Jimi-Kare : My Quiet Boyfriend

Jimi-Kare : My Quiet Boyfriend
     I actually didn't think I was going to like this when I downloaded.  I noted that the graphics looked cute but generally any app with 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend' in the title tends to be fairly unimpressive to me.  However, I actually enjoyed this one... But somehow I feel guilty for liking it...

     First off, you play a girl who is in high school.  You're classmates with your shy childhood friend who is a male who has seen his share of bullying for being a cry baby.  As a child you used to defend him, though that was several years back.  You don't really interact with him much nowadays until the two of you were chosen for a school contest.  As you'll be asked to perform on stage together and need to be charismatic and fashionable, you decide you need to make some adjustments to your old friend.

     This is the basis for the game... each chapter is you making another minor adjustment to how the poor guy looks or acts.  First his hair, lose the glasses, change how he wears his uniform, etc.  But this is where I take a bit of issue.  I feel so sorry for this poor guy.  The female character that represents the player's character is the worst.  She is bossy, demanding, doesn't seem to care about the poor guy's feelings and seems to care more about this contest than she does about him.  She is basically a terrible friend.

     Now I said I feel bad for the poor male character who stars in this app story... But more so in the beginning of the app than the ends... There are four possible endings one can get while playing through.  Most chapters don't split off or has choices but there are 2 choices that will happen toward the end that determine which path you will go down.  Though I feel for this guy and secretly wish he would just tell this girl to leave him alone, depending on the ending you get... things can actually get pretty dark and this guy gets a bit hard to... sympathise with.  Especially the dark ending... Which is actually part of my guilt... I liked this ending too much considering morally I really should not have...

     The game play is pretty simple.  You read through the story bits, 3 per chapter, and in between you tap speech bubbles.  The speech bubbles are how you get experience.  The experience fills the meter in the top left which is how you inch your way to new bits of story.

     There are two types of bubbles.  As your little mini shy friend wanders around the screen he murmurs sad things.  If you tap those speech bubbles you get 1 experience point for each one.  They pop up about once per 10 seconds.  You can tap the cheer button at the bottom of the room he is in to create positive bubbles.  Tapping these gives you 2 experience points.  Each chapter requires more and more experience to complete.  The room can hold 12 bubbles at once.  If you let them stack up this high, no more can be added till you pop them.  They will continue to fill up even if the app is closed.

     Aside from bubble popping, experience can be earned through the scratch card at the top centre of the screen.  You can have up to 5 tries at once.  It takes 10 minutes to refill one try.  The scratch card has 6 scratch spots.  But after each scratch the scratched spots are no longer visible and the options shuffle.  So you can't open all the slots on a single scratch card.  You can earn 3 experience points, 30 experience points or a detox drink item.  I find the top middle spot to be particularly lucky... But that's just me.

     There are a few consumable items in the app.  You can choose to spend money on them but you really don't need to.  You can play for free and still beat the app with every ending in under a week.  The money you spend earns you Gems, which are in game currency only available through purchases.  120 Yen grants you 20 gems.  Bigger purchases are also available.  The items are:

•  Detox Drink which can be purchased for 3 gems (This can also be obtained through finishing chapters, the scratch card or completing achievements) and grants you 20 experience.
• Fever Time which is 8 gems (Can also be obtained through completing achievements) and makes poppable bubbles appear faster for 10 seconds.
• Mutter Booster which is 120 yen and increases the amount of negative murmur bubbles allowed from 12 to 24.
• Double Exp which costs 120 yen and doubles the experience earned from each bubble tapped... which honestly isn't a great boost.

     The boyfriend character changes in appearance as you progress through the story.  Some versions are only obtainable through certain story paths.  If you want to collect them all you need to finish with each ending.  If you want to double check which you've collected you can do so by tapping the Collection button at the bottom of the app.  You can also view the still images you unlocked through your play throughs from this area.  There are 14 stills and 10 unlockable Nao chibis.

     The in game achievements can be found in the Quest area.  There are 35 achievements to unlock for extra experience or consumable items.

     There are a lot of things I like about this application.  The graphics are very well done and certainly keep me coming back.  I am addicted to unlockables so the fact that there are different graphics I need to keep playing through to unlock has a certain appeal for me.  I like the story even though I hate the female character so much.  I have a habit of skipping dialogue through some games like this but this one actually kept me reading.  And here I thought I didn't care about teen drama... Who knew?  Even the murmur bubbles and cheer bubbles can change depending on how the story is progressing.  It is this attention to detail I greatly appreciate.

     On the downsides the low amount of experience you get from bubble tapping can be a real grind... Tedious screen tapping has never been my favourite thing to do.  There is an ad banner on the screen but it isn't in the way.  Occasionally an ad popup will occur or a popup will occur to ask if you'd like to watch an ad for 20 experience but these aren't too often.

     All in all I think this is a pretty decent app.  Simple, attractive and fun to read.

Rating: 4/5

• Free
• Seller: SEEC INC.
• Category: Games
• Size: 57.7 MB
• Languages: English
• Copyright: © SEEC INC.

Rated 9+ For the Following:  Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence