Let's Play TMGS Premium 3rd Story: Push ALL the buttons!

Yes! PIE for all. I'd be able to bake a cheesecake myself, but if you have pie, I will throw myself at you (in a friendly/non-threatening way) in gratitude :D

You inspired me to Google for blushing people:



Look at the animated picture I found among a bunch of real people when I looked up guy + blush:



See how extrodinary a blush from him is? It even makes Google squee in glee.

I think in real life, it's sometimes hard to tell whether a guy is blushing or whether his face is naturally red. Whereas in manga/anime/games, guys get red lines all over their face to indicate that YES I AM BLUSHING or very prominent patches of pink.

Maybe it's just less obvious in real life. That's why we don't catch it sometimes.

I'm partial to blushes as well, especially if they start out all politely unflappable. And then you flap them. Best feeling.

Even if I feel like I'm playing into the otome gamer stereotype, it feels like such an achievement. Srsly. ;-;

We run into Ruka after school one day and dragoon him into walking home with us. Taking the conversational initiative, P-chan mentions that his birthday is coming up.


"Remembering it's your birthday isn't necessarily a good thing."

WHY DO YOU UPSET EVERYONE YOU WALK HOME WITH


"When it's your birthday, you think about people who've been by your side, right?"


"It doesn't matter as much on normal days, but if they're not with you on your birthday, the pain suddenly hits home."


"That's why I'd prefer it if birthdays passed by without me noticing."

Oh Ruka. (；△；)


"I am in charge of the brass band. Have you just joined the club?"

Why yes indeed! hellooooooo there Himuro-sensei~ I preferred your old hairstyle though Seiji's not in the band, but we join up anyway despite mandatory practices eating into our free time. It helps with our parameters somewhat, and is a requirement for one of his CGs.

The next week, we find Ruka and Kou up on the rooftop during lunch, discussing something.


P-chan: "Hey, what are the two of you up to?"
Kou: "?!"
Ruka: "We're practicing."
P-chan: "Practicing what?"
Ruka: "Dropping a blackboard duster on Oosako-sense-"
Kou: "If you keep yapping, we're gonna be ratted out, dumbass."
P-chan: "Hm? ...You guys really are up to something, huh."
Ruka: "What, us? Naaah, you're totally mistaken."
P-chan: "Suspicious..."

Just boys being boys, P-chan! Anyway, they escape by reminding her that she's going to be late to class, then promptly resume their discussion while she's still in earshot. Good thing she's not a tattletale?


(Uuu, don't think I'll make it...)

Exams roll around! Our stats are.. not yet up to par.


Top to bottom: Miyo, Kou, Ruka, Karen, us.

And it shows :( What is this sorcery, the brawling bad boy tops everyone but the cute fortune-telling girl.


"...Hmm, so that's the way it is. I suppose that's to be expected."

Piano-sempai drops by to express his.. disappointment? Fulfilment of his expectations? Whatever, that doesn't look like the school uniform, young man!

...Himuro, what's wrong with your hair ;_;

I think that it's less evident. For istance, when I'm not feeling well everyone notices how pale I look, because I'm usually darker than that. While someone noticed that I blushed only once because the situation was really embarrassing.

This time, we invite Seiji to the amusement park!


(He's late...)

"I missed the bus" isn't a valid excuse for Piano-sempai, which I suppose is why he never offers any explana-



OH GOD WHAT


Guy: "Hey, hey, girlie. You look like you're free, so why doncha join me for tea?"
P-chan: "Eh? ...No, thanks."
Guy: "You're just waiting around, right? Let's just kill some time before your date gets here! C'mon!"
P-chan: "N-no, wait-"

His accent is hilariously painful. SAVE US SEIJ-


???: "Hey girl~"
P-chan: (Another guy's coming over! Today's just not my day...)

I-it's not Seiji? D:


???: "Ya free? Wanna come have some tea with me?"
P-chan: (Ah! It's this guy!)

Even if you're not our date, you're a sight for sore eyes, Junpei!


Guy: "W-what are you doing?"
???: "Me? I'm hitting on her."
Guy: "You sure are thick-skinned! Follow the rules! I'M the one who hit on her first!"

How old is Junpei, anyway?


???: "On a hunt, there's no such thing as taking turns. If you're a man, why don't you just take up my challenge fair and square?"
Guy: "T-that was kind of cool... Alright, let's do this!"

