Boku no Natsuyasumi 2

Over the last ~2 months I’ve been playing Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 via the Hilltop english fan-translation and I finally finished today! I picked this for our work game club game this time, I’m excited to hear everyone’s thoughts~ I enjoyed so, so much of this game, and I really hope more of them get english translations (or I get enough japanese knowledge to play them) as this has been extremely my kind of thing.

This game is the perfect thing to play right as spring is starting, it really made me want that warm weather to come back so I can have my own Natsuyasumi

Some thing I really love about the game!!!

Plot happening around you and with you, not because of you

Over the course of your 30 days in Fumi both a lot and very little happens. But interestingly, most of the plot just happens around you, with Boku himself having very little sway over it. Which, I suppose makes sense for a 3rd grader lol. There’s small things you can do, like encouraging Yasuko to talk to Yoh again, or bringing the key that Yasuko’s mom leaves to her, but for much of the things that happen you’re simply an observer.

The stakes with most stuff that happens are so incredibly low that it’s funny that the one “dramatic” thing that happens you only hear about in hints and overheard conversations until the climax that starts and ends within one scene. But, that’s quite fitting for a small town summer vacation! Most people don’t have big dramatic things happening to them every day!

So many little moments given so much weight

This game is so beautifully earnest and kind. Many of my favorite moments in the game were just Boku talking to someone and they say something really nice or they open up about themselves to you. Takeshi talking about how he wants to become a teacher because of a gym teacher he had that “when a girl couldn’t do some exercise, rather than failing her he graded her on her piano playing ability instead”. Or the mysterious girl in the clinic, who talks about the beauty of the sunset and how much she loves this town. Or the doctor saying how “a slow day for the clinic or the firefighters is a good day”. The game is largely structured around this too, with the daily picture diary giving you an entry for lots of small things that might not even feel special for the player.

Gorgeous illustrated backgrounds!!!

This whole game is beautiful, the illustrated backgrounds giving the area so much depth, aided by fixed camera angles that create some stunning compositions (pulling out in a high angle when Boku reaches the top of the mountain, or pulling in close when he enters a small kitchen). More games need pre-rendered backgrounds and fixed camera angles!! It reminds me a lot of that GDC talk the Inside developers did about how they made the game look like that, and a big takeway was that it looks like that because they control the camera angle at all times. Freedom to move the camera is overrated tbh.

Everything feel so lived-in, with my favorite being Yasuko’s greenhouse room:

Almost every shot in the game has an evening version for the ~3 hours before dinner time as well, which not only act as a good indicator of “okay, time to go home” and that there’s different interactions available, but also show some of the most beautiful backgrounds in the game.

Music

Much of the game has no music at all while you’re walking around Fumi, which makes it feel incredibly immersive. Just the sound of the waves when you’re by the ocean and the sound of cicadas and other bugs when you’re further into the forest. However, there’s some diagetic music as well, like when Yasuko plays Gymnopedie on her record player or Yoshika plays her guitar outside the dining room. There’s some non-diagetic music as well, but its infrequency makes it all so much more exciting when it does play! I loved when I would be heading back to the house in the evening for dinner and I would hear the guitar quietly in the distance, and it grows louder the closer I get. The first time it happened I just stood there and listened for the entire loop before talking to Yoshika. Also, the end credits song specifically in the PSP port is so nice.

I’m so glad this game got an english translation! Ever since watching the Action Button review of the first one I’ve wanted to play, hoping that the dialogue would be simple enough for me to just play in japanese, but I never got around to it until the translation was announced. I highly recommend this game to anyone and everyone :’)