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

Summer's Gone [S1 Steam + DLC]
Overall - 9/10
Highly recommend - about broken people connecting with other people and other broken people
No Hscenes, just learning about what and whys about the characters - fun.
Story - 9/10
Set in university - you MMC starts university, drama follows you
MMC lives with a childhood friend both connected to Summer (another childhood friend), which together are bonded by trauma + friendship
MMC has unresolved trauma and connects with other FMC that is also a broken person -> broken people is a big leading point in this game
Interesting to learn more about characters and what justifies what they are doing.
Renders - 10/10
No complaints
Animations - 9/10
Has cinematics - cool foreshadowing of chapters, its good
Hscenes - n.a
Kissing is the most i saw - still frames transition into cinematic type animations
Sounds - 10/10
Don't remember SFX, but BGM is really good fits to themes
Also some BGM songs are good enough to listen out of game (Late Kids - Some Days)
Playability - 10/10
Simple VN with impactful choices

Summer's Gone isn't just a game... It's an emotional journey

Summer's Gone has everything that I want in a game such as a great story and emotional driven characters.
The renders are beautiful and the cinematics are unmatched.

One thing that I enjoyed the most is that the game is about damaged characters and the healing process that come along is such beautiful. I teared up many times when I played this. That's the type of emotion that I want and it delivers on that.

I can't wait for Season 2 and for what's to come.

Games like this deserve support and I can't wait for more.

Really addictive game with one of the best cgs out there. Lots of character with unique personality. Focuses more on story which i really liked. Thanks for this wonderful masterpiece. Looking forward to the next season.❤❤

Outstanding story focused game that really focus more on character rather than just being a game to jerk off to which i really like , the music is also really good and add to the vibe of the game, a really nice playing experience and hyped for season 2.

This game has some of my favorite renders. All the LI have their own charm and look fantastic. The animation quality is not up to par with the static renders IMO. I think this game would be better off with leaving those animations out. We are still early in the story. The way things are flowing right now leaves huge future potential. It all depends on how the Dev fleshes out and implements their ideas. With how ambitious this project is, it is particularly important to have a solid foundation early on and hopefully keep things straight the further along in the story we go. It will be quite easy for plot holes to build up, especially the longer this story goes on. This is being developed at the same time as the Prequel. This is an interesting approach, and I think it really works in Oceans favor. Several individuals, including myself, have worked to connect the two, even though the narrative is still in its early stages. This can also be attributed to the long update cycle. However, with the current level of quality, an extended wait is acceptable as long as there is no decline in this area. That does, however, lead us to the amount of time this project will take. If Ocean sticks to the projected length of the games, it will probably take at least a decade before we see the conclusion of either one. Ocean is currently expanding their "render farm", for lack of better terms. This will hopefully lead to quicker release cycles. Overall, this is easily one of my favorite games, and I very much look forward to how these stories progress.

P.S.

I have a server myself and know how much it can help with productivity. I am also looking to expand some more. I, however, am self-funded, so I look at eBay and buy used servers there. You save a significant amount of money but are using older equipment. They have plugins for Linux to use with these servers in conjunction with your main PC, to set up a render farm with blender.

Sorry, this got off topic.

Thank you. I hope you find the joy in life you are looking for.

This game is just perfection for me. Everything is perfect. I played this game 3 time. It takes long time to develop new chapter but it is worth to wait. No sex scene first i felt disappointment but story and aura of this game so powerful i forgot why i am playing this game. It is not a quick fap game. Soundtracks , game , decisions. I cant wait to play it again

Most possibly one of the more story based than raunchy AVN things I've ever seen but letting that deter anyone would be beyond silly. I went into this not knowing and while not actively looking for something to beat off to its a very well done story/animation project which this feels like 100%.

My recommendation would simply be to ignore anyone including my own review here and give it a chance. Too many judge before trying something. The writing isn't the best but nothing ever is imo. If you can sink into it; it'll of done its job well.

This is not only one of the best videogame but the best AVN overall, i love this shit so much, i can't help but appreciate it's beauty.
the visuals , the music the setting
Our PTSD induced MC who is edgy as fuck but starts to become so cool
and also the mystery of summer incident , you are alwways like just wtf happened to summer?
and the cream of crop.
THE CHARACTERS
you got nami (the cheeto) alsways there to lighten the mood , be annoying and do silly cheeto stuff (i love her)
victoria -- the sweet flower girl (she is literally aerith from ff7)
bella-- IT's bella that's it , you love her stop lying to yourself
and so many more

i only hope that this AVN gets some huge amount of funding. because my boy Ocean is Cooking with this one
11/10

The best I've ever played. This is the GOAT of visual novels: the character development, models, personalities, writing, and story are perfect. I just wish it had more frequent updates ;-;

Story: 10/10
Character Development:10
Kinkies: ?/10
Sex: Tooearly/10
Models: 10/10

The game is very tube, the plot is just perfect, the musical accompaniment is magnificent. The game itself is simply unique in its kind of this genre and the only one. And the author simply created a sensual and desirable and unique game.

