Initial release date: June 26, 2024
Developers: Millennium Kitchen, TOYBOX Inc.
Genres: Adventure game, Adventure
Composer: Ryo Shirasawa
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey was the closest thing the West has to an official Boku no Natsuyasumi game release. The combination of Shin Nohara’s crude pranks and the childlike delight of summer vacation might have seemed like the perfect Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cup at first, but in the end, all you got was a sandwich with peanut butter, cheese, and lettuce—a bland concoction that didn’t appeal to anyone.
There were several reasons why it didn’t work, but mostly because neither feature was used to its maximum potential and Shin’s exhaustion from switching between screens took away from the excitement of exploration. It was time to make a shift. It had hardly changed when Natsuyasumi first appeared on the PlayStation. Even though The Endless Seven-Day Journey fell short of expectations, Millennium Kitchen persisted in trying to reimagine and revitalize its Natsuyasumi recipe by drawing inspiration from Breath of the Wild.
With a vast open environment to explore, the capacity to scale nearly any surface, and a new impressionistic art style, this Boku no Natsuyasumi spiritual successor may be able to make an impression on younger players. Is Yomogi a fantastic spot to spend your summer break before returning to school? Or does yearning for the past be a waste of time? In our Natsu-Mon, find out!Review of 20th Century Summer Kid
Natsu-Mon! shares the same principle and was developed by the same team. There is no connection between 20th Century Summer Kid and the Boku no Natsuyasumi franchise. Boku is owned by Sony, hence Millenium Kitchen isn’t legally allowed to continue it on any platform other than PlayStation. Fortunately, Natsu-Mon succeeds in outperforming its spiritual predecessor in almost every aspect.
Satoru, a 10-year-old child on summer vacation with his family’s touring circus group, is the main character of the story. As the game is primarily non-linear and open-ended, the player has complete control over how involved they want to be. After Satoru moves into the guest home in Yomogi, he is free to act out any Japanese child he wants in this small village by the sea. He is ten years old.
Fishing and bug catching are staple activities, and Satoru meticulously records every discovery he makes in his notebook. He likely does this as part of his routine to get ready for school, and it reminds me of something my parents would have made me do over my vacation. Each Yomogi inhabitant is different and follows a real-time schedule. Thankfully, everyone can be found on a map, so nobody is ever difficult to locate.
Satoru can become entangled in side stories when he’s not getting sidetracked by stray bugs or the impulse to throw a line into the creek. These can be as easy as going on a Goonies-style adventure in an old Japanese castle set up like a Zelda dungeon, or they can be as complex as exploring a place with other kids. At other instances, the residents might make a request for something, give Satoru a daily task, or set a long-term objective for him to strive for.
Even if many stories come to the clichéd conclusion that “the treasure was the friends we made along the way,” the writing and characters are so rich that it really feels like a prize. The player has the choice to participate in all activities or not. It is possible to have a summer without incident.
Reaching as many objectives as possible is essential because every reward reinforces the other. As Satoru’s family is impoverished and will require a substantial amount of money by the conclusion of summer vacation, money is always beneficial. The impoverished youngster must provide for his unemployed family’s artistic pursuits. The second reward, which comes in the form of stickers, frequently increases Satoru’s maximum stamina. He can run for longer periods of time and climb higher when he has greater stamina, which is useful for moving about.
Unlike Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Natsu-Mon is able to innovate. When Satoru finishes a full line of stamina stickers, he can increase the height of his jump, which would have been incredibly beneficial for Link. Since reaching remote locations and engaging in exploration are the most crucial objectives, this turns into one of the biggest enhancements Satoru can obtain. Satoru can only do the tasks in a certain number of days, and he cannot complete them all at once.
Natsu-Mon can have a similar vibe to Breath of the Wild if Link was free to explore instead of worrying about battling to survive. Yomogi is full with hidden ghost females, similar to Koroks but less annoying because there aren’t 900 of them, that occasionally arrive with a mini-game. Since this is a low-stakes adventure about exploring and making it home in time for supper, Satoru can also fall as much and as high as he wants, and he will just experience a fall stun similar to Conan’s.
In addition to providing for his impoverished family, Satoru can use his money for useful toys, bus fare, or bait. Although Natsu-Mon can shoot things with the acorn gun, don’t expect him to take on the role of a third-person shooter. Satoru firmly places his feet on the ground and stops to aim. Sadly, he is unable to walk into the woods with his buddies and engage in gunfire.
In Natsu-Mon, certain events take place whether or not the player participates. Despite the cartoonish art style, this gives the setting a sense of realism. While Satoru’s travel options may be more restricted at night, this helps keep players in the vicinity of events so they can make up for events they may have missed. Avoid staying up too late as this could cause you to miss the morning workouts.
It’s amazing how much detail Yomogi has. The world has a lot of personality, and the mood perfectly evokes the sense of longing from a childhood that is only dimly recalled. The appealing art style is based on loose, scribbled materials. It is nostalgic, and there’s a time when Natsu-Mon verges on melancholy when paired with the bright blue skies and the sounds of cicadas and crickets chirping.
Yomogi is a large location featuring two town areas, woodlands, abandoned ships, ruins, and caverns. Though it’s not as large as in a Zelda game, it still feels incredibly grand when viewed from the perspective of a child. The ascending is facilitated by its amazing verticality and density.
Natsu-Mon, although joyful, has some technical issues on the Nintendo Switch. Sadly, the frame rate is really erratic. While Millenium Kitch’s games traditionally rely on fixed angles and graphical backdrops, in order to create an open environment, they had to enlist the assistance of Toybox Games.
Toybox Games’ performance history isn’t very impressive. They might only be competent or they might even be a liability. While Natsu-Mon is thankfully not as disastrous as their work on Deadly Premonition 2, they also fail to produce the stability associated with DC Super Hero Ladies. Because the main experience is meant to be calming, the erratic framerate isn’t as bothersome.
If the shadow draw distance hadn’t fluctuated and the game had played smoothly, it would have been good. In the town sections, when the graphics are most detailed and NPCs are moving around, the choppiness is at its worst. The framerate may differ when exploring a tunnel, getting lost in a cornfield, or touring the countryside. The game is never able to become flowing at any point.
Natsu-Mon is one of the most entertaining games I have played in 2024, despite its framerate instability and stuttering. It satisfies every emotional need to lose yourself in the scene and the tranquil atmosphere without becoming cynical. Along with getting to know the characters, there is a lot to see and learn.
Review Overview
Gameplay – 75%
Story – 78%
Aesthetics – 85%
Content – 70%
Accessibility – 72%
Value – 78%
Overall Rating – 76%
Good
Summary: Natsu-Mon! 20th Century Summer Kid has a horrible frame rate, yet it’s still great. Although it seems unlikely that Boku’s games would ever be officially released in the West, Satoru actually had a better summer vacation.