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

This VN has certainly attracted no small amount of controversy since it's inception. Looking through the discussion thread you can find plenty of heated arguments. The most common complaint is that it lacks lewd scenes.
Yes, it's true that if you are playing it to rub one off, then you guys are going to be left deflated in more ways than one..

This is focused primarily on story telling and that's one of the reasons I love it. It's like my guilty pleasure or maybe it just reminds me of my own troubled high school years.

I can relate to the MC since I was a bit like a female version of him in some ways. Emotionally cold, targeted for being different and I also got into fights a lot with both guys and girls, enough to get expelled from one school.

There is a lot of drama that enfolds and while it's fun to see it, it's also touching at moments. I actually felt a lump in my throat as the MC begins to open up and his social circle widens, leaving him drained and exhausted. Again, mirroring my own journey in life.

The renders are nothing short of stunning, as are the animations. My jaw dropped a couple of times the first time I played it. They really are on another level. Ocean is a bit of a perfectionist and I totally get why he wants to remake the earlier chapters to the standards of the later ones, plus tweak some dialogue scenes. I have no issues with that.

Criticism has been levelled at the dev for the length of time each update takes and I understand that, people really do want to have more of a great thing, it's normal to get frustrated. I can wait because it will be worth it.

Overall I really recommend this VN for F95ers looking for something that has drama, dark humor and stunning images. It stands out in a sea of generic clones on this site and is without doubt one of the top visual novels on here.

I cannot wait for the next update and see more of my bad bitch Bella.

Totally recommended.

This is one of the few games I'm actually really waiting for.
The characters are the best, pretty, hot, intriguing and interesting.
Not yet a porn game since it has no sex scenes or anything really of the sort yet!
However a very well made game.

Summer's Gone is a difficult AVN to review for me. Despite being frustrated and bewildered by several elements of it, I kept playing it.

I'll start with what kept me hooked. Above all, the visuals are superb. The dev has talent and skill. Apart from all the nice still renders, there are some wonderful (and lengthy) cinematic animations. Moreover, the female characters are gorgeous. A few of them are so similar looking it occasionally confused me, but they are beautiful and plentiful.

I also love that Summer's Gone is a slow burn. In general, slow-burn games guarantee that when sex finally happens, the experience is so much more gratifying than it would be in a game where sex happens immediately and easily. Summer's Gone has lots of teasing, in the sense that female characters get naked or just sit around in their underwear or see-through outfits for no particular reason, and the result is that I am hot and heavy for several of those characters (Nami, in particular). If/when sex ever happens, it will be climactic (in more ways than one).

The story, unfortunately, is rather muddled and confusing. The MC is clearly traumatized, and maybe it's because he suffered some unspeakable tragedy. Or maybe he's just a narcissistic prick. And that leads me to my biggest complaint about this AVN: the MC acts like a total psychopath, utterly devoid of empathy. Some dialogue hints that he is like this because of PTSD, but he says himself more than once that he enjoys hurting people.

Having a psychopathic MC might make for a compelling story, but as a player who must inhabit this character, I must say it is off putting. It also impacts my suspension of disbelief. Yes, this is an "adult" title, but with the MC's personality and douchey Dragon Ball Z-inspired haircut, I just don't buy that all these females in the game are attracted to him.

Despite this, I give it 4 stars. I will check out future updates, all in the hope that someday I can have virtual sex with Nami and/or at least one other of these gorgeous female characters.

I just wanted to beat my meat and finished ch4 in love with a fictional character.
I was so into the story that I even forgot I had my dick on my hand.

I feel like that at least untill now (Ch4) this isnt a porn game, this is a love story, the writing is really well done.
Just wish we had more teasing scenes.
Anyway, I love the game and I can't stop thinking about Bella, its been 2 weeks since I finished the last ch and shes still in my head.

Starting off with eerie feelings and wondered why is this one of the most highest rated games in f95, once the story clicked, now I know....

Story & Environment:
Firstly, I don't like how the game can be kind of emotional roller coaster. Later on, I guess it makes sense how the dev wants us to feel like MC who has (severe) anti social behaviors and I enjoy how he still acknowledges that he's a dick but sometimes doesn't care about it.
On my first playthrough, without knowing anything, the environment of the game is gloomy; doesn't feels relaxing at all. It gets better later on, not sure why (maybe Cheeto saved me). And current state of story is not progressed that far, there's still much more to tell.

