Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shouganai! 1: First Limit (I Can't Help Liking the Things I Like! 1: First Limit)

One day, Sora mysteriously falls from the window of an upper floor in the school building. After being released from the hospital and returning to the school dormitory, his friend Matsuri announces that he has a new roommate, a very effeminate boy named Sunao who was their friend from childhood. The only problem is that Sora cannot remember him at all -- which upsets Sunao and turns him rather cold to Sora.

Mystified as to why he cannot remember his past or why he fell from the building, Sora is determined to get answers, which turns out to be no easy task when things such as a sexually-harrassing math teacher or ghost possession get in the way. Then there is also the matter of Sunao acting very strangely from time to time...

Hashiba Sora - Sora is a student at an all-boys' high school, and a member of the school "Nandemoya" (Jack-of-All-Trades) team. He has lots of friends among the student body, but is also a target for rumors, especially after his mysterious fall though the upper-floor window of one of the school buildings, which left him hospitalized. He has no memories of his childhood, including his new roommate, Sunao, who he is told is his childhood friend. He decides he is going to find out why he mysteriously fell and has lost memories. Seiyuu (PS2 Version Only): Midorikawa Hikaru.

Fujimori Sunao - Sunao is a transfer student to the high school, who shows up as Sora's new roommate at the time that Sora is released from the hospital. He is a childhood friend of Sora and Matsuri, and also part of the school Nandemoya team with them. Since Sora has no recollection of who he is, Sunao turns very angry and cold against him. He also seems to have some strange quirks, such as hating medicine and having strange moments where his personality seems to change... Seiyuu (PS2 Version Only): Hoshi Souichirou.

Honjou Matsuri - Matsuri is the vice-president of the student body and superintendent of the dormitory, and also the one behind the school Nandemoya team. He is a friend from childhood of both Sora and Sunao. He has a very sunny personality and is also a bit playfully devious, enjoying playing tricks or teasing Sora and Sunao. He has a hobby for photography and one never knows when they could end up on his film. Seiyuu (PS2 Version Only): Chiba Susumu.

Minato Shinichirou - Minato is a mathematics teacher at the school. He is very strict, and can strike fear into his students with his harsh glare. He is also a pervert who uses his dominating personality to make sexual advances on students: including Sora and Sunao. Seiyuu (PS2 Version Only): Miki Shinichirou.

Nanami - Nanami is the school nurse and councilor at the highschool, and is a liscenced doctor and expert in mental psychology. He is extremely friendly and caring, and is well liked by the student body. He is a housewife-type that enjoys cooking and cleaning, and acted like a mother figure toward Sora. Seiyuu (PS2 Version Only): Ishida Akira.

Sakura Hiromu - Hiromu is an enthusiastic ghost who wants Sora to be his boyfriend for two days. To do this, he possesses Sunao in order to use his body. Since Sunao and Hiromu are sharing the body, it causes quite a confusion, not to mention a lot of trouble for Sora and Sunao. Seiyuu (PS2 Version Only): Sakaguchi Daisuke.

Ichikawa Gaku - Gaku is Sora's extremely bright and energetic under-classman. He's a member of the chemistry club, and has a crush on Nagase, the director of the chemistry department at the school. Seiyuu (PS2 Version Only): Kisaichi Atsushi.

Hano Yoshihiro - Yoshihiro is Gaku's friend, and is also a member of the chemistry club. Seiyuu (PS2 Version Only): Nojima Kenji.

Nagase Kai - Nagase is the director of the chemistry department at Sora's school, and is extremely gifted in the field of chemistry. He is very cold and quiet, and isn't around other people much, with the exception of Gaku. Seiyuu (PS2 Version Only): Okiayu Ryoutarou.

Prof. Aizawa - Aizawa is the advisor of the chemistry department at the school. He is rarely seen, but when he is he comes off as someone you wouldn't want to approach. Seiyuu (PS2 Version Only): Kosugi Juurouta.

There is nothing new in the gameplay of Sukisho! 1; it is straight click-and-choose visual novel. You follow the story, picking different options along the way, collecting CGs in the process.

Sukisho! is very story-heavy, but the game is fairly short and there is not a lot of deviation in the story; it is more-or-less linear, since the game is considered the "first episode" of a series of games, and only one storyline is the one that reveals any answers and continues into the next game. There are very few branches available off of this main storyline: mainly just one for Minato and one for Hiromu. Therefore, you aren't going to find a lot of endings and couplings.

For the features in the game, it runs in full-screen mode at 800x600 resolution, there are ten save slots, a six-and-a-half page CG gallery (which really holds a lot less CGs than that sounds, since "multi-stage" CGs such as ones where only a mouth expression changes each take up their own slot, and "special character poses" also are counted as CGs), and a Character section which unlocks after completing the game once. There are also some game options you can set such as text speed and background music and sound-effect volumes, but they are only accessible within the game-mode and not from the title screen.

I had no trouble installing and playing Sukisho! 1: First Limit on Windows XP with the default for non-unicode programs set to Japanese.

