VN - Ren'Py - Summer's Gone [S1 Steam + DLC] [Oceanlab]

I actually have to say, this is the best vn i have ever played. Sure there are many things you could upgrade and fix, but the dialogues the chemistry between the characters, the story, the pictures are so perfect. This visual novel is a masterpiece and should be even more in focus. Massive respect for making this, its even philosophical and just absolutely pretty. Thanks a lot and please continue to work on it! <3

(Review of S1 + DLC)

An excellent novella based on a school setting where we play the role of a guy still trying to move on after losing someone very close to him. He may be awkward but at least he's not the usual wimp we have to put with time and again in the average AVN, and he can even defend himself in a fight.

Technically the product is perfect; some tunes are known from other games and the developer might have a thing for girls in tight pants but that's OK, the models are varied enough. What makes this such a great experience is the story and the characters. There are several moments of pure genius where the composition of a scene and the dialogue match so perfectly that you will remember that special moment for a long time. I mean this is BaDIK-level material if not better.

If you're into adult games with a strong story be sure to give this one a try, just be ready for a carrousel of emotions.

The game is good and the female character are has diverse personality. They are not generic unlike some other games. The slow burn is quite good as well in my opinion. The story is quite engaging as well. As of now Bella has the most engaging story for me.

Edit: I forgot to mention this previously but if you don't install the patch the story of Nami does not make sense because they are only roomates so no blood relationship and they can be together.

For now 4 star rating for me

This was once my favorite VN of all time, and while a couple of others have surpassed it, it is still an all timer.

Usually, my biggest issue with VN's are how the MC comes off, and usually trauma-filled MC characters are insufferable at the start to simulate character growth, what the author did was give you more agency in how the trauma affects the dialogue you say. Obviously, the game isn't perfect and there is some weird dialogue, but the romance with Bella is an all-time enemies to lovers plot line. Very few games make me want to be monogamous to a fictional character in a porn game. Bella and the MC are perfect for each other and I will fight whoever disagrees.

Great models, a great story, can't wait to see what season 2 has to offer.

nice stories, i thought it was just some adult scenes, but i was wrong, the stories is better than i expected, im hoping for much more updates coming up so i can get to know more about these nice stories and also the adult scenes

Just... wow. The renders are insane, all of the LIs are well written, and I checked to see if the game had an update 3 times the same day I finished the most recent content release. Easily top 5 and at this pace could be a contender for best of all time. I usually struggle to replay games but it hasn't even been a week since i've finished it and i'm already considering it.

My all-time favorite game, A pure masterpiece on every level, The setting is great (also a little generic) The LIs are unbelievable each one being 11/10 hot and so well written, that you feel connected to every single one, and the renders in this game are second to none it is so beautiful, I love the writing in this game and the darker gloomier take on the MC its refreshing to see an MC that isn't just a pussy chasing pervert and has some more depth to him, an MC that needs to come out of his shell to realize all the great things around him, Also love his calculated minuplating side we get to see, Story is great so far and very intruqing, A lot of people criticze the decison to be slow with the scenes but i think it is one of the best decisons a game can makes, it is meant to connect you to the girls and who they are what they stand for, so when you do get the scenes its that much more meaningfeel and amazing, if you just want to see sex watch porn, but what ocean is building here is so much more, its art with incredible connections to the incredible woman and world he has build, truly a masterpiece that is second to none, with one of the most talented devs in the industry captioning the ship, a true must play for all fans of this genre.

I got the game as it was recommended by some many if one likes a good story and characters. Well I got it and was realy realy struggling at first. The entry with the dream and some stuff behind didnt catch me and I found it rather (lets say bluntly) stupid. I was wondering why so many people liked it.
Finaly I gave it another try and pushed thru the first happenings of the story. Well what can I say the story has a (lets say) weird beginning but develops extermly nicely with its characters and storyline. So all the claims that this is for sure one of the best games here is (alt elast for my tast) true. To be honest its not that much sexual content aside from the very beutifull girls and nudes. However I think the behavior of the people are much more realistic (as far as this could be in a VN). Played it thru and cannot wait for S2.

So if you are in for a nice developed story and characters, pretty awesome visuals you should give it a try. I also tried "Where it all begun" but I would rate this one here much better as the characters are more authentic....from the way they look and act (from their age). It of course has some realistic glitches but its a VN and some compromise one has to make to drive the story

This game is polarizing. There are only those who love it and those who hate it. I for one love this game!
There are so many things right in this game...

++ The lighting in conjunction with the respective mood is on a level that I have never seen in a game before.
++ The story is far away from the usual "MC fucks his way through high school" kind of story. The loss of a loved one, the depression, the struggle with one's own feelings, the social problems and the will to change despite all odds make this game so unique!
++ The storytelling in addition with the chosen music always touched me and gave me a hard time playing it ... in a good way!
But not only the MC, but also the LIs with their own stories, their backgrounds, their emotions created a connection with me.

The only point of criticism for me would POSSIBLY be that various decisions up to this point have not had a decisive influence. But I'm sure that this journey will bring a few surprises...

I can't wait for the next update and YES, it's the best game for me right now. Damn good job Oceanlab!

This used to be one of the greats to me. Visually stunning, interesting premise, gorgeous LIs and great choices in music.
But sadly, Ocean just can't stop tinkering with everything. It's not just the constant unnecessary reworks, it's that no character in this game is safe from being altered with every update.
You fell in love with Mila? Too bad, now she has tripple D booba and looks like she ate nothing but McDonalds for 2 months. But only for 1 chapter, because she now looks different in every single one of them.
You fell in love with Ayua? Too bad, now she's just the next generic looking girl, no longer the hot Asian babe.
And this just goes on and on. Every dev update you're just waiting to find out who got the ZBrush treatment this time. Maybe it's your favorite LI next? You can bet your ass they'll all get the treatment.

And the worst part is, it's not even just visuals, now entire personalities are being altered mid-development and nothing is consistent anymore.

Spare yourself the pain of watching the characters you fell in love with being butchered in front of your eyes, it's not worth the pretty renders.

Very nice game, very good story with strong and interesting relationships.
Great approach with the depression, the loss and the resulting sexual attitude and dealing with other people.
I would have liked it a bit better if the dark themes that were there in the earlier versions hadn't been removed or toned down, but all in all a really great game

Summer's gone is one of those AVN's that the community love or hate. It's my favorite, so I am one of those that love, so here is my biased opnion. Visually it's the best out there, Summer Heat and Dreamland have similar qualities, but Ocean's work with light is just another level and next season will be all renders in 4k. The Mc is very different from the usual but that's what make it different and unique from the rest. Story wise, it has so much potential to be great and if you played WIAB(Ocean's first AVN) you know where SG is going to.

I like slow burn games but this one is way too slow and doesnt have a single lewd scene.Lagging behind in the main aspect for which we are here.Gave 3 stars for the render quality.Top notch renders but wasted potential

Let me start this review by saying the renders are excellent. Probably the best I've seen in a title. Major kudos to the dev for that - they are a true artist in that regard. As for the rest of the game, however...

Pros:

• As above, the visuals and renders are amazing. Really, really beautiful.
• The characters also look great. I think the girls are all gorgeous, and I love all of their character designs. In most VNs there's usually at least a few that I feel "meh" about, but they all look great here.
• The characters themselves are pretty good also (with the exception of the MC, which I'll get into below)

Cons:

• The pacing and storytelling are just off. There's so much slog in this VN that the story hardly advances at all, even after hours of play. Some sections drag on for WAY too long. For example, the DnD bit was cool - but I found myself rapid-fire clicking through it towards the end. The first basketball scene was another example. I'm not even joking, there were times playing this game when I felt like the dev was fucking with us - like he was purposely wasting our time.
• The main character is a fucking asshole, and not even in a mysterious anti-hero type of way. He's just a melodramatic, sensitive pussy. The fact that anyone in this story even puts up with him is beyond belief in itself, but the way the other characters all swoon over him is just nonsense. Not only would this person have zero friends in real life, but he would be fucking loathed by every person he encountered.
• The writing is beyond cringe at parts. It reads like an American college story written by someone who not only never went to college, but has also never even been to America. At one point the MC kisses a girl - just kisses her - and suddenly everyone in the game universe acts like the two are a serious couple. If you agree to take a girl out for dinner, everyone starts referring to the two of you as "dating". This is not what the real world, let alone what college or even high school is like.
• It's beyond a slow burn. It's pretty much a no-burn. I know the dev has apparently said this isn't a "sex game", but come on. Nobody is playing this purely for the cringe, convoluted story.

All in all, there's potential here - but I played for over 4 hours this weekend and felt like I got nowhere. Maybe I'll check back in a couple seasons with a gallery unlocker.

(A quick heads-up before the review: This opinion piece is heavily influenced by the developer's note that the game is not a porn game, but rather a story-focused visual novel with adult imagery sprinkled throughout. Therefore, it is only fair to give the story a fair critique rather than dismissing it with the notion that "it's just a porn game, so you cannot expect amazing writing." The developer himself says that the story takes center stage, and I will provide a fair critique based on that.)

To start off, I have to mention something that has probably been said a million times in this thread already: The renders and models are probably the best I have seen on this site by a long margin. Nothing really comes close to the level of detail present here, and that alone is why I gave this game four stars.

Now, let's move on to the main focus of the game, which is the story. It attempts to start a genuinely interesting narrative about trauma related to the loss of a loved one and the complete mental shutdown that occurs during recovery periods.

However, the problem lies with the character interactions in this story. The idea that the main character deserves this amount of attention from his family and from literally everyone he encounters for the first time does not reflect real-world behavior and comes off as very "porn gamey" in the end.

To elaborate on the strange character dynamics, let's examine Bella and the main character. Bella shouldn’t care about the main character from the start, but the inexplicable psychic pull that the main character has over her is both strange and often comical. For a newcomer to college to be paired with the hot, popular girl is tolerable as a plot convenience, but the moment the dynamic shifts to Bella constantly trying to get the main character's attention, it ventures into the realm of fantasy.

This type of relationship dynamic, where a guy who acts disinterested gets the attention of the attractive girl due to being mysterious, is reminiscent of how a child might imagine their aura in class, and it has been overused in cheesy Hollywood and Bollywood movies since the 1950s.

A person suffering from severe trauma and anxiety attacks is not typically perceived this way by others. The way every woman at the college swoons over a barely fit main character is poor storytelling and contributes to the "porn game" feel, which the developer wants to avoid.

There were many ways the developer could have made these interactions interesting while keeping them within the realm of possibility. For example, Bella could have been portrayed as a genuine antagonist in the initial chapters, actively trying to harm the main character due to her wealth and power, until she discovered he was seeing her mother as a therapist. This could have given Bella a real reason to stop being antagonistic, rather than the abrupt change in behavior after they see each other in the gym or class and suddenly decide to become partners in crime.

Another major issue is how every woman views the main character as if he is some sort of messianic figure. This is cringe-inducing at best and horribly tone-deaf at worst. He is not a superhero; if a woman approached the main character and he acted nonchalant, she should not continue approaching him unless he initiates contact.

Overall, the story is rather lackluster in terms of substance, with the exceptions of Victoria's arc and the ambiguity surrounding what happened to Summer, which are the only engaging aspects. The only way the next season could be salvaged in terms of storytelling is if the developer focuses on the fact that the main character is not a superhero but a regular person who can face genuine repercussions when dealing with others rudely. Only then would the story make sense, given that the main character is portrayed as someone undergoing unimaginable trauma and shutting out everyone in his life. If there are no consequences for behavior during the lowest points in life, then the story lacks authenticity and becomes just a porn game plot, which the developer claims it is not.

tldr: came her to fap, not to feel.

I've been recently exploring some games from here, and honestly some of them were pretty ok, some of them were great, but they all came down to simple fucking. Just like any non-ambitious porn some plot was there, but its like non-relevant at all and you should just click through it, and mostly thats what I did - skipped most of the dialogs as they bored me. Even games like BareWitness which initially got me impressed with 'a story' and the characters turned out to be quite naive and stupid, as it went really fast to harems/threeways etc and the characters stories got somewhat ignored.

Then Summer's Gone happened. When I started it I was expecting another porn game but damn was I in for a surprise. I haven't even noticed that on my first playthrough I spent like 4 hours reading through the dialogs, line by line. I got attached to characters, to the story, to each characters side-story (which might be super important for the main story), started looking for some secrets, things that are left for the player to discover. Goddamn this game got me good. And when I've seen the S1 end credits I felt super empty and devastated. I had this kind of feeling before after finishing a game, but it was always a serious PC/PS5 game, which was almost famous for it's plot and writing - never an AVN though.

I sincerely recommend playing Summer's Gone, the only disadvantage of playing it is waiting for the next chapters. And since I've finished it 2 days ago I constantly check any of the sources for some news regarding Season 2. The wait is gonna kill me, I need to continue the path of my LI cause damn that story got me good.

Go play it guys! This shit will mentally wreck you but you gonna love every second of it.

I've just finished Chapter 1. This game is a true gem. A true diamond. The storyline is excellent. The visuals are perfect. The soundtrack is excellent. If there is a Nobel Prize for gaming then this game deserves them all because its the greatest game I have ever played. What a memorable experience.
10/10.

Hyped for more to come. this game has so much potential and i love the pacing of the story without blindly letting the MC fuck every girl i hope that the game will keep expanding on its story. keep going Ocean

This game floored me. While the graphics are pretty good, the story is amazing. I don't even know how to describe it without robbing people of the chance to play it themselves.

I actually went out and bought it, and I am salivating waiting for the next installment.

The game is was great, i can get behind the idea of the reworks first because things were subpar after you learned alot and you wanted to have a streamlined product, without a dip in quality . That integrity, wanting your game to be a good experience, without giving to demands of "faster updates" and focusing on what needs to be done, so when you are finished, it's something to be proud of.

Now if you take shit out of it afterwards, in another "remake", just so you can sell you product, you sold youself in the process. While i can also respect wanting to earn money, i cannot justify compromising what you should stand for.