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

You can expect adult topics rarely treated in this type of games like: Depression, anxiety, violence, bullying and lewd scenes, with a strong focus in the story and the characters, leaving aside the lewd scenes for when those are needed or senses good, you won´t feel forced almost any scene because the efforts the dev puts in making a natural and "realistic" AVN are notables.

What i find good:
- Slow building relationships.
- Original and intriguing characters.
- Natural and realistic environments.
- Interesting and mysterious story.
- Exceptional quality of renders and animations.
- Exceptional capture of the essence in each moment.
- Good representation of mental problems like depression, anxiety or panick attacks.

What i find bad:
- Some choices/actions feel forced by the plot, don´t letting you choose as freely as you would like (related to some characters relations or future events).

Admiration for the artist, everything is great and it's not that I go into following a novel like this to see sex scenes and spicy situations, although it is appreciated when the script requires it, but I like that it adjusts to reality; It's hard for me to think of a young man without physical problems and who is heterosexual, who doesn't have sex with gorgeous girls in such clear situations, okay, he has an emotional trauma, but if he is opening up as he appears in the novel, his passivity is worrying, that's just believable if he has erectile dysfunction or is gay... Everything else is magnificent

If this game deserves to be on this site so do other triple A games with some sexual content. First time you play this game it reels you in ngl, the production and atmosphere feels different and original, like going to an authentic restaurant. But why do you go to the restaurant? To get some fcking food! You gonna get mad and leave if there is only bread and water on the table after 3 hours and it doesn't matter how elaborate the decoration is, how many michelin stars it has or which renowned chef runs it! This was the summary of my experience.

I dont know what the dev trying to do here. Is he trying to make a story driven game but it seems nothing proceeding 5yrs of work nothing a hint on Summer and LI's not much development all just reworks. Dev putting too many sex innuendo, naked and such but not really committing to make it porn. What is dev trying to make.
Plan to make 25 chapters but after 5yrs we are still in 5 chapters. At this point with constant reworks we wont even make it through half the story. It is either gonna end abruptly short or get abandoned at some point.
Characters are good, renders are good but that is all about it. Story somewhat good but we wont know yet it still early part of the story.

Was waiting forever for this "season" to get finished, was hoping so much to see it as good as before, but now with a better CG.

Chapter 5 Beta already had way less tempting content with Nami, that was kind of unpleasant surprise, but still got my hopes high for the whole season...

And here it is, now mentioned content is fully gone. And you can't fix it with some patch, cause now game doesn't have those CG anymore. There is like zero tempting scenes with Nami now, including those, that was done years before

It's really like some VN for 10 to 12 years old now.
Guess i'm done waiting for this game to get done, cause it seems to never happen

This has been on my watchlist and today I finally played it because I thought "Season 1" means it will have some good SPICY scenes in it but sadly there was barely any spicy content.

But to my surprise, even with ZERO sex scenes, It's a really well written and well-crafted VN. I easily got hooked with the characters and their stories. The world building is pretty good, lots of characters are being introduced along the way. Which is both good and bad, so many characters, so much build up, so much potential but will the payoff be worth it? The dialogues choices do matter and might have consequences in the future. Which I'm hoping will lead to many ways with multiple endings. Anyways, I am confident this VN will be even better in the future updates. Though with this pace, it might be completed in a decade.

I'll comeback when season 2 is finished. if I'm still alive by then

Quick summary:
+ Engaging story
+ High quality render & animations (one of the best one out there)
+ Good writing & good music
- No spicy content yet (some blue ballz)
- Slow burn & slow updates

Review of - S1

'A summer with Bella' or how this game should have been called.

I don't think i ever saw such an overhyped game on this site and i really don't see what is so good about it.
The visuals, renders and models are great, but beside that there isn't much sticking out in this game.

After 5 years of development, continuous reworks and model changes (mostly not for the better), the game has not much to show.
And whoever believes that there won't be any more reworks or character changes whenever the dev has a new idea, i applaud you to your blind faith in the dev.

The dev advertised this as story focused and slow-burn and i prefer story focused games, no problem with slow-burn either...but calling this slow burn after all this time (and how he even neutered the game for Steam) is laughable, more like no burn, really.
To make it worse, the story progress is glacial at best. For an apparently story focused game and 'slow-burn', thats a large fail imo.

As for the characters

The MC is different, true. That isn't necessarily a good thing thought.
I'm glad he is not the usual creep/pervert, but beside that, i don't find him great, or even likeable.
His personality ranges somwhere between emo/edgelord/asshole and the next school shooter...well, if you like it, i don't.
Ah, he is also impotent because of a trauma...well, so far i don't find that traume really traumatic...i guess Ocean needed a excuse for the 'slow-burn'.

Add to that, the few scenes with Summer are among the most boring ones in the game and i really couldn't care less about her, or what happened to her.

There is a large selection of LI's and some are really likeable, but so far most didn't strike me as memorable.
Of course there is also the point that half the game is focused on one LI (Bella) and all the other LI's need to share what screen time is left...
Personally i can't stand Bella, neither do i care about her problems and would really like to tell her to fuck off...but yeah, not really a matter of choice.

Which brings me to the choices.
So far they are pretty meaningless and amount to 'do you want this girl' and maybe you will get her...in another 5-10 years.
Neither can you get rid of LI's you don't like.

Overall, reading the thread proved way more entertaining then the game ever managed to be.
If you actually want to see a good story, romance, or god forbid sex, try again later...maybe in another 5 years. So far i really can't recommend this game.

Mini review

I can't believe that this has been in the works for 5 years and that chapters have been reworked/remastered for no reason even with the story not finished. Even worse with the latest steam release certain scenes have been censored/removed that I enjoyed. How do you update a game and it loses content for this alone it gets a 1/5.

I remember the running gag being that there is still no sexcontent because the MC is a damaged impotent virgin but holy shit you are bombared by sexually suggestive renders constantly even by random NPCs.

Overall I like the characters but there is not much to be said about the story at all so far due pacing being the slowest of slow burns.

5 years, still S1 and they keep remastering all the time. in 20 year maybe s2 wil start. people love the slowburn but 5 years and still nott even close its abit far. but people keep paying on patreon so why should he change it.

Story 1/5
There is slow burns and then theres this one, this isent a slow burn its a no sexual content game and should be tagged as such, atleast untill it has a sex scene if ever.
Game is more then 5 years old and not having a single sex scene by now you cant really call this a AVN at all, sure hope supporters dident expect a AVN.
And it blows my mind how it can be rated so highly with nothing there.

The cold MC its refreshing to play an MC that dosent have a mindset of a 12 year old that cant stop looking or thinking about tits, its freaking great.

But i wasent really a fan of the girls, i loved summer and Nami since i like the smols and then MC came to college and every damn girl is big or huge tits all the diversity in builds went to shit..why?....
Its mostly just annoying but since its not a harem game i can live with it sincei couldent care less about 95% of the LIs in this one, but aslong as there is one i do care about game can still be good.

But the biggest issue is that theres really only a sinlge LI and thats Bella who i see as a total bitch i wouldent want to touch with a 10 ft pole

I also found the hole Bella story annoying as hell, i mean a huge bitch and MC just keeps following her around like a submissive idiot, why help her MC is supposed to be a dude with no feeling and yet hes Bellas poppy and you cant do fuck all about it as the player, even after she kicks hes balls into another world hes still just following along with her helping her.. it makes no sense at all, why cant we just dump her ass right there and then.
How so many loves Bella as a LI i just cant understand, but im not the submissive type or into femdom maybe thats why i dunno.

She even forces him to cut he fucking hair i mean wtf is going on, i had a alot of minus in love points with the bitch so why the fuck does MC even give a shit about her or what she tells him to do and the haircut looks a million times worse then what it was to begin with...

Also MC agrees to go to terapi with Bellas mother knowing Bella can read hes journal its absolultly idiotic and MC should never in a million fucking years open up to her knowing that and you get no choice but to open up i mean what the fuck....thats some shitty story.
Even more so if you dont care about Mila either since a shitload of the Bella story is due to helping Mila who MC dosent trust or like in my playthrough so it truely just dosent make sense.

Worst part is that the hole story feels like its only about Bella? and when you hate her this game wont be for you since shes all its really about for unknown reasons.

Girls 2/5
Very little diversity in builds and mostly aimed for people with big tit fetish, cute faces but thats about it.

Animations 1/5
No sex scenes so cant really rate them....the one point is for the random animation doing the game but in a AVN those arent really importen.

Music 4/5
Above average music, really the best thing about the game which just isent enough.

Choices 1/5
Big lack of choices which results in a poor story and a brainless MC, story also feels very very kinetic, you cant just dump LIs like Bella shes forced on you for a very long time so it feels like its all about her and no one else, no matter if you pick the worst choices for her every single time.

Content 0/5
As for sexual content theres just nothing after 5 years in developmemnt you get to kiss Nami? thats it....do yourself a favor and just skip this one if your looking for a AVN.

This is by far one of the vest and most engaging AVN I ever exoeeienced in my life, the models are even better than most AAA games, the story is very intresting and all Love Intrests are cute and each has her own personality making it feel so real, S1 still has no adult scenes because its focusing on character and story building and make you care for all the characters

This is a bad game, full of sexual innuendos but no actual pornographic scenes. The author frequently changed it to make it become a strange game with very strange behavior of the mc. The only advantage is the model. As a harem game, the plot of the game As boring as all harem games are.

I have rarely seen such a shitty game carried by a lookalike religious cult.

The scenario is you typical MC with his "landlady" and "roommate" arrived at a new school. Except the MC is impotent and an asshole. Of course, half the school is after him for no reason. Characters have no agency of their own. MC goes from one place to another, discuss random things and repeat. Half the time is taken by one girl while the 20 other girls share the rest.