I love the background and characters, whole reason I kept playing is because the writing feels good and the characters alive. The negative I have with the game is that it's a lot of building foundation and little pay off. The pacing of the game makes it feel like a lot is happening while nothing has actually happened in the story in any big way outside just characters bonding. Again I like the game, but it definitely has one big flaw when it comes to story telling, but overall I think it's still worth the experience.

well written, beautiful, and full of promises.
a lot hanging up in the air after this first season, potential to span for a long while. Some timeline issues (meetings forgotten like ayua's lessons, events mis-referred ("yesterday" even though it was 2 days ago), and the occasional extensible time (specifically, that evening with dinner at nick's, special training, tennis, jacuzzi, but it's still time to do a full evening at friends', including a movie with long pauses and other activities, at the end of which pizza places are still opened. And getting to the friends' place by bus - gotta love the public transports of this city (despite their probably booze-soaked drivers). btw, managing to top even *that* evening off, thanks to the lovely bella coming to get him and their incredible romantic mini road trip, was amazing.)
Hope S2 will provide full disclosure of past events (summer's disappearance circumstances and bella sister's coma) and progress over the upcoming events (their move to student house, road trip+cabin with amber) and how MC deals with it.

This game have the potential to be one of the best games, the story is so well developed and keeps you wanting to know more, the characters have a lot of carisma and there are actually so many good moments that make you really care for the when you know their stories. The animations that will come in the future will elevate this I suppose, but there already is so much potential here, hope the next update will be great

There are a couple good points: the girls are very pretty, and (almost) all the characters are well developed. I can see why some people get drawn in. But I am not one of them. Despite the quality of the characters, I couldn’t get into it. Something about this game also made my depression worse every time I played it, which definitely isn’t a plus.
There are a lot of things wrong, from someone giving the protagonist sertraline for an acute panic attack (do not do this. I can see why a placebo might work for someone having a panic attack, but it’s still a terrible idea, and although the protagonist could likely benefit from SSRIs, they need to come from a doctor. Also, you have to come off SSRIs slowly. I’m not sure what it’s like to go from a single day of a large dose to nothing at all, but if it’s anything like missing a dose, the character should be suffering horribly from it.) to using “retarded” as an insult, like it’s 1998, in a game in which “The game’s approach to mental health is healing…”
The opening is poor. I fought through it. It got better, but not enough.
Plot problems abound: the main one: there isn’t a main plot. There are a few subplots, but they’re fairly disconnected from each other. The character’s experience with growth is the unifying factor, but it doesn’t resonate with me. At no point did I really want to know what’s going to happen next. Then, there’s the fact that there’s no explanation of what the fuck happened with Summer, beyond “she’s gone.” Kidnapped? Murdered? Ran away? Abducted by aliens? It’s the end of S1 and I still don’t know the experience that lead to the protagonist’s breakdown, just that it sucked, and that Summer is gone.
Also, the protagonist smokes? But he does it like twice, so is it weed? I don’t know, but the player should.
I don’t necessarily mind kinetic novels, but, here, the lack of choices bothers me. Perhaps it’s because the protagonist is in college, where there are numerous possibilities open to him, and he chooses them without consulting the player, or even explaining them. Why does he agree to basketball? Why does he join the board game thing? These are important omissions.
In terms of what is straightforward, it’s a game that I don’t feel any need to follow, so I’ll give it three stars. I might try it again in the future, when it's 100% complete. I hope not, but I'm usually too curious for my own good.

There’s something else though; there’s something wrong that I can’t put my finger on. I don’t know why, (and that bothers me,) but my depression felt worse after each session with this game. I feel like I should mention this. I like plenty of games with disturbing content, and with characters struggling with mental health, so it’s not the obvious that’s the problem. It’s not that mental health is handled terribly, because it’s done reasonably well (although I do have a few quibbles.) That would justify a 1 star review. Perhaps it’s that nothing in this resonated with me, and there wasn’t any catharsis, but that wouldn’t explain why it made me feel worse. Whatever the cause, I can't think of any game, book, or song that afflicts me like that. For that reason, a part of me wants to give a 1 star review, but it doesn’t feel right to do so when I can’t find anything that wrong with this game/story/protagonist.

