After inserting the battery, the device will ask you if you want to load the save, or begin from scratch. If you choose load, it will bring back up last playthrough it saved, and will next ask you for the date. Otherwise, the device will go through the initial animation, after which Keroro will appear and start asking about your name, current date and time, and your birthday.
Once you start, gameplay cannot be paused. Whenever you turn on the device, it will show an idle animation with whatever Keroro is doing at this point in time. This action is random, and can change if you turn the device on/off.
Aside of this animation, you get a more Tamagotchi-esque screen icons on the sides of the screen
| Icon | Name |
|---|---|
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Status screen |
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Chores screen |
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Minigames screen |
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Library screen |
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Kululu's lab |
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Settings screen |
This device, unlike Digimon (Which is where I come from) does not have any hunger/strength meters, instead you have a happiness index and a scheming index. You start with both at 50%. You can increase or decrease happiness or scheming depending on how you treat Keroro. This includes playing minigames, doing chores or interacting with Keroro.
First, let's focus on interactions. Each screen has different interactive points, which are chosen with the touch screen. Normally, in these screens, touching Keroro's head will reveal a menu depending on the action Keroro is doing. Here is an example for when you interact with Keroro when he's reading by touching his head.
In this case, you can poke Keroro (he may not like it), you can call him, or you can give him sweets. Positive interactions will result in gaining happiness, negative interactions, of course, yield in lowering the happines. Letting Keroro go his way will result in increased scheming levels, which means Keroro might ignore you whenever it comes to doing chores. Ideally you should keep scheming levels low.
Additionally, you also get money. When you start, you receive 1000 yen. Every day you get 1500 from headquarters. With this money, Keroro might use it to buy Gunpla or manga to read.*