Tokimeki Memorial: its lineage, descendants, and standing in Japan
01What this origin is
Tokimeki Memorial is a dating-sim adventure game developed and published by Konami, first released for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM2 in 1994. Casting the player as a high-school student who builds stats and reads each girl's interests, then raises an affection parameter through dialogue choices and daily actions over a three-year calendar toward a confession, it popularized and is widely credited with defining the affection-parameter raising adventure, the template that later choice-driven affection ADVs descend from.
02Sources
03Buried gems that carry this root
DevilConnection Buried gem
A choice-driven adventure about contracting a powerless little devil and summoning kemono characters across the world of Majirisia. You wield the devil's power, an Evil Eye search, to peer into each target's heart and read what stirs them, then pick one of two dialogue choices to raise their emotions and harvest the magical power that pours out. An affection-style emotion meter, multiple endings, and photo and collection elements wrap a dark-fantasy, dark-humor comedy tone. Made by the Japanese solo creator Bayachao under the name ChaoGames, self-published on Steam (a Switch port via PLAYISM is planned for 2026). In the lineage of the affection-parameter raising adventure that Tokimeki Memorial established, only it swaps romance for a devil's contract that harvests emotion as magic. Overwhelmingly Positive in Japan at 1,842 reviews and 99 percent, yet the West has barely found it: just 79 English reviews out of 1,842, and an English version does not exist yet (the store is Japanese-only). Note: English localization first arrives with the 2026 Switch version; on PC it is Japanese-only for now.