Summer Days

As a visual novel, Summer Days contains extremely minimal gameplay. The game's core onscreen presentation is composed of scenes that are viewed from a mostly third-person perspective. At predetermined intervals, the game brakes, and players are presented with one to two responses or actions relevant to the scene in progress to make, or not make, on behalf of characters. Each selection branches the game's progress up that point in an alternate direction, while also causing the player's love toward a character to blossom, plateau, or diminish,[1] thus providing for a nonlinear storytelling experience. As with its predecessor being an erotic title, relationships between characters may expectedly become sexual; scenes of this kind depict French kissing, masturbation, oral sex, anal sex, Sexual intercourse, nudity (both female and male) or combination of the five, and pixelized censors over genitals[2] (The North America release did not censor the genitals). Each route the game takes does invariably conclude at some point with an ending specific to it, thus, players who wish to watch additional endings, and notably aforementioned sex scenes, will have to play through the game more than once.[1]

Example of a conversation in Summer Days. Here, Otome is talking to Makoto.

Much like the other games in the franchise, Summer Days is unusual in that instead of traditionally static characters with subtitled dialogue,[3] it incorporates motion and voice, making it reminiscent of an animated series. Cinamatics naturally play on their own, and players are afforded the ability to pause, fast-forward, and even skip those they've seen before; sex scenes, additionally, become unlockable from the main menu as they are reached in the game. Progress can be saved at any time and loaded from either the main menu or during play.[1]

Limited edition copies of Summer Days were also bundled with the standalone Flash mini-game Ahoge Battle (アホ毛 バトル, Ahoge Batoru),[4] a whimsical take on School Days ending "Bloody End". Choosing from three difficulties, the player controls Sekai, who attempts to fight off Kotonoha by pressing any two configurable keys in quick session. In the case of the highest difficulty, a third is also used. If the player is able to fend off their opponent long enough to fill their end of a progress bar, the game is won and a tally of how many times each key was pressed is recorded. If the player loses, they are given a chance to continue.[5] In an identical fashion, limited edition copies of Shiny Days are expected to come bundled with Strip Battle Days (ストリップバトルデイズ, Sutorippu Batoru Deizu), a rock-paper-scissors mini-game based around the disrobing of female characters.[6]

Setsuna Kiyoura is a high school student out of school for summer vacation, enjoying the break with family and peers. When her childhood friend Sekai is bedridden with mumps and unable to attend to her part-time waitressing job, Setsuna much to her chagrin, agrees to fill in for her. Though she finds the work almost thoroughly unpleasant, from the revealing uniforms to difficult customers, Setsuna manages to overcome the challenges of the job through the encouragement of friends, particularly that of Makoto Itōu, a classmate she likes.[7]

Summer Days incorporates all but a few of the recognized cast from School Days while introducing a handful of characters that would become new to the franchise. The game focuses on the life of Setsuna Kiyoura, a character remembered for her impassive personality in School Days,[10][11] repurposed as the thoroughly more open and emotional protagonist of its sequel. A first-year high school student out for summer vacation, Setsuna lives in the fictional city of Motehara[12][13] with her mother Mai,[11][14] a restaurateur who is frequently at work, and routinely visits Sekai Saionji, her childhood friend.[11][15]

In spite of the resentment she develops for the job she later takes, Setsuna finds the restaurant a wonderful social outlet. Besides reacquainting with Sekai's mother Youko, the owner,[11][16] and a couple of meddlesome co-workers, Noan and Oruha,[11][17][18] Setsuna meets a handful of new and familiar people on the job. Her first acquaintance is with Kokoro Katsura, a cheerful pre-teen who regularly stops in before piano lessons,[11][19] Itaru Itou, a contagiously sweet little girl visiting for the summer,[11][20] and Itaru's older brother Makoto,[11][21] a classmate whom Setsuna has a crush on.

Through Makoto, Setsuna is further introduced to Otome Katou, Makoto's best friend and a member of the school's women's basketball team,[11][22] her younger sister Karen, a rambunctious antithesis with a comparatively larger bust,[11][23] and Karen's friends Futaba and Kazuha Nijou, a pair of identical twins.[11][24][25] Of the people Setsuna knows, Hikari Kuroda, a girl whose family owns a bakery known for its custard pie,[11][26] and Ai Yamagata, a bespectacled and soft-spoken classmate,[11][27] make occasional stopovers.

