New Love Plus+ (NEWラブプラス+) is a visual novel / dating sim game developed and released by Konami for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console. At the moment, it is the most content-packed version (the first installment was released on the Nintendo DS in 2009). Love Plus is only available in Japan.
Introduction
I discovered the game back when I owned an old Nintendo DSi, but because I was planning to buy a 3DS, I didn’t play for too long. I didn’t want to start from scratch later on, and after I bought the 3DS, it turned out that there was a save import tool available in the Nintendo store only for an older version. New Love Plus+ is the fourth installment of the same game. A more expanded world, many tweaks and improvements over the previous ones. Right at the beginning it should be noted that this is not a standard dating sim. So how does the gameplay of New Love Plus+ look like ?
New Love Plus+ – Plot and characters
The first thirty days (depending on choices and developments) are a standard pattern for games of this type. Taking care of maintaining stats (fitness, intelligence, entertainment and hobbies), visiting locations, meeting other characters and generally getting acquainted with the game world. The player learns that he is moving to a new city (Towano) and starts his new life as a high school second-grader. By the way, you need to find yourself some part-time job (as far as I remember, there is no choice and you can only work in a restaurant). We have a choice of three girls that we can meet in different locations (school, city or shopping malls).
- Anegasaki Nene (姉ヶ崎 寧々) – a year older than us (3rd grade), works in a restaurant (where we meet her for the first time) – kind, resourceful and helpful. She loves horror movies and is interested in paranormal phenomena. She was voiced by Minaguchi Yuuko (皆口 裕子), and her voice acting is master level, incredibly pleasing to the ear, on top of that the amount of emotion she put into her work is impressive. My choice 🙂
- Kobayakawa Rinko (小早川 凛子) – younger than us by a year (1st grade), we meet her in the library (after we are forced to help run the place). She’s closed off due to her family situation. She loves punk rock and brawling type games. She is voiced by Tange Sakura (丹下 桜). Unfortunately, I can’t say anything more about this character because I chose Nene, as I wrote about earlier.
- Takane Manaka (高嶺 愛花) – our age (2nd grade), very shy, comes from a rich family, which makes it difficult for her to find a common language with her class/school friends. For some reason, Manaka is the most popular (according to various popularity rankings on the Internet) character in the game. Hayami Saori (早見 沙織) lent her her voice. As with Rinko, I can’t say anything more about her.
New Love Plus+ – Gameplay
Going back to the way of gameplay – choosing one of the three girls is a mandatory activity, because at this stage a bad ending is possible. By choosing here I mean paying attention to her. We have 4 periods of the day at our disposition, in which you can perform a variety of activities. Going to school, exercising/running, working or getting something done in the city. If all goes well, around day 30-50 one of the heroines will confess her love to you. From then on, the gameplay mode changes completely. It switches to real time mode – the game takes place in real time, according to the current time and date. What does this mean? From now on, each of our days in normal life will correspond to the same day in the game.
As you can see on the following screenshot, my playing time is 796 days, with a rank of シニアカップル (senior couple).
Spending time in New Love Plus+
Once you know the elementary rules of the game, the question arises. What can we basically do in the game itself and what is its purpose? Generally speaking – we are dealing with a first-person simulator. We go to school, work, exercise, take care of ourselves, explore the city, go shopping, visit cafes, game rooms and shopping malls.
The main goal, of course, is to take care of our chosen one. There are four ways to meet her. First – by chance (school corridor, shopping mall, work). Second – arranging a meeting (the choice of place is limited to the location where we are, for example, during the morning hours it is the school area, in the afternoon – the district of the city of our residence). Third – dating – here we have quite a lot of room for choice, as a meeting place we can choose practically any unlocked location, and there are really quite a lot of them.
The last of the ways to meet is a special date, but to go to it we need an entrance ticket. We buy tickets for special occasions (fireworks show, fashion show, aquarium, etc.) at the flea market held every Sunday morning in the park (in addition to tickets, you can buy other interesting things there, such as lenses or filters for your camera).
In addition to our own invention, we can go on trips four times a year. There are two locations – an island (forgive me, I can’t remember the name at the moment unfortunately) and hot springs. These tours have beautifully realized scenery and invented separate scenarios.
