I don’t know if I’ve ever performed a online game fairly like Natsu-Mon: Twentieth Century Summer season Child. Think about a JPRG the place the younger hero who’s alleged to embark on an epic journey to save lots of the dominion doesn’t truly embark, and as an alternative simply spends a month fishing, exploring caves, and resurrecting the city competition. That’s this sport.
However that’s to not say there’s no journey available. Quite the opposite, Natsu-Mon is all about discovering your adventures the place you’re. You play as Satoru, a younger boy whose dad and mom run a touring circus. The circus runs into some points in scenic Yomogi City, so Satoru is left within the care of an innkeeper whereas his dad and mom try and resolve these points. With nothing greater than his childhood curiosity and a college task to information him, Satoru units out to make this an August to recollect.
And the way does he try this? By exploring. By speaking to individuals. By principally simply working round till one thing catches his eye. Gameplay is generally centered round complete childhood freedom—the type few children have anymore, at the very least the place I reside.
Often, the sport provides Satoru particular duties to finish. He could get up, for instance, and discover himself invited to accompany associates to a particular location. These present scripted moments that assist forestall Natsu-Mon from feeling utterly aimless. For probably the most half, nevertheless, how Satoru spends his day is as much as the participant. There are all the time bugs and fish to catch, all of that are documented in his pocket book.
There are cash and treasures to search out (have been Twentieth-century Japanese householders actually this cool with children traipsing throughout their rooftops?). There are paid jobs to just accept. There are ghost ladies to…wait. Ghost ladies?
A part of what makes Natsu-Mon: Twentieth Century Summer season Child so endearing is that it expertly captures the surprise of being a child. Did that little lady by the tree simply vanish into skinny air? Is she a ghost? Properly, until somebody has a greater clarification, she needs to be. Let’s play video games along with her and discover out!
Natsu-Mon supplies larger objectives, too. One in all your first duties is to climb some particular buildings. Your stamina meter, nevertheless, gained’t allow you to get shut. So, you could have a month to extend the meter and work out get to the highest of these constructions. What an excellent purpose that’s. I recall my very own childhood when a pal and I made a decision to hop the barbed-wire safety of a radio tower and climb to the highest. Did we make it? In fact not. Our stamina meters weren’t excessive sufficient. And it was additionally fairly scary. And silly. However we tried. Reminiscence achieved!
Satoru has to uncover and full all of those duties over the course of a full day. They start with breakfast and a morning train session (offered he was dwelling in time for night time’s sleep the day earlier than).
Then, he’s free to roam till supper when he’s robotically situated and returned dwelling. He then will get the night to wrap issues up, however needs to be dwelling by 10:00 if he doesn’t wish to oversleep the subsequent day. This was annoying at first, as the sport didn’t present a clock; it’s a must to purchase that your self when you make sufficient cash. Perhaps the purpose was to overlook your bedtime, however I most well-liked to simply grasp across the inn till weariness took over. Even with the clock, it typically wasn’t value abandoning my present job to finish the lengthy journey dwelling in time for mattress, even with the power to take the bus.
The size of the times may be adjusted to fit your playstyle. You will get extra completed by making the times last more, however the adventures lose their sense of urgency. You additionally lose replayability that means. Tear by way of the sport on quick days, and also you’ll be extra prone to play once more, making completely different choices on the way you spend your time. Shorter days, nevertheless, additionally make it tougher to finish sure assignments and jobs, which may be irritating (particularly people who require exact actions).
That is very true of the duties that require platforming or reaching far-off places. The sport’s open world is colourful and properly detailed, however getting round can typically show tough. That is largely because of considerably clunky controls, particularly when platforming is within the combine. And since Satoru can climb practically something, he’ll usually begin climbing belongings you don’t need him to.
Natsu-Mon additionally doesn’t do an excellent job of guiding you in your duties, and even serving to you determine go to mattress. Random exploration was very enjoyable at the start, however by the point you’re approaching the tip of August, just a little extra assistance on get issues completed would’ve been appreciated. A fortune-telling circus member ultimately reveals as much as assist, and you might even find a mystical port-a-pot that will help you get dwelling instantly. Nonetheless, count on some gaming classes to be extra productive than others. Perhaps that’s a growth determination—you’ll be able to’t count on to finish a childhood’s value of adventures in a month, proper? Particularly when there’s already a DLC journey to embark on.
Additionally, it forces you to speak to individuals, and that’s one of many sport’s biggest strengths. Nearly each particular person you meet has one thing to contribute. Even higher, their particular person quirks (and Satoru’s response to them) make them enjoyable to have interaction with. The conversations are a pleasure to expertise, even in case you are oddly compelled to pick each dialogue choice earlier than leaving them. And, like in actual life, you by no means know which dialog will find yourself shaping the course of your summer time.
These all mix to create a chill, Animal Crossing-type expertise that may make older avid gamers wistful. It affected me a bit in another way, as I had these kind of days in my childhood. I explored creek bridges looking for black snakes. I climbed deserted grain silos. I by no means hopped on a field automotive and rode it 30 miles right into a neighboring city earlier than disembarking and calling my dad for a journey dwelling, however I’ve a buddy who did.
Quite, Natsu-Mon makes me wistful for an atmosphere the place children nonetheless have this sort of freedom (and even simply want it). I think about that’s why the sport was made, as that sense of surprise and curiosity is deeply woven into its core. That makes it a sport value experiencing, offered childhood adventures haven’t misplaced their attraction. Who must go battle God on some interstellar airplane when there’s a lighthouse to climb actually proper there?