Game Groups > Boku no Natsuyasumi series

Boku no Natsuyasumi is a series of Japanese life simulation games developed by Millennium Kitchen about spending a summer vacation as a young boy in Japan. Games in the series have been exclusively released for PlayStation, starting with the original Boku no Natsuyasumi in 2000 for the PlayStation up to the last entry Boku no Natsuyasumi 4 for the PSP in 2009. Games have also been released for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. All games are in Japanese and none of them has been localized for the West. The main creator is Kaz Ayabe. The setting for the first game was inspired by the town of Tsukiyono, in the Yamanashi Prefecture of the Chūbu region. The other games are set in different locations such as a coastal town or the countryside in Hokkaidō.

The games offer a sandbox environment where the young Boku (aged nine or ten) can freely choose how to spend his summer. The games have a limited number of days (only one month in August) and time advances with each new screen. Typical activities include exploring, doing quests, talking to characters, spending time with the family, fishing, bug collecting, swimming, riding a bike, duelling with kids, writing in a journal and so on. The games are meant to be played in multiple playthroughs as there is not enough time to do everything. Boku has the same age in every game, so games two to four are alternate universe sequels. The first three games are set in August 1975, the fourth game in 1985. The freedom and the focus on mundane activities shares DNA with franchises such as Harvest Moon, Shenmue and elements of the Yakuza series.

The game uses fixed screen, pre-rendered environments with 3D models and a cinematic camera with a different viewpoint for each scene. Many scenes offer interaction for the sake of exploration, with no further purpose.

There are four main games in the series, but the developer also created some titles with a similar concept such as Bokura no Kazoku (2005) focusing on raising a family in Tokyo for 35 years and Attack of the Friday Monsters! (2013) for Level-5's Guild series.

Two more games were announced, but eventually never released: a winter vacation spin-off and a smartphone game that was in development at Sony's ForwardWorks Corporation.

The 2022 game Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation - The Endless Seven-Day Journey with a similar concept, but carrying the license of the comic-strip and animation character Shin-chan as he spends his summer in Kyushu with his family, is considered a spiritual sequel to the series with the involvement of the original creators.

Related links:* Wikipedia: Boku no Natsuyasumi (article in the open encyclopedia bout the series) * jp.playstation.com (archived overview of the series on the Japanese PlayStation website) * The beloved, bucolic My Summer Vacation series breaks free from Japan (article on Polygon about the series, 13th August 2022)