Part 88: Tokimemo 3, Chapter 17: The End
Tokimemo 3, chapter 17: The End3/14: Graduation day
Somehow, I didn't manage to capture the part where there's a scroll of the gym and Goon says "Wow, my 3 years here are over." There's some kind of drone in the background too, but it's entirely unimportant. Let's get started on the actual endgame.
Takuo: Whew, that's finally over.
Takuo: By the way, did you hear about the party?
Goon: What party?
Takuo: Geez, it's been on the bulletin board forever and you didn't know about it?
Takuo: This afternoon, there's going to be a party for the graduating students.
Goon: Yeah? That sounds fun.
Masaki: I'm going too, of course.
Takuo: We have to go help set up, so we'll see you at the party.
Goon: Well, I'll see you there.
Takuo: See you soon.
Goon: (A party, eh?)
Goon: Huh? There's something in my locker.
Goon: It--it says
Goon: ("This afternoon, I'll be waiting for you on the legendary hill"?!)
Goon: (I, I wonder who it's from?)
Goon: (Well, anyway, I'll head over there after the graduation party.)
Goon appears to have no control over his inner and outer voice. That or the writers just arbitrarily threw parentheses around because they had some to spare.
Takuo: So, what'd you think of our show, the belly-dancing comedy routine?
Takuo: We mashed the belly dance up with the helping hands routine.
Takuo: It was pretty funny, right?
Takuo: We really focused on the footwork, did it show?
Quick note before you throw up at the thought of these two guys trying to do a sultry rendition of the Dance of the Seven Veils, the Japanese definition of belly-dance is the kind where you draw a face on your stomach and gyrate around like an idiot. For example:
Okay, that may not have helped suppress the vomiting. We now return to your regularly scheduled ending.
Masaki: I, I participated against my will.
Masaki: It was against my will...
Masaki: This is the end of the road, isn't it.
Takuo: Yeah. It is.
Smooth way to change the subject, Shiratori, we totally didn't notice.
Masaki: When I think about how I can finally go a day without seeing your faces, my spirits soar.
Masaki: Goodbye.
Goon: Take care of yourself.
Takuo: He may pretend to feel that way, but he's just too shy to say what he actually feels.
Takuo: Well, I hope you understand.
Takuo: Thanks to you, I had a lot of fun at school.
Takuo: ...I'll see you around.
Goon: Yeah. Take care.
Goon: (Graduation... and goodbyes.)
These goodbyes would have had actual impact if there had ever been a single reason to consider Takuo or Masaki to be a friend. Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun did more to develop its Yoshio-alike Tomoda in 2 seconds than Tokimemo did in 3 years of in-game time!
Goon: That letter in my locker...
Goon: I wonder who wrote it?
Goon: On that hill where we'll meet...
Goon: The legend goes "When two people swear their love, their love will last forever"
Goon: Among the swirling cherry blossoms--
Goon: Whoa!
Goon: (It feels like this happened before)
Goon: (Yes. A long, long time ago.)
Serika: You came.
Goon: So you wrote that letter, Serika.
And the bandages are still on her face. Does she need a cone of shame, or something?
Serika: W, well, today's graduation day, so this is the last day we're both at school.
Serika: And that's why--
Serika: Umm, this is so hard to say.
Serika: I--I wanted to tell you today, before it's all over.
Serika: I wanted to say thanks, and... and more.
Goon: Thanks? For what?
Serika: For always being there for me.
Serika: I always thought--I thought that I would always be alone.
Serika: That I didn't deserve to make new friends.
Serika: That's why I was always acted so distant, so cold to everyone.
Serika: I thought that if people didn't like me, then that would make it easier.
Serika: But you were different.
Serika: You always looked out for me.
Serika: You truly worried and cared, and tried to understand me.
Serika: That's the first time I've ever met anyone who thought about me like that.
I'm so glad that Emi can't hear this.
Serika: At first, I thought that you were so nosy.
Serika: But as we spent more time together, that slowly stopped being annoying.
Serika: And I started to think--
Serika: It'd nice if we could stay together like this forever.
Serika: Then I thought, I couldn't afford to feel like that.
Serika: I didn't deserve to feel like that.
Serika: So I tried not to think about it.
Serika: I convinced myself that I was wrong.
Serika: But just like light of spring melts the snow--
Serika: Slowly, silently, and gently...
Well that got poetic out of nowhere.
Serika: Your warmth melted my heart.
Serika: My frozen heart melted.
Serika: I--
Serika: I can't lie to myself anymore.
