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#203
🕑 Added 2024-01-18 17:25:12 +0000 UTCSummer & Winter Memories By Dojin Otome
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[Summary]
It's summer break, and it's been years since you've last seen your aunt and cousins in the countryside! You don't know what to expect, but what could go wrong?
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Review:
It is time π₯
But before it is time, I'd like to state that the reason why classics reviews are so barren here is because most of you have probably either played or heard about them.
Thankfully, H devs have a habit of updating their old content from time to time, especially the successful ones.
And you guessed it, it is time for the debut of the OFFICIAL English Winter Memories!
But since it's a continuation of the first installment "Summer memories", we may as well cover the whole thing.
Truth be told, Summer and Winter Memories play exactly the same, while Winter is of course a bit more "advanced", having improved on its predecessor.
Rather than a sequel, I'd rather call Winter an stand alone expansion of sort, if we can call it that way.
β Both games will be reviewed as a single entity with the same premise, so lets dive in:
I have always wanted to cover Summer Memories since its initial release last year on DLsite.
However, back then I was less enthusiast about reviewing titles that didn't actively interact with the sexual subject. Talk about oblivious...
Never has a single-player RPGMaker game kept me interested for so long, which speaks volumes about how immersive this game truly is. DojinOtome has set a very high standard for RPGMaker games and a strong reputation for themselves.
As simple as that statement is, it has some background behind it.
Summer Memories is the spiritual successor to βHousemaid Ladies Disturb My Study!β - an far older release somewhere back in 2018, featuring the same protagonist and other familiar faces.
Summer takes the foundation of the relationship and intimacy systems from past projects and improves upon them in every way β story, h-scenes, creativity, freedom of controls.
I've played RPGmaker games, and so have you, and this is NOT how an RPGmaker game supposed to look like. They did an absolute phenomenal job, as if the whole thing was built with a more advanced engine.
From the design of each individual character, to the different landscapes and backgrounds, to the animation. You can really tell that a lot of time was spent to make this game feel as alive as possible. I have never seen a game in RPGMaker be as interactive as this one, giving the player this much freedom.
π You're sent over to your cousins at the countryside (always the countryside...)
Your main goal is to create as many memories, preferably lewd ones, with your cousins, aunt, and other older women in the town throughout the summer vacation.
Each day is divided into four parts (morning, afternoon, evening, and night) and you have a number of action points to spend. You can spend the time catching fish and insects, going hiking to improve your stamina, playing mini-games to get pocket money and improve your relationships, and so on to get memory points.
These memory points can be used to purchase skills at the end of each day to get more options during sex, among other things. It can be difficult to unlock everything in your first playthrough because there are so many things to see and do, but you have the option of carrying your skills and stats over to a new game to make things easier for subsequent games.
Other than the drop dead gorgeous pixel art, the biggest selling points, in my opinion, are the characters and story telling. Without the magnificent writing and voice acting offered, Summer Memories would not have been such an immersive experience. Given how many characters are introduced in the series, itβs amazing how many unique personalities there are.
None of the main characters are repetitive, dull, or lack personality.
Once you get carried by the story, there will be many scenarios that stick. For example, the fireworks scene with Aunt Miyuki and the rest of the family towards the end of Summer. I'm not the emotional type, but it was pretty cool and unexpectedly wholesome in a game where you gotta clap as many cheeks within 28 days.
The overworld also has its own share of entertainment to offer: Many NPCs can be interacted with different choices. Depending on your relationship with them and the progression of the game, you have the option to engage in various activities together, such as doing chores around the house. I especially liked helping Aunt Miyuki with the dishes.
Donβt let the relatively small size RPGMaker game fool you. The game is actually PACKED with content. The world of Summer Memories has plenty of exploration, is full of rewarding side-quests, cool interactions, and even fun easter eggs to discover.
The protagonist skill tree is straight and simple: You have access to your perks, actions and passive buffs but ultimately, it is up to you how to reach your goals. To interact with each individual character requires a different approach based on the plenty of choices given, making the game surprisingly non-linear as one would typically expect from the genre.
Despite the game taking place in a small town in the countryside, it has over 10 different locations that you can explore individually.
* On that note, the DLC unfortunately doesn't expand the world, but it does bring a decent amount of content by adding several heroines all with their own H-scenes along with extra endings. All in all it adds another solid hour of gameplay unless you just abuse the coin box and unlock all scenes.
βοΈ Winter Memories is a worthy sequel to summer memories maintaining a very similar gameplay to its predecessor with a large map to explore with multiple locations with specific events at certain times, and with an even greater number of mini-games and of course with an even larger cast of heroines to conquer adding sexy women with different physical attributes to satisfy a greater number of personal tastes.
π I wrote so much about the gameplay, the premise, and everything around it, that I didn't even touch the H content yet. So in case it wasn't clear enough yet - this is a game where every aspect of it is a fantastic in its own right, meaning that if you're here only for H, then while you won't be disappointed - you'll greatly miss out on one of the best immersive adventures in the H scene.
All scenes are split into two - Pixel animations and CGs.
Usually the two are intertwined, so you get to enjoy the masterful pixel art animation, often followed by an "in-depth" or continuing non-pixel CG.
The art in both styles is nothing short of phenomenal. My personal favorite is probably the triple pussy sandwich with the main girls. Mad props to the madman that came up with it.
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Overall, I cannot stress enough how much these games offers for a single-player experience -
You could easily spend around 30-50 hours on a fresh save file as long as you're looking for the full immersive experience.
There's an INSANE VALUE for both sexual and wholesome material. Summer & Winter memories have set their own bar without a doubt in the genre, and probably in the entire H industry as a whole.
A true masterpiece through and through.
I mean, how else would you call the #1 selling H game on DLsite?
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π Summer Memories + DLC is available on Steam.
π Winter Memories is also available on Steam. (In full English!)
β€οΈ For relevant H content of these titles you may contact me in DM for referrals.
