3RRSS SenGraf

"You may open the twelve doors to sweet loneliness." With a tag line
like that you know the game's gonna be good. Today, let's take a look
at Sentimental Graffiti, one of the most popular dating sims around (up
there with the Pia Carrot and Doukyusei series in Japan, as well as
Tokimemo). Now, to be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this one
and I wasn't sure how far I could go in the game without an actual
English walkthrough to aid me. However, after a bit of playing, I
realized just how wonderful and easy to play this game is. If you're
looking for a good place to start with dating sims, then here is your
answer.

You first have to name your character (and you can name him with
English letters too). Then you discover the story of the game. You see,
you play a young man who moved from place to place when he was
little. But every where he went he always charmed the heart of some
young girl. Now years later you receive a mysterious love letter. Who
could have sent it? You decide that it must have been one of the
twelve ladies you met along the way. So you decide to leave your
Tokyo home to travel across Japan and find the letter sender, and
also, true love. I really liked this story, and it offers some very cool
game play elements to go with it as well, since in order to find love, you
have to travel by different means of transportation.

The twelve girls here are great. Character design wise, and story wise,
I'm positive that dating sim fans will come away with at least one
favorite. Mine was Chie, who lives in the Western part of Japan. She
plays the guitar in a rock band and was a very sweet girl. Of course,
who can forget Yuu, the athletic girl, or Hanako, or well you get the
idea. Each girl lives in a different city of Japan, and each girl has their
own story and personality. Get ready to fall in love over and over again.

The menus themselves are very simple. From your little house in Tokyo
you can either sleep (which recovers health points lost in travel), call
girls to appoint some dates, look at a calendar to keep track of dates
(very helpful), look at profiles of the girls, work to gain money, or travel
to different places. Once you understand what these things do in the
menu, the game is very easy to work, even if you have very little
Japanese knowledge. So here's the flow of the game: 1. Call a girl and
appoint a date and place. 2. Travel to their city. 3. Be at the appointed
place of the date on or before the time they gave. 4. Date and
sometimes answer questions 5. Go home. 6. Repeat whilst making
money and sleeping to regain health. That's it; it's that simple.

Now, the only hard part a non Japanese speaking player might have is
when your date asks you a question and you are given three replies to
choose from. Just make sure to save every time before you go on a
date. That way if she reacts coldly or angry to your reply, you can just
load your file and choose a different choice. Usually you'll know if you
made a good choice if she laughs or smiles. It's all very easy to read
their emotions actually.

You have to be careful about the money though. There are different
forms of transportation, and they cost different amounts of money for
the quality and speed. You could take a ferry ride, which is cheap but it
takes longer. The sweetest thing is when you call your girl and she
wants a date on the next day so you have to fly in on the plane. Player.
There are certain times of the week when you have to be back in
Tokyo to work. You can also take part time jobs for the day in all the
cities. Make sure to do this so you don't run out of cash. Then you
won't be able to travel to see your lady.

Health is also an issue. You are given a certain amount of health
points. They decrease when you walk to different places in the town,
work, or travel. Regain health points by sleeping. When in a different
city that you need to spend the night in, you can either pitch a tent for
free, or go to two other hotels with different prices that raise your
points up higher. If you're too tired you won't be able to travel, or even
call any of the girls so be careful.

When you meet a girl for the first time she is then given a heart meter.
This heart changes colors and gets bigger the more time you spend
with her and the more she comes to like you. However, if you are bad
or ignore her the heart gets smaller and eventually breaks. Therefore,
it is not a good idea to just go to random towns to try and meet all the
girls. Because if you meet them all, then you have to woo them all, and
it's really hard to go out with more then three girls tops at a time. I
tried going for more then that and I ran out of time, money, and
stamina. Also when the girls have broken hearts they call you every
day and leave a blank message on your phone. Each blank message
eats up one hour of your time, so breaking ten hearts means having to
sit through ten hours of blank phone calls each day.

So how do you know if you're progressing through a girl's story? First,
to get an ending you have to remember four events. Remembering
something happens on different dates, and then you get a CG picture
of that girl when she was younger. Also, there are just normal events
you have to see, which would result in normal CG pictures, and the girl
has to send you two letters to your house. Then on one date you'll see
the final event and watch the credits. The game's time frame starts in
March of 1997 and goes all the way to March of 1998. It usually takes
at least three hours of play to get an ending with a girl.

The graphics, while very simple, are also very effective. The girls are all
memorable, although some are a little same-ish in character design.
The real treat, though, is the fact that the girls are all anime
characters and the backgrounds are washed out real pictures of
Japan. This mix is pretty cool, and while it doesn't reach the same
level of beauty as Michinoku Hitou (import Saturn) it looks very good.
The pictures of the girls are all stationary, no blinking eyes or moving
mouths. But they do have a decent amount of different pictures to
showcase their different emotions. The CG pictures are also very nice
in quality, and can be as frequent as three per date.

The sound is too quiet. You really have to crank the game up to hear it.
All the girls have different voice actresses and all the towns have
different music, in the sound test there are sixty pieces of music!
Overall, the music is very pleasant, and the voices are nice. Nothing to
fear here. Besides the fact that it's all in Japanese.

Twelve girls, equals twelve different playing experiences. Of course
then there's the thrill of trying to date as many as possible, can you do
it? Also check disc 2 for all the bonus stuff (it does not have to be
unlocked). Here you'll find interviews with the voice actresses, and
character art and profiles. Just be warned, as this game can be very
addicting so play with caution! Also this is a green label game, so do
not expect any sexual situations. However there are still some hot
pics to be had like going to the beach.

I really liked this game, and it can be had for about five bucks on ebay.
It's a very cheap price for an import classic, that once you get the
hang of the basic game play, it becomes very easy to play. This is the
perfect introduction to dating sims, so anyone new to the genre should
try Sentimental Graffiti out as soon as possible! And then you'll need to
play the sequel on Dreamcast. It's a never ending obsession...of sweet
loneliness.

Review by: Orochi Sonic