AGTH Compatibility - Sukisho! 1: First Limit is partially compatible with Anime Games Text Hooker. You must add the /v and /kf parameters, and select the ":000003A4 MultiByteToWideChar" thread in AGTH. All the text is extracted to this thread, but each line in the dialogue box is split to a new line in the AGTH window, and most lines have a "W" character in front of them, so Atlas cannot properly translate the dialogue. Some lines in the dialogue box will be copied twice. Therefore, you'd have to manually copy the lines out of the AGTH window (ignoring the repeated lines), paste them into JWPce, erase the W's and fix the line breaks, and re-copy them to send to Atlas, which is a large amount of work. Since the game only runs in full screen, you may want to add /t to keep the AGTH window on top, since you will have to be copying the text from it for editing.

Sukisho! 1: First Limit Capture Guide - A capture guide in English made by myself for getting all the CGs in the game.

Sukisho! 1: First Limit Full CG Capture Save File - A save file that unlocks all the CGs in the game.

Due to the overwhelming popularity of Sukisho! caused by the anime, viewers were in high demand to see me review the games: so staying true to trying to give the viewers what they want to see, I installed and played the first Sukisho! game, Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shouganai! 1: First Limit.

Sukisho! 1 is a fairly short game, with a very linear story compared to most games: there are only a few different story paths you can take, while most have several. Therefore, it doesn't take very long to play through the game, so it is a good choice if you're looking for a quick play; but this also means that there are not that many different endings you can win.

Even though it is short, Sukisho! is one of the most story-driven boys' love games I've seen, and probably one of the most story-driven games out there. This turns out to be both a good and bad thing: good because to me, a good game needs an involving plot and good cast, but bad in the fact that without knowing Japanese, it is very hard to follow, unlike some other games. The main plotline is very complex, and the PC version of the game is not voiced, which for me makes it even more difficult to understand: I ended up having to play the game and listen along with the Sukisho! 1: First Limit drama CD to try to make a little sense of what was going on (and the drama CD only covers the main story path, and not the alternate endings). Also be aware that you are only getting a portion of the story, since it is continued in three other games.

The art is very nice, done in a very soft style that looks similar to watercolors, rather than the more vibrant CGs seen in other games, which I found very refreshing. There are approximately 63 full CGs with backgrounds (if you count CGs that are "multi-stage" such as just having an expression change or pose alteration as one image, even though they are each listed individually in the CG gallery), and another 19 or so that are of non-standard character poses that are just on white backgrounds, so the CG count is pretty good, especially considering that this is one of the oldest boys' love games out there, before they started making bigger games with more images.

As far as playability, there is nothing special in Sukisho!, it is just simple, standard visual novel format (which makes me a bit curious why it was nominated for "Best Gameplay" in the 2005 BL/Girls' Game Awards; I suspect just because of the popularity of the anime people voted it without ever playing the game). There aren't very many save slots, with only 10, but the game is also very short and does have the Ctrl-key skip feature to speed over parts of the game you don't wish to view again, so it seems to work out alright. One annoyance I had with the make of the game, however, was the fact that there is no window-mode as far as I could tell; the game plays in 800x600 and will expand to your whole screen (my resolution is already in 800x600, but out of curiosity I changed it to 1024x768 to see if the game would then play in a window; instead it still expanded to a full-screen with the game running in the center at 800x600 and the rest of the screen just filled in the extra space in the resolution with black). I just prefer to have an option to play a game in a window that I can minimize since it makes it easier for me to multitask on my system while I play.

If you are looking for a game with some nice art and a good story, I highly suggest Sukisho!, though be warned that you are probably going to be very confused; if you do a bit better by listening to spoken Japanese, you may need to look into the drama CD based on the game to try to get at least a little more understanding, or the PS2 version (though the PS2 version, from what I've been told, does not feature the 18+ art that is in the PC version). You are also only getting the beginning of the story, since the game is continued in three other games, so the ending is really just setting up for the next game, so you'll have to be prepared to play them as well to find out what happens next. But don't expect much in playability; it is short with few endings, based mainly only around the "truth" storyline to build into the next game.

Platinum Label's Official Sukisho! 1: First Limit Site (Japanese) - The company's site with information on the game.

NEUTRAL GAUGE (Japanese) - Personal website of Tsutae Yuzu, artist of Sukisho!.

Half Adder's Sukisho! 1: First Limit Capture Guide (Japanese) - A complete capture guide for getting all the endings in Sukisho! 1: First Limit.

Sukisho! Webring (Japanese) - Official Japanese Sukisho! webring.

Sukisho! Webring (Japanese) - Another Japanese Sukisho! webring.

Sukisho! Mailing List (English) - A mailing list to chat with others about Sukisho!, and share pictures, fanart, fanfics, and the like.

Sukisho! Live Journal Community (English) - The Live Journal community for anything related to Sukisho!.

Sukisho! Fanfics Live Journal Community (English) - A Live Journal community for sharing Sukisho! fanfiction.

Sukisho! Fanfics Live Journal Community (English) - A Live Journal community for sharing Sukisho! yaoi-related material.

Spread the Love! Sukisho! - A great site about the popular series of boys' love games, Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shougainai! Lots of information to be had.

Aku Tenshi - Manga scanlation site that did the Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shougainai! manga.

#YaoiForever's Sukisho! Review (English) - Some screencaps and information for the Sukisho! games.

Disclaimer: All written text and capture guides © Boys' Love Games Headquarters. All pictures and downloads are copyright of their respective companies and artists and are for promotional use only. I am in no way claiming the art as my own, nor am I trying to infringe upon the company's rights. I am trying to promote these games by allowing a foreign audience to see some artwork from the game.