Essentially the first Millenium Kitchen to reach English speaking audiences. The sense of scale and the feeling of being slight in a large world is accomplished in expertful ways with just a basketful of fixed camera locations and mini-games. Momentary bursts of music amid the field sounds of the small rural town melt into my actual summer soundscape (a boon for this game to come out right at the end of summer). The Millenium Kitchen formula is deployed here to activate you in the story book and in your own memories of the summer.
I really enjoyed my the with this game, but I also can't help but feel it's a dramatically sanded down thing. I've only played Attack of the Friday Monsters and this game has this weird intersection of that game with BokuNatsu. I don't think the collectables menu and episode system land very well with me here. We also get this very middle of the road collection of potato chip character stories that don't really hit the kind of intrigue and gravity that I know BokuNatsu approaches constantly. Not unrelated: extremely weird that the Cap (+40y/o) and Yoshiko (18) romance shit is played off seriously!
It's strange that we get this reserved kiddy thing with Shin-chan of all franchises. Shin-chan's bit of being the spawn of Satan while also just being a reflection of bad adults and culture is just not used at all in favor of making him barely present. I'm happy to get a full length Millenium Kitchen game and generally recommend this game, but if you're aware of the culture around any of the franchises that hang over this release, be aware that you're getting this late, albeit extremely effective, afterimage of them all.
I really enjoyed my the with this game, but I also can't help but feel it's a dramatically sanded down thing. I've only played Attack of the Friday Monsters and this game has this weird intersection of that game with BokuNatsu. I don't think the collectables menu and episode system land very well with me here. We also get this very middle of the road collection of potato chip character stories that don't really hit the kind of intrigue and gravity that I know BokuNatsu approaches constantly. Not unrelated: extremely weird that the Cap (+40y/o) and Yoshiko (18) romance shit is played off seriously!
It's strange that we get this reserved kiddy thing with Shin-chan of all franchises. Shin-chan's bit of being the spawn of Satan while also just being a reflection of bad adults and culture is just not used at all in favor of making him barely present. I'm happy to get a full length Millenium Kitchen game and generally recommend this game, but if you're aware of the culture around any of the franchises that hang over this release, be aware that you're getting this late, albeit extremely effective, afterimage of them all.