Kids’ Game in Review: Summer Pockets

So a couple of things before we get into the review since it’s been a while and this post is a little different than usual.

1) This review is of the original PC release. I didn’t even know it was getting a Steam release and I only played it because someone bought it for me on release and was getting very angry that I only booted it once after installing it a year and a half ago. Regardless, they’re the same game so you can use it as a frame of reference whether you’re playing on PC, mobile, or the Switch version. I’ll bring up all the versions in the review.

2) Read this one because it’s actually important. Key announced last year that they are currently working on an expanded version subtitled Reflection Blue with a planned release within 2020. This review is being done ignoring that fact, but I strongly advise you just wait at this point so you don’t have to buy the game twice. Unless you are very impatient and have a lot of money to throw away, there is almost no point in purchasing the original at this point.

It’s time for Summer Vacation in February.

“Summer Pockets”, fittingly released in the summer of 2018, is the latest full game from Key since “Angels Beats -1st beat-” back in 2015. I probably don’t have to say much about Key since I tend to assume they’re a household name among anyone who might be setting eyes on this review. And, like the majority of their games, it involves a smorgasbord of different staff to work on the project. As I mentioned above, it’s available in quite a few places at various prices. If you want the original physical release, you can expect the eat the usual full ADV price at this point in time. Digital versions are available from the usual JP sites if you want the original experience (digital saves you a couple of thousand yen), or there is now a Steam release (which is currently much cheaper than picking it up anywhere else) with English text available as of this month. Or if you want to make one of the in-game mini-games a lot easier to play, then you might be interested in picking it up for a mobile device or your Nintendo Switch.

To give you a bit of a foreword, I have generally been hard on Key after the release of Little Busters! I generally understand their move away from purely making eroges, as most big companies from their time have tried to appeal to the greater market. But that’s not the issue. Ever since the release of Little Busters!, I’ve always felt that Key has had a bad habit of chasing after it. To me, Angels Beats! was an attempt at making a Little Busters! anime without having to make one (and then they went ahead and made one anyway). Rewrite felt like the perfect example of why hiring a ton of different scenario writers doesn’t usually end well. Charlotte was a slightly less messy Rewrite. As you can see, their recent track record hasn’t been too great in my eyes. I don’t think any of these projects were particularly bad per se, but they’re not things I’d hang on the refrigerator. But was Summer Pockets finally able to break that curse?

On the hunt for treasure.

You play as Hairi. A swimming prodigy turned delinquent, Hairi decides to flee his home and spend his summer at the beautiful locale of Torishirojima after receiving an invitation from his aunt. While originally heading with the intent to help clean up the possessions of his recently deceased grandmother, Hairi eventually finds himself exploring the island and trying to rediscover what a “true” summer Vacation feels like. The premise sounds simple, but it obviously not a Key game without a lot of fantasy thrown into the mix.

Summer Pockets boasts a wide cast of characters that will pop up across the various routes, but there are only four main heroines that you need to worry about if you want to get to the main story. Shiroha is the main heroine of the game and one of the many native residents to reside on Torishirojima. Described as shy and a loner by most of her peers, Shiroha is also considered one of the best chefs on the island. Ao is the other heroine native to the island and is more often found asleep than awake. When not dozing off or letting her mind run wild, Ao is often found working part-time at the local candy store. Tsumugi is the third heroine and one of the two who is not a native resident of the island. Claiming to be on a quest to “find herself”, Tsumugi is often found doing various activities near an abandoned lighthouse on the island. Rounding out the cast, Kamome is another visitor easily identified by the large suitcase she carries around with her. Kamome is often found searching for the buried treasure she hid with the friends she made on the island on a visit during her childhood.

The good thing about Summer Pockets is the core cast and about every character is very unique and likable. It makes it very easy to navigate the necessary routes and there is a good job done of incorporating a wide variety of characters to keep things lively. I think my biggest issue was that I felt some of the side characters in the game did deserve full-blown routes (which is partly being addressed with Reflection Blue) and the odd situation of your male companions, Ryouichi and Tenzen. While I felt both Ryouichi and Tenzen were entertaining characters, they were a good example of that attempt to chase after Little Busters. If you replaced Tenzen’s ping pong paddles with a kendo sword, you essentially realize you’re staring at Kenzo. And if you replace Ryouichi’s obsession with getting naked with muscles, it turns out he’s actually just Masato (and about as stupid to boot). I won’t say this detracts from the game too heavily since neither plays big roles in the main story (unlike their Little Busters! counterparts), but it was a tiny elephant ever-present in the room.