Right now, the choices are on the same level as do you want to fuck or not? Except there is no fucking. So It's more like do you want to discuss or not?

Community is one of the worst I've seen, stuck in an echo chamber since years looping on the same subject as the story doesn't progress. 5 years of development for barely more than one hour of "gameplay". I have never seen AVN made at such a snail pace.

Aside from the developer who is renting free of work for half a decade, the whole project is a catastrophe, terrible AVN funded by people with too much time and money to waste. It deserves to be said if the egos of the fanboys allow it.

Summer's Gone is by far the game with the best writing on this site, that alone entertains me enough to give it four stars. The renders are top, and it is one of the few games where slow burning is justified.

Nika is a likeable MC, I like his kind, not a perfect Gary Sue, but not a weakling either.

Nice cast of girls, good loking with likeable personalities. Same with male characters, here you won't find out you average, every maleisuglyaf game.

One of the most captivating games I've played in six years here. Give it a try.

The renders of this game are really good but thats about it. The writing is not so great and the MC is a little bitch. It's extremely hard to have any empathy for someone who's "trauma" is such a nothingburger. It tries to hit you in the feels but fails miserably. People call this a slow burn, but after so much time nothing interesting is happening. MC can't get it up because his girlfriend disappeared when they were kids. Like he didn't watch her die or anything like that and dude acts like his entire family was killed before his eyes. That also means no sex scenes at all, "lewd" scenes are as mid as can be.
Edit: Also forgot to mention that you barely see the MC's past but the scenes with Summer in them really doesn't show how she's so great. I actually would go as far as saying that the scenes with Summer in them are the most boring ones. Maybe future scenes (if they ever come) can expand and make her more likeable.
TLDR:
This game is about a bunch of young adults who don't know how to get over things and move on with no sex scenes in it.

I don't understand the hype about this game. First, it's difficult for me to identify with an impotent MC. If you can, good for you.

Then, yeah, I get it, this game is about "slow-burn". However, there are intelligent ways to do it. You could see a girl masturbating, or fantasising, etc. Instead, the dev is deliberately hiding interesting stuff, like in the scene where two girls are talking about bush trimming, he hid the pussy with a bad angle. All the game is like that, letting you hope you're going to see something, then hiding it. After like 10,000 lines of dialogue, there is still no pussy in sight (you can nevertheless see a guy fapping with a buttplug in -_-). Even Darksilver in all his glory did not dare to do that.

Judging by the memes that the dev himself posted in the game's gallery, it seems that there isn't going to be any porn in the game, ever. As a result, I think Summer's Gone should not even be on F95.

Probably best 3D renders VN out there.
Tiiiiny bit too far on the edgy emo side, but still 100x more mature and serious than anything else I played.
Really nice writing, making usually boring slice of life captivating.

I rate it 5/5 due to rating inflation of awful abominations being praised here, but realistically - 4-/5.
At certain moment for some reason Dev forgot to hit the brakes on the plotlines creation, resulting in waaay to many characters being added. I'd much prefer to keep it in range of ~5 and giving the existing relationships more screen time.

Kudos for 0 (zero) sex scenes. It could be added anywhere, but wouldn't fit anywhere as well. The buildup is there though!

Slow burn which I am fine with , actually building up a great story and foundation. Does mean it’s slower pacing but has some of the most memorable scenes in AVNs I have yet come across. Ties in well with WIAB

Summer's Gone [Ch. 5 Beta]

Pros:
+ Characters feel alive, fleshed out, real
+ MC feels fresh, not your typical MC
+ Overall story is engaging
+ Emotionally engaging interactions, scenes
+ Choices feel like they matter with relationships
+ Choices feel like they have consequences or are rewarding
+ Music feels like it fits well and sets the mood for each scene
+ AMAZING RENDERS, MODELS, ANIMATIONS

Cons:
- Will probably be a long time before completed
- Main story progression pace, though interesting, feels a little slow
- Slow burn may not be for all, and no real sexual content (yet)

This is one of my top 5 favorite ongoing games. Please support Ocean!

Without a doubt the character development and progression as well as the game's visuals are its strongest points. I really felt an emotional pull during some scenes and I feel this game has a lot of potential going forward with more story progression and further anticipated character development and relationship building.

For those interested in more background story, there is a kind of prequel to the game. The overall story plot is further expanded by playing Ocean's other game, Where It All Began, which takes place before the events of Summer's Gone and involves some of the same characters in their earlier years. Not necessary but interesting for those who want to delve deeper!

Overall Rating: 10/10

The golden standard of the quality of renders and looks of the girls to the point that it even beats the best of the best in that department.

Highly recommend this to any AVN fan and definitely on my watchlist mainly due to the absence of lewd scenes with these absolute beauties that are yet to come, but the other aspects of this game support the main selling point well enough to not detract from the overall quality.