Tokimeki Memorial: forever with you Emotional [Deluxe Edition]

The Tokimemo game you love with new, gorgeous art, readable font, and updated QoL. No complaints whatsoever.

This is a great product overall. This remake of Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You for the original PlayStation is everything you could want from a remake. It gives you several options such as having new or old portraits of the characters. An extremely important addition however is the new font. It fits the game’s style and makes it way easier to read the kanji because it is no longer pixelated and truncated. If you prefer the pixelated font of the original PlayStation game then you can also choose that. The best addition to this version is the name reading system from Tokimeki Memorial 2. In the original game, the other characters would not say your name when talking to you which kind of took away from the charm. This version has a system that lets you program how the other characters will say your name and they actually say it in game when talking to you. It really adds to the overall feel of the game. If you are a fan of the series or dating sims as a whole this game is a must buy.

I was one of the many who got introduced to TokiMemo by Tim Rogers' 6-hour video, and boy this game is as charming as I hoped it'll be. Definitely a must-grab especially if you're a fan of stats-raising dating sims, 90's anime aesthetic or want a piece of history in your collection.
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Some notes:
-Like in TokiMemo 2 and partially Love Plus, this port have the EVS system where you can make the girls can pronounce your name out loud with their voices instead of skipping your names outright or using a placeholder name in the audio like most JRPGs do. I love that you can customize the intonations too!
-You don't have to use the in-game keyboard when typing your name, as the ソフトウェアキーボードを使用 allows you to pull up the Switch keyboard (You can change to a Japanese IME keyboard)
-People have been mistakingly labelling this as a remake, but it's actually a remaster. Mainly because the game includes both the PC-98 pixel graphics and sprites as well as newly drawn ones. Good news is that you can switch to either CGs on the fly, and pick between classic or modernized fonts! (Bad news is don't expect the game to get rebalanced or any major mechanic tweaks lol)
-Option for saving and reloading appears at the end of a Sunday, which is obviously the day you mostly use for dates. Reloading is super quick and easy so make use of that if you're not confident with a dialogue choice after a date!
-Unlocking the Album Mode requires you to view the end credit till the end WITHOUT pressing any buttons, even when the final CG appears!
-I played with my amateurish Japanese and still had fun + could navigate just fine. I'd say you can play it if you're practicing Japanese (which I did) as you get by interacting with the girls if you're at least familiar with spoken Japanese due to the full voice acting--but navigating even the settings, UI and dialogue options might be a bit rough if you can't read hiragana/katakana/some basic kanji's.
-The game can bit a bit hard at first, but it's meant to be played multiple times and one playthrough towards a confession ending usually doesn't take anymore than 5-6 hours long (I'd say even 10 hours would be stretching the maximum). Just be aware of the bombing mechanic, get the girl's phone number ASAP once you meet her, and keep track of your health/stress stats as you can be bedridden for weeks and accidentally skip dates if you fell ill. Also godspeed if you're going for the final boss (Shiori) lol.