Serika: I don't want to lie to myself anymore.
Serika: So hear me out, one last time.
Serika: I l--I like you.
Serika: Not as a friend, not as a comrade, nothing like that.
Serika: But as the most important person to me in the world.
Serika: Umm, so...
Serika: Yeah, I love you.
Goon: Serika...
Option 1: I love you too, Serika.
Option 2: Sorry. I appreciate the sentiment, but...
Goon: I love you too, Serika.
Serika: Are you sure?
Goon: What do you mean?
Serika: I don't know what's going to happen from here.
Serika: I don't know where I'm going to go next.
Serika: I may have to leave this town, and never come back.
Serika: But no matter how far apart we are, will you always think about me?
Goon: Of course.
Serika: Haha... you really got me.
Serika: I really can't guarantee what'll happen to you for saying that to--to someone like me.
Serika: And, umm, I don't know what to say right now. I can't find the right words.
Serika: But I can promise you this much.
Serika: No matter what happens.
Serika: No matter what fate awaits me.
Serika: I'll--
Serika: I'll keep on loving you!
Serika: I love you.
Goon: (On that fated day, among the swirling cherry blossoms...)
And that is how the curtain closed on my three years of high school.
When I look back, it feels like all I did was go to the dojo.
But thanks to that, I was able to win the national aikido championship, and that's pretty amazing.
And the best thing is, I have a cute girlfriend in Serika.
I feel that I was able to have a wonderful high school life.
In the end, I'm going to become a teacher at the dojo and continue practicing aikido.
As for Serika?
She joined the JSDF.
She's going to be deployed to a distant war zone with an NPO.
We're both pretty busy, but when we find time we go out on dates together.
She's beautiful, and she has a kind and strong heart, so I think she'll be a great addition to the JSDF who can get people to work together.
There are a few things I'm worried about, but I believe that our love is eternal.
Just like the legend of the hill, the promise we made that day will last forever.
Yukiko went to a teaching college.
She'll probably become a kind, well-loved teacher.
If she doesn't bomb any students who don't pay attention in class.
Oda-san went to work at a third-rate company.
It was a spectacularly weird choice, for her.
What.
Emi-san became an instructor at her grandfather's dojo.
She seems happy to be surrounded by children every day.
This one makes sense, okay.
Shiratori is going to open a bakery.
Man, I never imagined that he'd become a baker.
You're just throwing darts at a job board now, aren't you, game?
Yabe went to work at a second-rate company.
He doesn't really talk to me anymore, so I guess he's really busy at his job.
This one also makes sense, I guess.
The end...?
The last part of the credits in Tokimemo 3 is a list of every contributor to the Tokimemo Fund. If you speed it up, it takes about 2 and a half minutes to go by - there were a lot of people who invested in this game.
I have a few friends in there, but they had to make up fake Japanese names in order to be listed in the credits (there was a character limit), so I have no idea where they are on this list. I'm guessing that a few of them would deny being on this list anyway, what with the money being wasted.
Final thoughts:
Okay, so now that that's done, there are a few parts I want to point out.
You can say no?! Who would ever do this?
YKWSTG count: 10
"We're both pretty busy, but when we find time we go out on dates together."
WHAT? How does this even work? Spatially, I mean? "When we find time" means "when she comes back on leave" I guess?
"There are a few things I'm worried about, but I believe that our love is eternal."
"A few things I'm worried about"? She told you she might never come home! How is this okay?
And most importantly: why did we see Yukiko's, Mari's, and some of Emi's events, but never saw Serika's? She was wearing her bandages on graduation day, and we never got to see what the hell was going on!
We got screwed by RNG! And it cost us the proper ending! Aaaaaugh!
YKWSTG count: TILT TILT TILT
There is only one PS2 game that can possibly vent the pure, white-hot rage that I felt after seeing this travesty of an "ending".
It's hard.
Ball-bustingly hard.
But fair.
God Hand. One of my top three games of all time.
I mean, c'mon, don't act like you don't like the ball buster. (Ball buster!)
It took about 2 hours to fight through the Game of Death homage, defeat Devil Hand, and then finally beat Satan/Angra. But I was able to take out all of my anger on the last boss in a wonderful flurry of pummelings, Yes Man Kablaams, and Double God Hands.
And then... I tried to get out.
I tried to leave Tokimemo 3 behind, as a distant, distasteful memory.
I tried to get out, but you pulled me back in!
There's one mystery left to solve.
Next time: The truth.
