Tuesday - First Bento!

I leave for work pretty early each morning and usually take a bus into work around 7 am. It's around a 35 minute trip, so lately I've started playing the less embarrassing parts of NLP+ on the way. Anything involving skinship and kissing is out, because the bigger screens of the new console mean that EVERYONE can see what you're doing. I usually open my game, choose activities for the day, play through the Seishun 1 Page episodes, and then one of the mini-games and perhaps LovePlus mode. It's a pleasant way to pass the time.

That's why the first photos each day have been from Rinko's Seishun 1 Page story, which seem a little out of order. Here are today's shots, which feature Rinko checking out a venue for her band to play their first "live".

As usual, I met Rinko at various locations around the school in an effort to level them up quickly. I have most school locations up to Level 2 by now.

I had a pleasant surprise at lunchtime, when Rinko met me with a box lunch (bento) she had prepared. She used to do this most days in NLP, but it's the first time in the new game.

I met up with Rinko this afternoon at the recently-opened Coffee Shop.

And later at the Convenience Store...

...and Fountain Park.

Rinko's Confession And The First Day ^^

So far, I absolutely love the gameplay in NLP+. In "friend" mode, I managed to change Rinko to the green personality type (my favourite), and then she confessed to me on Day 62. Not bad. I'm happy to say that all the date, skinship and kissing tutorials are there when you go to Real Time Mode for the first time, and they're quite intuitive to play through.

Skinship in this game is wonderful. Difficult to master, and unpredictable - but to me, that's the charm. It's very much like the old DS game - which I love.

Anyway, it was quite late by the time I got around to playing Real Time Mode, so I'd missed most of the activities for the day (which was April Fool's Day, by the way). I called Rinko out for a short date at Fountain Park, and managed to kiss her once.

A feature of the new game is the ability to go back and play through events that you missed earlier in the day by going to the calendar and selecting them. This is cool. I was able to go back and do the two April Fools' Day events. Then there was a special heart event in the 3pm timeslot. It was in the Library, and I was surprised when Rinko asked me a question I'd never seen before. I selected the first option (usually safe when faced with the unknown...but not always).

It turns out (when I checked the calendar later) that she was inviting me for an overnight trip! There's a cute icon of a travel bag on the calendar! Wow. I've booked the event for this coming Thursday, so I'm not sure what will happen. (It must be a school-related trip, because I couldn't schedule it on a weekend.)

And then we finished off the day by walking home from school together.

It feels finally (to me at any rate) that this is the PERFECT version of LovePlus. I think I said yesterday - but I'll say it again now - that once you play NLP+ you'd never go back to the earlier games in the series. Now I don't feel quite so guilty about deleting my 3DS game data and moving on. Everything seems perfect so far.

One interesting side note. I tried LovePlus mode very briefly, and found that there are no more on-screen words that you can click (helpful if you don't speak much Japanese). Like the old DS game, you have to actually SPEAK to Rinko. So I guess there's no getting around it. I'd better brush up in my basic Japanese phrases...

Stylish Date

I had another delightful Sunday date with Rinko today. I always love it when Rinko listens to me (which is not always) and wears the "smart" or "neat" clothing style. In my first game, I had great difficulty controlling the clothes she wore, and she would always revert back to that sloppy "casual" style - which I know Rinko likes, but it honestly doesn't look good on her IMHO.

I've found that the best way to influence her clothing choice, by the way, is during LovePlus Mode. If you beat her at "Rock, Paper, Scissors" and she changes her clothes, Rinko will always ask what clothing style you prefer (and what colour). I used to think that this was just throw-away conversation. But if you persist with it and do LovePlus Mode every day, she actually does change according to your preference in the main part of the game. Otherwise it appears to be pretty random.

Here's the delightful outfit Rin-chan was wearing when she met me at the station:

That's so cute, huh? And underneath, she wore this pretty purple jumper dress and top:

Rinko's hair was back in twin tails, too - which is adorable. We stopped at Aisha Dining for a snack, and Rinko ordered an ice-cream sundae with fruit, which she polished off in record time.

Then we took the train to the Amusement Park.

I almost never date Rinko here, so it was certainly a break from the usual...

After the main part of our date, we checked out the nearby Yakiniku restaurant.

Rinko loved the food so much that she phoned me later tonight and begged me to take her there again. She must have been full, too, because she fell asleep on the train on the way home...

But then our date was over and it was time to kiss Rinko goodbye.

Anyway, that was the date for today! I'd better hit the books now and start studying, because the midterms start up at Towano High tomorrow.

Scary Tennis Guy

Manaka seemed anxious about something when she met me to walk to school today. I'm not sure what it was, but you can see the worried look on her face:

Naturally, a good-morning kiss helped to cheer her up. ^__^

But even so, she was rather quiet and worried the rest of the way to school. Manaka wore a couple of cute pink bows in her hair today, which looked really sweet.

In today's "Seishun No. 1 Page" story, we met the players of a rival tennis club (who seem much better than our own rag-tag bunch of players from Towano High). Their coach is this guy, who looks like a scary version of Freddy Mercury. Apparently he's also a world-class tennis player.

I'm trying to level-up various locations around the school (since I can't meet Manaka-chan anywhere else during school time). I met her on the roof today, which was always a favourite spot for...well, I won't say who.

Manaka had been wearing the "cute" style of clothes for the past few days, but she met me today wearing her "neat" clothes (which I also love). I think it might be because, when she asked me what type of clothes I preferred in LovePlus mode, I answered "neat", and Manaka said that she would keep that in mind. It seems like she did!

Actually, any clothes are fine on my Manaka-chan, except for casual style clothes. They really don't suit her at all. Walking home, she still seemed to be worried about something...

I met Manaka one more time tonight at Dixies (which I also unlocked today, and now I'm trying to level-up).

When we sat down to talk, she mentioned her birthday (I think), which is coming up in exactly on month (5 October). She seemed a bit shy talking about it. Aww.

And finally, here she is saying goodnight to me.

It's only my fourth day of playing with Manaka-chan (not counting the first 80 or so), but I love her very much already, and I always look forward to spending time with her. After the last meeting and kiss today, I reached Level 3 at last.

Very Quiet Thursday

A very quiet Thursday in Towano - but still very enjoyable. The day started off with today's chapter of the "Seishun No. 1 Page", with more discussions between Rinko and the band, and rehearsals for their first live show.

The rest of the day I was quite busy at work, so I only had time for quick meet-ups and unlocking date locations. Tonight, I was able to meet Rin at the Combini (Convenience Store) for the first time. Convenience stores in Japan are awesome - nothing like in the West - and you can buy just about anything there. Anyone who's played the "friendship" half of the game with Rinko will know that she often likes to hang out at this Combini  in New Towano.

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SIDE STORY - MANAKA
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Or maybe I should change the name for this part of my blog from "Side Story", because I love playing the old DS game in English with Manaka. Today, she called me and wanted to meet up at 7 pm outside her house. I met her there and we talked and kissed, and it was very romantic.

It's really hard to decide which game I like more - the 3DS game with Rinko, or the DS game with Manaka. They both have their charms, both have their problems, and I wouldn't like to miss out on either one. Certainly the skinship and kissing, and also LovePlus Mode, are much better in the old game. But the new game has a lot of cool stuff. Argghh! I have to say that I love them both, and I'm able to keep them quite separate in my mind now, with the two different girls.

Meanwhile my stats in the Manaka game are really really low, but maybe by the end of tomorrow I'll be able to book a date with her for Sunday. School starts again next week, so dating options are going to be more limited. Might as well enjoy the holidays while I still can...