Dating is kind of annoying, actually: let's talk about Love Plus

So, Love Plus. The only game in my DS emulator, save for TWEWY. I didn't know anything about it coming in, except that it was a dating sim developed by Konami of Tokimeki Memorial (and probably something else? IDK I don't play videogames) fame.

Presentation-wise, it's pretty neat. You play in portrait mode, and the girls are 3d models, though you get the occasional 2d event cg. You even get to choose how they'll say your name in the character creation part, which I thought was pretty cool.

You get three save slots, one for each girl. The routes are very short, and compared to Tokimemo, the stat-balancing is incredibly easy. In just one day, you can reach the ending…or rather, the beginning. That's right. Once you start dating, that's when the game really begins…and also where it lost my interest (⁠-⁠_⁠-⁠;⁠)⁠・⁠・⁠・

After you start dating, the game switches to real time mode. You can pick an activity for the day, call your new girlfriend out on dates(just don't be late!), pet them (if they let you…) and talk to them in Love Plus Mode. I had some problems with the voice input which was obviously annoying, but all things considered, it worked better than I expected it to.

So, I'm bad at the petting minigame, and while talking to Manaka was fun(it reminded me of a doll I saw at a store once. You talked to it and it answered!), it got old pretty fast. Off to the next route…or so I say, but playing this so soon after Totono made me feel like I was going to get murdered for betraying her(⁠;⁠;⁠;⁠・⁠_⁠・⁠)

Well. None of the girls had a cellphone to call god with, so my sins were known to no one and I obviously didn't get murdered. I started playing for Manaka, but Rinko ended up being my favorite…sorry for being a three-timer and a bad girlfriend…

In the end, it's one of those games that I imagine is more fun with an actual DS, but even then, I can't see myself ever playing the whole girlfriend gimmick seriously…unless they made a version of this with like. Saber as a romance option. Oh my god can you imagine—