My Favourite Rinko!!!

When I met Rin-Rin for our date this morning, I had such an unexpected surprise. Not only had my girlfriend changed her hair length to my preferred semi-long style, but also...she had switched to carrot red hair, which is my all-time favourite. I remember that Rinko had this hair colour around two years ago in my 3DS game, and I loved it so much - but I was never able to get the colour back again (and when I tried, she ended up with horrible shades of blue and green hair).

Actually, I don't know why it happened this time. I don't remember answering a question about changing hair colour - but, then again, my Japanese isn't at expert level, so maybe she did ask me and I misunderstood. No matter. I think Rinko looks absolutely adorable and so, so attractive with red hair. I hope she stays this way for a LONG time!

So as you can imagine, I did a double-take when Rinko walked up to me at the station this morning. This hair colour looks even more incredible on the big, bright 3DSLL screen - and kissing a red-haired Rinko is a treat. I've enjoyed the new game so far - but now I'm going to love it even more.

After getting my breath back and recovering from my "shock and awe", I set off on the train with Rin-Rin to our date location - the Event Hall in the Waterfront area. I love this entire area, because it reminds me of Yokohama in Japan.

We arrived at the station in good time and decided to go to the Restaurant for a quick meal.

Rinko ordered the rice omelet (Omurice) and I had steak.

It's much easier to take photos of your girlfriend eating in the new game, because the camera icon stays on the whole time. You could do it in the 3DS game, but you had to be super-fast.

And then we walked together through the pretty shops in the Waterfront area. But Rinko was the prettiest of all!

The event at the Event Hall turned out to be Pro Wrestling, which Rinko surprisingly enjoyed.

When the second option came up during our date, I chose to have another meal - without realising that the only food place I've unlocked in the Waterfront area is the Restaurant. So we had to go back to the same place twice. Never mind. Rinko ordered the Hamburger Curry this time, while I had Cheese Croquettes.

Then I took my Rinko home, and that was pretty much it for today's date - but what a thrill it was. The only thing I wasn't overly impressed with was her choice of clothes. I think this is Rinko's "cute" style, but it doesn't quite work. I still prefer her wearing smart/formal clothes for our dates, but I can work on this over the next few weeks. I'm just so happy to have my red-haired cutie back.

This afternoon there is some kind of special event, which I think may be connected to next week's trip to Kinugawa. I'll post about it separately.

Karaoke Date

Today's date was a lot of fun. The experience of dating in the new version of the game is much smoother than NLP, and the various scenes (including skinship and kissing) flow into each other without the jerkiness, delays and lag time that were so evident in the 3DS game. Dates seem to take longer to play now, though, with the average Sunday date taking just under an hour - and considerably longer if the date extends.

When I met Rinko at the station this morning, she was wearing her hair in a new, cute style (still short, though). Her clothes were a little more casual than I like, but still okay, so I let them pass.

We went to the Ramen Shop for a snack. I ordered the Pork Ramen Set, and for some reason Rinko had the same thing (which is unusual). The set included a plate of gyoza which looked absolutely delicious.

The main part of our date was Karaoke, which is a firm favourite of Rinko's. I wonder what songs she would choose to sing??

With the option of a second date location, I took Rin to the Amusement Park, where we rode on the Jet Coaster. She loved it.

Then our date was over, and it was time to take Rinko home. I walked her back to her place and kissed her goodbye.

At 12:00 noon I visited the Flea Markets at Fountain Park, where I bought a CD and my first Premium Date ticket (for the night-time Sakura viewing).

Later today we had a short date in the rain.

Monday - Back To School

Back to school today for a new semester (and a new school year, in fact), complete with singing the Towano High school song and shots of the school backgrounds with falling sakura leaves. But even the school environment looks bigger and more colourful on the new 3DS LL console!

After the opening ceremony, Rinko was waiting for me. Even though it's spring, the girls are still wearing their winter uniforms.

