Y'know, this is all your fault. Yes, you. The one reading this right now. Megatokyo wasn't supposed to be a big project. In fact, I remember telling largo that he'd be lucky to get one strip a week out of me. But no~ooo, MT has to get popular. (grumble)

This make me grumble? Well, not really. I am actually very proud of how well MT has done. In this era of such intense media saturation, It amazes me that people would bother to add Megatokyo to the mix. So why the grumbling?

It's pretty simple, really. I have missed the deadline for finishing my winter comike doujinshi submission to the MJ-12 project disk "Love Spiral". I'm pretty sad about this. For the past three weeks I have been trying desperately to get it finished, but to no avail.

MJ-12, as I've mentioned before, is a True Love Story doujinshi circle that produces CDRom disks for sale at summer and winter Comike events. I did a project for the summer comike called 'Envelope'. It was this project that convinced me that Megatokyo might actually be possible. I've been working on a follow up to the story called 'Snapshots', which centered on a new character who returns to Aobadai city. Sadly, even with an extension, there is no way I could finish anything of quality in the next few weeks.

Gomen ne, Noritac-san, minna-san. Both tsubasa and I are disappointed that we won't be able to contribute to the winter project. My commitment to TLS is not shaken, I just could not finish in time. Tsubasa and I will plan a full-fledged project for next summer's comike based on True Love Story 3. There is just too much going on right now. Please forgive us.

True Love Story 3. There's another thing to grumble about. Nono, not to you. This TLS addiction is all Tsubasa's fault. Tsubasa got me hooked on True Love Story 2 last year. TLS is a series of games that relies more on strength of story and interaction with the characters than on character designs. A lot of people say the character designs for TLS aren't that good, but I think that is an unfair judgement. There is a lot of GREAT TLS artwork, just dig into the books and support materials. I've also played TLS F fan disk - which is a little odd because you try to go on a pseudo-date with your 'sister' in the games. (I try to ignore the sister thing, really... Misaki-chan is so cute!!... or is that bad?)

TL3 will be released in March of 2001 as a DVD game for the Playstation 2 (Japanese) - yet another reason to be annoyed - now i really need a PS2. Here's the general scoop on the game (thanks to Tsubasa for helping me dig up the info). Caution, this is a little long today. :)

In the game, you are the protagonist who is a junior high school student. You secretly have a crush on Takane Aotsuki, a dream girl at the school. She loves to take care of the school garden, and broadcasting during the lunch break, perhaps because she has a sweet voice.

You're twin sister is named Kaname ("The Vital Point" in Japanese :P ), which replace the role of Kimiko and Misaki in the original TLS games. She takes secret surveys to tell you how much the girls like you.

Basically, You wander around the school during intervals between classes, trying to bump into the girls. As you talk to the girls, you have to choose the best topics andalternatives. If you talk to them right, their affections toward you will be raised. Usually, multiple choices will appear during the conversations, so you have to choose the best answer to the particular girl.

If you have good luck, you'll meet one or two of the girls at the end of the school day. She may ask you if you want to go home together. These are crucial phases of the game.

In the "Conversation Mode(Kaiwa Mode)" session, you have 12 topics to choose from. When you choose the topic, the girl will respond, and the conversation will go on if you choose the best answers. If you goof up and pick the wrong topic, or say something that is too sensitive at that time, the girl will saying good-bye. If you choose a remark that is really unexpected to her, the girl might get upset, and run away. This, of course, has been a basic feature of the TLS series from the start.

It is said that there will be as many as 17 girls in the game (According to Dengeki G's Magazine and Megami Magazine) On December 23rd, there will be a small TLS3 talk show in Shibuya. Only 300 seats will be available. Hopefully tsubasa can go, i sure wish i could ^_^

Anyhoo, that's the gist of the game. It's a lot of fun, and nothin makes your stomach sink like choosing the wrong thing to say, and watching the girls expression change from a smile to an incredulous frown. Warning - the game CAN depress you if you really suck at this stuff. :)

Long one today, gomen - but some of you have asked what gal games are really like - I'm fond of the TLS series - its a bit different from the others - there are lots of different kinds. In the future, I'll review a few other games as well.