By Eu
Makoto (name changeable) is selected to join the beauty contest for the upcoming school festival. She pairs with her childhood friend, Nao. With Nao’s nerdy looks, the guys from their class mock the way he dresses. Frustrated, Makoto is set to help Nao win the contest.
Jimi na Kare to Watashi no Jijou ~Seishun ＊ Renai＊Ikemen Ikusei Game~ (地味なカレと私の事情 ～青春＊恋愛＊イケメン育成ゲーム～) or Jimi-Kare in English is a mobile app created by SEEC Inc. The idea of the game is to turn your plain guy friend into a bishie one. Jimi meaning plain or simple.
I love Nao! He is super duper adorable! I’m weak to gentle types lately, and Nao fits the bill! It’s enjoyable to see him change as the story progresses.
The idea of the game is to boost Nao’s morale, and you can do that by tapping the Tap bar below to shout encouraging words at him. Tapping the speech bubbles earns two experience points. Meanwhile, Nao mutters some negative speech bubbles which you can also pop for one experience point.
You progress the story by filling in the experience gauge. Once you hit plot points, you’ll get a scene and/or a CG. Depending on which part of the plot you are, the chibi Nao you see on the home screen also changes.
There is also a lucky scratch part where you’ll open one circle which might contain experience points or consumable goods. It replenishes every 10 minutes.
The developers included a flow chart, so you’ll know which part of the story you are. It is also convenient to know when you will have branching choices. Apparently, there are four endings available.
While this app is free, you can choose to buy stuff. Things like, juices for additional exp or increasing the speech bubbles that appear. And because it is free, ads pop quite a lot. You can also choose to pay to remove the ads.
This app is available in English and Japanese. I started with the English one, but now I’m playing the Japanese app. I noticed that the English one is more stable. In the JP app, I consider it a miracle if I open it and won’t crash. Worst thing is, all the speech bubbles available when you first opened the game will be gone once restarted.
This mobage can be played with or without an internet connection, so that’s a big plus for me because 1) I can play it during commute or breaks, 2) it doesn’t consume data, and 3) I can conserve battery. Another pro is that this is such a low maintenance game as the story progresses depending on the exp points and not on gacha tickets.
If you can’t tell yet, I’m loving this game a lot! Currently, I’m in the middle of my second playthrough. Aside from the other technical stuff I mentioned above, there are choices available in the game like your usual visual novel. But you won’t be needing any guides as it is easy to plow through the story. I can’t wait to see all the available endings!
The app is available at Google Play Store: EN, JP
For those of you who are using iOS, Jimi-Kare is also available at the App Store: EN, JP