![]() Various activities can be undertaken by Boku, including but not limited to exploring the town and its surrounding environment, catching bugs, fishing, watering the Sorano family's morning glories, talking to the local townspeople, and flying a kite the player can alternately choose to do nothing at all. Beyond the mandatory daily activities of morning radio calisthenics, breakfast, dinner, and bedtime, the game imposes no specific objectives or obligations of gameplay progression, and the player is free to spend their time as they see fit. Gameplay Boku no Natsuyasumi emphasizes general activities, such as exploration and bug catching, over specific objectives or obligations of gameplay progression.īoku no Natsuyasumi is an open-ended simulation game self-described as a "nostalgic adventure", in which the player's actions determine how Boku spends the thirty-one in-game days of his summer vacation. The game concludes with an epilogue set twenty-five years later depicting Boku's life as an adult, with multiple possible scenarios contingent on choices made by the player throughout the game. On August 31, Boku's father returns to bring him home as Boku departs while watching the Sorano family waving goodbye, his adult self narrates that it was a summer he would never forget. Shirabe, who has thus far been distant and irritable towards Boku, opens up to him and tells him that she does not want him to leave. On the penultimate day of Boku's vacation, Shirabe goes missing, and Boku is able to track her to a large sunflower field. One day, the Soranos are visited by a priest and are led in prayer session around the family's shrine the initially confused Boku learns that Kaoru and Yusaku once had a son who is now deceased, and that Boku is staying in what was his bedroom. ![]() Over the course his month-long vacation, Boku stays in a bedroom peculiarly already decorated with objects typical of a boys' room and maintains a picture diary documenting his various activities and exploits, the precise details of which vary depending on gameplay choices and story events undertaken by the player. īoku stays in the home of his paternal aunt Kaoru Sorano, her potter husband Yusaku, and their two daughters: fifteen-year-old Moe and eight-year-old Shirabe. The game is framed as the recollection of the now-adult Boku, who occasionally narrates the story. Set in August 1975, Boku no Natsuyasumi follows the player character Boku, a city-dwelling nine-year-old boy sent to stay with his extended family in the countryside for a month while his mother prepares to give birth to a second child. An enhanced port of Boku no Natsuyasumi, titled Boku no Natsuyasumi Portable: Mushimushi Hakase to Teppenyama no Himitsu!!, was released on the PlayStation Portable in 2006. Three sequels have been produced: Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 (2002), Boku no Natsuyasumi 3 (2007), and Boku no Natsuyasumi 4 (2009). The game won a New Wave Award at the fifth Japan Game Awards, and was a finalist for the Excellence Award at the third Japan Media Arts Festival. It has achieved a cult following both domestically and internationally, despite having never been officially released outside of Japan. The visual style is characterized by a juxtaposition of Ueda's cartoonish three-dimensional character models against these pre-rendered and hand-painted two-dimensional backgrounds.īoku no Natsuyasumi was praised upon its release for its visual style, nostalgic atmosphere, and art direction, though critics noted that its open-ended ambitions were hampered by the technical limitations of the PlayStation platform. ![]() ![]() The game features character design by illustrator Mineko Ueda and background work by the animation studio Kusanagi. Ayabe conceived of the game as a "nostalgic adventure" based in part on his own childhood summer vacations to the countryside homes of his relatives. Gameplay takes place in an open-ended environment where the player is free to determine how Boku spends the thirty-one in-game days of his summer vacation, with few set goals or specific obligations of gameplay progression.ĭevelopment of Boku no Natsuyasumi began in 1997, shortly after Ayabe left his position at the video game planning company K-Idea to establish Millennium Kitchen. The game follows the summer vacation of Boku, a city-dwelling nine-year-old boy who in August 1975 is sent to stay with his extended family in the Japanese countryside for a month. It was published by Sony Computer Entertainment and released in Japan on the PlayStation on June 22, 2000. ![]() "My Summer Vacation") is an adventure video game developed by Millennium Kitchen and directed, written, and designed by Kaz Ayabe. ![]()
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