Such a cute…dinosaur?

Summer Pockets follows a traditional flag system with some potential for bad endings if you make some very obviously bad decisions. However, the most important decisions are mostly made on a viewable world map where you can choose how to spend each day of your summer vacation. Each day is essentially broken up into a morning and afternoon segment with you usually getting a decision of where you want to go each time (some events can take up an entire day). So you can choose to follow your favorite girl across the island, hang out with the guys at the secret hideout, or even waste time on one of the two mini-games. It’s a simple system, and you can still end up on various routes without seeing every event if you really find yourself jumping from girl to girl. For the most part, there is usually some very obvious decision where you can figure out when you’re committing to a specific route.

Outside of important flags, Summer Pockets gives a wide variety of options across various events that serve no purpose other than to influence dialogue. But while it can potentially affect a scene that happens immediately afterward, it can also come back at you much, much later into the game. And this is one of the biggest charms I did find about Summer Pockets. Sure, none of these have no effect on the actual story, but it was fun to see the absurd amount of dialogue they bothered to write just because of one tiny decision you made during a specific conversation.

But let’s talk business and address the actual scenario now. Again, we’ll go back to those familiar with Key games. You probably know what to expect at this point, but Summer Pockets doesn’t break any formulas. To those of you not familiar, I’ll explain. Key is one of the companies that enjoy making a “true” ending for their games. Many ADVs tend to have each character to function as separate endings so players can choose what ending suits them. Key games want you to clear everything and often bait you into doing so via small changes and hints at a greater mystery throughout playthroughs. Summer Pockets is no exception and features two extra scenarios that function as the “true route” after you’ve cleared out the four main heroines.

Before I address my issues with the main scenario, I’ll address the stand-alone routes first. The idea of hiring multiple scenario writers has always been a double-edged sword in my book. On one hand, it can often keep writing from feeling stale and allows for more variety. The problem is it sometimes only takes one rotten apple to spoil the bunch. I won’t say the separate routes were bad per se, but it ended up feeling very messy and unbalanced. I happened to clear out Kamome’s route first and was curious if all the routes were going to be around that size. As it turns out, Kamome just happens to have a dwarf of a route compared to every other character. Not only that, it was a bad thing that it was that short. It ended up feeling like a rushed mess when it really didn’t need to be. In contrast, there were routes like Tsumugi’s that felt like there was dialogue that was drawn out just to add unnecessary length.

The other big issue I had with the routes this time around is, despite how self-contained they are supposed to be, about all of them ended up having these largely unsolved mysteries that have absolutely nothing to do with the main plot. So while you’re sitting there thinking you might get an answer or exact truths as to why certain events took place, you’ll find yourself scratching your head during the ending credits. Originally, I felt like I just wanted either the director or main writer to take responsibility and make sure everyone was on the same page about the main plot. But I feel like that wasn’t even necessary. It was just on the individual writers to make sure they tied up all their loose ends before their respective endings. It’s funny because a lot of scenarios even reference the others, so it’s not like they were working completely separate from one another. So it begs the question, why couldn’t they just collaborate more to have everything tie together nicely?

Despite the gripes, I still consider the overall writing of Summer Pockets solid. The game is still enjoyable with the flaws, but it is what keeps the game from being a completely unforgettable experience. After clearing it, I definitely felt that I enjoyed the main story, but, even with the emotional weight, the core ideas were relatively simple and easily sorted out. And, just like most of the routes, I really wish the main story had some added weight so they could add more power to the events to make you really feel like you worked for the ending. Instead, it resolves itself fairly quickly and leaves you wishing more wrenches were thrown into the gears.

Careful with the butterflies.

