The game revolves around Boku, a 9 year old boy sent to his aunt and uncle in Japan's wooded countryside and the daily adventures he encounters there. Boku is there because his Mother is in her final month of pregnancy. The player controls him for the 31 days of August 1975 (In Japan, a Summer Vacation, called natsuyasumi last for one month). You explore the game's area and can catch bugs and pit them against each other, collect bottle caps, fly a kite, or just relax.


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Literally translating to “My Summer Vacation”, this is a game I’ve had some greater or lesser interest in for well over a year now, but it took me this long to actually find a copy for sale in Book Off XD. Before playing it, I honestly didn’t have much idea of what it was about at all. I knew it was some kind of life sim taking place over a young boy’s summer vacation, and I knew it was lauded very highly for its writing, but that was really it. Sure, the later releases were easier to find, but I wanted to see where the series started! X3. It ended up taking me around 13 or so hours to play through it on real hardware.

Boku No Natsuyasumi is the story of the titular character, Boku (which can be a first-person pronoun for a boy/man and is sometimes used as a cutesy nickname for a young boy, but in this case it’s just used as the character’s name) and his summer vacation the year he was nine years old. His mother was about to have a baby, so his parents arranged for him to stay with his aunt’s family as to give his parents some breathing room during that period. His aunt’s family, the Sorano family, are composed of his aunt and uncle as well as his older cousin Moe and his cousin of similar age Shirabe. The opening narration says simply that this was a summer whose events he has never forgotten, and that actually brings me to an interesting point in and of itself.

Our opening narration is done by an older man speaking from Boku’s perspective. The narrative is specifically framed as an older man (likely in his 40’s, much like the game’s creator was at the time this was made) reflecting upon his childhood. This framing device makes clear what otherwise might be a little more buried in the subtext: this is first and foremost a nostalgia piece, and a reflective one at that. Though the topics in this game aren’t anything M-rated that a kid couldn’t or shouldn’t see, the audience for this game is absolutely an adult one. Boku No Natsuyasumi is a game about looking back at your adolescence, about a time when you had no responsibilities of the harsh adult world, and not just getting to go through them again, but being able to reflect on what it means to do so. That’s not to say that Boku’s summer break is entirely devoid of interesting or impactful happenings, quite far from it, but I hesitate to say much more about the actual events (or possible events) of the story because this is a game I think it makes much more sense to simply experience yourself.

The actual gameplay of BNNY is relatively simple as such things go. Though this game is most easily described as a life sim, I think it fits the mold of an adventure game much more easily. There are no stats or survival elements to worry about, being that you’re just a grade-schooler staying up in the mountains with your extended family, but you do have various chores you can be responsible for and other activities you can do. You can explore the mountains, talk to your family, fish in the ponds and streams, or catch bugs (to either preserve in your bug catching kit or use to battle other kids in beetle fights), though there honestly isn’t a ton more than that. Granted I had a lot of fun exploring, trying my best to partake in story events, and also catching as many bugs as I could, but this is just a rural Japanese home in the 70’s. There’s not a massive amount to do, but making the best of your month off from school is what this game is all about. You don’t really have to do anything: It’s your summer vacation, so make the best of it the way you see best~.

The presentation is very simple but also homey in a way that fits the game very well. People are relatively simple looking 3D models that almost resemble a child’s drawings of people, but I found that to be both charming as well as come off as very intentional. You have a picture-diary that you write in every day to save the game, and Boku draws people just as they appear in the game. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to assume that, because we’re going down his memory lane, we see the people in his life as he remembers them through his drawings. Aside from that, the game is basically all those good old 2D pre-rendered backdrops that PS1 rpgs and adventure games love so much, and being a quite late-life PS1 game, they all look very nice. The sound design is also very well done in this game, having overall very little music save to underscore very important scenes/events, and most of the soundscape is just the background sounds of living in the Japanese countryside. The game is also fully voice acted, with all spoken dialogue (and even a fair bit of the narration) being voiced very well. The aesthetics work together with the writing beautifully, and I couldn’t possibly imagine the game not having all the VA to help bring the story to life the way it does.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. This is a truly excellent game and easily one of the best games on the PS1, to my reckoning. This is one of the earliest examples in games history of a game where I can point to and say “this is a game that is making art in a way that only a video game can.” This is sadly also a game that’s unlikely to get a translation anytime soon (largely because of all of the oh-so-common in the PS1 era videos with voiced dialogue but no text over it), and it’d honestly be a very hard game to translate at the best of times, in my opinion. There’s a lot here both culturally and historically that you’d need to be quite familiar with Japan in the first place to really take in in the way you probably should, so any would be localizer would have an extremely daunting task on their hands. Regardless, for those who can understand the language and enjoy story based games, this is an all time great of the generation that is absolutely not one to miss out on.

hoo boy where do I even start here? This game stands proud as one of the vibest of vibe games, and with good reason, because the vibes here are truly on another level compared to most games today, let alone on the PS1.

It's a game where in the grand scheme of things not much happens as you spend a month over at your cousins house in summer. What you do with your 31 days at their countryside abode is entirely up to you. It is your summer vacation, after all, so there's no real correct or incorrect way to spend your time, and the game is entirely developed with that in mind.

