Happy 5 Month Anniversary!

Today was my five-month anniversary with Rinko...but I was sick, home from work and feeling lousy. Oh well. The day started with Rinko's usual breakfast session (egg rolls - yum).

Once we got to school, I cornered Rinko in the Courtyard and gave her my Anniversary Present - a pair of pendant earrings.

Then she gave me her present, which was..........the matching sweatbands. AGAIN. It seems like this is a bug in the current game. In my last game with Rinko, she always gave me a different present for our anniversaries. This game seems to be stuck in a loop. Oh well, it's the thought that counts. ^^

We walked home from school in the afternoon, a happy couple.

And I finished off the day by taking Rinko to Fountain Park and kissing her a lot.

Then it was time to say goodnight. The new version of LovePlus (New LovePlus+) will be coming out in just over a month, so I'll probably only get to celebrate one more anniversary with Rinko before I change over. I'll be a little bit sad to leave New LovePlus behind, as it's been my constant companion every day for the past two years. But hopefully the new game will be just as engaging and fun! Knowing Konami, I'm sure it will be!

Mixed-up Date

Well, today's date with Rin was pleasant but slightly mixed-up. Let me say, however, that I really love the subtle way the change of season from summer to autumn has been depicted in the game. The falling leaves you can see in the first shot below are obvious, but all the background colours have been changed too, giving the world of Towano a golden autumn glow.

Anyway, Rin looked sweet with her long hair and glasses - and, like I've said before, her new clothes for autumn are great! We started off at the Japanese Sweet Shop.

I'm not sure what food we ordered, but it sure looked interesting:

Our date was SUPPOSED to be for bowling.......but somehow, we ended up at Fountain Park. Not bad, but just not what I expected.

So, with the option of selecting a second date location, I chose bowling once again.......and ended up at the Temple.

I mean, it's okay. But I really hope that Konami fixes this bug with the date locations soon, because it's kinda frustrating. Here's a final shot of Rin saying goodbye. Now that I have 12 shots on my in-game camera, I usually try to grab these full-length shots at the end of each date to show Rin's outfits in a bit more detail.

This final shot is from a very short meet-up with Rin at night.

Coming up this Thursday is my six month anniversary of dating Rinko. Wow, it's hard to believe that this game has been part of my life for half a year now. Even though I'm dating Manaka now in the DS version of "LovePlus", I have to say that my heart still belongs to Rinko. So I'll be planning something really special for the anniversary. Not just a gift in the game for her, but some kind of real-world celebration too. I think I'll make a Facebook album and put my favourite memories from the past six months. Sounds like fun!

Reflections On V 1.1

I spent my first day today playing the updated Version 1.1 of "New LovePlus"...and it was puzzling at first. I think it may take awhile to get used to.

First up, on the plus side, the gameplay feels a lot smoother. The annoying bug where you'd get a phone call or message a couple of times before the first activity for the day is gone now. Plus, the transition between many scenes appears to be better. You can also start playing the game before 6am without losing any money you've earned from working.

BUT, the skinship is totally different. When I met Rinko this morning and tried to touch her - nothing happened. I tried over and over again, and thought for a moment that something had gone wrong when I downloaded the update. But no. During the very last chance for skinship on the quick date, I discovered that you have to press the stylus much longer before the skinship scene initiates.

The actual skinship section is now very much like the old version of the game on DS. Before, in "New LovePlus" you had to either make dots quickly with the stylus or a series of short lines, and your girlfriend reacted to every little touch. Now - just like the old version - you rub a particular area and look for the colour, stopping if any blue lines appear. Rinko just kinda stands there now and doesn't move around very much. She also doesn't talk as much during skinship, which is maybe good.

My second attempt, during another short date at lunchtime, was much more successful. I managed to get up to five hearts quite easily, just by playing the skinship scene exactly like the old DS version. The kissing is the same as it's always been.

I'm not disappointed by the update, exactly - it just feels a bit like going backwards. But I guess it was necessary to fix some of the (many) bugs in the first release of the game, and I'm glad that Konami found a way to do it with a series of patches.