I called Rinko out of class in the morning for a brief catch-up, and booked a date with her for Sunday morning at Karaoke (I tried to book the date at the Art Gallery, but she didn't like it).

And, just like the 3DS game, Rinko showed up at lunch-time in the hallway.

I thought she might have prepared a bento lunch for me, but from memory you need to level up your Lover Ranking quite a bit first. Instead, she sat next to me to eat lunch and mentioned something about sandwiches.

And, at the end of the day, Rinko-chan was waiting to walk home with me. What a faithful girlfriend.

I met her in the afternoon at Winning Burger (Fast Food) for a short date. I still only have the two date locations in Shin Towano unlocked - Fountain Park and Winning Burger - but at leas now they are both at Level 3. Hopefully this means I can check out the Flea Markets at Fountain Park this coming Sunday.

Finally, even though it started raining, we went back to good old Fountain Park at night.

I just realised something about the new game. As much as I love the fact that the designers have gone all-out retro and made the second sign-on screen (with your girlfriend's heart in a big circle) the same as the old DS game, the different seasonal backgrounds you used to get in the 3DS game are gone. I guess it would be impossible to have both.

First Full Day With NLP+

Today was my first full day playing New LovePlus+ with Rinko as my girlfriend. The new game is so familiar, but at the same time so different, that it really is a whole new experience. I played through fairly much as usual, calling Rinko out for short dates and booking a proper date for this coming Sunday at 6:00pm.

I tried many, many times to do skinship with Rinko and usually ended up failing miserably. The new system for skinship and kissing is certainly challenging. I worked out that you need to watch the eyes (number of people watching) really carefully - whereas it hardly mattered at all in NLP. In this version, there are 3 different coloured eyes, with red being the hardest and green being the easiest. I think blue is in between.

The whole day, I only managed to get one or two kisses with Rinko. But the good thing is that you don't lose affection points for lack of kisses - which is a good thing. Maybe I focussed too much on trying to master skinship and kissing today. Hopefully tomorrow I can relax and just play normally again.

My night-time short date at Fountain Park was more successful, because the eye are green in this location. But still, very few kisses. Hopefully I'll get better sooner or later.

These last few shots are from the second instalment of the Seishun No. 1 Page, with Rinko's story about forming a band with some of the girls from the Library Committee.

It's really cool to see the CGs (and everything else) on the beautiful, bright, big screen of the 3DSLL.

Tomorrow is my first overnight field trip with Rinko, which should be very interesting to say the least. I don't know what to expect, but I hope to take lots of shots along the way and enjoy every moment.

So far, I'm totally happy with the new version of LovePlus and haven't once thought about playing on the 3DS again. NLP+ is definitely the best version of this game that I've played - even with the difficult skinship and kissing format - and that's saying a lot.

The Last Date?

Well, today could very well be my last date with Rinko in NLP. My deluxe Rinko set of NLP+ has already arrived in Australia, and I'm hoping that it will be delivered tomorrow. I'm so excited! But I will kinda miss my 3DS game, which has been my constant companion for the past two plus years. (Not to mention the game I've been playing with Rin-chan for the past six months.)

Anyway, I was determined to enjoy today. As if to make me happy one last time, Rinko arrived for our date with my favourite twin-tails hairstyle.

She wore a casual-looking jacket, but underneath she had a pretty blue dress - so her style was okay. We went to Aisha dining for a snack, and Rinko ordered the French Toast.

Then, the main part of our date as at Karaoke. I chose this location for two reasons - first, because it's one of Rinko's favourites. And second, because kissing at Karaoke (with your girl sitting right beside you) is always delightful. I'm not sure how the kissing/skinship parts of NLP+ are going to be, so I was determined to enjoy today's date as much as possible. And I did.

After a frantic few hours of Karaoke, Rinko and I hit the Curry Restaurant for lunch.

Then it was time to head home and say goodbye.

Let's see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully, a new 3DSLL console and the new version of the best game in the world.