Girls:
Gotta give Ocean (dev) the credit, not only does he uniquely creates a lot of interesting and beautiful girls, but also even the minor characters like groups of the girls in the hallway are unique. I think I play enough of AVNs to be able to recognize familiar faces throughout different games but in this game, no one resembles a strong vibe of any other similar characters that I've seen so far (correct me if I'm wrong tho).

First off: Sasha Simp
In a few playthroughs: I found myself somehow became Bella fan
*but still love to see Sasha story later on, only fews of her content of so far

Songs:
Love it, even some of the lyrics match the situation. Got my new favorite playlist

Lack of Sex:
Not that I mind cuz Ocean told us first so yeah gotta be worth the wait tho

The game that made me going out to get a burger at 2 am.
10/10 would play it again

Excellent game, i hope that to see the next chapter soon.
Character are all good and i love the story so far. The MC is cool and the relation with the other character are different.
Keep the good work

This is the first game where I've made the effort to read any story entirely in a language other than my own. There are some words I didn't understand. I will look up what they mean and start over. I'm also going to follow this game because I really liked it, the author's work is great. After Bein a Dik, I tried other games without finishing them because they were not for me. I'm glad I discovered this story. I'm not frustrated that I didn't get any adult content and I think it can be added in dlc, this is just my opinion. Great discovery for me!

[Chapter 4 Update]

Pros

3/4 of Story
Most Female Characters
Renders

Cons

Racism/Homophobia/Sexism
Bipolar MC
Logic
Character Complexity
Sense of Humor
Lack of Sexual Content

There's so much I need to talk about regarding this game. Let's start with this; if you are just looking for a review that praises the readable plot and good renders, this is not the review for you.

Let's start with the racism/homophobia/sexism in the game. The college coach calls the only colored freshmen "black guy'' and "china girl" on the first tryout day. Regardless of their attitudes towards the MC and those around them, nope they're just black and from China to everybody else. And everyone is fine with that. The presumably gay senior athletes serve as a harmful stereotype, molesting a male freshman's butt to act as antagonists? for the future match, they will have. I'm not sure if the creator had some tragic experiences but all the gay men I've met are decent human beings. Creating characters like these further perpetuates these negative perceptions of an already antagonized group in our society. The MC uses sexism to irritate/distract the female captain of the opposing team. It's hard to believe that a person that suffers from mental trauma isn't even able to realize the possible harm sexist remarks can cause to someone's mental well-being. Irony? But no one seems to care in this game, so I guess it's okay right? There are other instances, but I don't want to challenge my sanity/morality anymore.

Bipolar MC: The MC tries to be a conflicting guy but just seems like an irritating, over-the-top, and non-relatable person. He is traumatized by the death of his first love (Summer). He was very antisocial/introverted and conflicted and uses college as a way to change himself from that and become a better person, the only problem is that doesn't happen since there is no character development for him. He is constantly threatening people to "defend" his loved ones but at some point, it just seems like he ironically craves the attention. His attitude towards women is questionable since he insults them, provokes them, taunts them with sexist remarks, and pushes them down to motivate them. No one really questions his actions aside from maybe his sister but she doesn't really do anything to help him change his issues. The story doesn't really have any plot points to have him challenge his outlook, especially when he has every girl into him because of his non-interested attitude. Not sure if this game is for people with erectile dysfunction but with the lack of sexual content, it might very well be. The only two good traits seen from him on women are the good relationship he has with his mom and that he can't objectify/"get it up" unless he genuinely cares for the girl as a result of his first love's death. He does have some good points throughout the story, trying to help people out and empathizing with some of the female characters, but the author's inability to create impactful player choices for MC only repeats the same issues the MC has in the story making him very annoying/angsty.