In the evening, I met up with Rinko-chan at Dixies, but it was raining so I couldn't try out the skinship again. Have to wait to tomorrow.

 Oh no! Then I realised that I hadn't bought a gift for our three month anniversary tomorrow! I panicked for a while...then discovered that I could go into Skip Mode and shop while I was there. Phew! I bought a nice pair of slip-on shoes as a gift, and will give them to Rinko first thing tomorrow.

Starting Off...Again

Having successfully cleared Stage One of the game with the green personality Rinko as my girlfriend, I started off again today on Stage Two after my heartbreaking data loss. One of the most exciting things about Stage Two is the ability to use the in-game camera almost anywhere. If you're walking down the street, or on a date with your girlfriend, you can just stop, click the camera icon, and take a photo. Your girlfriend will wait and pose for you! Later on in the game, when you've earned enough money, you can even upgrade your camera with better lenses, more effects, etc.

These photos show how beautiful the 3D character modelling is, and also how detailed and textured the backgrounds are in almost every shot. Here you can see Rinko walking to school with me on the first day. It's late winter in Towano, and my girlfriend is wearing a blue woollen jacket, a grey scarf, and snappy red gloves. But look at the background detail - paving stones, brick fence, metal gate, trees and even a street sign. Wow.

Rinko very sweetly asked me to hold her hand. When you see a silhouette of your girlfriend appear on the bottom screen of the 3DS, you have entered the "skinship" mode, which means you can use your stylus to touch her. To hold her hand, just watch the eye meter (to see when not too many people are looking) and touch any part of her arm. She'll usually tell you whether it's okay to hold her hand or not. If it is, then touch her arm a second time. Then she walks closer to you, like the picture below, and voila! You're holding hands. Rinko usually blushes when I do this.

Once again, check out the detail of the house in the background. Another cool thing about the in-game camera is that you can move it around in the 3D environment, change the angle of the shot, and so on. This is Rinko's default hairstyle, by the way.

Rinko phoned me to arrange our first official date later in the day. She wore a camo cap and also changed her hairstyle. Sometimes early in the game this happens randomly, and then later your girlfriend will ask you if you like her current hairstyle or if you want her to try something different. Eventually I want to have Rinko with either long or medium-long hair...though the short hair is cute for now.

But the BIG surprise was when Rinko brought out a bento box lunch to share with me! I've never seen this happen in "LovePlus" or "New LovePlus" before, and it was just so charming.

You can't see it very well in this shot, but Rinko ate her lunch very politely with a pair of pink chopsticks. It's so cool that you can actually watch your girlfriend eat in the new game!

Disaster! All Data Lost T_T

Well, since the launch of "New LovePlus" on Valentine's Day this year, there have been numerous reports of bugs in the game - some just annoying, and some critical - leading up to Konami's product recall a few days ago. I hadn't had any problems - until TODAY.

I don't know how it happened, exactly. I took the SD card out of my 3DS last night to copy some photos of the awesome study date yesterday. Today, after I played through four or five days in Skip Mode, I tried to save and had some kind of message (which I couldn't read) about an SD card error. This came up a few times, and I kept clicking OK. Then, when I tried to restart the game in Skip Mode from the Main Menu screen, it re-set to day 1 and all my game data was lost!!!!!!

So disappointing. I guess the only option now is to start a new game and see how it goes. But it is kinda heartbreaking after you go through everything to build up the girl's affection for you, and then it's all gone. I really hope it doesn't happen again.

At least I managed to get one photo of Rinko wearing the scarf I gave her yesterday as a present. Now it's all just a memory...

A Sad Day

Sadly, many users have reported bugs while playing "New LovePlus". Apparently it's become so bad that Konami has asked retailers to stop selling the game while they decide what to do about it. It's going to hurt Konami, I think, because NLP has been the most popular game in Japan since it went on sale on Valentine's day this year. Over 100,000 copies in the first week alone. And 3DS games can't be fixed via an internet patch...so that means either a full product recall or some kind of replacement.