My Life My Love: Boku no Yume: Watashi no Negai
is a board game simulator for the Family Computer. At the time of release, the suggested manufacturer's retail price of the game was 10,080 yen (roughly equivalent to $109.62 in 2009 dollars). A typical session lasts for several hours and the video game is considered to be the longest for any 8-bit console system. However, a notable exception can be made for the Family Computer game Ultima III: Exodus which takes an expert player up to 90 hours to complete.
During the game, brief news reports are provided to create a historical backdrop to the game. A news anchorman and his assistant helps to cover important headlines including [...] becoming illegal and The Release of Steven Spielberg's 1982 movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (released near the holiday season). Watching a player grow up from a 5-year-old into an 18-year-old can take anywhere from 90-120 minutes (1Â―-2 hours) depending the the ability of the player to make the right decisions on the virtual board. Pushing the B button brings out a text-based menu exclusively in Japanese. The player can use the menu to either save the game, end a friendship, end a romantic relationship, use an item, along with other things.
Gameplay
Character development
The first thing a player must do is to make a character. He/she creates the character by assigning his/her avatar some personality traits, a blood type, the avatar's gender, and the character's birth date information to conclude the questionnaire. Any date from January 1, 1950 to December 31, 1980 is valid: otherwise the player's character would be too old (causing the game to end prematurely) or too young (causing the game to unnecessarily strain itself to accompany non-existent futuristic dates). The character's face is randomly created from all of these variables. Rolling the dice is the first thing the player must do once placed on the gigantic virtual board. After randomly throwing a number from one to six, the results of landing on a square either decreases or increases the character's virtual development statistics.
These increases and/or decreases in statistics occur in the events that are played out and/or the choices that are given to the player. Consequences can even result in losing a turn if the "punishment" is severe enough. As the player progresses down the board, the date moves closer to 1991 where the game reaches its ultimate goal. Players can establish friendships and even romantic relationships with non-player characters. The player who has developed his or her character to be either the strongest, the most intelligent, or with the most positive emotions wins the game.
Stages of development
Childhood and adolescences offer the most choices while adulthood is considered to be linear. Anime-style graphics are illustrated throughout the game and the game is entirely in the Japanese language. Players are also offered pets at random moments in their childhood; it could be a dog, a cat, or any other kind of domestic animal. Neglecting the animal lowers its affection points towards the player to the point that it will eventually die from starvation and/or abandonment. One of the player's parents (either the mother or the father) will hand out random monetary rewards to the player that will stop around early adulthood.
The faces of the player have a rather arbitrary form throughout the game. For example, the player will retain the childhood portrait until he or she turns thirteen. That is when the adolescent portrait of the character replaces the childhood portrait in a sudden manner. While it is simple to spot the difference between a male and a female if the player is familiar with the anime drawing style, it is rather odd for a 12-year old with a child's face to suddenly become a 13-year-old with a young adult face right on his or her birthday. The same thing occurs when the player's character turns eighteen; the face turns from a high school student directly into an post-pubescent adult in business clothes. With this lack of insight in the development of a growing child's body, this game appropriate for dealing with the character's changes during puberty.