Game:

Sentimental Graffiti 2 (2000)

Duration: 29:11

2,985 views

40

I've wanted to put up something for this game for years, but I didn't have the tools to produce satisfactory results and, at the time, YT only allowed for 100MB videos (which is, ironically, why I don't have videos for "Skies of Arcadia"... yet). It's not because it's a great game... on the contrary, depending who you ask, it's a terrible sequel to what should have been a great on-going series (though I feel this sentiment is a bit overblown, there's no denying that its writing and characterization don't compare to the original), but as far as Adv/Novel games go, it's important to include as one of the more influential titles in the genre. A little history forthcoming.

Sentimental Graffiti is a dating sim series by NEC Interchannel that was spear-headed by Tabeta Toshio (a former producer at NEC who formed his own production company, "Prototype", in 2006) and the main staff of the "Graduation" series due to the major success of Konami's "Tokimeki Memorial". First released for Sega Saturn in 1998, the game curiously saw fame months before release due to hype from unofficial books sold by gaming insiders detailing and predicting events within the game as well as teaser merchandise meant to appease the public after the game was met with months of delays. A large ad campaign was made to push it as the team involved was not well-known prior to this and the creators also introduced public involvement to help push the game's awareness, tasking them to appoint six voice actresses for the game. Their gamble was a success; the series went on to produce an anime show, radio dramas, concerts, several games, audio drama cds, additional software known as "Windows" (expansions and what-if epilogues to the heroines' stories), Doujin games (the most notorious of which is "Sentimental Shooting"), and loads of misc. merchandise. The games, which deal with young men on a quest to woo a dozen girls, was a perfect parallel to TokiMemo due to its large variety of girls and simple (but highly strategic) interface rooted mostly in realism.

In the first game, players set up dates by phone or randomly while out in town, and carefully had to budget their expenses and use different modes of transportation to meet up (altering destination time... some were expensive/fast, others slow/cheap, and then there's the gambling "hitchhiker" option) or grab a part-time gig to gain additional funds. Obviously, being tardy or too much of a playboy had repercussions similarly to TokiMemo's "bomber" system (damaging your reputation among the girls). In the second game, you essentially meet up with girls and set-up dates like the first game, but the scope, with some exceptions, has been limited to just the Tokyo Metropolis (as all the girls are here now for different reasons), the game reuses all the heroines from the previous work with a drastic shift in tone, and the difficulty has been adjusted.

The audio/visuals have seen a big improvement when the game moved to the Dreamcast and PC, running at a higher resolution (+ VGA support) and with more scenes, and the player can see and move their character around the city too (like Doukyuusei) with color-coded time/event arrows. However, the series' momentum had died due to the two+ year hiatus, over-saturation of other gal games on the market, and fan reaction to the new plot, which the original scenario writer refused to support. It didn't help that the game's "Third Window" was a notorious cash grab, released with twelve different covers (and you thought collecting Working Design's SCD "Lunar" variants was tough).

Without spoiling too much, the game takes place two years after the original, where the original protagonist is inexplicably killed in a traffic accident. The original twelve girls, now battered and broken, open the game attending his funeral. To make matters worse, the new protagonist is a wannabe photographer and second year college student who needs to find the perfect model to become his muse, and interacts with each of these potential "candidates" but is clueless to their plight and winds up failing pretty miserably at first. It's his job to mend their broken hearts and find love, and while the game attempts to skirt past the whole "original protag is dead" concept, it creeps up in some obvious ways and adds a depressing element to the game. Personally, I think it was pretty bold to go this route in an attempt to add a mature element to the often cheery and upbeat adventure/novels on the market, but the timing wasn't right, and this greatly hurt the series' rep going forward. A sequel was released four years later (Sentimental Prelude) but was too little too late, as sales of the franchise greatly declined and several projects were canceled.

This is a basic video of the game in action. Enjoy.

- ADDITION -

Like Us On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegamingsanctuary

Follow Us On Twitter: https://twitter.com/GS_Vyse_and_Bel

Visit Us At: http://www.gamingsanctuary.com