True Love

The Good
True Love was the first Japanese bishoujo game experience for many soon-to-be fans of the genre, and its excellent gameplay mechanic makes it remain a standout today even as it fails to measure up technically to current titles.

This is a "dating simulator". You will guide the main character, a college student, through his day-to-day life over the course of four months in hopes of wooing a girl and causing her to fall in love with you. Although the dating sim genre is very popular in Japan, very few such titles are translated into English, and this is probably the best one that I have found. The more recent release Casual Romance Club borrows a lot of ideas from True Love, and although CRC is graphically head and shoulders above True Love, I think that this title is actually more fun to play. Assuming you don't use a walkthrough, you will have to make a lot of decisions and compromises over the course of the game in order to capture the heart of the girl you like. Add to that several story-altering random events, and you have a game worth playing through many times.

True Love is so interactive and non-linear, even most of today's bishoujo games pale in comparison to its sheer variety. At the same time, the gameplay mechanic is simple and intuitive, and you won't spend any time wondering what to do. For each day, you can choose one activity for your character to do during the afternoon, evening, and night. The available activities include going to school, studying, painting, sports, working on your looks, hanging out in town, loafing around, working part-time, shopping, and sometimes, going out on a date. Each activity may cause you to have an encounter with one of the game's ten principal female characters, and will increase or decrease certain statistics that your character has. The statistics include passion, appearance, fatigue, scholastic aptitude, physical strength, artistic ability, and money.

If you choose to go to work, you will increase your passion and strength in addition to putting some money in your pocket. However, you will decrease your physical appeal and increase your fatigue. Painting will increase your artistic ability, but it will decrease your strength - and so on. Each of these statistics play a role in your ability to pursue your favorite girl, so you must plan carefully. This is a highly addictive formula, and one that surprisingly enough hasn't yet been outdone or even duplicated in an English-translated bishoujo game.

Another highlight is True Love's character designs. The game presents you with ten female characters who are not at all like one another. If you play a few bishoujo games, you will probably find that many are lacking in unique female leads, and this really adds to True Love's appeal.

The Bad
Unfortunately, while the character designs are nice and the girls themselves are drawn nicely, the graphics don't measure up to current titles or even mainstream games released around the same time. Games such as Sierra's Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers and Quest for Glory IV had character portraits that were much more colorful and visually striking. Bishoujo games live and die by their character art, and here I find True Love to be rather lacking.

Also, while progressing through the game is a lot of fun and each girl has her own interesting plot (compare to the very two-dimensional girls of Casual Romance Club), the endings are very short and a bit of a letdown. Each ending is more or less a "... and so we lived happily ever after" situation, along with a large picture of your chosen girl. Each girl is interesting enough that you won't be able to help but wish that the game's creators had put a little more thought into the conclusions of their stories.

The Bottom Line
True Love is out of print, and no longer sold in stores or online. Barring a re-release, you will most likely not be able to obtain this game through legal means (good luck even finding a used copy). However, it is downloadable from many fansites on the Web.

Although several current bishoujo game titles are quite a bit better, True Love still functions as a pretty good introduction to the genre if you can manage to find it. If you are interested in a dating sim, you owe it to yourself to try this title as I have yet to find an English-translated dating sim that does much to expand on the ideas put forth here.

Although the game does not officially support Windows XP, it will run flawlessly if you run the main game executable in compatibility mode for Windows 98. Simply hit Alt-Enter if you wish to exit fullscreen mode.

The Good
Probably the only dating sim I've ever played, True Love is a nice hentai game of the "gotta bang all the girls in highschool" sub-genre, but with a twist: you have to work for it!

That's right, unlike in most hentai games where bumping into a girl guarantees that you'll nail her sooner or later, True Love aims for you to select an unlucky girl out of a stable of 10 popular highschool stereotypes (including: the tomboy, the smart girl, the catatonic super-shy girl, the slut, the sensitive artist babe and of course, the "chilhood friend who has grown up to be a super fox"-girl among other hits). Over the course of the game you get a choice of activities to do with your free time that correspond with some stats, increasing these stats in turn earns you the attention of the corresponding girl (sensitivity gets you the artsy babe, exercise the tomboy, etc.) and so on... you get the picture right? The result is that the game ends up being much more challenging and interesting than you average hentai crap.

Oh! and if you just don't swing "that way" then you'll be happy to know there's an "alternative lifestyle" ending here, though it's mercifully devoid of any graphic depictions.

The Bad
Below average graphics and scarce hentai action make the title a little so-so in terms of value and the boring story (the same highschool WB drama crap only with sex) makes it a chore to play through. At least the characters are somewhat interesting.

And there's still at least 1 character you "bump-sex" into.

The Bottom Line
Another highschool hentai borefest only with some clever gameplay gimmicks that try to make up for the dated graphics... Chances are that you'll probably find a better alternative anywhere else, but if raping and tentacles put you off then you might consider this as one of the better "harmless" hentai games.

The Good
Really, I do not know how many people out there think anime girls are cute and/or hot, but, due to the fact there are games like cute love out there, I believe many people may be into so.
However, True Love is best said to be a romantic game and not an H-game, so, let me say, this game isn't for the ones out there that really want to score, but more of for the ones who have been thinking about a relationship...well, an anime relationship. However, this is really not a BAD thing, but more of, perhaps, one of the greatest things ever.
Whenever I've played a dating sim before, all it was....was, well, generic actions and really, all I wanted to do was score.You know, but this game really made me think about how choices would affect my relationships with other girls and how I needed to make one final decision at the end of the game. So, I decided to try my best and find the girl I was truely in love with.
Don't get me wrong here. These girls may be fake and all, but the game truely brings the characters to life. However, in order for you to see that...stop trying to score!
While scoring isn't a bad thing either, what I mean is, stop trying to play the game to score. The game's graphics, while dated, look pretty well done. Also, another thing that made this game special was that I got very attached to the females...well, actually a few specific ones, but I won't say who.

The Bad
Well, not many negative things, in my opinion.
The graphics are a bit dated, but like I said, they still look pretty good.
Oh, and too bad this game wasn't any longer. If there should be a remake, fans or developers, may it be longer and may the graphics be more modern and...stuff! YEAH!
Oh, and the sound must be worked on as well, for it's usually just music and such, but it's okay.

The Bottom Line
In True Love, you play a college guy who's on the quest to find the perfect girl. On the way, you must date, score, and build yourself up, mentally or physically, so you may get the girl you want to get.
And really, the game's very good and really attaches you to the female characters (me to the point of writing fanfics, hehe)!