Crazy for Anime Trivia

Discover intriguing facts and secrets about your favorite anime series

Otaku Culture

Blindfolded Speedrun of Dating Simulator Takes Center Stage

Blindfolded Speedrun of Dating Simulator Takes Center Stage

A noteworthy event, titled “RTA in Japan Summer 2023,” recently took place in Japan, featuring a Japanese gamer attempting a speedrun of the dating simulator game “Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with You.”

The player, known as Kazupoon, managed to navigate the game and provide commentary while blindfolded, completing the game in an astonishing 1 hour and 57 minutes. This achievement quickly caught fire on social media, leaving audiences in awe.

Blindfolded Speedrun of Dating Simulator Takes Center Stage

Kazupoon relied solely on in-game sounds and their memory to progress through the game—a formidable challenge that the player successfully conquered.

Tokimeki Memorial is a bishojo dating simulation game published by Konami, where players develop the male protagonist’s stats, enhance their skills, and make dialogue choices to cultivate romantic relationships with in-game love interests.

The game spans three in-game years (representing high school years), requiring players to perform numerous small actions such as choosing daily activities and studying subjects.

Each of these actions can trigger events, including encounters with heroines, which extend the game’s playtime—running counter to the idea of a speedrun.

Blindfolded Speedrun of Dating Simulator Takes Center Stage
The icons in the top left corner of the image represent the menu from which players select actions; these icons are small and closely grouped.

Completing the game typically takes around 8 hours. To cut down on this time, Kazupoon not only needed to memorize all the necessary choices to skip time-consuming events but also had to successfully make those choices while blindfolded—an impressive feat.

Even the game’s outset, where players input the character’s birthday, blood type, and love interest, posed a significant challenge, as these inputs influence the storyline later on.

Yet, Kazupoon managed to accurately input the birthdates and blood types as intended. Reflecting on this, he quipped to the audience: “If I mess this up, you’ll know, but I’ll find out within 10 minutes of gameplay.”

Blindfolded Speedrun of Dating Simulator Takes Center Stage
The character birthday and blood type input screen.

As Kazupoon progressed through the dating simulator speedrun, he peppered the performance with commentary that amused the audience, also shedding light on his gameplay strategies.

According to his comments, he gauged his in-game progress based on sounds, knew when to choose dialogue options by listening to the heroine’s responses, and predetermined which mini-games to play based on whether they could be conquered while blindfolded.

In the end, Kazupoon achieved his goal, completing the dating simulator speedrun in 1 hour and 57 minutes. As the final scene approached, Kazupoon began reciting the confession word-for-word, articulating each section aloud before the in-game character, leaving the audience exhilarated.

And there you have it—a challenging blindfolded speedrun of a dating simulator triumphantly executed by a Japanese gamer during this event. Did you know that May is renowned for her exceptional Pokémon Emerald speedruns?

Via: Automaton

Mangas on Sale

Read More on Crazy for Anime Trivia