My first play through of Tokimeki Memorial was a disaster. I completely failed to understand the bomb mechanic, instead focusing solely on Shiori Fujisaki (as common sense would dictate), while also overlooking the importance of the physical appearance attribute. My last year of school consistent of "dates" where girls would show up before immediately leaving without saying a single word, just so that I could return home and hear a bomb explode.

One Action Button video later, I decided I would try again. Embracing the bomb mechanic and round-robin dating various girls lead to a much better experience. Though no girl can compare to Shiori, the game does a great job of letting you discover each girl's personality, and there's a bounty of bonus scenes to stumble upon as the dates progress.

I even found my opinions of the girls changing as I came to learn more about them. Ayako Katagiri seemed rather boring to me at first, as she was disinterested in all of our initial dates, but later on we found our groove, and she became my favourite girl (after Shiori, of course).

But here lies my problem, because by the end of the game I had multiple girls blushing at me, and even though I would go out of my way to pick dumb conversation options with most of them, and pick the best options with Katagiri, the game refused to pair me up with Katagiri at the end. Not as deflating an ending as my first play through, but still not a satisfying one.

Maybe one day I'll do another play through and see what other girls and scenes I can discover, but with the information that the game hides from you about how it's going to resolve at the end, it makes it a harder proposition to consider.