Ren'Py - Summertime Saga [v21.0.0 wip.4468] [Kompas Productions]

Rating only the gfx & h-scenes bc I'm not brave enough to actually play the game, judging by the premise, time in development and the sandbox tag.

So, hand drawn animations in 2d h-games is kind of a big deal for me, at least partially due to the scarcity principle. And this game has them in spades. Most of them are genuinely technically excellent, very detailed movements (within the limits of the art style... ugh, see below) but a substantial minority are half-assed. Nonetheless, judging by that criterion alone the game is superlative in the 2d genre.

The art style however just doesn't work for me. Saw a few reviews mentioning the female body types in the game aren't appealing. I disagree with that, but imo the problem is they're straightforward expressionist representations with soft crayon colouring that falls flat on the eyes unless you squint. The genuinely diverse body types and races on offer are uniformly reduced to the rudimentary lines of the dev/artist's style, and the effect is ironically the opposite of what was intended.

The overall feel is that of a neatly filled up colouring book that a primary school headmaster might call 'admirable'. It's a shame bc the artist is very likely more than competent enough to produce actually sexy lewd art, but he's fixated with this style and evidently so are thousands of others. I'm giving it 2 stars for the hand drawn animations. Just for being there, even if I can't fap to them.

I think that the game is solid for what it is, and there was a time when I was genuinely enjoying the content, but over time, as other's have mentioned, I have also grown disillusioned from multiple fronts.

Pros:
1. The art-style is unique and personally I found a number of characters to be really attractive (now I did like the old art more than before he reworked some of the characters to look more "smooth" so the art change was a downgrade)
2. The story progression and characters are decently written so I'd say that it doesn't get in the way (for the most part)
3. There's a decent amount of content in the game for now, with a large variety of characters and tastes that are catered to. I'd say that with his resources he could be doing more, but I'd say that the amount of content in this game is still pretty good and a pleasure for any new players.

Cons:
1. He could be doing more - old saves not being supported, the resources he gets vs his output, etc. The game itself is 5+ years old and over time the updates and content amount has slowed down (even though the resources he gets have increased and he should have a team working on it now).
2. Politics - as others have said he has injected his political views into this game, which is kind of a bad connection between the real world and a game where we're looking to separate from the real world.
3. The grind is real, going together with point 1, the spacing of events, the levelling of skills, doing various time consuming silly tasks, there being skill-checks and money requirements, all of that is built to get in the way of you and the stuff you're playing this game for.
4. The sex scenes are rather rudimentary, you get a few looping images, you can get x-ray and that's the scene, followed with point 3 which is farming/grinding for the next scene.

I'd give it 2.5 as a total score, but if I were to break it down:
Art: 4/5 - I liked the old art more, as mother looked slightly older and the face lines gave a nice style to all characters
Story: 3.5/5 - most of it doesn't get in the way.
Content 4/5 - Again, nice amount of content
Gameplay 1.5/5 -Frankly the minigames, the grinding, all of that stuff is tedious. It might be related to always having to start from the beginning with each update, but I've completely given up on this part of the game, only in case I am desperate for a wank and my mood matches one of the character's art styles in the game, will I go for it.
Immersion 1/5 -Usually don't use this in a review, but I think it's relevant. There are walls built between you and your goal that are redundant and contrived. The politics injected makes some of the content taste sour. The rudimentary sex scenes, while the art is good, the sex scenes don't have enough images and don't really feel inspired in any way (I think each scene only has like 1-2 poses at most, with maybe some having 3-4 if you're lucky).

I think that if you don't care for the grind, love the art, and don't mind the immersion factors I mentioned, then you will likely enjoy it a lot more, and I would still recommend it to people, just because the overall production value is really good (I mean with the amount of resources given, the dev should do at least that much) and the amount of content and tastes catered to is really nice.

Replayed the game after 3 years of ignoring it. Nothing changed. The main story is a stupid political message (and no it's not a parody or a satire because both require it to be funny). The animations are not that great. And by that I mean they are better than urban demons for example but abso-fucking-lutely not worth 80k/month just from patreon. Now the characters. There are like 2 likeable characters for me. But I have to say that they are the strong point of this game. 6 years of developement and the principal and her pet girl still have no content. Most characters have like 4-5 scenes and there is no way to pardon that considering the insane ammount of money this game made throughout the years.
For example I was excited to play it 3 years ago but fortunately I've became disillusioned of these cash grabs (summertime and four elements trainer are perfect examples on this site and Blizzard would be a nice example outside). If you remove the "gameplay" from this it has like 2h of content. There are some really great game developers (Faerin, NLT Media, Jikei) and they truly deserve the support. Not this...thing.

