Everlasting Summer | a Review
originally published on 13/12/2024;
Hello everyone, I am the rus- the russ– I mean the belarus– I– I’m G.E.M.Simov, a rat wielding the slavic tongue, and I’ve come to tell you how to get hoes by reviewing “Everlasting Summer”.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
Everlasting Summer is a visual novel. As such, it has very, very little in the way of gameplay. So little, in fact, that I feel as though it is going to be very challenging for this visual novel to eek out a single point in the Gameplay section, but we will see what it has for us.
The game is simple. There is a text box on the lower half of the screen, in which lines of text show up. Whenever the Player clicks anything that is not a button, the next line of text shows up. The Player can also press Enter or the Spacebar to go on to the next line of text, or they can click the arrow pointing to the Player’s right.
There are two things the Player can do in this game. Save their progress and then Load it, as one of those things, achievable via a pair of unmarked icons that vaguely resemble the process of saving and loading. In addition to that, they can open up a log of the previous 100-ish lines of text that have been gone over, by pressing the arrow pointing to the Player’s left, allowing the Player to scroll up to one of their choice and, by clicking it, go back to it.
Following that, the Player can click the arrow pointing to their right twice in rapid succession to turn on “skipping” mode, which will go over the lines of text that have already appeared, until the Player gets back to the most recent line of text, which was the point at which they went back via the arrow pointing to their left. It is important to note that the arrow pointing to the Player’s right can be set up to skip everything when clicked just once (via the game’s settings), though that is not a good approach.
This is particularly useful for changing the Player’s choice - as every so often the Player is presented with the opportunity to pick one of two options. Those choices boil down to all the gameplay the Player is going to get to do, and those are all the agency the Player has over the game and its story… And that’s almost all.
There is, fortunately, a bit more opportunity that is presented to the Player. Oftentimes a map screen will be brought up, allowing the Player to select a destination. In essence, this is just another one of those choices that the Player is given, but it is presented in a different manner, and is more plentiful than just 2 options, as a result of which it feels different and even a bit meaningful, because deciding where to go, and spending time there, takes some time, and the Player only has a limited amount of time whenever presented with the map.
Lastly, this game features multiple endings, as a result of which the Player is incentivized to replay it. The fact that it is a visual novel means that this aspect of the game is relatively well implemented, in part because of the saving and loading function, in part because of that option to go back a number of text lines, in part because of the fact that the story is written in a manner to accommodate it.
There’s also a weird card-based mini-game that occurs once, but it is explained quite well in the preceding lines of text and is almost inconsequential.
With all that… That’s it. That’s the game. It’s very simple, very bare-bones and barely a game. It’s more of an interactive book than anything, but I will allow myself to give it a point in this category, for it is not totally dreadful. 1/3
Presentation
This game is a mixed bag. On the one hand, its main menu looks astonishing and I absolutely love it, because it almost manages to grab onto a diegetic appearance and remain a MAIN MENU. That’s fantastic.
On the other hand, the rest of the game leaves me a bit confused, or at least wanting more. As a Visual Novel, Everlasting Summer relies on its visuals more than it does on anything else, and it also relies on its writing. Unfortunately, the developers of this game, Soviet Games, are Russian, and they showcase that they do not have a great grasp on the English language from the disclaimers that are presented as the game starts.
That remains consistent throughout the entirety of the game, as a result of which the experience is lessened. Though this is not exclusively connected to the fact that English was a secondary language to the folks working on this game. There’s also a very unpleasant undertone in some of the descriptive lines of text - some focus on race and use it as a quality (slavic face) while others speak of one’s body as being good purely based off of whether or not it is physically appealing.
In addition to that, the visuals - limited almost exclusively to the characters - are uncanny. I can’t exactly pinpoint why they are uncanny - they are competently drawn, and almost everything about them is okay, but perhaps the style emulating this familiar “anime” look bothers me, or perhaps it is the fact that there is some kind of unkind, sexual focus on them?
Regardless, there is something very odd about the way this game looks. Not only that, but it also happens to have a few issues - it is a russian game, made in russian, and subsequently translated to English. However, many of the things in the game - such as the cinematics that play on occasion - are not translated, and they still present themselves in russian, with the cyrillic letters that are, unfortunately, almost illegible for folks unfamiliar with them, and for those who are - a very clear inconsistency that presents itself as a problem when attempting to remain immersed in the experience.
On top of those cinematics not being translated, there are often still shots of Characters interacting that look markedly different from the still shots of the Characters not interacting - there’s a very noticeable shift in the style employed by the artists working on the game. Perhaps one artist was working on those shots, while another worked on the still Sprites of the Characters? But then how come they look so different? It’s not that the styles themselves are different, even the thickness of the lines and the shapes of the Characters’ faces and frames are not consistent…
Not only that, but there is a great desire on the part of Soviet Games to make this somewhat anime-ish. To have these things that are so associated with anime, that are so commonly found within it that they have become nearly synonymous with it, yet the manner of execution is so clunky that I am left feeling second-hand embarrassment. Definitely, there was passion that went into those, but the ever -present discomfort brought about by the way the characters are depicted, as well as the knowledge that the Player is supposed to be dealing with a game, not an anime, makes it hard to swallow the pill that Everlasting Summer presents.
