illustrations from Mino Taro and even unpublished work in progress).

And here is the packet containing the art prints and the front of the Rinko's Secret CD. The CD isn't a soundtrack this time - it's mostly speech by Sakura Tange (Rinko's voice actor) and the opening song from the new game.

There are four art prints, which printed back and front gives you eight exclusive illustrations all together.

These two are my favourites - especially the one of Rinko sitting on her school chair:

Here's the Rinko's Secret CD beside the box containing the game cart.

And finally, here's the 3DS LL console. It has a beautiful matte finish, which is not reflective like the 3DS and doesn't show fingerprints at all (thank goodness). I love the white base colour, and the print of Rinko is really cool.

And look at those screens. They are 90% bigger than the screens of the 3DS.

First impressions of the game itself? I'm kinda speechless, actually - but I will say one thing. After playing this new game on the amazing custom 3DS LL console (known as 3DS XL in the West), when you go back to the old 3DS game it feels like a toy.

Let me start at the beginning. After charging the battery in my new console (which takes about 3 hours), setting it up with the help of a downloaded English manual, and installing new system software (which also took quite a long time), I was finally able to pop the NLP+ cart inside and start the game.

If you've been reading this blog at all lately, you'll know that I've made the decision not to transfer my data from NLP, but to start a new game from the beginning. The game itself takes around 15 minutes to copy all the necessary files onto your SD card - but, while this is going on, you are presented (on the large LH screen) with a slideshow of backgrounds from the game. This was enough for me! When I saw Fountain Park, the Zoo, Winning Burger and other date locations I've seen THOUSANDS of times before - but saw them on the glorious BIG console - I was almost in tears. The difference is literally like watching a classic movie on TV and then going to see it at the cinema.

It's a night and day difference. Aside from being larger, the images are crisper and more detailed. I really was amazed - and the game itself hadn't even started yet.

I haven't noticed any difference at all in the gameplay of the "friend" section of the game between NLP and NLP+...but, having said that, what a difference the console makes to everything. I met Nene first, then Rinko and then Manaka, and all three girls looked gorgeous. But of course, I am pursuing Rinko. I've played around 30 days now, and I've just had my first date with Rinko at Fountain Park, with the sakura blossoms falling. The atmosphere is so much more immersive now, and I'm reminded of all the things that made my love the LovePlus series in the first place.

I could probably play all the way through to Confession tonight, but I promised myself I would take things slowly this time around and really soak up the feeling of being back in (a slightly new version of) Towano. So I'm happy for the "friend" section to take a few days if need be.

I'm a little apprehensive about the revamped Skinship and Kissing in NLP+. But then again, I always preferred S&K in the original DS game, and that's mostly what the new version seems to have gone back to. Konami never got S&K right in NLP - we all just got used to it.

I have truly loved the experience of playing New LovePlus on the 3DS for the past two and a bit years - but now I know there's no going back. I picked up my 3DS and played a little bit just now, but the magic is gone. I'll probably just play the 3DS game in a very cursory way for the next few days, just until I make sure I get a confession from the Green personality Rinko in NLP+ and I can handle the new approach to Skinship & Kissing. But once that's done, there'll be no going back.

It really is the beginning of a new age.

Saturday

Yay, I just found out via EMS tracking that my Deluxe Rinko Set of New LovePlus+ arrived in Australia today! This means that it should be here in my hot little hands on Monday. It's been a long wait, given the fact that I pre-ordered my set early in December last year. Hopefully, the wait will be worth it. My wife has finally also decided to order the Nene Deluxe Set, which should arrive sometime next week too. (No more sharing one console will be a good thing.)

I met Rinko at the Library during our half-day of school today.

And then again for a short date at Dixies this afternoon.

Valentine's Day!

Well, today was finally Valentine's Day. I could feel a sense of expectation as I waited for Rinko in the school hallway...

When who should appear but.........Nene????

It seems that poor Nene wanted to give me chocolate to thank me for my hard work at Dixies over the past year. It has been my part-time job, after all.

Of course, it would have been rude not to accept - so what could I do? Nene shook my hand at the end to make sure I understood.

But guess what? Just like last year's jealousy event with Manaka, Rinko had been watching the whole time.

Of course, she chewed me out for accepting chocolates from another girl!

But things went downhill from there. Rinko just couldn't get over it, and walked away.

When I tried to call Rinko, her phone was switched off. And when I met her later in the day near the stairwell, she refused to speak to me.

In the afternoon, Nene came up to me a second time. It seems that she'd heard about the confusion with Rinko, and offered to speak to my girlfriend and explain things.

How sweet! You know, I actually like Nene a little bit more now. She's never seemed like my kind of girl, but she does have a really nice side. I might even be tempted to date her sometime...