This game is a must play. The art is good, story is pretty decent and I thoroughly enjoyed my time. only drawback for me is the grinding and the random encounter that's screws you over by taking your money. Besides that it does everything right.

P.S. save before travelling and put your money on the bank account. thank me later.

This game is overrated. it takes a long time to do everything and Too much grinding.

I really don't understand how a game of so many stars gets to be.

I don't think it's worth the stars that people put on it.

This is Worst Game ever.

The patreon who still stand for this game are so stupid. Clearly, Dev is looting your money.

fun story, good art and great wifus. whats not to like ^^

honestly dont think more has to be said but i wanted to give a rating but im forced to write 200 character "review" ? ohh well.

the game has some fun easter eggs too.
im not a superfan of visual novels but imo this game strikes a good balance (i would still rank it under VN but thats just me).
kinda wished dev progress was faster but i get it, when you get such a nice income on patreon you are incetiviced to draw out the process until the well runs dry. then you either finish the game or just abondon it. i hope DC goes with the former as i realy enjoyed this game for more than just the erotisism

but will never be finished so i lowered my score to reflect that.

This visual novel stands out from the rest I have played, mostly beacuase it's well writen. The story line is engaging , funny and well structured. However, I think that the discourse implicit in the narrative is quite demagogic.I like the overall concept where it tries to avoid some of the pornographic culture that sells sex as an act of violence. Supposedly, the protagonist attracts women in part because he reflects a set of high values such as being smart, politically correct, hard worker, very handy, and of course, the perfect gentlemen, all of these framed by a holy naivety. There's an implicit speech that criticizes sexual stalkers and predators and makes fun of them as losers. Nevertheless, I think all these good intentions of the autor of avoiding reproducing stereotypical male models of encoding narrative eroticism, falls apart quite forcefully, when he takes the decision to endow the character with a monster cock with wich all the girls in town die to fuck. Its not only an exaggerated phalocentric way of encoding the ideological background of the game, in a very clichéd male perspective, that affects the narrative strucutre that spins around his big penis. But also, ends in a very bizarre visual depiction of the characters. In my opinion, the main character looks deformed, aesthetically speaking. And the same goes for so many city girls that are painted with massive tits, and "problematic" personalities that can be fixed with the right dose of cock.

The character design and the systems of relationships between characters is very well built, in terms that it allows diverse types of conlficts that need to be solved to progress in story and eventually get laid. But all these obstacles in girls personalities, that are quite interesting at the early stages of the game, finally gives in as they find out the wonderful surprise that the protagonist is very well gifted. As if they were brainless subjects craving for big cock all the time. I have to mention, that I recognize an effort of the autor to introduce different types of facial futures, and there's a variety of body types, but the fixation with bizarre balloon like breasts is evident.

From my point of view, the attempt to generate an alternative narrative that moves away from traditional macho models, stays short. Futhermore, it stays in a quite conservative scheme and into traditionalist models of the social conceptions, especially masculine, that exist around sex, eroticism and pornography.
Also, if theres a trans girl in game, I'm very surprised that theres a lack of gay/lesbian content... theres is one gay character but seems that its only a narrative ornament. Not giving him a branch is wasting the possibilties of interactivity.

Finally, I just wanna say that theres a very nasty contradictory moral conception going on here. I understand that the patron community decided to override all the incest content of the game. I don't justify incest, not my kink, but also its not something that frightens me... But returning to the visual aspect of the game, says all the characters are grown ups adults, but all the students looks like oversexualized kids. There is no controversy there? Whats wrong with you ppl?

Worst Game ever. 2d shit. Too much grinding. No character development. Dev is looting money from patreons. Unnecessary jambo boob,same sex scene repeated. Game play, Graphics is worst,Only Roxy path is somehow good. Rest are all trash

one of best games ever!

pro:
so many characters to choose from
milfs are beautiful and naughty
writing is funny and makes story interesting
good selection of goth and emo girls

con:
many month of waiting for update
too many meme character. trump is ugly

I can see why this game is so well-reviewed. It deserves it. Great art, action, repeatable content, story-lines, puzzles, quests, objectives. This game is great. I've enjoyed how the protagonists relationships develop and while I'm not close to finishing the current content, this game has gone above and beyond what most 'porn' games would be. That's not very fair, I don't consider this a porn game, i consider this a game that just happens to have porn. Give it a shot, try it, enjoy it, review it.

Probably the only porn game I was ever genuinely invested in? Like, shockingly fun and witty. Very enjoyable.

Maybe I'm weird, but especially coming back to it... the sex stuff, the actual meat of the game, doesn't grab me as much. Animations are stellar and all that, but the scenes themselves feel a bit quick and samey to me. Just my personal take. Probably enough there for anyone to rub one out, though. That oughta be enough.

For version 0.20.8:

Summertime Saga is great as long as you like the art. There's a lot to this point-and-click adventure and caters to most people. There is a games-worth of content already, but more is being updated slowly. I could see this game getting caught in the trap of infinite development, but there is so much already that you can't really complain. It is also obvious which quest was made earlier in the life of the game versus recently released.
Given the size of the game, you'll probably be working on several quests at once; I have had issues with quests bugging from trying to do multiple at once and it is sometimes annoying when multiple quests demand the same day of the week to do things. The only real grind is for money. Leveling skills is not an issue as they max at a low level or are leveled over the course of many weeks (thinking of Dex).
Some of the characters are quite charming and I look forward to more content. If for some reason development just up and stopped leaving it abandoned, I'd still recommend this game.

It´s actually one of the best games I've played, personally recommended for everyone, the characters, history, minigames everything is perfect; download the incest patch and the lewd patch for a more better experience

This review is for version 0.20.9 (after MANY hours of playing)

The art is decent, maybe a 7/10.
Like, the MC and others are bug-eyed as fuck with facial expressions and bodily proportions being really out there, but the many hours you'll have to play to get to any of the NSFW content will inevitably make the style grow on you.

The animations are also 7/10 because some seem to be really well done while others are extremely basic.
It does seem to get better the further in you play but again, going from the beginning and not just rapidly skipping through will take you hours upon hours of grinding, and that's in cheat mode.

The grind is intense in this game.
Like, even playing in "cheat mode" you still have to spend hours upon hours upon hours of playing before you get to any actual NSFW content.
Wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the fact that the NSFW content is incomplete as far as implementation is considered.

For instance, the first sexual interaction you can get access to at the very beginning of the game is with the "cow girl" at the school who fools around a little in the bathroom, but it only goes so far as a handjob and seems to have no further content currently even though there are options to attempt to initiate penetrative sex.
Like, at no point beyond the occasional fetch quest going forward does that character ever matter in the game, which is only a shame because the next legit sexual encounter is hours of playing away.
Not to mention the "pregnancy" system that seems to be half heartedly implemented since you can certainly fertilize people, but that's the end of it since you can then fertilize again and again and again with no actual pregnancy seeming to ensue.

Which brings us to the next big issue with the game:
The severely padded/inflated runtime.

Even in cheat mode you have to do certain jobs and activities repeatedly to progress the story and some events that can only be done at certain times of certain days to progress the story and those events typically use up all the time you had left in the day, making you wait potentially another whole week before you can attempt any other events at that time on that day.

Game is extremely grindy, which is easily the second worst part about the game.

The worst part about the game is the BS plot where a public school principal is able to get away with any of the shit she does in the game.
Never mind all the ludicrous "policies" the principal tries passing without approval from the schoolboard or the PTA, but her behavior alone would be enough for her to be removed from her position with Annie being suspended or expelled for being an accomplice.
Like, yeah everyone can be a bitch about the MC missing school, but the school literally would not be able to penalize him for missing school due to his father dying due to bereavement leave public school students are entitled to due to federal laws.

I would love to give it the benefit of the doubt since the art is decent and the game is sorta enjoyable due to the occasional joke that jumps in, but then I remember that the game has apparently been in development since 2016 and has not only a mess of barely implemented functions and severely padded runtime, but is also incomplete after 5 years and is apparently far from being complete.

I'm all for games seeing continued development, but I've seen too many situations like this to know when someone is milking a cow for all it's worth.
When a game is this popular for this long and has been making the developer a steady stream of hefty chump change and has only seen this little development, then it's just a sinkhole for supporters.

This game is a game for the purpose of treatment.
This is a real adult game.
This game is a game for firmly learning right and wrong.
It's a really good game. And it's a really difficult game.
And it's a fresh, sticky, beautiful game.
It's not an intelligent game, but it's also a wise game.
And it's a game that makes you think.
I'm Korean, but I've never seen or played a game like this.
none. However, I admit It's a really good game.
There are good days and bad days in the world.
The protagonist of this game is an 18-year-old boy in my opinion...
It is like a superman or a god that has surpassed human thought and life. hahaha

Version: v0.20.9

A real solid game , the story is segmented for each girl and each story has its own unique flavour and fetish for most to enjoy. The gameplay is nothing too spicy, because this game is pretty much a visual novel with extra spice and nothing else to see. The sex scenes themselfs are a bit generic when it comes to the artstyle but the animation compensates for that.

Overall a long, solid story that you can waste your days to reading and wanking.

Fun story with great animations (and cool references), this game is easy one of the best out there. It may seem grindy, but with time you will figure out that it is not. Love the artwork, I have spent countless hours with it, looking forward to the following updates.

Favorite game so far. Fan of Darkcookie's work and supporter of Dj Awesomo. what else can i say? seriusly, i mean im just trying to fullfil the requirements so... Its Great! That's it. Constant Updates, Community feedback, Dev development literally always active, the game even has a wiki for FUCK's SAKE! JUST PLAY IT ALREADY!

Obviously one of the best and well funded NSFW VNs ever. A great highschool sex fantasy style game that is all story and minimal annoying grinding. Fun story, quality art. Fetish stuff is all tasteful and well executed.

I consider STS to be the apex of the RenPy format, if not the apex of the entire adult vn genre. Others appear to feel the same way, as it has been consistently in the top few entries of the F95Z ratings and discussion thread length for months, if not years by now.

The illustrations are amazing and the animations are well crafted and sexy. The writing is top notch, the characters have distinct voices and motivations. The MC is pleasant to spend time with. The supporting characters are fun and complicated and leave me wanting to know more about them. The plot is perfunctory, but at least it moves along fairly snappily.

The weaknesses are minimal. It is a bit slow to start and then crowded at the end. The mini-games are pointless and grindy. Many of the plot-gates are obscure and require waiting around for triggered time/place events. Some of the flavor-text banter wears out its welcome. Some of the characters are unnecessarily stereotypical.

The biggest issue for me is the jarring change in tone from respectfully seducing your French teacher at the beginning to a bank heist and multiple murders while assaulting a mob lair at the end. But really, a vn where the major problem is a discrepancy in story tone is still pretty amazing.

The plot follows a friendly, impressively-endowed young man as he solves problems around town, seduces or is seduced by every woman he meets (2 dozen?), and investigates the mystery of his father's murder by mobsters. The scenarios cover a huge range of vanilla and mildly-handled fetishes. From bikini contests to lactation to glory holes to implied incest to consensual cucking to ... sea monsters!? And more that I won't spoil.

A lot of the plot beats are kind of weird, but some are surprisingly profound. The MC's evolving relationships with his sister and his two girlfriends at school are particularly thoughtfully rendered. Certainly Evie's story is one of the one of the most romantic and sweet stories I've seen in this format. I even felt a little bad for her and her family when the MC would "cheat" on her in other independent plot threads.

The inside jokes and current pop culture refs are fairly fun and usually not super-intrusive. And when they are intrusive, they are still pretty deftly handled. Who wouldn't want to hang out with Iwanka Rump, the surprisingly friendly and super-sexually-generous daughter of corrupt Mayor Ronald Rump?

Production quality is top notch. A very few minor misspellings. No missing scenes. Some weird plot-dialog inconsistencies that could be easily fixed with a little more QA.

This is an indie game and the dev team apparently make decent $$ from Patreon subscriptions ($74k/month!). They deserve every penny and more, in my opinion. Overall, STS is head and shoulders above any other vn out there.

(Review based on 2nd play-through)