With these issues mentioned, there’s a very real issue with the game’s Presentation that even affects Gameplay - and that’s the fact that the few buttons present in the User Interface are not labeled in any way. In addition to that, there is no tutorial section of the game, or a button in the game’s Settings or on the Main Menu, that informs the Player what each available button does. That’s a problem - as not knowing what the buttons do is prone to make the Player unwilling to engage with them and, as a result of that, lessen the quality of their experience.
Aside from that, the game’s sound-track is very reasonable. The Musical part of it is a mixed bag, with some really neat tracks and others that are quite improper, maybe even badly placed, but the main thing that caught my attention and made me willing to admit that the sounds of this game are nice was the ambience it presented.
Everlasting Summer has great ambience and sound effects, with emphasis being up on the ambience itself. Sometimes I was so engrossed in the chirping of birds and the flutter of leaves that I was having more than just a good time. It is only unfortunate that it gets unpleasantly interrupted by the music, which is sometimes, as stated, oddly ill-fitting for the scenario that is unveiling itself before the Player.
The whole of Everlasting Summer’s Presentation is messy. The ambience and the backgrounds are gorgeous, but everything else leaves a decent amount to be desired. Then there are also some elements that are plainly bad. As a result, it winds up being only decent. 2/3
Story
The story of Everlasting Summer is almost classically Russian, but it also has a lot of influence that it can attribute to Japanese media - anime and visual novels - and it somewhat messes itself up as a result of that. It starts off by asking big questions, pondering many things, and then… Then it transitions into what can only be called a dating simulator, which carries with itself some very bumbly connotations and, definitely, does not have much room for contemplation.
Everlasting Summer does one thing that is a bit unlike most other visual novels that wind up being dating simulators - and that is the fact that it has a named Player Character. He goes by the name Semyon, and he is the stereotypical anime protagonist when it comes to visual novels and/or isekai stories (which would be “another world”). He’s a deadbeat neat who is good at nothing, is terminally online and is a massive fan of anime.
He’s depressed and disillusioned with the world - which is quite a good starting point for a serious examination of the conditions that lead to such a situation - but what winds up happening is that he… Gets on a bus (surprisingly does not get hit by one) and falls asleep on it, only to wake up in a different place, during a different season.
Semyon has been transported to a not-entirely-real summer camp… Filled with beautiful boys and girls with a conspicuously varied number of years behind their backs. In addition to that, he becomes younger - going back to being a teenager - which makes everything that follows slightly more acceptable, but also leaves a very sour taste in the mouth of any reader.
Now, Semyon starts off as an alright character - somewhat pathetic by merit of who he is, but with plenty of room for improvement - however as the story goes on, he becomes… He becomes a lot less likable. He becomes bratty and incredibly dismissive. In fact, that’s actually how he is from the very beginning, but due to the fact that his manner of introduction is the way that it is, it appears a bit more gradual.
Making the main Character of anything unlikable is problematic. Making the main Character of a game, in which the Player takes on the role of that Character and is supposed to identify with him, is even more problematic.
This does not get helped when one considers that the game tries to juggle weighty themes of contemplation and philosophical analysis with… Teenage romance paired with anime logic. And that, coupled with the fact that the “good endings” are those in which Semyon - who is 25 years old - hooks up with one, or more, of the teenage girls in the camp… Is very problematic.
The game’s story fails to keep itself together. Sure, it works, it can be followed along, but it is simply trying too many things without being able to make them jive well with each other to work. On top of that, the main Character goes through what can only be described as Character regression, rather than Character Development, which is an incredibly unpleasant sight to behold in any story.
There are some interesting things that the game does - such as the fact that Semyon winds up trapped in a time loop, or the fact that some things are working against him while others are indifferent or even supportive, without really knowing of the time loop - but the whole thing is like slapping a German Bratwurst together with some Austrian Chocolate, trying to glue it together with French Cheese and ultimately adding Haggis as a finishing touch.
That’s how this whole thing feels - the intricate plot that is being attempted, the deep themes that the writers wanted to explore, the humor and means of presentation being so heavily influenced by anime and the approach to relationships simply do not work together. It is entirely possible that these things could be made to work, but I feel as though this is not the situation in which they do, especially considering the fact that the Main Character grows less likable with each day that passes.
However some of the endings do present a future in which the Semyon finds a lesson from his experiences and does improve. There are, of course, some areas that he could work on, but there is actual improvement. It is just a shame that he seems to only do so in moments that are not accessible to the Player/reader, as a result of which the growth and development, as it occurs, is not observable. Only the aftermath of it, and that’s a bit of a shame.
Overall? There are many issues that really undermine my enjoyment of the story. So much so that most of my engagement with it was rooted in obligation, rather than curiosity. As such, it only gets to not be bad. 1/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful the backgrounds, and how calming the ambience, I can not give this game the Legendary Point. NO, it does not get it - it is too lecherous, too strewn about in my eyes, too middling an experience.
It is very nice that Everlasting Summer tries to have a poignant message, it is good that it attempts to instill something within its Player, but the means through which it does so simply are not sufficient. 0/1
Conclusion
4/10. An average visual novel, and a very, very middling game that’s closer to not being a game. I could recommend it to fans of visual novels, and perhaps to teenagers who like anime, but it is definitely not something I’d urge anyone else to play.
In the bag of mediocrity it goes. There it may gather a bit of dust, but it is well earned dust.