Original Release: Kompas Productions, 2016, PC/Linux/Mac/Android
A school harem time management VN that continues in the lineage of True Love, this indie game has become one of the most financially successful adult titles of all time while going nearly a decade in an incomplete state
Summertime Saga (PC, Kompas Productions, 2024)
Where to Buy: Freemium (free download at official site)
Review by: Master-B
Summertime Saga is a noteworthy title in that it’s not only had the top spot for adult games on Patreon locked down for years now, it actually floats around the top 10 in earnings for the entire site (not just games and not just lewd stuff, absolutely everything). It first came out in 2016, and its financial success really sparked a wave of indie and underground lewd creations, proving there were ways to make them financially viable if creators wanted to put the time in.
It’s in the general lineage of visual novels established by True Love in the ’90s: you manage a limited time schedule and decide what to do with your day as you pursue a small town chock full of inexplicably single ladies who just wait to be added to your harem (once sufficiently won over). We’re once again in the shoes of Not High School Student who lives with Not Mom and Not Sister, hunting up all the 🐈 around town ranging from Not Classmates Under Legal Age to randy GILFs and all sorts of things in between.
But unlike True Love, the time management isn’t critical to your success. You exist in a weird time vortex where there is a weekly cycle, but time doesn’t move forward for each quest until you take the next action. Which can be a little confusing at first if you haven’t seen it in other games of this type, as Summertime Saga doesn’t explain the mechanic; when someone tells you something is happening “tomorrow” or “in two weeks,” it’s actually just on permanent pause until you get around to it. At worst you might have to cycle another week of gameplay around to the appropriate day of the week to do something if you miss some sort of appointment or event.
Our neverending semester has the protagonist pursuing three overall goals: digging into the mysterious death of his father, getting his failing grades back on track after a month away from school to mourn, and developing enough of a real relationship with a girl to ask her to prom. In between you can bang as many and sundry ladies as you like in side quests, of which there are literally dozens all over town.
The “interactive fiction” aspect is definitely emphasized much more than the “game” aspect. In as far as I can find, there are no failure states whatsoever. There’s no overall time limit, you can’t miss key aspects of quests, and while there are lots of little QTE-like mini-games you’ll only lose a block of time and have to retry later if you fail one. The biggest challenge is in finding the trigger points for quests at times, as the game gives you minor hints but they sometimes require you to talk to a character at a specific place/time.
What keeps the game afloat if there’s little to no challenge? The strength of the characters and writing, for the most part. While the pond is stocked with tropey chicks to pursue, the developer really did an admirable job in giving them distinct backstories and personalities and creating compelling situations to work through.
The art style is also generally good, and manages to be sufficiently sexy for a lewd title. At first it looks like it’s going to be another one where every woman has the fetishy insanely oversized breasts, but there ends up being a good diversity of body types. There are little animation loops for our hero’s various amorous encounters, but the big and detailed full-screen ones are reserved for when you get into the later reaches of each girl’s quest line. So it provides you with some pretty decent lewd “cookies” to keep playing for, and at this point in the development there’s an absolute ton of girls and scenes to uncover.
All of this stuff is also pretty much free. The Patreon just provides early access to new updates, and allows patrons to buy influence in new content and new directions for the story. At present it also only takes up about 1.5 GB, and as with most Renpy games it’ll run on any old potato. A mobile Android version is also available.
Though it’s far from an original idea and could use a little more “game” aspect, Summertime Saga is pretty well-written, usually funny and fun, and definitely worth a look at the asking price of “free.” It isn’t without issues, however. One is the smattering of fetishes that aren’t everyone’s jam, primarily the Not Mom and Not Sister stuff that’s front and center. This is a weirdly common thing with these games, dating back to Japan in the late ’90s, but it being not uncommon in lewd VNs doesn’t mean that everyone who comes to these games wants to see it. The game does allow you to avoid this stuff, for the most part, but since these two characters live with you it’s STRONGLY nudged above every other quest line. I played most of the game managing to at least successfully avoid the Not Mom elements, since that was the creepiest (Not Sister actually comes off as a legit roommate and really isn’t bad), but somehow the game eventually tricked me into progressing it (via a seemingly unrelated third party character’s quest) and from then on it’s literally jumping in front of you in the house dragging you away from any other planned activities.
Somewhat related to this is the Patreon “game that doesn’t end” style of development. As mentioned it’s been out since 2016, but as of this early 2024 writing it’s still technically only on version 0.2. That does include three chapters packed with content, but no resolution to the main story in sight as of yet. But this isn’t even so much about the main story being incomplete, as the inevitability of freespending pervs with deep pockets taking over this model and steering it toward their fringe fetish interests. I was really enjoying playing the main quest line, focusing on the assorted teachers and the “main” girls the MC can have more in-depth relationships with; all that content seems like it was part of the designer’s original vision and plan. But then it starts really forcing or trying to sneak the Not Mom, Aunt and Sister stuff on you, which I suspect comes more from the chase for Patreon dollars.
And after a while, impregnation fetish stuff comes in out of nowhere. You have to randomly plap up a middle-aged Italian woman as part of the main story, which I felt was the first really weak writing element you’re forced into. But that seemed to awaken something in the fanbase as you can eventually knock up like pretty much every single girl in the game once you complete their main quest line; they pump out a kid in record time, who gets dumped off to some daycare center, and then it’s back to your regularly scheduled quest to find a date for the prom. Meanwhile, two of the main girls you were clearly meant to pursue at school STILL don’t have their quest lines even started almost a decade into this thing. To each their own and all that, I’m not trying to yuck the serial deadbeat dad fetish or whatever, but it seems like stuff like this eventually outbid actually finishing the more core and important parts of the game.
Music and sound also seemed to be put on the backburner too. There are occasional little clips of generic royalty-free music, or ambient sound loops for scene backgrounds, but that’s about it. No sexo sounds whatsoever or voice acting.
Aside from the impregnation and incest stuff, the game is overwhelmingly conventional hetero and suitable for a more standard “Leisure Suit Larry” type demographic (i.e. me) from the old days. It does toss in a bit of LGBTQ+COMPTIA stuff, but it’s largely off to the side and you have to go way out of your way for it. For example, as of this writing there’s one gay dude to go after, but he’s not really forced into the story in any way and can be easily ignored. The worst offender here is that one of the main love interest girls can be randomly turned into a Frudadick deep into her quest line out of nowhere if you answer one question rather innocuously (maybe the only unintentional “failure state” in the game depending on how you look at it).
Some of the fun of the game is also in pop culture references and social media/forum type jokes, but since this started out in 2016, some of it is pretty badly dated in this point. The second chapter centers around “Mayor Rump” (exactly who you think it would be) and your quest to put him in prison (while optionally banging his wife and daughter). Granted the Orange Rump is still relevant in real life, but this whole zeitgeist of “late night comedians making fun of him circa 2016-2019” that this quest line is based on really did not age well.
But, all in all, it’s an exemplary VN that really updated the “college harem” template from what the horny Japanese gave us with its founding in the 90s. It’s free and not a particularly big download, and has a massive pile of content to offer despite not being complete, so no real reason not to give it a spin.
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