The logic of the story often makes no sense. For a "non-Harem" game, the MC is constantly surrounded by women that want to get on him. His angsty/sexist/"bad-boy" persona catches every girl's attention. A camgirl student, in particular, is treated poorly by him and she is somehow still infatuated with him. Apparently, all the subtle sl*t shaming in the game lowers her standards to a point that as long as the guy looks at her, they can serve as her soul mate. A girl that suffers a major accident starts liking the MC simply because he's there at the time of her accident. Sorry for being so simple-minded but that makes no sense to me. Not sure if this some type of psychology complex but it definitely is a far-out one.

Lack of Character Complexity: The female character that happens to be poor ends up with ripped leggings because they're old/overused. Does each character only have one characteristic that will affect everything they do at this school or can they just be normal people? She also seems very interested when someone mentions how much money camgirl student makes. I get a person who is poor will think about money, depending on their financial situation, but that doesn't mean that has to be the only trait she has. The only defining characteristics she shows are: she is poor; she gets bullied because she's poor, and she is in love with the MC and when everyone in the story has that last trait that doesn't make her stand out in any way. Once you notice this and take the time to analyze each character you realize that most of the characters in this game have these problems.

Sense of Humor: Some of the "humor" in the story is honestly concerning/cringey to say the least. Going back to the college coach, he mocks a guy with dwarfism by calling him "bilbo". I don't know if that was supposed to be funny, but I know it wasn't needed. No one reacts; they just take it as a typical comment or as a joke? You don't have to laugh at someone's physical attributes to make something funny. Side effects of not being a straight white guy in this game include being mocked/made fun of in some way in this game. You have been warned. These comments further prove that all the men in this game are either very concerning individuals or can and are described with one characteristic.

Sexual Content: Honestly, I'm not even going to judge the game on the lack of sexual content. To be fair, it clearly warns players before playing and it's clearly not yet finished. If by chp 7/8 there isn't any then that would just be another negative to this game.

Women in the Game: The only upside I can potentially see from this game is the women in the game. Aside from the psychotic reporter, every other female in the story is at least decent and that alone carries the game the little it can. Even when Bella makes that rich lady cry (which again isn't needed) she shows remorse and feels guilty for her actions. I really wish less exaggerated instances like these made up more of this story but it doesn't and isn't. I personally didn't want any of the women anywhere near the MC, which makes for a great feminist game but a poor adult game.

Overall: I think the game has some good points but it's pushed down by so much that it can only be called a mediocre adult game at best. I hope it gets better but doubt it will. If the visuals are enough to justify a 4.5/5 rating then I might not be seeing what so many are or I just have better standards for activities I choose to spend my time on. Thankfully, not anymore on this.

The story of this game is moving and the modules are detailed. The characters in the story are very cute, and there are many nice songs. I hope to play it soon. Thank you very much for making this game, and I hope it will have many seasons.

Models 4.5/5 ⭐- There are a lot of beautiful ladies here with models that don't look familiar to me, plenty of nice eye candy. A few models have overly exaggerated proportions but that is balanced out with others having more realistic proportions with an adequate

Overall, I really enjoyed playing this version of Summer’s Gone and I would recommend this game to anyone that enjoys a good story. I am looking forward to future versions that continue the story. I do hope that some quality sex scenes and animations will be added in the future, but I expect that sex scenes will only be added if they serve the story in some way, the author does not want to add sex scenes to add them, and I respect that (even if I really want them ).

As you can probably guess from the two-star rating, this review is going to be harsh. Really harsh. While I think the criticisms are deserved, I want to point out that I finished the current game (Chapter 4 at time or writing) and it wasn’t a wholly unpleasant experience. The spelling, grammar, and prose are all high quality even if the substance is problematic. So let’s get to it! I normally go with an essay form, but for the TLR crowd, here is a short pro/con list.

Pros:

• Gorgeous renders. Some of the breasts are a bit over-the-top, but over all the women are breathtakingly beautiful and easy to distinguish from one another.
• Spelling, grammar, and prose are all top notch. The author could easily switch to writing classic novels.
• If you consider the story as a tragedy about how the loss of one’s first love gave the MC multiple mental disorders that ruined his life, it’s engrossing.

