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 imagined to embark on an epic journey to save lots of the dominion doesn’t truly embark, and as a substitute 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 might be. 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 college project to information him, Satoru units out to make this an August to recollect.
And the way does he do this? By exploring. By speaking to individuals. By principally simply working round till one thing catches his eye. Gameplay is usually centered round whole childhood freedom—the type few children have anymore, not less than the place I dwell.
Sometimes, the sport offers Satoru particular duties to finish. He might get up, for instance, and discover himself invited to accompany associates to a selected 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 (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 women to…wait. Ghost women?
A part of what makes Natsu-Mon: Twentieth Century Summer season Child so endearing is that it expertly captures the marvel of being a child. Did that little woman by the tree simply vanish into skinny air? Is she a ghost? Nicely, except somebody has a greater clarification, she must be. Let’s play video games together with her and discover out!
Natsu-Mon offers larger objectives, too. One in all your first duties is to climb some particular buildings. Your stamina meter, nevertheless, received’t allow you to get shut. So, you may have a month to extend the meter and determine learn how to get to the highest of these buildings. What an incredible purpose that’s. I recall my very own childhood when a buddy 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 residence in time for night time’s sleep the day earlier than).
Then, he’s free to roam till supper when he’s routinely situated and returned residence. He then will get the night to wrap issues up, however must be residence 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; you need to purchase that your self when you make sufficient cash. Perhaps the purpose was to overlook your bedtime, however I most well-liked to only cling across the inn till weariness took over. Even with the clock, it generally wasn’t price abandoning my present process to finish the lengthy journey residence 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 performed 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 totally different selections 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 areas. The sport’s open world is colourful and properly detailed, however getting round can generally show troublesome. That is largely as a consequence of considerably clunky controls, particularly when platforming is within the combine. And since Satoru can climb almost 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 learn how to go to mattress. Random exploration was very enjoyable firstly, however by the point you’re approaching the tip of August, a bit extra assistance on learn how to get issues performed would’ve been appreciated. A fortune-telling circus member ultimately reveals as much as assist, and you could even find a mystical port-a-pot that will help you get residence instantly. Nonetheless, count on some gaming classes to be extra productive than others. Perhaps that’s a improvement resolution—you possibly can’t count on to finish a childhood’s price 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. Virtually 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 have interaction with. The conversations are a pleasure to expertise, even if you’re oddly compelled to pick 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 season.
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 kinds of days in my childhood. I explored creek bridges in quest of 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 residence, however I’ve a buddy who did.
Fairly, Natsu-Mon makes me wistful for an setting the place children nonetheless have the sort of 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 price experiencing, offered childhood adventures haven’t misplaced their enchantment. Who must go struggle God on some interstellar airplane when there’s a lighthouse to climb actually proper there?