I would be exhorting P-chan to run away while they're distracted, but I think she's as fascinated by this turn of events as I am. Then Junpei pulls us aside to whisper at us.


???: "Hey, you're waiting for someone, right?"
P-chan: "Y-yeah."
???: "This guy is pretty persistent, huh? I'll help you escape, but work with me here. Okay?"
P-chan: (I wonder if I can trust him... But since I don't have time for this... All right, I'll leave it in his hands!)
???: "OK. Say that you'll pick the one who brings Habataki Mixed Juice."


P-chan: "O-okay. ...Err, the one who brings me Habataki Mixed Juice will be the winner!"
Guy: "Ehh! That's impossible, honey, it sells out so fast!"


???: "Awwwwwwwwright! If I manage to get to the vending machine at the end of the plaza in front of the station first, I'm gonna win!"
Guy: "! Thanks for the information! I'm going on ahead! Hahahahaha!"


???: "...Ha, what a simple-minded guy. Well then, now that that nuisance is gone, wanna come have tea with me while you wait?"
P-chan: ".............."

Don't be like that, he totally saved you from that weirdo!


???: "Kidding, kidding, don't scowl at me like that. More importantly, shouldn't you call your date up and ask him to hurry? It feels like that guy's going to come blazing back anytime now."
P-chan: "Ah, yeah, I'll do that."
???: "Go out on a date with me next time! It's a promise! I'll see ya around then."
P-chan: (He left... He doesn't seem all that bad.)

I want to take him home. Who were we supposed to be meeting again?


"Let's go."

...Oh yeah.

What is with that guy's hair?!

Anyway, Seiji deserves a chop for this. Or at least a poke in the eye.

So in this game, instead of being saved by your guy, you're saved by random people who pass by? XD

...and this guy it's the same from the two previous games? Is he spending his whole life hitting on otome protagonists?

No, your guy still does save you - it gives you extra Approach opportunities (like the extra skinship in 1 and 2), but at the cost of the comments on your clothing. It's just that this time I'd already triggered Junpei earlier on, and it looks like he has these mini date-disturber events prior to him being introduced as a kouhai in the second year. Pretty cute!

When Piano-sempai finally gets here, he stone-walls us again when P-chan very subtly brings up the fact that he's late. It's not like she added "really, really, really" in front of it and "so much so that I got hit on by two guys and saved by the second one" behind, right? Since he evades eyepoking and chopping attempts by not letting us get close, we settle for a meaningful glare.


Shitara: "It seems a little premature for you to wear an outfit like that..."
P-chan: "Eh... Is that so?"


Shitara: "Well, it suits you, so it's fine. Though I don't know where I should be looking..."
P-chan: (It looks like Shitara-sempai's gotten to like this kind of clothing?)

I'm pretty sure you should be looking at her face, buster.

But still, this is a breakthrough! One of the new things about fashion in TMGS3 (both Premium and the DS version) is that the guys' clothing preferences aren't set in stone. Like I briefly mentioned earlier, Seiji's favourite styles are Modern (Chic + Vivid), Ultra Chic, Chic, and to a smaller extent, Vivid. He hates Active. However, if you wear a certain style to dates often enough, it slowly fills up the guy's corresponding style-preference meter (hidden until you get Fashion level 3, in which case we can check it out by calling Karen), which in turn unlocks their comments on different styles. Here, we've influenced him into being neutral towards Sexy to liking it.

Hohoho.


"...Aside from just holding on to the harness, you should mind your skirt, too."

Another thing about fashion - they sometimes have bonus dialogue if you wear certain items to certain date locations. Apparently a mini-skirt on the rollercoaster is a cause for.. concern? Though from the looks of things it seems Seiji's being uh, very imaginatively concerned...

The rest of the date goes fine (fine in that we seize every opportunity to express our displeasure at his latecoming). No white-outs this time!


Left column, top down: Stress, Intelligence, Fitness, Style
Right column, top down: Rich, Arts, Social, Charm

Sweet Devil level 2 get! And here's a look at our stats - I've been working slowly towards unlocking part-time jobs, since our allowance just isn't cutting it. 50 social is one of the basic requirements for all of the jobs available in the first year, so we're nearly there on that count. Out of the five jobs available in the first year, we have two helpful choices:

1) Florist: Ruka works here. Raises Intelligence, Arts, Fitness, and Social.
2) General Store: Karen works here. Raises Arts, Social, Style and Charm, lowers Intelligence.