Returning to the dates – on the usual ones (depending on the number of accumulated activity points earned for each – previously mentioned – statistic) we visit the main place we had previously planned and (if we want) – another (requiring less effort). In the meantime, there is an opportunity to go for lunch/snack. The developers of the game made it possible for us to kiss. In order to bring about such a situation, it is necessary to hover the stylus over the figure of our chosen one (preferably near the head or shoulders) during the dialogue – but – you have to be careful that too many people don’t see it (the eye indicator in the upper right part of the top screen).
This part is skinship (スキンシップ), a word created in Japan, is what is known as wasei-eigo (和製英語), an English word created in Japan that most often means something completely different than we might think). What does the word actually mean? In a broad generalization, close relationship/intimacy. Back to the topic – we have to touch the girl several times to fill the heart on the top screen (the number of attempts we have depends on the girl’s mood – and that depends on our involvement – a maximum of five).
Of course, while doing this, we must not forget about the indicator at the top right of the upper screen. After successfully getting through this stage, it’s time for the actual kiss. Here we get two options to choose from, save for later or proceed. We can save a total of five kisses, which we then have the option to use in one go (by which we can count on bonuses in the form of additional ones initiated by the girl herself). But before that it’s time for a little caressing, which we do with the stylus. When we get to the kiss option, our chosen one will let us know (by positioning her head) what part of her face we should kiss her.
For correct recognition we get a red heart, for others – a golden/yellow one. Sometimes during the date (in fact, at the end) we will have the option to invite the girl home, or she will invite us. If we happen to have the first option, it’s a good idea to stock up on movies or music at the rental store beforehand – we’ll be able to watch/listen to them with her. There is also the option to play games (and here a small highlight – these are Konami classics). We can save kisses for later only during a normal date, not during a walk or trip.
New Love Plus+ – Game modes and available options
Of course, what I have described is only a small part of what the game offers us. There are quite a number of side activities, such as achievements (some impossible – at least for me), or quests (probably some of these quests were completed exclusively for each heroine) such as the search for a UFO on the lake, a ghost in the castle or a mysterious donut box (urban legends).
By exploring the area, we often unlock new places, which can then be used for outings together. The scenery of the game changes, of course, along with the seasons. It’s not hard to guess that it’s most beautiful in spring, when the cherry trees are in a full bloom.
Below you can see the invitation for a walk and a stroll. It was rainy today (it also happens to be pouring outside all day…).
We get a phone at our disposal. In Towano network we can check the weather for the coming days, our luck, or announcements of events in the city (of course, it is worth using this information when planning some Sunday outing with your girlfriend).
In the main menu, we see the activity menu (mentioning the four times of the day), or rather 予定入力 (yotei nyuuryoku – daily schedule).
Inbox (or rather, the entire e-mail menu) – all messages (e-mails, because in Japan you don’t send text messages, just e-mails) end up there, most often we receive them from our chosen one, who informs us about many things, expresses emotions, or finally sends photos in new clothes ( we can reply to them here – if we express ourselves positively, I assure you – we will see her in them in the near future). There are also often questions about the length and color of her hair, whether it suits us, or whether we want her to change her hairstyle.
Finally, the phone’s menu – 電話 (denwa), where we can arrange a date (and also postpone or cancel), a walk or a special event.
There are several thumbnails below, one of which is a photo album. The photos themselves we can basically snap wherever we want.
A inna to widok kalendarza, gdzie sprawdzić możemy to, co wcześniej zaplanowaliśmy.
A language barrier?
I didn’t mention it earlier, but the game is in Japanese, with no translations (except for the very outdated DS version). Is this a bad thing? In my opinion, no. If there was a translation available, the authors would have had to keep ALL the specific elements of the Japanese language, all the cultural references, etc. – this game simply builds on that. Honorifics perform an arch-important function here, and the whole thing is steeped to the bone in the specifics of Japanese existence.
