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the Rinko's Secret art book (which is beautiful, by the way, with a lot of new illustrations from Mino Taro and even unpublished work in progress).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

The Arrival

Didn't sleep at all last night - but now I'm PLAYING LOVEPLUS ON DS! The patched English version is great, and seems to run fine. I've done about ten days of gameplay, trying to focus on winning Rinko as my girlfriend. The game is divided into two parts. In the first part, you meet the three girls and you have 100 days to win the affections of one girl and get her to confess to you. After that, you enter the second half of the game, which is free-form and consists basically of maintaining your relationship with the girl by dating, gifts, kissing etc.

But then at 8:30am, a mere four days after placing my order for the Rinko limited edition box set, I was so excited when this MASSIVE box arrived by EMS:

And here's my first peek inside the box. At the top is the huge wall poster; then you can see the four badges, the box containing the Rinko limited edition 3DS console and "New LovePlus" game, and the 2-disc original soundtrack.

But wait, there's more! A flyer about the "LovePlus" Visa card, as well as a cool folder to keep your AR (Augmented Reality) cards in.

When you finish unpacking the main shipping box, here's what you get. The box on the far left contains the four limited edition art books. You can also see the 3DS battery at the bottom, which had been removed for shipping. I hate to use the cliche, "only in Japan...", but it's true in this case. Only in Japan would you see such care lavished on the release of a Nintendo game - and remember, this set is one of THREE limited editions, released on the same day! I believe that only a few hundred of each set were made. They were so rare, in fact, that Konami held a series of raffles for fans in Japan to win one. I'm so lucky to have my Rinko set. And so poor...

Opening the box with the 3DS console inside, the first thing you see is the "New LovePlus" game cartridge.

Here I'm proudly holding the Rinko limited edition 3DS console. It's basically a normal 3DS with a custom front and back cover, reflective silver with a clear plastic outer shell, and a very cute picture of Rinko listening to her MP3 player.

And here's the inside of the Japanese 3DS, unpacked, battery installed and ready to go. I say ready to go, but there were a few tiny challenges before I'd be able to play the game. 3DS games are region-locked, which means in order to play "New LovePlus" you need a Japanese 3DS. No problems there, as I got this one with my box set...except there's no English language option. That's right - all the menus, even the most basic set-up, are in Japanese. Fortunately, I solved this by downloading the English 3DS manual from the Nintendo website, because all the screens and menu options are basically the same.

There was enough juice in the battery to perform a basic set up, but then the next challenge. The Japanese power supply is 110v, and our power here in Australia is 250v - so plugging it in to charge wasn't exactly a safe option. After a little research, I tracked down a handy power supply from our local games store which included a plug for 3DS and a handful of other games/phones/devices.

Here's the beautiful poster that comes with the Rinko limited edition. Very high quality paper suitable for framing. (The poster is different for each of the three sets.)

And here is a close-up of the pins. Konami made pins for each of the prefectures in Japan
 - I got the Rinko versions of Akita, Iwate, Fukushima and Miyagi. I think the idea was to trade with other collectors for the ones you want, but they're all adorably cute and feature something about the culture from each local area.

Last but by no means least are the art books, which are truly a joy to behold (and to unpack). Opening the lid of the cardboard box, you see Rinko's adorable face looking up from the sturdy collector's box.

The box is tied at the side with a blue silk ribbon, something like the tie of a school uniform.

When you untie the ribbon, the real wonders of this box set begin! Here's the full outside of the box:

And here's the inside, with a second silk ribbon (Rinko's signature colour green this time) securing the FOUR limited edition hard cover art books, as well as a couple of glossy double-sided A4 art cards.

There is one art book for each main girl in the game (Manaka, Rinko and Nene), as well as a fourth book featuring all three girls. The character designs and illustrations are by Mino-taro.

Wow, what an amazing experience, but I can't help feeling it was money well spent. Everything about this box set is the highest quality, and it would be impossible to get it any other way. Now all I need to do is keep working my way through playing the English patched version of "LovePlus" so that I'm ready to tackle the 3DS version. I'm willing to be patient. I think.

Limited Edition Box Set

Being a lover of manga, anime and Japanese pop culture in general for about seven years now, I've been wanting to play Konami's "LovePlus" series of games since the release of the original version in 2009. The prospect seemed impossible, though. "LovePlus" was only available in Japan, with no English translation forthcoming. So I kind of gave up.

However, when I saw the VERY limited edition box sets that were being released to celebrate the launch of "New LovePlus" on Valentine's Day 2012, I knew I had to get one. Out of the three sets - Manaka, Rinko and Nene - I chose Rinko, and placed an order today through eBay Japan for a VERY large amount of money. The picture below (not mine) shows the three limited edition 3DS sets.

As well as what you see here, my limited edition set will include a poster, badges, a soundtrack CD, and four art books!

What's the attraction to this game? I guess I've always found manga and anime to be pretty passive, and the idea of actually being part of the story, making decisions that affect the outcome, is a big part of it. Also the character design and graphics of the "LovePlus" series have always been awesome. Who wouldn't want to date such cute Japanese girls? It's also the sheer unavailability of dating games in the west, even though they've had a long tradition in Japan. Most western people misunderstand or just don't get it. And finally, I like the idea of a dating game that doesn't involve sex. This is pretty rare, too, and I admire Konami for designing a game that puts feelings and a long-term relationship first.

Now I just have to wait until my box set arrives!