The others are less than helpful considering who we're pursuing, at least stats-wise - Seiji doesn't work anywhere, and to nab him we need Arts and Charm. The florist is great in that it doesn't lower any stats, but it doesn't touch Charm; the general store helps raise both, but makes us.. dumb.. so we'll have to work extra hard so as not to tank the exams.

I'm personally inclined to go for the florist, but if anyone has any input I'll be sure to take it into account! :D

Hrm...It might be easier to go with the florist job so that you don't have to worry about cramming as much around exam time. What stats does brass band increase?

Intelligence, arts, social, and stress. Decreases fitness. That's... actually an argument for the florist, because at least something will be helping push up my crappy fitness. XD

Yeah, probably go with the florist then. And I guess for Charm there's always Karen (I'm assuming Karen raises Charm)?

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

*Cough*

Florist all the way, gurl. We don't want the brass band turning you into a flabby mess, do we?

Florist. And I, too, prefer Himuro's old hair. Alas...

Junpei-kohai is a good boy. Go ahead and make me feel bad for not voting for you, who don't you oh blushing Seiji where was I now....

Is it like a law in Tokimeki land for the protagonist to be saved from some creepy weirdo? On a related note, is Creepy Weirdo Who Hits On High School Girls a profession or something in Japan?

On job related matters, pick whichever one most increases your fitness. We're already well on our way on the emotional and mental domination of Piano-kun, but our conquest won't be complete until we can beat him in arm wrestling as well.

...am I the only person who doesn't mind Himuro's new hairstyle?

I guess Florist for the part-time job. Also Junpei is precious.

I'll vote for florist too, even if I'd like to see more about Karen.

Like Professional Bullies in Futurama?
I hope it is, because with some of the guys the situation is ridiculous- "Oooh, Kansai dialect, I must run away and never came back!".

I'm more worried about the fact that as Japanese high school girl you are immediately crowded by creepy guys whenever you go somewhere alone...

His hair has developed sentience and is slowly consuming his head in its quest to take over his body.

Would definitely explain why his eyes look so glazed.

And why his head seems unhealthily narrow... I think you might be on to something there.

A quick update: Sweet Devil level 3! The week after this happens, we're suddenly swamped with school events, mostly with what seems to be P-chan ordering people around. It was a huge screenshot dump for one week (190 of them, to be exact), and with a bunch more lines on her end, so puzzling through it all is going to take a while. (Don't worry, I won't upload them all, it's so I can remember what happened!)

So, while we wait, have a scribble I did in Social Linguistics Class:

I will spam this thread forever.

Florist job for sure, it raises parameters the best.

Oh Junpei, trying to look so cool. I'm glad we're activating his events, because if we didn't already know he was a kouhai we'd totally think he was some kind of secret character.

O_O

B-bambi, about your mother... How did she die, again?

Nobody gets between Bambi and the beautiful boys. Nobody.

That's awesome!
And Faline actually spent a lot of time in the movie making Bambi embarrassed.

Why can't Piano-sempai and Junpei get the 3P.

Fuck, I want to romance Junpei he is a sweetie. And hilarious. Who am I kidding, I want to romance everyone.

...yeah, me too. I want Kouichi the most, but they're all precious and adorable.

It's Karen's birthday! We buy her a Really Frilly Scrunchie. No, really.


"Ahh, the way you handed it to me~ My heart went kyun ♡"

I try not to leave any Japanese words when translating, but in this case I'll make an exception because Karen! I'm looking forward to someone LPing her route. :D


Manager: "Thank you for calling. This is Florist Anneri."

Being intelligent, artsy, and social enough to pass muster at last, P-chan gets her first couple emails from Florist Anneri and General Store Simon about part-time job openings. We call in to the former over the weekend, and finally secure a more plentiful source of income (and stats!). We'll be working on Tuesdays and Thursdays.


Ruka: "Sempai. 'Please treat me well, sempai.'"
P-chan: "How strict..."

On our first day of work, we run into Ruka, who's surprised to see us there. After telling him that she'll be working there from then on, Ruka (mock-seriously?) establishes seniority by pointing out that she should address him as "sempai".


I shall subtitle this: "Not as planned \(>Д<)/"


Shitara: "Your appearance..."
P-chan: "Yes?"
Shitara: "Let me guess your theme today. 'Fine feathers make fine birds,' am I right?"
P-chan: (I guess that was a compliment? Shitara-sempai seems to like these clothes.)

Fireworks festival and a comment on P-chan's clothes! She's not too sure what to make of it. she's too poor to buy a yukata okay They take a look around the stalls since they're early.


Shitara: "There's nothing but food covered in cheap sauces..."
P-chan: "That's for sure. But it smells good, doesn't it? Eating anything?"
Shitara: "I don't want any. But even so, it's strangely tempting... What an annoying aroma. Let's leave quickly, it's bad for your health."



Fireworks~!


"It was a nice stroll. See you."

And some progress - P-chan gets walked home this time! So we drag him to the amusement park again, this time to the haunted house.




Shitara: "You did well. Your screams really helped bring out the atmosphere."

Maybe he just hasn't warmed up to P-chan yet, but some of his comments are really quite snotty. Hmmph. At least he walks us home again.



At this point, we hit level 3! Then we celebrate by going out to shop at the flea market because we're cheapos poor. We score a dress for the Christmas party and some accessories!

Then guess who we run into on the way back?


Boy: "I want to go home..."
???: "That so. How about your sister, what do you want to do?"
P-chan: (Hm? That voice seems familiar...)
Girl: "We can't go home yet, we haven't finished running our errand. ...We'll be done soon though, so just hang in there!"
Boy: "Buuut... I want to go home! I want to gooo hoooome!"


???: "Nooow now now, stop that. What should we do..."
P-chan: (Ahh, as I thought! What should I do, he looks stumped... Speaking of which, though, I haven't thanked him properly for helping me out the last time. Yeah... Here we go then!) "Excuse me!"

.

.

.

???: "Haa... You really helped me out there. Thanks."

P-chan tells him it's no problem, and that she's glad they managed to sort things out. He wonders why she came over to help; when she explains it was because she hadn't properly thanked him for helping her the last time, he modestly brushes it off.





Awkward silence. Note: He's still ???, so they don't know each other's names. C'mon guys! Introduce yourselves!


???: "Ah... Well, no point just standing around talking. If you have time, want to go somewhere?"
P-chan: ".............. If I get to drink Habataki Mixed Juice, sure."

Or not. Looks like he operates on the "when in doubt, hit on the person you're talking to" principle. He is the Nanpa-shark! When he stops hitting on someone, he stops breathing! Or something.

At least P-chan is sufficiently convinced that he's not a slimy sentient hair-monster like the other guy now, so she relents.


???: "Really?! Nothing beats doing a good deed after all~ A good deed a day, that's going to be my target this month."
P-chan: "Fufu, well said! Now, where's that vending machine?"
???: "Over there! Let's go! Hurry, hurry!"

...They still don't know each other's names, but hnnnng he is so cute I want to pet him~

And Tokimeki finally pulls of a VERY palatable kohai. He was worth the wait.

As for Seiji, he looks really great in traditional dress.

Seiji likes the haunted house.
I might like you then, Seiji.

Guys, that's it, I am DEFINITELY doing an LP of the PvP routes. My only condition is that I get to focus on Junpei darling here because he is damn precious and I want to hug him. He's sassy and shy in a very turnabout way.

Seiji's teasing actually makes me like him more. <_< Also is it just me or does Seiji sound like an old man/old-fashioned name? It's a little charming.

Junpei is making a very compelling case for doing his route next.

Junpei is actually stopping me from raising my Fashion level, because his events seem to take priority over meeting Karen after shopping.

HOWEVER, I AM OKAY WITH THIS

I would say it's a mullet, but it makes him look more like a Muppet.

So far I only really want to do Karen's route, and Kouichi. The guys are all pretty but...I don't find them much appealing so far, they seem just pretty? I miss that "What the hell" feeling from the previous games. Junpei is all right, however, and I hope that Tamao and Arashi will be interesting. I also kinda like Ruka, but I want to see what kind of SAD AND TRAGIC thing is going on first.

Nah. I don't mind it, either.

Tewi (autocorrect, as much as I love Star Trek, Trek was not the word I was looking for), I was wondering: Are the other secret characters still in this version, along with Hipster-kun? I know Konami generally doesn't remove characters, but I want to be sure.

And I wanted to ask something else but I clean forgot. God, sometimes I hate my squirrel-like memory.

There's never such thing as too few covers of Ura Omote Lovers.

As this means more Arashi... I'm okay with this.

Yeah, they didn't remove any content, just added extra bits. All the secret characters should still be there

Also, one of my favourite TMGS3 videos: