Shanghai Summer review

Time and translation seem to be working anomalously.

FUTU Studio’s Shanghai Summer demonstrates the importance of careful localization. Sure, the game looks gorgeous. Although there’s not an abundance of different backdrops, each place that you’ll visit channels the visual allure of Vanillaware’s 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Interiors look unambiguously lived-in and inviting, whether it’s the stacks of books relaxing on shelves or the shadow of a window frame cast on a sunny hallway. While character portraits lack animation, they’re all meticulously drawn.

When it comes to context, Shanghai Summer finds distinction in its depiction of a parallel dimension that recalls China’s largest city, circa 2003. Here, protagonist Tu Buaichan witnesses several irregularities that range from a talking black cat to the inability to remember his ex-girlfriend, Quiyu, who went to study abroad. Childhood friend, Fengyi, remembers her, so Quiyu can’t be be a false memory.

Explore a Hazy Parallel Reality

Much of Shanghai Summer is rooted in the hazy nature of remembrance. Thematically, the game surveys the unreliability of memory, as Buaichan attempts to resolve a number of troubling knowledge gaps. Unsurprisingly, Summer also touches on finding closure, as the lead is confronted with regret. Cinephiles might find it similar to Lou Ye’s 2000 film, Suzhou River, which not only shares the same context, but also often has the same dreamy feel.

Most interesting is the game’s worldview, where seemingly unimportant decisions can have unexpected consequences. For FUTU Studio, uncertainty and ambiguity are deep-seated traits of our world. Across the adventure, you’ll be asked to make several significant decisions. The outcomes are thought-provoking and regularly eschew predictability.

Yes, this is a game where some of the non-canonical conclusions outshine the actual ending. A single journey through Shanghai is rather succinct, with a six-hour playtime. But mercifully, the developers provide a way to revisit branches in the storyline, allowing for an uncomplicated way to view the game’s different outcomes.

Problems With Spelling, Grammar, and Clarity

Had Shanghai Summer been given a better localization, this time-hopping adventure could have been truly gripping. But immersion is habitually broken when you’re repeatedly forced to infer what is meant by a line of inadequately translated dialog. Summer isn’t particularly long, but having to complete the localization in my head required periodic breaks.

Personality and mood are often expressed by a character’s speaking style. But Summer’s rather slapdash localization means that it’s frequently hard to get a read on the game’s cast. At present, the script seems like it was machine-translated. Given some of the nuances of the storytelling, this approach ebbs away at Shanghai’s emotional impact.

Occasionally, the game’s writing can make progress challenging. Complementing the game’s visual novel-style storytelling are adventure game moments where you must move a character around and interact with key objects. Normally, Summer provides clues for you to follow. But at least twice, I was forced to use the in-game solution system, which automatically moves the protagonist to the proper location, since the game’s clues were too ambiguous.

Conclusion

While it’s great to see an indie title like Shanghai Summer make its way to other territories, the title is hard to recommend in its present state. Certainly, distinction shines sporadically, but most of the game’s qualities are clouded by a translation that repeatedly struggles to convey meaning. Given that’s an essential element in any narrative-centric game, you might want to put any plans for Summer on hold, at least until a revision arrives.

Shanghai Summer was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.