VN - Ren'Py - Completed - A Summer's End — Hong Kong, 1986 [v1.3] [Oracle and Bone]

TL;DR A sweet, beautiful and erotic short game about a summer love between girls. This is at the edge between porn and art.

PROS:

• Beautiful art
• Compelling and well-written story
• Interesting characters
• Immersive setting and atmosphere

CONS:

• Feels

This is a full edit of my review.

At first I rated this 2 stars because the start is a long monologue and it was not what I expected.
Then someone sent me a PM making a plea for this game, saying that I may have missed the game's purpose and I promised to try it back.

Which I just did.

Let me say that I loved the romance story. The two main characters are well written.
The story felt real, and since it's a game set in a fixed past (1986, before the "handover" of HK from UK to China and the current troubles there are there), I felt a political statement. It is well a goal of the devs and as such, they succeed.

It will not mean this game is perfect.

First the main issue (which i find not being an issue) is that it's more of a novel than a game. You have like 5 choices in the whole game. I don't even know if they matter or not because i didn't try to "redo" choices. I wanted to feel the normal evolution of story.

Then my real issues are 2:
- the music is great. But then it cuts at random places, scenes are without it... and that feels not right.
- the main issue I had is that sometimes, the text changes but the background image remains and there is no character in the screen. I would have loved to see the characters more, or even just see the text put in images, actions.

It's short, and even if the issues of the time (lesbians in HK in 1986), I felt the problems are only touched from afar. I would have loved to have more "meat" on those issues, more discussions, evolutions...

Other than that, it is a touching story and the visuals are beautiful.
So my new rating will be a 4 stars.

This might be my favorite game on this site. It's rare to find a really well written lesbian love story around here. I've only seen a few. And this one might take the cake. It's a really cute game. The art and soundtrack are amazing. Just a really great experience all around.

What a beautiful game.

I am so glad i played this. This is easily in my top3 story driven VN's i've played. I just wished it never ended. This was so good that 3-4 hours of playtime isnt enough for me, i wished it were a bit longer!

If you want a beautiful, heartwarming, well written lesbian romantic story with great artwork, good music, this is the game for you, PLEASE do not skip this.

If you want sex scenes or lewdness, this aint for you.

If we could give half stars or if the rating would go to 10 stars, i would give this a 4.5/5 or 8.5/10 rating.
There is nothing bad about this VN but some things could have been better. More about these at the last part of this review.

Its funny because i first tried to play this a month ago. I saw it was highly rated and at the time i was looking for games with a female protagonist.
For some reason, the game didnt click with me then. I spent maybe 15-20 minutes with it and then i stopped.

Month passed and here i am again. This time i finished it and oh my god, what a beautiful romantic story!

The writing is really good. The drawings are beautiful.

This is one of the most heartwarming stories ive read/played so far
I both cried of sadness and of joy throughout this story. It was an emotional rollercoaster

I dont know how to best describe this. Beautiful is the word that comes to mine when i think about this VN.


Of course, nothing is perfect.
There one major thing that could have been MUCH better.

There needs to be more renders/drawings of scenes. There are just so few in the game.
Especially lacking are the intimate/hot scenes between the 2 main characters, even with the "adult patch".

It would have been a perfect game/story for me if there would have been some more explicit drawings/renders/scenes (however you want to call them)

Thats the only things that was not so good for me. Even so, this is one of the best romantic VN's ive played in my life. Hell, this rivals some of the romantic books ive read so far which i thought were amazing.


Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

I cant even find words to describe this.

Calling it a game seems like it diminishes what it is.

Its been said enough on other posts but it doesn't diminish the truth, this is art.

Do not go into this game expecting porn, do not cheapen the story by expecting fetishized lesbians giggling and prancing about for the male gaze.

In fact Ill go so far as to be confrontational about it, if that is what you want, keep your hands off this game and move on to the next generic fapfest that is being uploaded as i type this.

This is a queer love story, and it is beautiful and heartwarming. If you are looking for that, this is your game, if you are looking for "hot lesbians" this story is not made for you.

This is hands down one of, if not the best F/F romance story I have seen on this site. It is the kind of story that you think about long after its over, imagining what the future brought for Sam and Michelle, you smile for the happy moments and you feel their pain in the dark moments. It is the kind of thing that will taint all future F/F romance stories I read.

It's a rollercoaster ride for sure at points, it's almost painful at points but that makes the ultimate resolution all the sweeter for it. after playing through and getting the good ending there was no way I could go back and see the other ending, it would be heartbreaking, no matter how well written.

There's not much to say that isn't already said. but the art, Characters, the masterfully well written dialogues, and story. Everything was so amazing, and the setting, wow. I traveled back in time, for real. I can't praise it enough.

One of the best visual novels I've ever played. A Summer's End is a love letter to the Hong Kong of old, something that is on the verge of being relegated to the annals of history. With this VN, we get to have one last look at it with rose-tinted glasses.

Set against the backdrop of the British colonial administration's handover of Hong Kong to China, we are presented with a beautiful love story between two young women from very different walks of life. Their lives and the difficulties of being gay in an all too conservative society is presented in an impeccably realistic manner.

Everything in this game is stunning. The writing, artwork, music and UI design all show clear signs of the love and effort put into them. I strongly recommend everyone to give this one a chance.

An excellent yuri visual novel set in an age that things were different(and in my opinion more direct and in a lot of ways better) than they are today.

I finished it in a single sitting not because it was particularly short but because the story and characters were really gripping and i was dying to see how they'd end up.

As fantastic as the story is, the artwork in this visual novel is one of the best i have seen in my 30 year old otaku life. It's simply beyond amazing and unforgettable.

Another really strong point of the game is its music. The tracks are really fitting of the situation and setting and make the scenes very memorable.

As far as sexual content it's certainly a nice addition, but not essential to enjoy the game and it doesn't show much. This isn't that kind of game. It's all about the feels in this case.

Everything just works so well together to create a story that you'll probably think for years to come if not forever.

Among the dozens of visual novels/eroge i have played i can say with certainty that Samantha is an extremely strong romantic interest. I would rate her character 19/20 and that's only because i didn't spend enough time with her.

So, the proposal of the game to be a lesbian love story taking place in 1986 was performed satisfactorily, it was possible to have summarized or compressed the dialogues much more, much of what is said the player assumes before starting the game as a truth and didn’t need to be reinforced, the images in the novel were well made, the game has moral choices, but they are for the most part irrelevant, since it will still be possible to reach each end even if you make several random choices except from the end, I missed the game handing over the command to the player to make the choices of actions or what the protagonist should say in critical moments and the game has no bugs.

Below are my grades for the category, considering 10 the highest grade:

Graphics: 10;
History: 9;
Plot: 9;
Character development: 8.9;

Note: the text may contain a connotation error, as I do not speak English fluently.

It doesn't really feel like a "lesbian game". Even though it's main plot, it's much more than that.
Everything is so well patch together. Art, music, characters, dialogues, pacing, little facts of HongKong culture, intimate scenes and cheerful moments.
I finished whole game in one day. Sometimes taking a break to process what happend - leaving game in the background to just listen to its music.

Beautiful artwork, touching story. Although secondary to the main plot, the portrayal of Hongkongers' uncertainty over the 1997 handover really hit home.

Wish there were more renders, especially some more steamy ones, but I understand that this isn't the type of game I usually come to F95 for and that the storyline comes first.

There was one thing though that broke the immersion and really bothered me a lot: a post-97 Hong Kong flag in 1980s Hong Kong.

Lovely colorful art, pleasant and fitting soundtrack for the setting and a well written emotional love story.
The writing tasked with making us care about the protagonist does so by detailing her thoughts, her justifications for her actions and her life. We are in her head and understand all she goes through. Being this intimately aware of her thoughts makes it very easy to sympathize with her actions and root for her. The other main character could have been a cabbage roll and I still would have been invested in her relationship with it because of the writing.
I wholeheartedly recommend this story to anyone looking for quality stories about love between women.

It may not have alot of nsfw material but this is a great game with an unusual setting and a great, mostly wholesome story. The art is also some of the best I've seen. Although the game isn't too long there is enough variety for at least a second playthrough.

A beautiful game that made me travel to the 80s. Everything, the music, the lights, the details reminds you of this period of time and honestly it made me want to visit HK. I liked both endings, I think that they are both really well written and realist. Finally, I didn't expect the last statement at the end of the game but I completly agree about it and I hope that it will make people realize how important the events that are happening now will shape the future of HK and its citizen

Unique to find on F95... not a fapfest... just an excellently written, non-pandering, story with a beautifully realized setting and soundscape. I went to the dev's itch.io page and paid $10 over the minimum.

Sometimes you come across a story - be it a book, a movie or a visual novel - that makes you wish it would never end.

When I first saw Michelle and Sam on a user's profile pic, the intimate kiss they shared combined with the beautiful artwork immediately caught my attention.

I still didn't expect much other than a sweet lesbian love story, but A Summer's End turned out to be a much deeper experience.

Right from the start (already in the menus) A Summer's End oozes atmosphere.

The 80s...

Walkman, mix tapes, synthetic music, strange hairstyles, denim overalls, shoulder pads, C64, VHS, TV sign-off and test card.

The story starts with a longer inner monologue - and for a moment I was apprehensive it might be one of those overly verbose VNs, but fortunately this isn't the case here.

A Summer's End takes its time to tell its story, but it's a good and impactful one.

It's a multi-faceted story about life, death, self-discovery & -determination, fear, grief, hope, longing, happiness and the power of love.

It's a story that made me smile and cry (especially the latter).

Getting to know Michelle it quickly dawned on me that we both share quite similar character traits.
I could easily - and painfully - relate to her.

Her (initial) repellent demeanour towards Sam made the story even more interesting.
I guess I have a soft spot for love stories about lovers who have to overcome certain obstacles to make things work between them.

Apparently, a lot of love, thought and effort went into creating A Summer's End - there are so many small details to discover, like using meaningful colour codes for different characters.

You will also learn a bit about Hong Kong and its culture (and Chinese culture in general) along the way.

And I can't conclude this review without mentioning the AWESOME soundtrack.

It's sad to see such a wonderful VN doesn't get more attention, but then - isn't it always like that, no matter if it's books, music or movies? The mainstream - and the "hidden" gems.

Anyways, I'm just happy I found this one - it really struck a chord with me.

Highly recommended.

This game has a very unique take on the classic 'forbidden love' trope. The MC is a very conflicted young woman stuck in a monotonous life and a series of coincidences have the ability to change her life if she has enough courage to allow it.

The music and the art really play well of each other. The game has a very retro and upbeat vibe to it. That being said, there are many parts that pull on my heartstrings. It gets very emotional and it really is quite an experience.

The game felt quite a bit light on dialogue and certainly could have done more with some deeper conversations. In spite of this, I think the game does a great job of providing dialogue that is all meaningful; there is very little fluff.

There is only one choice in the game that seems to matter determining which of the two endings you receive. I think both endings are great in their own way but there will always be one far better than the other in my eyes.

If you are into female protagonists and enjoy lesbian content this is probably the perfect game for you. It is a really fresh take and I really enjoyed it. The game is maybe 3-4 hours of content.

A beautiful visual novel. Its like watching Hard Boiled only with less guns and more women. The one flaw if I had to give it is the lack of adult content even with the patch installed.

That said between the quality writing, the art, and setting I still feel the need to give this a full 5 stars.

This is a story excellently told, through good writing, excellent art and good music.

Art - This is an excellent use of art style that blends in seamlessly with the story. In most other VN's here, the art either calls too much attention to itself, or at the very least just doesn't get in the way of the story. This is art deliberately chosen and used to aid in evoking the feel of a time and a place. This tells me that the devs are thoughtful storytellers willing to use as many of the art elements as possible at their disposal to transport the audience's imaginations into their chosen setting.

Furthermore, the choice of vaporwave instead of an art style that would seem more stereotypically "Hong Kong" shows more careful thought on the storytellers' part. They're not just trying to capture a feel of 80's Hong Kong, but of an undercurrent of burgeoning modernity and rebellious Westernization that flows through the informal places, the pubs, the streets, and subcultures and that existed beneath that veneer of Hong Kong. Again, some excellent forethought in the storytelling.

That the older manga style of character aesthetic blends well and looks cute (for me anyway) juxtaposed to overarching style is just icing on the cake.

Music - Like with the art, the music is also well-used to reinforce the immersion into the setting and the story that begins with the art style. I'm not a fan of the genre of music, but it is properly placed here.

Writing - The devs have accomplished two things that most beginning writers have a hard time doing. First, they've given their characters distinct voices to reinforce their differing personalities. Second, they managed to make their characters feel alive in the setting. Of the two protagonists, one is quiet, hesitant and likes to weigh her words. So her dialogue is shorter, more clipped, and she speaks only when she needs to. The second one is the more adventurous and playful one. So, her dialogue is written longer, and meandering, with a tone of wanting to please. So, when the turn comes, it feels emotionally punchy when the second character becomes more quiet as her growing attraction to the first causes her to want to be more deliberate, and when the first character starts letting go and telling the second character in her newly-scattered way how much she likes her.

Of the second matter, that the characters interact with the setting and comfortably refer to time and culture-specific things that they use and have affection for makes them feel like they truly came out of the story's setting and structure, instead of just two author avatars talking and wafting their way through the author's plot outline. This brings more life to the characters. The only other VN on F95 that I've encountered that has characters that feel this alive is "High Life".

The build up to this coming out romance (something I have some personal affection for) is well-paced, with the only really unnecessary speed bumps being a couple of mystical dream sequences that don't really do much. Thankfully, they're not that long.

The erotic sequences are also well-done. The art, as already mentioned, is excellent, and while there are not that many CG's and none are as porntastically lurid as some would like, they work well with how the sequences are written. This will probably work better with people who like written erotica than with those who prefer more visual adult entertainment.

Overall, this is my favorite VN so far this year.

Everything is top-notch. Excellent art style, absolutely gorgeous backgrounds. A soundtrack I would B U Y. Great setting across a place we dont normally see outside of Sleeping Dogs. Oozes style and substance. Don't miss out on a masterpiece!