Cons:

• If you consider the story as an Adult Visual novel, it is an abject failure. After four lengthy chapters there is no sex and no timeline for when sex will finally be added. The author is upfront about this but that doesn’t make it any better.
• The MC is aggressively anti-sex. The mere mention of it will have him trying to leave the room. He thinks nothing of pushing and shoving women away if they dare try anything sexy.
• The MC is both physically and verbally aggressive with the women that surround him. His way of helping a woman deal with her anger issues is to shove her to the ground and scream at her till she’s crying. He threatens women frequently for their transgressions against him or his friends. He is seriously damaged and not in a way that endears you to him.
  

If I had to sum up the game in one phrase, it would be “Incel’s Revenge”. You play as a smoking hot jock who all the women swoon for… but you’re impotent, and exhibit absolute disgust at even the notion of doing the horizontal tango with anyone now that… Summer’s gone. This doesn’t stop the majority of the women in the game from swooning all over you, but those dirty whores need to keep it in their pants! How unseemly! This is an awkward premise for an adult Visual Novel since they usually revolve around the main character being a stand-in for the reader, but while being a smoking hot jock is appealing, being an impotent overly-aggressive depressed adolescent with zero sexual interest is not.



It's fascinating as a story because it’s so far removed from the goal of an Adult Visual novel which involves the reader not wearing pants. The author is upfront at the start: There’s no sex yet. Totally gonna add it later, but we’re four lengthy chapters in and the best we’ve got is naked hot tub time with multiple gorgeously rendered women while the MC keeps threatening to leave when they try to talk about or engage in anything sexual, like he just can’t wait to replay Skyrim when it gets home and these clingy whores are screwing up his schedule.



I don’t get it. The women are your typical male fantasies. Skimpy clothing, Double D breasts, nice hourglass shape, good faces. They love video games, anime, playing tabletop roleplaying games, and spend a significant amount of their screen time seductively staring at the MC who has less than zero interest in them. This game could almost pass as a deconstruction of the Adult Visual Novel genre.



Among the other visual novels on F95, it is unique, but that’s not always a good thing and this is especially true here. Since there’s no sex and timeline for when it will be added, you’ve really only got the story, and while it’s intriguing, a good story is not the main reason we’re here. As a philosopher might say, it is a necessary but not sufficient reason to play an AVN.



We’re promised a slow burn but instead we’re given an MC who aggressively and gleefully stamps out the embers. Perhaps we might see a hand job six years from now in Chapter 17. Who here is willing to wait around for that?

Game worth playing, good storyline, nice graphics and imersing characters.
If you play on tablet or phone then i would suggest getting textbox transparency mod (Just google "trancparency f95) as there is no in-game controlls for it

The quality of this game is just incredible and I love how the author is trying to make the game more realistic than most adult VN's. The downside to this is that currently there is little to no hardcore sexual content so far in the game; which is borderline unacceptable given that this is an adult game.

Despite this, the creator is aware of this and I'm sure the next few updates will start to delve into more hardcore content. If you like this, check out his other game Where It All Began as it has actual sexual content and is more complete.

5/5 stars

Reviewing Summer’s Gone [Ch.4 Full] (on Android via JoiPlay)

Below is a 1 to 5 ⭐ star rating on aspects of the game, that from my amateur perspective, I feel contributed to my overall rating.


Lewdness 2/5 ⭐ - As stated during the introduction of the game there is absolutely zero sex scenes in Summer’s Gone, although there is a fair amount of nudity. Most of the nudity is from the waist up, but all of it is artfully done, with only a small amount to below-the-belt nudity. There are plenty of nip slips and “peek-a-boo” nipples throughout the game as well.



Story 4/5 ⭐ - Summer's Gone's story covers some darker topics and is intriguing. The MC’s backstory, history, and the events that are the cause of his depression are being slowly, but have not been completely, revealed in this version of the game. I do feel like that the MC overcomes his long-held depression a little too quickly. Some of the plot points are a little predictable, but not enough to take away from the quality of the story. The choices presented in this game do not seem to affect the direction of the story (so far) but do affect the MC’s relationship with the other characters.



Graphics 4.5/5 ⭐- The graphics in this game are way above average, I can tell that a lot of care and work went into creating the excellent art and animatics for Summer’s Gone. I did have some issues with accidentally skipping some of the animatics because it takes a moment for them to load, and it is sometimes hard to tell that an animatic is loading. The skin also looks a little plastic at times, as most games of this style do, but look much better in this game than most other games.