Late in the afternoon, I met Rinko on the school roof and we patched things up.

Rinko even gave me a beautiful box of chocolate for my (belated) Valentine's Day gift.

Well, these jealousy events are kinda fun. But I do hope that, some time, I can enjoy a happy Valentine's Day with Rinko, without all the misunderstanding.

First Screenshots

The Famitsu website today posted the first few screenshots from New LovePlus+, which is the updated version of New LovePlus due out next year. The first one shows Nene on what appears to be some kind of field trip. It's interesting to see how everything in the user menu has been redesigned - the month in a circle (kinda like iOS7), the type and feeling indicators, and the rounded edges of the dialog box.

There's no 3D this time, and the game will only play in "book mode" like the old DS version of LovePlus. There's a lot to note in the next screenshot, too - the chibi of Rinko has been redesigned, and the user menu on the right hand screen is completely different, with new icons and layout.

The next shot gives us a glimpse of what skinship will be like. And I'm really happy to say that it looks a LOT like skinship in the DS game. In my opinion, this was the nicest, most responsive skinship experience, so I'm happy to see the big heart meter make a return. Skinship was never as enjoyable in New LovePlus, even with the version 1.1 and 1.2 bug fixes. It also appears that skinship will feature a timer bar at the top of the right hand screen.

And this last screenshot shows the redesigned mail screen.

Anyone who can read Japanese or who wants to check out the full original post can find it here:

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201312/05044377.html

One Month Anniversary!

Well, today was the big day - my one month anniversary of dating Rinko-chan. I had high expectations - and I certainly wasn't disappointed. It was another day of huge surprises.

First up, I met a very sleepy Rinko on the way to school this morning. I think she must have overslept.

The next shot shows another cool background which I haven't noticed before.

Anyway, I wasn't sure how to play the special Anniversary (Kinenbi) gift-giving. I thought that perhaps there would be a special event listed amongst my activities for the day...but there was nothing apart from the usual school etc. For my one month anniversary, I didn't do anything until Rinko appeared at Dixies and gave me a present.

This time, I decided to take the lead, so I called her out from class during the first session of the day and met her in the school courtyard. I selected the option to give her a present during the short date.

The next shot shows Rinko's sweet face as she came up really close to receive her gift. She absolutely loved the gold earrings! And the best thing was that the game knew I was giving them as an anniversary gift.

After that, Rink immediately gave me her gift in return, which was much nicer than waiting for the end of the day. (I must remember to do it the same way next time!)

Rinko's anniversary gift was a matching pair of alarm clocks - one for her and one for me. Wow, nice. But I kinda get the feeling that she's trying to tell me something. Her one-week anniversary gift was a matching pair of watches...and now clocks? I'm always on time for dates, so it can't be that.

Whatever the reason, it was a nice gift, and it shows that Rinko very much thinks about us as a couple. I kissed her as much as I could before she had to go back to class...

So, with the "official" part of our anniversary over, it was time to relax and enjoy the rest of the day. The next photos were taken when I called Rinko out in the early afternoon for a short date at Fountain Park. We haven't been back to the park for a while, and I thought it might be nice to take her there for our anniversary.

I'm still experimenting with the in-game camera in "New LovePlus". Not just with camera angles, but also with the best time to take photos. Up until now, I've always waited for a break in the dialog. When I do this, Rinko looks at the camera and poses nicely for me. But today I tried snapping some photos while she was still talking, and managed to capture more of her body moves and expressions. These three photos are a very cute series where she was kinda covering her face with her hands. I especially love the second one.

To finish up the day, I took Rinko for a third short date at the Shrine (our new favourite place). It was a bit rushed, though, because the main purpose of this date was to set-up poses for the little anniversary party (see below). But of course, any time spent with Rinko-chan is worth it. ^^

So, the last part of the anniversary was a little party. It was also Nene's birthday in my wife's DS game, so we decided to celebrate together. I bought a little cake from Sydney's Cupcake Bakery today, some wasabi potato chips and a couple of candles (red for Nene, green for Rinko).

Here's the gift box from Cupcake Bakery...

And here's the cake itself.

The final step was to invite the guests - Nene and Rinko - and light the candles...

And here are the two girls enjoying their virtual world/real world party. I used to think it was crazy when I saw people doing this kind of stuff...but now I understand it completely. One month is a long time to play any game, and "LovePlus" demands a lot in terms of game time, emotion and concentrated thought. So I figured this was a reward as much as celebration of birthdays an anniversaries for the girls. And in these two shots, it actually looks like Nene and Rinko can see their cake with the candles...

So that wraps up one wonderful month of playing "New LovePlus". I've never had an experience like this in life before. It's really been quite unexpected and amazing. Now...just five more days and we leave for Japan!