The game very obviously isn't designed much like a traditional video game, as rewards for exploration are more scenes that try to evoke a particular emotion rather than being any sort of progress-making videogamey reward. I guess a good example is a random well that exists in a corner of the countryside. It's a dead end, there aren't many bugs to collect near the well, nothing inside the well, you can't go in the well to a new area, all that you can do is examine the well. Doing so plays a cutscene showing Boku looking down the well in intimidation before taking a few steps back in fear. That one particular area really has very little significance in the entire map as a side route, and it's really not like that area has any real threat to it. But like, I'm sure there has been a time in all of our youths where we ended up wandering somewhere we probably weren't supposed to be unsupervised and getting psyched out from something completely harmless. Bokunatsu is absolutely chock full of moments like that from start to finish. Regardless of whether or not you actually have experience of being a child living in rural 1970's Japan, this game covers so many aspects of being a kid in general that there's bound to be tons of things to relate to in spite of its setting.

Another impressive aspect to me was just the design of the whole world and it's characters. It's probably one of the most peaceful games to ever exist, with breathtaking hand-drawn 2D backgrounds of natural countryside landscapes and characters that feel like actual people just living another month in their lives. The wide age disparity between the different characters also provides insight in how summer is spent at different points of life. Kids like Boku and his little sister spend their time completely free and at their own discretion, being curious about the many things in the world, generally playing around every day with all their free time. There's Moe, the older cousin in her teens, where she struggles with growing up, spending most of her days studying inside or sitting outside at night thinking more philosophically about her future as she is about to enter high school. And then there's your Aunt and Uncle, where to their adult lives August is just another month of the grind doing work stuff and housekeeping. This game just excels at being a window into this precise household in this precise one month in time, allowing you as the player to observe the countryside and the family living in it just the same way as Boku does.

I could honestly keep going on about all the various moments in the game and the many different memories they made me feel, but I think yall get the point. Would definitely highly rec to anyone even remotely interested in these kinds of peaceful vibes, as this game definitely hits in a unique way to everyone who would play it. Much like actual summer vacation to a kid, this game is entirely what you make of it. or something like that.

I know this is like a pretty revered game by the few eng speakers that have played this so I had some hesitancy going into it. I went into this especially blind aside from knowing it was a go-at-your-own pace game. I really did take my time because my entire playthrough spanned 10 months to the day, with my play time clocking at 12.5 hours lol.

At first, like maybe for the second in-game week, I was missing a couple key items that really opened up the map. During those days I was kinda losing interest so I looked up how to progress in one area. There is so much to do, or rather miss, in this game. And that's the point, the game expects you to make your own memories with what is available. There is a lot to be learned game-wise that can really change up future playthroughs, leading to different experiences person to person.

As for the actual themes, reasoning, and aim of the game; it was fun, pleasant, and bittersweet at times. It got me pretty emotional on some days, be it empty, at ease, curious, or happy. The characters, their stories, and their interactions make this game special. It's all really delicate. By that I don't mean like "vulnerable," although I wouldn't completely exclude that either. It's like, you can make a friend by bonding over something insignificant. Regardless, that friendship can become something meaningful. This is just as true the other way around. Inversely, the littlest actions from those you cherish can result in a big impact. It doesn't take much to have or give influence, especially at a young age. Especially when surrounded by welcoming people.

Aside from the obvious language barrier, Bokunatsu really is a must play for any fan of life simulators. There's some jank to be found, particularly in its bug catching and fishing minigames, and the game isn't flooding with content like others in the genre, but its relative simplicity works so well to its advantage. You're never going to find a million different things to do everyday like in an Animal Crossing game, but there's always at least something new to find, and its those moments, witnessing Boku's discoveries and reporting on them in his nightly journal that make everything here feel so special.

Besides, what defined Bokunatsu for me, more than anything, was its characters. It's why I can't really recommend this game at all to anyone without at least beginner-level Japanese reading; you'd miss out on so much of the best content by not understanding the dialogue. Every character is really easy to like, but the Sorano family in particular really resonated with me. Maybe its just because the family feels far more human than most video game characters, but I found it really easy to get emotional during certain moments (the scene between Boku and his aunt when the former gets sick was particularly excellent). Despite its fun and cartoony art style, Boku is more bittersweet than anything, and it honestly did hurt a little seeing the credits roll.

Nostalgia is Boku no Natsuyasumi's most prevalent theme, and a major point of discussion regarding the game. The scenario presented in Boku isn't something I related to at all initially, but I honestly think there's at least something that anyone who has experienced summer vacation can relate to, whether it's catching the biggest fish in the lake, screwing around with the neighborhood delinquents, or even just witnessing a rainbow after a summer shower. For me, it was those increasingly common moments of Boku and his older cousin sitting and talking under the night sky. Even if I forget everything else about this game, that's an image that's going to stay with me, because it hit so close to home.

Fantastic game. The love for it is well deserved, and it's an easy recommend for anyone with a decent understanding of Japanese. Playthroughs are rather short at around 12 hours long, and the game is really easy to pick up for a bit, then set down for a few months without forgetting anything (my own playthrough took roughly six months). It was also refreshing to play something where 100% completion didn't even feel like an option; a game where it was actively okay to miss out on major points of content. It makes Boku no Natsuyasumi not only a fantastic playthrough, but something worth coming back to.