Models 4.5/5 ⭐- There are a lot of beautiful ladies here with models that don't look familiar to me, plenty of nice eye candy. A few models have overly exaggerated proportions but that is balanced out with others having more realistic proportions with an adequate

Overall, I really enjoyed playing this version of Summer’s Gone and I would recommend this game to anyone that enjoys a good story. I am looking forward to future versions that continue the story. I do hope that some quality sex scenes and animations will be added in the future, but I expect that sex scenes will only be added if they serve the story in some way, the author does not want to add sex scenes to add them, and I respect that (even if I really want them ).

Summer's Gone is a VN where you play as a borderline sociopath as he goes to college.

It's a very pretty game, not gonna lie. I haven't seen too many VNs that have cinematics and I like them here. The girls are cute and their outfits are delightfully impractical, even with the lack of sexual content as of yet.

The number of choices available is honestly daunting if you look at the walkthrough. While this has the potential to be a great strength of the game, it also has the potential to be the opposite. The more options available to the player, the less focused a play-through can feel and the weaker each possible path can feel. There’s a limit to the amount of focus a dev can put into everything in a game, and the more stuff in a game, the less focus each individual facet receives. I hope Summer’s Gone can deliver but currently…

Unfortunately, the story is a mess. It seems to pretend it takes place in the real world, but just nothing that happens seems realistic. The sociopath main character witnesses a car accident and someone pulls a gun on him as he waxes philosophical on how it might be kinder to end the victim? The girl in the accident forms some sort of bond to the person who witnessed the accident and brought her back her wallet? A bunch of people introduce themselves to the uninterested MC, like him, and proceed to drag him around socially? The college gym class consists of attempted man slaughter? The list goes on and on. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief to some degree, or completely if the game is silly, but Summer's Gone is absurd while pretending at realism.

The dialogue trends towards awkward as hell. I think there's some degree of weak English going on in the game, but the fact that the game abounds with “roommates” complicates things greatly. If there’s no incest going on, couldn’t they just be parents and siblings? I know there are rules on patreon and all, but there are times I’m legitimately confused as to how characters are related. It doesn't help that the MC is in college... a place where it's rather expected to have ACTUAL roommates.

Finally, the main character is just borked. He can’t decide who the hell he is and stick with it. At the beginning of the story he’s an anti-social, jaded asshole. Once he gets to college, he quickly starts being friendly to other people… with a rather sociopathic focus on favors, using friendship and information against people, and completely excessive revenge plots. I could sort of run with this transition, if it weren’t for the fact that he’s also occasionally nice to people for no personal gain. It’s impossible to have any idea what the hell he’s going to do next, which makes him a pretty poor main character.

This is personal opinion, but I think it derives from having too much leeway in the amount of choices the main character has. While one path of choices can lead to the main character receiving much needed support and healthy relationships, different choices can exacerbate all of his worst impulses. This would all be great… if you couldn’t do them simultaneously. It’s bizarre to have the generally kind main character be randomly vicious, just as it’s weird to have the vicious main character be randomly kind. Judging from the walkthrough, there are stats that define what type of person the main character is, but it looks like they don’t dramatically affect most dialogue. This game could be phenomenal if this got straightened out, but currently it’s a painful weakness.

Overall, I can’t recommend this game. It has a lot of potential between the beautiful visuals and the amount of work that’s been put into the choice tree, but I’m skeptical that it will ever be able to deliver. There are a large number of characters in the game and already a monstrous number of decisions, all of which guide the story, but few of which seem to close off routes. It’ll take a huge amount of work to get any individual path through the game particularly strong with so many different characters and options. I wish the dev luck, but I’m not optimistic.