As we all know, such translations of games do not exist. Even if we consider visual novels – hardly any of them have at least an acceptable official translation. What am I getting at? New Love Plus+ has greatly helped (and continues to help) me learn Japanese. Why? Well, because I’m thrown in at the deep end and, willy-nilly, I have to read what I see on the screen. This, combined with learning individual characters makes a great mix and speeds up the learning process. The words and whole phrases spoken in the game stay in my head, mainly because they are VERY natural and non-bookish. If I were to recommend something to someone for learning Japanese, New Love Plus+ would be one of the first things I would mention.
The beginnings were difficult, still sometimes the dictionary kicks in when I don’t know a word, although for the moment reading most dialogues doesn’t cause me much of a problem.
New Love Plus+ – Game modes and available options [2]
But let’s return to the subject of the review, more specifically to two other important features. The first is the mode, activated by the Love Plus button (ラブプラス). After activating it, we go to a certain room where our girlfriend is, with many options to choose from, such as setting an alarm or playing a game – at first, however, the choice is only Janken (じゃん拳), which is the Japanese equivalent of stone-scissors-paper (more can be unlocked by going to the game room regularly).
In this mode, we have the opportunity to talk to our girlfriend about various topics, and she often starts the conversation herself (interestingly enough, I have never yet felt any repetitiveness or lack of logic). This is where we use our own voice. If, despite everything, we don’t feel up to speaking Japanese, in the options, for ease of use, we were given the option to turn on bubbles showing variants of answers (we can click on them).
If in the main mode we do something that saddens her – we have the opportunity to apologize. It is worth remembering that even a short conversation in this mode significantly improves the mood of the heroine in the main mode. The second mode is launched with the 青春のページ (seishun no page) button, which literally means page from youth. These are short scenes from everyday life. In Nene’s case, one story is about meeting her mother on a walk together. I haven’t yet mentioned the phone icon (電話) – with this option we can make a date, invite a walk, or suggest an outing to a special event (if we have tickets).
It is worth mentioning random events, such as dreams, the main character of which – not hard to guess – is our chosen one.
New Love Plus+ – Audiovisual Design
Finally, the audiovisual setting. The game uses the console’s vertical mode (probably the only one), so we can’t use 3D mode. Anyway – I doubt the console would have enough power for that. The backgrounds of the locations are made in 3D, with hand-drawn textures often applied to objects. Of course, there are places with static, also hand-drawn backgrounds. The characters (girls) were realized in 3D, but nevertheless the creators managed well to maintain the style of anime. The overall visuals (also taking into account the limited capabilities of the 3DS) are simply great. The musical arrangement is a masterpiece, I can endlessly listen to the soundtrack of this game (for that one of the albums with arrangements, which is even better). New Love Plus+ includes all the music from Love Plus (from the Nintendo DS) and quite a few new tracks. The voice actors gave an extra touch to this production, it’s mainly thanks to them that we spend most of our time enjoying it.
Minoboshi Tarou also deserves considerable attention. I love his character design. It’s a shame that Konami wasn’t interested in continuing and expanding the Love Plus world. The spiritual heir to Love Plus was LoveR Kiss released by Kadokawa Games. However, only the version for the Nintendo Switch console is worthy of attention. Why? The answer is simple. The PS4 version was censored. But that should hardly surprise anyone. Ever since Sony handed over the entertainment division to the Americans, its slow death has begun. This includes, of course, the PlayStation brand. It is now, unfortunately, nearing the end of its life.
Evaluation and summary
In conclusion, this game is definitely not for everyone. Hardly, most people will find it to be something totally rubbish and downright silly. However, if it interested you at least a little while reading this review – it is really worth giving it a chance (especially if you are learning Japanese). My score: 10/10. There is a massive library of sensational games on the Nintendo 3DS (as there is on most Nintendo consoles), nevertheless New Love Plus+ is the game that I probably devoted the most time to, and after more than… 2 years, I still want to run it almost every day.
In the future, perhaps I’ll write a much more extensive guide, with translations of basic phrases, place names on the map and instructions for completing tasks. For now, however, this (already quite extensive) review must satisfy you interested parties. I sincerely encourage you to buy it. This review may be supplemented in the future when I remember something else important.
Finally, I’ll show off the exterior of my console:
