With the end of the summer season on the horizon, I have found myself craving a laid-back and relaxing game experience to pair with the feelings of nostalgia that I tend to associate with this time of the year. While Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, or Story of Seasons are popular options that all provide a reliable source of comfort during the transitionary periods between seasons, none manage to capture the feeling of making every last day of summer count quite like the Boku no Natsuyasumi series.
Boku no Natsuyasumi, translating to My Summer Vacation, is a series of games developed by Millennium Kitchen and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Each entry follows the summer vacation of Boku — a city-dwelling boy who, in August 1975, is sent to stay with his extended family in a variety of small-town locations (depending on the game) to spend his last month of summer. The gameplay of each is incredibly open-ended, granting the player full freedom as to how they wish to spend all 31 days of the month.
Unlike many of the previously mentioned cozy games, such as Stardew or Animal Crossing, Boku no Natsuyasumi tends to be on the lighter side gameplay-wise, instead aiming to serve as an immersive depiction of a young child making the most of their summer. With the game’s activities ranging from beetle fighting, to collecting bottle caps, to helping your family and friends complete small errands, the experience often feels like a culmination of small moments rather than any sort of linear story and that’s a big part of what makes it feel special. Regardless of how you spend your time, Boku no Natsuyasumi consistently romanticizes every second and reminds the player that even fleeting moments can be significant and impactful, whether that be a small discussion between characters, a minute spent sitting with a friend in silence while the dissonant melody of a record coats the playground, an afternoon spent catching bugs while running through the sun, or a loving mealtime spent laughing with family.
If that all sounds relaxing and joyous, you’re right, it absolutely is. Unfortunately, despite this series being published directly by Sony Computer Entertainment and having a sizeable cult following, we still have yet to ever receive official English localizations of any entry in this series, with only Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 having a playable English fan-translation. I have found this to be bewildering, especially given that Sony has openly acknowledged their connection to the series with character avatars from the games being available on PSN and with there even being a robot depiction of Boku within 2024’s Astro Bot.
All hope doesn’t seem to be entirely lost, however, as Millennium Kitchen has released several games in the West over the past few years such as 2021’s Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation and 2023’s Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid. As you can tell by the game titles, all are quite thematically similar to Boku no Natsuyasumi and seem to be intended as spiritual successors. While it’s nice to see new output from the studio, there is just something unique and engrossing about the presentation of Boku no Natsuyasumi that doesn’t seem to be quite present in these newer titles. That being said I have been intending to check out Natsu-Mon for quite some time and may finally dip into it before the summer concludes, here’s hoping it manages to re-capture the nostalgia and earnestness that Boku overflows with.
Featured Image: Millennium Kitchen (via Axe of the Blood God)
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