Part 29: The Making of Goon2

The Making of Goon2

I'm trying something new with video content for this LP - although after my first two attempts, I think I need to write a script for myself next time. Here are the video versions of character creation and EVS file creation.

Character Creation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4c7pDCWmso
EVS File Creation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmFMa0emtvk

Enough dawdling, time to get started!

Step 1: Character creation

Unlike Tokimemo 1, Tokimemo 2 offers you a lot more freedom in character creation. There's no master formula that determines Hikari's tastes and club activities - she's always going to be on the track team. So, meet our new Goon:


Fudou Gunma.

The characters used in his name mean "herd of horses" and is also the name of a prefecture in Japan.


Goon's birthday is going to be October 26th for unknown reasons, but I had to pause and think hard about what blood type he would be. Why? Because of this:



I've mentioned before that blood type factors into Japanese horoscopes - some believe that blood types also influence personality, and more importantly for gameplay purposes, they also influence compatibility. Blood type compatibility provides a small multiplier to all affection gains in Tokimemo 2, and the effect is quite noticeable for O->A and B->AB.

You may think that B is overpowered from looking at the chart, but as you may recall from the "Always Pick Grades" rant from the first New Year's Day of Tokimemo 1, some playthroughs actually benefit from slower affection gains. In particular, there are a couple of events in Tokimeki Memorial 2 that require affection to be under a certain threshold in order to see them.

In the end, I settled on good ol' O. Again, for completely unknown reasons.

Step 2: Emotional Voice System file creation!


Immediately after character creation, the game asks if you want to create EVS (Emotional Voice System) data, to insert into the game every time the girl of your choice says $playername. Hardware limitations kick in hard right here, as a single EVS file takes up a little over 80K, when PlayStation-era memory cards could only hold 120K. So if you want to have an EVS file for each main character, you have to have a whopping 10 separate memory cards! And that doesn't count the memory card you need for the system file.


Thankfully, this is the PS3, so I can make as many virtual PlayStation memory cards as I need.


The base game only comes with the ability to create EVS files for Hikari and Kasumi, the two most prominent characters in the game.


Making an EVS is simple. First, spell out the sounds you want the girl to say every time she says your name. In this case, I'm writing out "Gu-Nn", which is how Goon is written in Japanese.


Next, choose where the accent goes.


Then, the game plays a sample at you. My first few attempts, quite frankly, sounded awful (refer to the video to hear what it sounds like).


By the way, if you try to put in a sound that the system isn't capable of (or which doesn't exist in Japanese), you get a giant HONK sound effect as the game angrily refuses to accept your attempts to break the language. It's pretty amusing.


Five minutes later, I finally made something I could live with. Time for the game to begin!

Next time: Childhood... and PANIC!