I also feel like I should mention that, If you're just playing for sex scenes, you're in the wrong game - there aren't any.

One of the best Visual Novels ever!
Trust me after Summe's Gone and the second Ocean game - Where it all began, 90% of VN will seem like something very mediocre.
- Great visuals
- Gorgeous characters
- Clinging plot with a touch of intrigue, with great anticipation you want to read what will happen next.
And actually the fact that the first season has no bed scenes, for me it's more like a plus, MC even though it feels a little pathos, typical dead inside, but I got it more than MC pervert who is still in puberty.

What's a shame Ocean removed a lot of content for the sake of a low age rating on Steam, was it worth it? I think not.

All in all, looking forward to the sequel to both Summe's Gone and Where it all began!

THIS GAME DOES NOT HAVE ANY H-SCENES AS OF SEASON 1!

I discovered this game about a year ago looking for a quick bit of fun and was immediately put off by the warning when you load the game saying that it has no H-Scenes yet. Reluctantly, I gave it a try a few days later and it was probably one of the best games on this site.

Visuals: 10/10 - For starters, every render in this game is absolutely gorgeous! You can tell that the developer, Ocean, put a lot of thought into each render. I'd even go as far as to say that almost every render is good enough to be it's own wallpaper. And that's not to say that there are only a few renders. There are thousands of different renders; enough to keep you satisfied but not too much where it seem that every line of dialogue has it's own render.

Character Design: 10/10 - This may be up to how you view it, but compared to some other AVNs that aim for a more "realistic" character design (as opposed to the anime-esque type of style), this is one of the very few games where the characters look real, which is also linked to the quality of the visuals. The body proportions of the characters are genuine and not blown out of proportion and there is plenty of variety to suit everybody's personal preferences.

Music and Atmosphere: 10/10 - The music and atmosphere, paired with the stunning visuals give this game a sort of nostalgic feeling that's really hard to put into words (maybe anemoia?). Each song was picked and licensed by Ocean and it is done so almost perfectly. I highly advise using the Music Restoration Mod as some of the licenses were revoked later in the development of the first season.

Characters: 9/10 - The are so many characters in this AVN, which is appropriate given the setting of the story taking place at college. They all feel like genuine people with their own interests and goals and don't seem to revolve around our MC and all interact with him in their own unique way that isn't just confined to typical tropes (like Tsundere, Yandere etc.). The only downside to having this many characters, though, is that a lot of them don't get a lot of screentime and it gets hard to keep track of who's who after every update, especially if you're not playing the game attentively.

World Building and Story: 9/10 - The world of Summer's Gone (being a sequel to Ocean's other game which he is currently developing - Where It All Began) is a realistic world set in the modern day. It touches on a boy journeying into adulthood whilst also dealing with the trauma of loss, his past actions and ultimately trying to escape. This overall theme probably contributes to the stellar atmosphere of the AVN. There are a couple of moments, especially right at the beginning, which don't really make sense (like Victoria talking to the MC, the car crash incident etc), but ultimately they are easily accepted and the story certainly gets better as the game goes on. There is also a subtle undertone of mystery as to who our MC is, which is even more noticeable if you play the prequel game before this, but is not a major theme of the story.

Animations: 8/10 - This is definitely one of the weakest areas of the game, however, it still beats the quality of other games. This is not too big of an issue as there are not too many animations in the AVN and, when they do happen, it's not an eyesore. The main problem is that the characters feel a bit too stiff during animations, but it's not too terrible especially when you consider the stunning visuals.

Overall: 9.5/10 - An absolutely stellar game that may not be suited for everyone given that it's a slow-burner and currently contains no H-scenes. I would definitely advise everyone to play this game (after the prequel game, ideally, but it is not necessary) if you have about 5 hours to kill. Make sure you have your wank first though as you'll definitely be blue-balled if you don't!

also Sasha is best girl

what a great masterpiece by Ocean, great story, great renders, this is amazing honestly, just a few VN had this feel of immersion. Immediately played other Ocean games as well, cant wait for the next update

F*ck me, that game somewhat hit me hard. Only thing I regret is the fact, that I've discovered it so fast, that now I have to wait for the rest of the story.

Btw. those Bella renders... I'm not a big guru in those games but they are simply as perfect as you can expect from a visual novel.

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