To Heart 2 is a romance "novel-type adventure game" in which the player assumes the role of Takaaki Kouno, who begins his second year of high school after reuniting with a childhood friend. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's narrative and dialogue. The text in the game is accompanied by character sprites, which represent who Takaaki is talking to, appearing over background artwork. Throughout the game, the player encounters CG artwork at certain points in the story, which take the place of the background art and character sprites. A gallery of the viewed CGs and played background music is available on the game's title screen. To Heart 2 follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction.
The game divides each school day of the storyline into four segments. These segments illustrate the events that occur during Takaaki's commute to school, during school, after school, and after he returns home at the end of each day. Depending on the time of the day and the player's actions, he or she may be presented one of three types of events: mandatory events, which occur automatically during certain points in the game's plot line; temporary events, which occur during certain periods of time only if specific conditions are met; or after school events, which occur at the end of each school day.
At the end of each school day, the player will be given the option to navigate to various locations within the game's setting. Each choosable location is accompanied by an image of a heroine in order to allow the choices to be easier to make. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from. Text progression pauses at these points, and depending on the choices that the player makes, the affection rate of the heroine associated with the event will either increase, decrease, or remain the same. This mechanism determines which direction of the plot the player will progress into, but influences the story only during Konomi's and Karin's plot lines.
In the PlayStation 2 version, there are nine plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story except Sango and Ruri, who share the same plot line. This is expanded to ten plot lines in the Windows and PlayStation Portable versions with the addition of Sasara's scenario, and further expanded to eleven scenarios in the PlayStation 3 version with the addition of Mio's scenario. In order to view all of the plot lines, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and make different decisions to progress the plot in alternate directions. In all versions, the game also contains a bad ending in which the player is unable to pursue the other scenarios. This ending serves as the basis of the Another Days scenario in To Heart 2 Another Days, which allows the player to pursue an additional seven heroines.
To Heart 2 X Rated, the Windows version of the visual novel, includes two additional minigames that serve to lengthen the experience the game provides; these minigames do not affect the main plot in any way. In both minigames, the player controls one of the heroines from To Heart 2's storyline, who is made available upon the completion of her scenario in the main portion of the game. The first of the two minigames, titled "Super Sweets Scramble" (スーパースイーツスクランブル, Sūpaa Suiitsu Sukuranburu), is a scrolling shooter in which the player's goal is to progress through a vertically scrolling level, while attacking enemies that resemble confectioneries and dodging their attacks. The second, titled "Dokidoki Panic Library" (ドキドキぱにっくライブラリー, Dokidoki Panikku Raiburarï), is a puzzle game in which the player competes against an opponent for the highest score, by connecting three or more books of the same color and eliminating them from the screen.
Plot and characters
To Heart 2's story revolves around the male protagonist Takaaki Kouno, a high school student who has an aversion to most girls around him, and focuses on his interactions with his schoolmates. The story begins on March 1, 2004, when Takaaki's parents leave for an overseas business trip. That morning, Konomi Yuzuhara, Takaaki's childhood friend, comes to meet Takaaki for their commute to school. Konomi is a cheerful and innocent, but childish girl. She is one year younger than Takaaki, who often views her as a younger sister. The two are also friends with Yuuji Kousaka, who is in the same class as Takaaki. Despite being the son of a wealthy and prestigious family, Yuuji has a frivolous and carefree personality, and often flirts with the girls at school. Takaaki later reunites with Tamaki Kousaka, another childhood friend, who had promised to return before being enrolled into a boarding school. Tamaki has a strong and dominant personality, and tends to act as an elder sister figure to those around her. She later transfers into Takaaki's high school upon the beginning of the new school year.
Throughout the story, Takaaki meets several other heroines attending his school. The first is Manaka Komaki, a timid, clumsy, but accommodating girl who is the vice class representative of Takaaki's class. She often spends time in the school library's storage, and helps the library committee with general tasks. Similar to Takaaki, she is inarticulate around the opposite gender. Manaka is also close friends with Yuma Tonami, an aggressive girl who commutes to school by a mountain bike. Yuma sees Takaaki as a rival after she first met him at school, and often challenges him to various duels. She often laments her grandfather's insistence of having her take over the family business, and attempts to hide her family background from Takaaki. Karin Sasamori is a schoolmate of Takaaki's and the founder of the school's mystery club. Karin has a cheerful and energetic personality, and has an odd affection towards the occult and objects such as egg sandwiches. She first meets Takaaki early in the story, and later deceives him into joining the mystery club.
