Demo Play Thursday - Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid, from Toybox and Millennium Kitchen.

This has just come out and had received a little bit of fanfare so i was curious as to what all the fuss was about. these vacation style games are somewhat common in Japan and something i've known about for a long time, but i've never played one. So again, i was keen to give it ago.

The game makes it clear that it's a demo on it's main screen but just as impressively it has a link to pre-order the game from the eShop, something that many games don't include. What isn't made clear is if there have been any changes to the game for the demo or how long, or what we're going to do in the demo.

We start with a nice video sequence that helps set the scene. but i wasn't blown away by the visuals. this is true for the rest of the demo. i liked what they've done for the characters but in a way it's too good in comparison to the rest of the game. the characters have style and a unique look about them but the rest of the world feels plain and not as impressive. it feels like the Switch couldn't pull off what they were trying to do with the art.

I was also disappointed with how long the demo is. being so short means there's not a lot for us to do. so much of the demo is scripted, we're only able to briefly explore the town before it's night time. we're encouraged to interact with town people, bug hunt, and investigate a mysterious apparition, but they never felt that connected to the story. so in the short time we had to play, it felt like busy work rather than something that helped flesh out the world and the story.

So i came away from the demo for Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid not really wanting to get the game. i don't think this demo has done much to put it in a positive light. and there's some weird conversation stuff, too, that really took me out of the experience. there were two occasions near the end where i said something to another character, but couldn't end the conversation. i had to do all 3 interactions with them. that's not something that happens in story games, you say something and the story moves on. And one of those people was some random guy i'd never seen before who seems to be a private detective, but why were they in the guest house and why were they talking to a young kid.

After my brief time with Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid, i honestly can't recommend it right now. wait for reviews and see is all this confusion is a bug or a result of how short the demo is.