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 a substitute 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 might be. You play as Satoru, a younger boy whose mother and father 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 mother and father try to resolve these points. With nothing greater than his childhood curiosity and a faculty task 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 mainly simply operating round till one thing catches his eye. Gameplay is usually centered round complete childhood freedom—the type few children have anymore, at the least the place I reside.
Sometimes, the sport provides Satoru particular duties to finish. He could get up, for instance, and discover himself invited to accompany buddies to a selected location. These present scripted moments that assist stop Natsu-Mon from feeling fully aimless. For probably 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 owners 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 marvel of being a child. Did that little lady by the tree simply vanish into skinny air? Is she a ghost? Effectively, until somebody has a greater rationalization, she needs to be. Let’s play video games together with her and discover out!
Natsu-Mon gives larger targets, too. One among your first duties is to climb some particular buildings. Your stamina meter, nevertheless, received’t allow you to get shut. So, you’ve got a month to extend the meter and work out the right way to get to the highest of these constructions. What an excellent objective 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? 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 dwelling in time for night time’s sleep the day earlier than).
Then, he’s free to roam till supper when he’s mechanically 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 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 simply hold across the inn till weariness took over. Even with the clock, it generally wasn’t price abandoning my present activity to finish the lengthy journey dwelling in time for mattress, even with the power to take the bus.
The size of the times might be adjusted to fit your playstyle. You may get extra achieved by making the times last more, however the adventures lose their sense of urgency. You additionally lose replayability that method. Tear by the sport on quick days, and also you’ll be extra more likely to play once more, making completely different choices on the way you spend your time. Shorter days, nevertheless, additionally make it harder to finish sure assignments and jobs, which might 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 generally show troublesome. That is largely on account of considerably clunky controls, particularly when platforming is within the combine. And since Satoru can climb almost something, he’ll usually begin climbing stuff 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 the right way to go to mattress. Random exploration was very enjoyable firstly, however by the point you’re approaching the top of August, a bit of extra assistance on the right way to get issues achieved would’ve been appreciated. A fortune-telling circus member ultimately exhibits as much as assist, and chances are you’ll even find a mystical port-a-pot that will help you get dwelling immediately. Nonetheless, count on some gaming periods 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 best strengths. Virtually 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 interact with. The conversations are a pleasure to expertise, even in case you are oddly pressured 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 time.
These all mix to create a chill, Animal Crossing-type expertise that can make older players wistful. It affected me a bit in another way, as I had these kind 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 trip dwelling, however I’ve a buddy who did.
Reasonably, Natsu-Mon makes me wistful for an setting the place children nonetheless have the sort of freedom (and even simply want 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 attraction. Who must go struggle God on some interstellar aircraft when there’s a lighthouse to climb actually proper there?