This review will mainly focus on the game as of chapter Ch4.
there will be spoilers

This game seems to be in some sort of identity crisis for some time now, but the "remastering" of the first few chapters is really showing that the talent that made the first few chapters is no longer there.
When the remaster of the first half of chapter 1 arrived it cemented the fact that the current dev didn't like how the story was being done, and is instead going for a less dark mood, problem is that this change makes a lot of the game make much less sense, with how it was originally one wouldn't doubt that the mc is damaged, as he would act like it, currently he largely doesn't, and instead other characters note on how damaged he is with no apparent reason other than "he has that aura".
With a remaster came more frames, animations and better picture quality but it was at the cost of story telling and fluidity, the game didn't get more compelling and believable instead the opposite is true.
Imo the dev needs a serious help with story telling and directing the shots, as just improving image quality doesn't make a better game.


Here are a few examples of what i was talking about:
OG: Mc is asked to go see victoria, he does so we see a seemly happy victoria and after some time he mentions that she seems to be handling it well.
"remastered": in the first few sentences Victoria handling it well is brought up, before that is established.
Seems like someone was trying to recreate a story from memory and didn't bother re reading it before making an adaptation, thus missing the small details that make a scene believable and make sense.

another example is when mila has "The talk" with the mc,
OG: mila grabs the mc by the arm after he was stopped from going after Bela
Mc is taken outside and after a cigarette and the required weather talk the "Talk" begins
"remastered": while the whole group is outside she brings it up as one does without anything else other than "aura", in the original she had much more solid grounds as she found him in the act of going after Bella, here nothing of the sort.

TL;DR the remaster makes the scenes longer but makes them flow worse, and the MC's problems are less grounded. a very show not tell kind of problem.

The one star might feel like it's undeserved, and myabe it is. Since the renders, scenes, characters and backgrounds are phenomenal.

But this is a non porn game on a porn website. Honestly, I feel extraordinarily justified in that one star. What is this game doing here? Why is it not tagged as "No Sexual Content", or is seeing a bare ass sexual content these days?

Also, the protagonist is a worthless piece of shit, if you ask me. This comes down to personal preference, I guess. But I just do not like the MC one bit.

Finally, the game writing and choice feel like it was made by somene who's a bit too into getting high on the smell of their own farts. You can't make any meaningful choice. You cannot steer the MC into another direction, one of forgiving, or coping with loss. Instead we get this insufferable trash protagonist.

I cannot fathom what the other people are seeing in this game. I don't see anything worth anyone's time.

Maybe it's the burden of expectation. Had this been marketed as some sort of visual novel with minor romantic elements, no sex, only some teasing. Maybe I'd give it a pass? But as it stands, no. Not worth playing, no matter who you are. IMHO.

The best of all time
I don't expect anything more from a visual novel..
Characterizations, character design, enviromental design..everything is excellent
And above the standards..and guess what? There is no novel whose characters can be compared to this novel..here, we have a bunch of sexy goddesses..all are pretty and stylish
Story is not plot driven kind of novel but its decent and good enough

Well, this a VN with no sex and very few choices, on a porn site, I have to say anything else?

Renders are very good.
The writing is better than usual.
The story it' forgettable.
Even the teasing is very very little.

If you really have time maybe in 5 years it will be something.

FUTA/TRANS TAG IS FALSE: if you found this game by searching this tag then turn around now because as of chapter 4 (multiple hours into the game) there is no futa/trans character to be found. I wish they'd remove this tag because it doesn't apply to this game as of yet.

The game itself was fine. It's a kinetic visual novel with a ton of dialogue and gives you a tiny bit of choice in who you want to chase and what you want to do. The characters are hot and there's some genuinely intimate and real moments going on but there's basically no sex scenes, just a bunch of teasing. Was still hot but this + the false futa/trans tag and some annoying parts in the story that had a lot of dialogue for no real reason is why I subtracted 2 1 stars from the score.

The cover girl in the main post also misrepresents what you can expect of this game. She's a muslim character ingame whom you do not interact with that much. Most of the story is the MC lamenting the loss of his first girlfriend Summer while hanging out with large breasted blondes, so the choice to have her on the cover is odd. Made me think she would be the deuteragonist and the so called Summer who's gone. Absolutely not a problem but I definitely thought this game would revolve around a more eastern setting at first lol

It's still a game worth checking out for the high quality renders alone as well as if you're looking for a game with some really high sexual tension between characters. Just don't expect a lot of this game and don't expect any futas either, contrary to the tag that might've brought you here suggests and don't expect any sex scenes.