Leaked images of the Tokimeki Memorial 4 packaging a few days back kicked off rumors that Konami would be requiring players to buy the game's opening and ending theme songs off the PlayStation Store. Is this a new low for microtransactions?

The answer appears to be no. 4Gamer quizzed Konami reps on the issue at a retail demo event today. Konami does plan on offering the opening and ending as paid download content. However, the download content will just be different versions of what's already included in the package. There may be character-specific sequences in the download versions, for instance.

The offending text.

See 4Gamer for a look at the event, which was held outside Akihabara's Sofmap game shop. Konami apparently had the full game on display, which sounds like bad news for those hoping for the release of a demo.

Here's one neat feature for Tokimemo 4 that Hachimaki pointed out in its story on the downloadable opening and ending themes earlier this week. If you have Sony's Chotto Shot camera attached to your system, the girls will look at you.

The above is from a viewing room that allows you to view the girls in different clothing and against different backgrounds after you've cleared the game with them. The right image shows what happens when the camera is attached. The pink guide image represents your face position. Notice how the girl is looking at you?

You can turn off the pink guide for total immersion.

Other technical feats for the game include install support to reduce load times, voice synthesis to make the the girls say your name, and Motion Portrait technology to make the girls' move realistically. The voice tech makes use of "SpeeCan" technology from Arcadia. The Motion Portrait technology is from Silicon Studio. That's right, the same Silicon Studio that made 3D Dot Game Heroes. They're actually big on middleware (which is why 3D Dot Game Heroes has such a high tech standard).

The text in the middle says that these features will be shown at the official site shortly.

In other Tokimeki Memorial 4 news, here's the jacket art for the CD that's included with the Tokimeki Memorial 4 limited edition:

Don't get it confused with the jacket for the recently released Dream Club vocal album: