Boku no Natsuyasumi 2

Upon starting BokuNatsu 2, and writing my name and class number in my picture diary (a sentence which made me remember the room number of my third grade class), I was immediately hit with the splash of 'August 1st, 1975'.

Although this date feels like ancient history (despite being, improbably, closer than the present day to the release of the PS2 in Japan), after doing the math, I discovered that a Japanese salaryman the same age as Boku in 1975 would be 35 years old if they bought BokuNatsu 2 on release.

Which is pretty much dead on for Summer Nostalgia! As someone within a significant digit of 35, I would like the Hella Fly 90's Kid Summer Break video game now.

Yet BokuNatsu 2, without even stepping into its wonderfully crafted backgrounds and characters at all ages of life, has somehow already succeeded at a goal of making me think about my own youth;

Despite first thinking 'ok I'm about as far from the Japanese countryside in 1975 as possible', I was able to pull an incredible amount of memories out of a dusty box in the back of my head, that really goes to show:

Kids really do just make memories out of nothing and everything.

I took a plane with my family to visit my grandma and other relatives; my scissors (brought 'in case they don't have any') were consficated by the TSA.

I formed an irrational distrust of one of my cousins, but sucked up endlessly to another because they were the first person I'd ever met who was better than me at video games. Later, I would hide that I damaged this cousin's soft DDR pad by trying MAX 300 too many times.

I wrote fanfiction on an old computer with no internet, begged my family to buy a copy of Kirby Super Star off Ebay, hid under a sink because of a thunderstorm, boggled at an aunt who had a 20-year-old can of Pepsi in the fridge that was bulging with contempt for its age. Ever the picky eater, I ate pepperoni on pizza for the first time because I didn't know it was hiding under a layer of cheese.

As the titular Boku (real name a second, mysterious thing), you form your own unique pile of memories on a remote island in the sticks, over thirty approximately-half-hour days which, if played in real-time (a tradition growing every year!), provides a great way to wake up in the morning or wind down after your job at the Not-A-Seven-Year-Old Factory.

The childlike sense of wonder is excellently intact, with the game leaving you to your own devices when deciding what threads to tug at each day. Will you wander the ocean? Hunt for bugs? Get way too much into the business of two older kids who have a weird but understandable hangup with each other?

In proper idealistic summer fashion, plenty of storylines unroll themselves throughout August 1975, some seemingly with your help, and some without. There's budding romance, mystery, danger, and also, improbably a detective plot that Boku keeps trying to turn into a romcom?

Each of these plotlines - excellent in their own in how they provide windows into both the humanity of Bokunatsu's characters and into how much Boku is a kid who is constantly just Saying Shit to everyone - does an great job of hiding its boundaries and making the world feel alive.

There were subplots where I definitely missed digging into them more, to the point where they just suddenly took Boku by surprise at dinner; but likewise, there were stories I dug into hard, not being able to figure out if I had done everything I could as a dumb child, or if there was some magic interaction I needed to find that would break a deadlock.

And this is great! Chasing what interested me and slowly expanding my scope and familiarity with the island brought a wonderful rhythm to the game.

With a limited amount of wonderfully-depicted fixed-perspective screens you can tank-control through every day, you start building a strong map in your head, routing yourself past the sunflowers you water every day, towards the park where you talk to a younger sister who gives you (in a game-like accomodation) info on what to do that day, then up to the clinic where you can make 10 yen helping out a grandpa.

You cheer when, improbably, the island continues to get rounder and rounder throughout the month, wet and dry shortcuts revealing themselves and connecting places that were once distant.

If there's one thing I struggled with in BokuNatsu 2, it's that it's a little impossible to entirely turn off my Game Brain.

With the knowledge that Boku's end-of-day journal entries reflect Interesting Game Things, I felt just a little bit stung whenever I got a 'nothing happened I guess' entry, as if my weird wandering that day wasn't worth enough game points.

(Even though this would often be because I'd experience 3 things on one day and 0 on the next. Rockets are cooler than both engagements and little siblings to Boku, according to his diary.)

But all summers are valid! It's the blanks you fill in your head (and incomprehensible notes like 'I'm wearing a polo shirt???' scribbed in Notepad) that really make your diary yours.

BokuNatsu's characters offer an often incomplete yet extremely wistful portrait of themselves, in that sort of 'adult musing during a slow life moment to a child, specifically because they know that child won't understand'

They refuse simple characterizations in favor of Complicated Adult Lives that Boku often only parses in terms of nosy questions like 'are you divorced? are you getting married? do you like her? hey Yoshika this guy said he likes you and not to tell you oops'

But as an adult (or so I claim), of course, it's wonderful.

You see Boku push together two older students who are stuck on an irrational, years-old hangup they don't have the pride to swallow, only for him to completely not grasp the gravity of the situation.

You see him walk up to a grandpa, left behind by his wife and the sands of time, and nonchalantly ask 'hey I can be your third grandchild'.

You see him listen to a wilderness man who he immediately asks 'so you're divorced right' and nod at his wisdom about wolves and the line between humans and nature.

And of course, there's so much more, like the beetle sumo, which I was comically awful at.

I'm most likely to move onto Bokura no Kazoku, another Millenium Kitchen game but about raising a family over decades, rather than another Summer-Flavor game immediately.

I had a wonderful time with BokuNatsu 2, and I'm sure if I played another next August I'd have another great time; but I love to chase after different sentiments and experiments and I'd love to see a bottle of sentimentality from the adult perspective as well.

Nothing in particular to sign off with from BokuNatsu 2! But I will say this game is surprisingly funny at times - don't forget to accidentally spray yourself in the face with a hose while attempting to learn how to water the flowers.

OH YEAH, you know the thing where the game has nearly no Background Music (as opposed to whatever Yasuko or Yoshika play) but when you explore a new area some really grand and exciting music plays? Yeah, that rules.

Writing by invelica | Built with zola 0.20.0 | Theme by ネe3 based on futu@main