The soundtrack of Summer Pockets doesn’t stray far from they Key roots and returning players will most likely recognize the compositions of Shinji Orito, Jun Maeda, and Tomohiro Takeshita. But outside of the names at Visual Arts, they also pulled Ryo Mizutsuki onto the project, aka the name behind the Flyable Heart soundtrack that I couldn’t speak more highly of. Due to this, it ended with a powerful soundtrack with a heavy focus on piano works. The soundtrack itself does pop during crucial scenes and does an overall great job of helping you recall scenes if you go back and listen to various tracks. If not the soundtrack itself, then the opening and main theme “Alka Tale”, performed by Konomi Suzuki, easily deserves to go into the Key record books. While I never felt specifically anything towards it prior to clearing the game, it definitely hits a lot harder after seeing the story from start to finish.

Due to it being an all-ages game, I will admit it makes the voice acting side of things easier to talk about. We’re also talking about a larger company with more buying power to be more picky of who they cast. Granted, the Summer Pockets cast isn’t just a collection of big names you hear everywhere and a good assembly of pros, rising stars, and gifted newbies. And Key has always had a great knack for casting with Summer Pockets being no exception. I think the biggest surprise to me was how well Konomi Kohara managed to carry herself in the main heroine role. As of the year of 2018, and despite the number of lead roles she had, I don’t believe Kohara had any truly standout performances. But I think Shiroha was a perfect character for her to flex what talent she has. She truly made that role her own, and even over the work she’s done since Summer Pockets, Shiroha will probably be the role I forever identify her with.

Usually, this is the part in eroge reviews where I would talk about the adult stuff. But since this is a kids’ game, we’re going to talk about mini-games. Summer Pockets features two time sinks that function slightly akin to the mini-games in Little Busters! Both are completely optional, but they do lead to some in-game achievements, a lot of extra dialogue, and maybe a few bonus scenes here and there. One is a play on both Pokemon and card-based mobile games called Shimamon. It allows you to collect various monsters (which rank from actual monsters to potentially familiar faces) every night on the island and then battle them to raise your way through the ranks. If you played Little Busters!, then it’s very similar to the battle mini-game but even more worth the time due to the absurd amount of hidden dialogue it contains.

The other mini-game is a ping pong based mini-game where you go one on one with Tenzen. This is more of an active game as you’re forced to time your clicks with various circles scattered across your screen if you want to keep up a proper rally. If you’ve ever played Osu, it will feel very similar to that; just replace the music with Tenzen yelling at you. And remember how I mentioned how Switch and mobile users would have an easier time with a mini-game? The ping pong mini-game was what I was talking about as touch controls make the experience trivial compared to having to move your mouse cursor from circle to circle.

Boys meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl…

I’m fairly sure this is the longest review I’ve written to date, and I think it’s really because of the expectations behind a big-time publisher. The thing is, the production value is all there. So I can’t really say that Key failed to put money down, but there is a part of me wanting them to finally think of changing things up with their usual formula. There is nothing keeping them from churning out the usual tear-jerking scenario they love but with more of an overall focus. The talent is all there, I’d just like to see what happens if they work more as a singular unit.

I know most of the review sounded like I was upset with the game, but if you were to ask me I’d still say it’s a good game. I had fun with it, and I was pulled enough into it that I cleared it within a very short amount of time. I loved a lot of the characters, and I think the problem is I wish I could have seen more of them. I really wanted to fall in love with the game and the story, but there really wasn’t enough of a chance to do so. I’d personally say it’s a vast improvement over Rewrite, and I’d even be more likely to play it over some of the older Key games if you gave me a choice.

Overall
Like I mentioned before, there is just nothing I feel that would make me recommend Summer Pockets over other Key games. I just imagine most people who really love Key will end up buying the game without bothering to read any reviews. So it really just leaves a small margin of people who have either never touched a Key game before or were interested to see if their latest work was worth the money. And my answer would be no. My question for you would be whether or not you’ve played Little Busters! before. If you haven’t, then I’d recommend you invest your money there and enjoy a more complete experience. And if you’ve played Litte Busters! before, then I feel like you’ve played a better version of the same game. I’m well aware the scenarios and characters are different, but I just don’t think there’s is anything new to get out of Summer Pockets.

As the last statement, I do plan to buy Reflection Blue for myself, but I don’t think it can do anything to improve the game without a larger overhaul than they’ve mentioned. The added routes and more content is nice, but I don’t see it bumping up the score without touching up the original scenarios. But if you find yourself really wanting to try the game for yourself, make sure you hold out a little more so you don’t end up paying for the lesser product.