Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid review

While the rural settings are often tranquil, cozy games often goad you into working from sunrise to sunset. But mercifully that’s not the case with Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid. Developers Millennium Kitchen and TOYBOX and transport you to the balmy, cicada-droning Japanese countryside letting you explore nature and interact with the locals. While goals like bug collecting, fishing, and even earning some money are there if you’re in need of incentive, Natsu-Mon’s hands-off approach nurtures a sense of freedom that few open-world titles deliver. If your plans for an actual getaway are stymied by time or expenses, 20th Century Summer Kid might be the next best thing.

The game’s premise centers around a circus trope arriving in Yomogi Town that’s run by your mother and father. Expectedly, it’s a picturesque setting, nestled between rolling hills and an ocean, with all kinds of details to discover. And it’s also remarkably expansive. Even with the restrained processing power of the Switch, the game’s draw distance is far-reaching. And this sweeping perspective isn’t merely cosmetic. There’s a good chance that if an object on the horizon catches your eye, you can make your way to it. Much of the fun is discovering neighboring towns and geography novelties. Satisfyingly, you get to it at your own pace. While the daylight hours are protracted in Natsu-Mon, you can set the in-game clock to move even slower.

Heisei-era Enchantment

As the subtitle suggests, there’s a fluffy layer of nostalgia that blankets 20th Century Summer Kid. Change is imminent, as demonstrated by the waning patronage for the circus. While the game wisely ensures the dilemma isn’t the focal point, there’s a subtle worry about the financial sustainability of a traveling circus and its old-world charms. Occasionally, troupe members lament about the elegance of a hundred-year-old French song and there’s a private detective concerned with the circus’ lack of profitability. While the writers never blame technology outright (this is a simulated childhood vacation, after all) there’s a sneaking feeling that people are favoring television over a live performance.

Protagonist Satoru occasionally reminisces about his time in Yomogi. And while the use of a wistful voiceover is often a devious cliché, his memories aren’t sugar-coated in sentimentality. Often, you’re the one tasked with creating memories by writing in a diary. Cleverly, you can personalize each entry, selecting from three different lengths to accompany each crayon sketch and finalizing the record with your choice of an ink stamp. Details like the diary cover flouting a paper grade and Satoru’s shadow, complete with his signature ponytail, demonstrate the kind of detail that helps sell the simulation.

Nothing But Net (and Pole)

Most of the time, Satoru will probably be exploring the game’s topography.  Interestingly, there’s a Breath of the Wild-style stamina meter which gradually depletes when you’re sprinting or climbing. When you run out of energy, the protagonist can lose his footing on an incline, but there’s no fall damage to worry about. Smartly, you can expand the capacity of the gauge by earning stickers, which are awarded for accomplishments like discovering different types of bugs or interacting with the townsfolk. Like a Pokémon game, collecting them all will be an undertaking since there are 200 different insects and 20 varieties of fish. Or you can opt to give the daily catch to the family cook, who’ll prepare them for dinner. Like much of the game, the choice is yours.

If Natsu-Mon has a fault, it’s that the controls lack the precision of an action game. Sure, you can grab a trout right out of the river or sneak up to grab a locust, but the timing is finicky, making success feel too random. Likewise, when the game expects accurate jumps while lighting lanterns, there’s just not enough control over Satoru to elude frustration. And there are a few other peculiarities, from the way saving at the end of the day is handled (select the light bulb icon on the far left) to forcing players to use every dialog selection during conversations.

The Joys of Ritual

Given 20th Century Summer Kid’s setting, routine plays a key role in the game. As such, you’ll start and end every day with a shared meal and are rewarded for participating in radio taiso, a form of group exercise. Following calisthenics in front of the local shrine, the townsfolk all disperse, each heading to individual places of work or recreation. For some, this presence of repetition, especially in such a free-form game, might be perplexing. But for me, the game captured the feeling of living in a tight-knit community, and being a happy, fish in a compassionate school. There are a few games that attempt to capture the virtues of collectivism, but Natsu-Mon’s interpretation is far more nuanced than the norm.

Ever since Boku no Natsuyasumi’s 2000 release, director Kaz Ayabe has been reminding us to cherish life’s oft-overlooked poignant moments. Natsu-Mon is brimming with them, whether it’s watching the fireworks fill the sky with your yukata-clad crush or just admiring a sun-drenched hillside teeming with wildflowers. Sure, you can spend the month of August hunting for items to sell and helping your parents. Or you can just spend the twilight of youth freely, before life’s responsibilities inevitably hold of you.

Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid was played on Switch with review code provided by the publisher.