Adventure Corner ~ Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid

Welcome to Adventure Corner, a column where members of the RPGamer staff can give their thoughts, impressions, and pseudo-reviews for various adventure titles that don’t come under our usual coverage. Adventure Corner is aimed at delivering opinions on a wide range of titles including visual novels, point-and-click adventures, investigative mysteries, and so forth.

In this edition of the column, we take a look at Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid on Nintendo Switch.

Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid

As a kid, you want summer to last as long as possible. From playing outside until your clothes are dirty, riding your bike for long hours during the day, or simply hanging out with friends until the sun goes down, summer brings out our sense of adventure and joy. Toy Box and Millenium Kitchen’s Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid attempts to capture the simplicities of life and the slice-of-life adventures one can go on during the long hazy summer days.

Its story begins in August 1999 with a family of traveling circus performers. The circus is in massive debt, and they are struggling to get patrons to come and watch their shows. The circus troupe stops in a beautiful rural Japanese town known as Yomogi and sets up its tent in hopes of revitalizing its show and receiving a profit. While the adults focus on the larger issues at hand, the ringmaster’s son Satoru is about to experience the summer of a lifetime, full of adventure and leisure, while figuring out how to help save the family circus. Every day, Satoru goes out with his trusty notebook, pencil crayons, and imagination to explore the larger world around him, filling his days with wonder and excitement. How he does this is entirely up to the player.

Natsu-Mon has a simple, yet charming premise that gives the player just the right amount of a story hook without it constraining the overall message of enjoying a summer vacation. While the main story is about saving the circus, every character Satoru meets has their own story to tell. Whether it is about building self-confidence or finding pleasure in smaller victories, there are so many messages throughout the game that focus on the idea that spending time in nature and slow living have a positive effect on one’s mental health. Satoru also meets a group of kids in town who run their own detective agency, solving mysteries around Yomogi Town and beyond. These stories are hilarious and heartwarming, from wanting to assist the lighthouse keeper with cleaning the lighthouse lens to finding out who let the Shrine owner’s pigs out of their pen. There is a powerful warmth in Natsu-Mon‘s world, like a presence that takes over and asks even the player to slow down and truly savor the world around them.

Share summer memories with adorable doodles!

The game spans the entire month of August, and every day Satoru wakes up he has entirely to himself. As players interact with the world around them, Satoru will share the highlights in his notebook, along with some adorable artwork. Easily the best part of the game comes in the form of Satoru discovering new things in and around Yomogi Town and sharing his highlights. He also logs the unique bugs and fish that he catches, as well as landmarks that he uncovers for the first time. Players can write little messages about each activity and add stickers as well. What makes this element delightful is the fact that the game forces a slow place, demanding players have some patience, and rewarding them with discoveries as they explore every nook and cranny. The slowness takes getting used to and it’s something that when playing Natsu-Mon one has to adjust to because part of the fun is engaging in the activities and being a kid.

Satoru has four types of quests that he can remark on. The first is “Big Adventures,” which include catching a specific amount of fish or bugs, finding collectibles such as fossils and plushies, or assisting in larger problems around town. The reward for completing milestones in these Big Adventures comes in the form of stickers, which are Satoru’s stamina. For every activity that is completed, a sticker is earned, allowing Satoru to run faster, jump higher, and climb trees and rocks without fainting. Completing Big Adventures and gaining more stickers is important to the overall gameplay, as the more stickers one has, the higher places Satoru can climb, and new areas can be discovered. Next are “Little Adventures,” which are plot points that focus on different residents around town and the surrounding area and are mandatory to complete to push the larger plot along. There are tons of heartfelt stories throughout these quests, again highlighting themes of kindness and patience. Third comes in the form of the “Flatfoot Files,” which is the kid’s detective agency. These quests allow Satoru to get closer to many of the kids in town, while also solving a silly mystery. Lastly, there are fortunes that Satoru can receive from Love-chan, one of the circus performers, and these provide unique hints about where plot moments may occur, where unique items can be found, or provide direction to places one hasn’t discovered yet.

What makes Natsu-Mon such a unique game is how much freedom it gives the player in terms of spending time. The game is very low stakes despite the circus’ lack of profits because it’s more about exploration. If Satoru wants to spend the whole day catching bugs or fishing, that is a valid way to use that time. This is not a game for people who lack patience or need instant gratification, everything is slow and leisurely paced, and it’s a game that wants the player to slow down and savor the summer. On the other side, its lack of stakes generates problems because there is no pressure put on the player to save the circus from shuttering its doors. While the wholesomeness is wonderous and inspiring, the game’s freedom doesn’t give the player a sense of purpose, which is sorely lacking. Despite these complaints, there is something to be said about having little to no stakes in the story and seeing the beauty in being a kid valuing the world around you, having a fresh perspective, and being nostalgic for simpler times.

I never want summer to end…

The game has a few other issues that could use some ironing out. There is a lot of texture pop-in on the Switch version, and it has some slowdown and performance issues that are very noticeable at times. It even has surprisingly long load times when bigger moments are happening, which takes players out of the calming vibes. Despite these issues, there is so much charm in the graphics, and excellent use of colour, and the characters have fantastic and well-detailed expressions. The world feels lived in, which is so important in a game about finding simple pleasures. The soundtrack is whimsical, doing a great job of whisking players into a feeling of endless summer. There is a wonderful use of instruments such as accordion and violin that stand out. Even sound effects, such as the cicadas humming in the background or waves crashing, add to the overall charm of getting lost on a summer adventure.

One of the things I appreciated in playing Natsu-Mon is how it forced me to slow down as a person. It gave me so much freedom on how I wanted to spend my days, and reminded me of my own childhood, spending time outside with friends until my mother called me in for dinner. The joy and nostalgia truly make Natsu-Mon shine as an open-world game, and its goal of reminding people how wonderful the world around them can be is refreshing given the doom and gloom we often see in many video games and our lives. While the game has some performance issues, I will not deny the happiness and wonder I felt, because it reminded me of simpler times, making it a great game to close out my summer with.

Disclosure: This article is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.