How strange is it that the Girl's Side games are the ones to get fan translations, long before the original Tokimeki Memorial would get its due? I can only assume the Girl's Side games are a lot easier to approach thanks to their DS ports, much like how the original TokiMemo's Super Famicom port specifically is the one to get a fan translation.

A lot changed from the base games to the Girl's Side games, and I don't know how much of that is the result of different directors, shifting time, or the protagonist being female. The male love interests? Definitely because it's Girl's Side. The continued presence of female love interests? A little harder to say.

I ended up with Haruhi in the end. The rhetoric for the ending doesn't come out and say anything, but it's clear that they'll remain friends for a long time - which, we're looking at a fan translation parsing Japanese text, so that could mean anything... but probably, yeah, they're in lesbians. Though I think endings like this exist less because the game has fully-implemented lesbian relationships and more because the game considers this a consolation prize for not qualifying for one of the boys' endings (think I'd been trying for Christopher Weatherfield), but not doing so badly that I deserved to spend my adulthood all alone. This is to say - don't get too excited about TokiMemo Girl's Side as the secret pro-LGBT franchise you never knew existed.

This was my first time running into the skinship mechanic in a mainstream product, assuming we don't count virtual pet stuff like Nintendogs or Pokémon. I know someone who vocally boycotted/pirated-on-principle Fire Emblem Fates because Nintendo of America removed the skinship stuff, but, like... it's weird, man. Like you're on a coffee date with some hot guy, and you say something that makes him happy. Then, like, you reach over the table and grope around his forearm, trying to unobtrusively find where he likes being touched. I know what they're going for, like holding hands with your love, but... it's weird.

And even ignoring the high concept stuff, it just feels awkwardly implemented, having it as something you try and struggle to figure out as a capstone to a successful date. Don't hold relationship points over my head for not knowing if I'm supposed to scruff the dude's hair or cup his cheek! And don't even get me started on your weird grade-school stud of a neighbor letting you pet him for practice. Has to be some sort of cultural gap going on there, yeesh.

I also don't really like the fashion system? Girl's Side in general bogs down a lot of the gameplay that made the first game so FAST and easy to replay, and I sort of feel like introducing fashion requirements and having to match clothes and stuff is indicative of that. Like, darn it, I'm too poor to keep up with the latest fashion trends, don't walk out on a date just because I can't afford a new blouse! Teenage girls must live harrowing lives.

Though I guess you can just cosplay as Alucard to win everyone over every time, so the play is really just to be a Castlevania fan. I can get behind that.

I absolutely could not get a grip on that Valentine's Day minigame, but I think that's more on the emulator than the game itself. I'm sorta charmed that the poor protagonist is somehow capable of producing skulls in her chocolate by stirring poorly. Between that and accidentally growing carnivorous plants on a botched day working at the greenhouse, she has a real future as a supervillain.

Um, I've mostly been down on this game, but this is still solidly TokiMemo, and TokiMemo is still solidly a fun time. Weird decisions aside, my main critique is how slow a playthrough feels, especially now that I know how fast you can move through a playthrough of the original game. I'm rarely someone interested in clearing all routes of a narrative game, but if I was, I'd think I'd find the experience of playing Girl's Side 2 way more tedious than I would either 1 or 2 of the original series. But it's cute that it exists, and it's cute that Girl's Side in general was successful enough to be like a second life for Tokimeki Memorial as a franchise.