News about Summer Days arguably first appeared on October 1, 2005, when 0verflow posted a link to the game's then-live website on their official blog.[28] On April 1, 2006, 0verflow began a blog for the game, the first of which announced that Summer Days had been postponed from an original release in April to June 23.[29] Character profiles were added between April 9[29] to June 17.[30]

Promotion for the game began shortly after. 0verflow announced on April 26 that it would be attending Dream Party 2006, an anime convention, in Tokyo on May 4 and in Osaka on May 28,[29] selling retail copies of previous titles and Summer Days wall scrolls.[31] In addition to announcing its attendance, the company also began to sell costumes of the game's waitress uniform[32] on April 26.[33] On May 2,[30] 0verflow posted that the company would be visiting Akihabara, Osaka, Tokushima, Koriyama, Nagoya and Sapporo[34] showcasing the game and selling Summer Days phone cards.[35] Following a downloadable sample of the Summer Days limited edition DVD on May 12,[33] 0verflow released a teaser of the game on May 18.[33] The game's opening cinema was later posted for download on June 10.[36]

As Summer Days approached release, 0verflow announced on June 17[36] that it would host an autograph signing by the game's character artist, Junji Goto, from June 24 to 25 in Nagoya and Osaka respectively,[37] and that a celebratory event would be hosted at the Kyoto Kaikan Hall from 11:00am to 7:30pm on June 23.[38] Unfortunately for the company, Summer Days would not live up to its hype.

On December 1, 2006,[39] 0verflow posted that it would be attending Comic Exhibit 71, an anime convention, from December 29 to 30, selling Summer Days merchandise, such as phone cards and lanyards.[40] Following a short merchandise campaign from January 1 to January 9, 2007,[41] and the attendance of Dream Party 2007 in Osaka and Tokyo from April to May respectively,[42][43] active promotion for Summer Days effectively ended.

Remake

The cover of Shiny Days

News alluding to a remake or sequel of Summer Days called Shiny Summer Days surfaced on August 26, 2011,[59] when 0verflow announced via their blog that support for Summer Days was being discontinued.[60] Days later on August 31,[59] the company began its first promotion for the new game, selling brand T-shirts[61] which reportedly sold out on September 16.[59] Promotions continued with the attendance of Dream Party 2011 in Tokyo on October 3, where 0verflow sold brand phone cards and ornaments, T-shirts and dakimakura cases.[62] The game's official website went live on December 1,[63] revealing the new story[64] and characters, two making first appearances.[65] A day later on December 2, 0verflow announced that retailers would begin accepting pre-orders on December 15,[63] followed by a public release of the game's opening on December 6 and a subsequent promo on December 16.[63]

On February 2, 2012, a public trial of Shiny Days was released for download.[66] Eight days later on February 10, 0verflow announced that the game had been postponed from its original launch date to sometime in late April.[67] The company followed up this announcement on March 12,[59] stating that a more specific date would be posted in the next couple of days.[68] The date change was announced on Nico Nico Douga as April 27.[69]

Shiny Days received a North American release on September 29, 2015 through JAST USA, with translation by former fan translation group Sekai Project. However, JAST USA announced that sex scenes involving the characters Kokoro and her classmate will be removed from the North American version of the game, due to the possibility of these scenes being considered child pornography, which is a federal crime in the United States.[70] These scenes can be added back via a patch that was made available for download three months after the game's initial release, though. The game was JAST's first new release from the School Days franchise since their School Days HQ release in October 2012.

In a national sales ranking of bishōjo games in PCNEWS, a now-defunct online magazine, Summer Days ranked as the number one game sold for the second half of June 2006,[71] seventh most for the first half of July,[72] twenty-fifth for the second half of October,[73] before ending as the twenty-eighth and forty-eighth game for the first and second half of November.[73][74]

Getchu.com recorded similar sales. Summer Days for Windows was the number one game sold during the month of its release[75] but failed to chart any further thereafter, ranking eighth in the company for the overall year.[76]

• Official AiCherry Summer Days website (in Japanese)
• Official 0verflow Shiny Days website (in Japanese)
• Official Shiny Days website
• Summer Days at The Visual Novel Database
• Shiny Days at The Visual Novel Database