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

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.

This is a jewel!
...and my absolute favorite so far...
Not only beautiful renderings but a captivating psychological story. Ive played over 2 dozen games all with approx 4 stars + review scores, but this game made my heart hop all over the place.

The characters are well thought through which gave them each a unique personality, something that is often forgotten in other novels. The way the characters are 'dancing around each other' in strategic and sharp dialogs ...trying to outsmart one another.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THAT! and that by itself made it a delight to read. ...and so much that all other games now seem somewhat lacking in dialogs .
Can't shake the feeling that the absence of lewd scenes only concentrated the story without really disturbing it.

The story is very good and as it develops it becomes emotional and very captivating.
Most of the main characters are very well detailed in terms of their personalities, although with several unknowns in their backstories that will be discovered as the novel progresses. I consider this to be the strong point of this visual novel, you really get attached to the characters and want to know what will happen to them in the next chapter. Although at first it is difficult to empathize with the psychologically traumatized and sexually inhibited protagonist, following his constant internal battle against depression and his small achievements supported by the beautiful friends he makes, can make you change your mind about him.
The graphics are excellent, especially the female characters are exquisitely represented. Awesome work.
I have played the first 5 chapters and there is still no sex, but I really hope that after this long introduction the best will come, because it has everything to become one of the best Visual Novels for adults.

Delving into 'Summer's Gone' is an enthralling experience, marked by a compelling and nuanced narrative that transcends the typical adult visual novel tropes. Unlike many in the genre, this game skillfully navigates the intricate landscape of human emotions, expertly manipulating perspectives through meticulously crafted images. This artistic finesse, coupled with a carefully selected soundtrack and a masterful interplay of colors and light, positions 'Summer's Gone' among the premier visual novels available.

Despite having only five chapters, each segment boasts a substantial length, ensuring a rich and immersive storytelling experience. The game introduces a diverse array of characters, each equipped with intricate backgrounds and captivating personalities. Noteworthy is the absence of major bugs, with only a few negligible orthographic errors that, given the riveting narrative, easily escape notice.

In essence, 'Summer's Gone' emerges as a standout VN, distinguished by its deep storytelling, artistic brilliance, and a cast of characters whose complexity adds layers of intrigue to the overall narrative

Another very good work by OceanLabs. The writing is very well made for most characters. You can see the MC changing with his interactions with people. I personally really like Bella's character, it's well made because you can really feel her personality through the dialogues and it passes my test of "could I recognize this character if every character had a basic skin". Nami also passes this test and Sonya but it's cheating a bit because she is the only very introvert character. The other characters need more development but I understand it needs time and it's normal Bella is the most developped character yet since you interact with her very early. In term of technique, I am not an expert but compared to some other Ren'py games, it's very clean. It's rare to see devs putting lots of time developing the characters so I am really happy that some devs take the time because the story is much more meaningful.

The following sentence is not really a spoiler but it's a guess of what will surely happens.

Just be careful when Summer will be back (I assume when you chose someone to have a relationship with) because it could be very cliche and already seen depending on how you write it.

I didn't put 5 stars because as a lot of people said, the game is very long to make. I assume it's because the devs decided to have 2 projects going on. I know quality take times and I am sure you are a very small team maybe working during your free time, I don't know but I think you should have focus on 1 project at a time even though "Where it all began" is also a very good VN.

This game is a loop, in each update we keep repeating every scene to scene and get close to nothing new. in 2019 we already played the basketball scene, we knew that bella and ayua are racers we did our hair like 10 times already at the barber with bella, knew that the mother character got a new boyfriend that Nami is into us, we stole the heirloom and went to therapy 10 times mc still impotent(which doesn't add anything to the whole story, just a nuisance), mila is still accused of stealing, saw victoria getting hit by a car on and on and on. And after 5 years of development, we are getting The Same story once again, but with better visuals. I'm usually not some1 to degrade some1-s work or anything, but the game states its a slow burn game, but in reality its a loop for the dev to improve his daz skills and not to tell a story. 5 years of visual updates and close to 0 new content. I wish the dev is not getting better at blender or we might repeat the circle. i honestly can't think of any story segment which we didn't see or knew in 2019 already.
As for the 2 star: this game has incredible visuals, but in my opinion 0 progression . The rating might change depending on the 2nd season.

All these new hardver and the updates are not coming any faster at all. 5-6 months for SG and 1 update if ur lucky per year for WiaB.

this game is shit

the only good thing about the game is the renders and models of nami and bella, the rest of the girls are copies of each other with no interest because they are untouchable, you can t ( you who plays) feel close to any woman besides nami , the only one getting some phyisical contact with MC is her and stop

I dont know what the fuck is wrong with the people, chapter 1 and 2 are short, i expected a lot of fucking text and nice story if the dev doesn t do sex scenes,but, what the fuck was this ? man for real, worst story than a lot of games with fucking trash renders. with sense of shortness in the episodes, girls are raining in and dont stop falling from the sky, and each of them are the same big tittied girl with same face and same body.

this fucking garbage is a 3dcg game with a girl in scene which have 400 angles of camera showing her butt or tits clothed while having bullshit of conversations, truly meaningfullness

damn, 5 episodes and so many years to this shit? i regret downloading this game, it didn t even make me hard, maybe if i were a virgin with social problems i would've find interesting this game of girls with nice bodies always clothed with a lot of shots of their bodies from different angles

But no, that doesn't make it anymore for me, and this story is so stupid that i wonder if people has lost their minds or were high when rating this

Like for real, a lost love who dissapeared? okay that's sad but where is the fucking story besides that? we don t fucking advance, we dont know nothing after years of milking, jesus , my respect to the dev, he managed to fool all the supporters and even made me download this pile of shit

The first thing is that the name of the game is about a character that does not exist, but exists in memories
The second thing is because the developer built the game and it does not have scenes for adults, and I think the reason is that the developer is ashamed to add any scenes that involve relationships.
All you will find are beautiful girls wearing clothes that reveal their bodies, or after waiting, perhaps you will see moments of some girls completely naked.
If you were hoping to see sexual relations, no, you will not see anything in this game. In fact, it is a frustrating and time-wasting game that only has the quality of cinematic animation, pictures, and a lot of dialogue between the characters.