I don’t know if I’ve ever performed a online game fairly like Natsu-Mon: Twentieth Century Summer time 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 pageant. 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 to resolve these points. With nothing greater than his childhood curiosity and a faculty project 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 folks. By mainly simply working round till one thing catches his eye. Gameplay is generally centered round whole childhood freedom—the type few youngsters have anymore, at the least the place I reside.
Often, the sport offers 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 fully aimless. For essentially the most half, nevertheless, how Satoru spends his day is as much as the participant. There are at all times bugs and fish to catch, all of that are documented in his pocket book.
There are cash and treasures to seek out (had been Twentieth-century Japanese householders actually this cool with youngsters traipsing throughout their rooftops?). There are paid jobs to just accept. There are ghost women to…wait. Ghost women?
A part of what makes Natsu-Mon: Twentieth Century Summer time Child so endearing is that it expertly captures the marvel of being a child. Did that little lady by the tree simply vanish into skinny air? Is she a ghost? Properly, except somebody has a greater rationalization, she must be. Let’s play video games together with her and discover out!
Natsu-Mon gives greater targets, too. One in every of your first duties is to climb some particular buildings. Your stamina meter, nevertheless, gained’t allow you to get shut. So, you will have a month to extend the meter and work out easy methods to get to the highest of these buildings. What an incredible purpose that’s. I recall my very own childhood when a good friend and I made a decision to hop the barbed-wire safety of a radio tower and climb to the highest. Did we make it? After all 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 house in time for evening’s sleep the day earlier than).
Then, he’s free to roam till supper when he’s mechanically situated and returned house. He then will get the night to wrap issues up, however must be house by 10:00 if he doesn’t need to oversleep the following day. This was annoying at first, as the sport didn’t present a clock; you need to purchase that your self when you make sufficient cash. Perhaps the purpose was to overlook your bedtime, however I most popular to only dangle 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 house in time for mattress, even with the flexibility to take the bus.
The size of the times may be adjusted to fit your playstyle. You will get extra accomplished by making the times last more, however the adventures lose their sense of urgency. You additionally lose replayability that manner. Tear by the sport on brief days, and also you’ll be extra prone to play once more, making totally different choices on the way you spend your time. Shorter days, nevertheless, additionally make it harder to finish sure assignments and jobs, which may be irritating (particularly those 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 attributable to 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 incredible job of guiding you in your duties, and even serving to you determine easy methods to go to mattress. Random exploration was very enjoyable firstly, however by the point you’re approaching the top of August, slightly extra assistance on easy methods to get issues accomplished would’ve been appreciated. A fortune-telling circus member finally reveals as much as assist, and chances are you’ll even find a mystical port-a-pot that can assist you get house instantly. Nonetheless, count on some gaming periods to be extra productive than others. Perhaps that’s a improvement choice—you may’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 folks, and that’s one of many sport’s best strengths. Nearly each individual you meet has one thing to contribute. Even higher, their particular person quirks (and Satoru’s response to them) make them enjoyable to interact with. The conversations are a pleasure to expertise, even if you’re oddly pressured to pick out each dialogue possibility 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 players wistful. It affected me a bit in a different way, as I had some of these 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 automobile and rode it 30 miles right into a neighboring city earlier than disembarking and calling my dad for a journey house, however I’ve a buddy who did.
Fairly, Natsu-Mon makes me wistful for an atmosphere the place youngsters nonetheless have one of these freedom (and even simply need it). I think about that’s why the sport was made, as that sense of marvel 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 aircraft when there’s a lighthouse to climb actually proper there?
