An expanded game of Summer Pockets
Summer Pockets Reflection Blue is a new version of the game Summer Pockets with new routes, scenes and a new heroine called Shiki Kamiyama.
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This is most definitely my favorite Key visual novel ever. A culmination of everything their previous works were and execute them incredibly well. Summer Pockets is deserving of many praises.
This past summer I've had the pleasure to read Key's Summer Pockets Reflection Blue, my first big Key VN after being a fan of their anime adaptations for years. It's been a long 3 month adventure and it's been an absolute joy from start to finish.
To start off with the good, I'll quickly mention the crisp art, beautiful character designs (finally Key...), stunning CGs and memorable soundtrack. They all made the VN feel polished and made it one of the most pleasant audiovisual experiences with the medium I've had thus far.
I think the best thing about Summer Pockets is its colourful cast. If there is one thing Key does well, it's having charming quirky characters with brilliant comedy and character dynamics. Even 80 hours in I still had a smile on my face whenever I saw the gang hang out, goof around together and have fun. They somehow manage to even make the one-note comedic relief characters fun without ever getting overbearing.
My favourite character and route was Tsumugi. At first her design didn't even look that striking to me and she was the girl I was least interested in, but it didn't take long for her to win me over. She just strikes the right balance in so many ways. She has a childish innocent charm but not to the extend that she feels like a loli. She's quirky and weird but not to the extend that you feel alienated from her, you can still sympathise and understand her. She's cheerful and positive but not overbearingly so, and her voice is just nice and chill. Her route was the most slice of lifey and bittersweet of all, as opposed to the more heavy dramatic other routes, and I loved how it wasn't just Hairi and her, but she also had a best friend who changed the dynamic in a good way.
A cool feature of this VN is how after the prologue, you unlock a world map where you can select who or where you wanna hang out to spend your summer vacation days, and depending on your choices you end up getting locked onto a route after a little while. It was such a unique approach and made me feel like I had a better mental image of the island itself.
Speaking of the island, Summer Pockets goes through pretty great length with worldbuilding, having a bunch of history and lore, as well as reoccuring and memorable locations which all end up tying to the routes in a multitude of ways. It really felt like the island of Torishirojima and its inhabitants have its own culture and traditions, which I always appreciate.
Summer Pockets also has some awesome mini games. I was amazed by how in-depth and fun the ping pong mini game was, giving a bunch of extra dialogue options, a myriad of special attacks that were unique to each character, the ability to play doubles with anyone in the tournament and how intuitive and fun it was to play in the first place. It also had a pokemon style mini game where you collect cards and fight off against other characters. It's more luck based than the more skill-based ping pong, but still a fun way to spend your time when you wanna take a breather between routes.
While I have a lot I love about Summer Pockets that greatly outweighs anything negative, I do have a couple of problems, which are common problems I have with Key's works.
As usual, the drama more often than not feels very contrived and artificial. Plot elements are invented just to push the plot in a certain direction that ultimately leads to a sad scenario, and other plot elements also only exist to ultimately bring forth a happy ending. It's just so rare to find drama that feels organic and logical. I think the only exception is Shizuku's route, added in Reflection Blue. This route is far less reliant on magical twists and is far more character driven with actual good character writing. While there were a few other routes I had more fun with, this route was def the one I had the least amount of issues with.
I think to truly enjoy a Key work, you need to be able to suspend disbelief and roll with a lot of bs that Key throws at you. The less you think about whether everything makes sense and whether there are plot holes, and the more you just surrender yourself to Key's emotional storytelling and tragic twists and magical crap, the more you end up enjoying this. I can do it to some extend, but it still prevents me from being 100% on board with their drama. In the end I often just cannot feel as emotional as the VN wants me to be, few exceptions aside.
One of those exceptions is the original ending. The final scenes are incredibly beautiful and actually got me quite emotional, and I was surprised by how it ended. Sadly though, Reflection Blue adds an epilogue that undoes a bit of that impact in favour of a happier ending, but it's fairly minor still and didn't entirely ruin the ending for me.
Summer Pockets feels like a love letter to Key's previous works, with a couple of references and throwbacks. This is a double edged sword though, because while nostalgia actually fits one of the themes of the show and some references made me feel warm on the inside, Summer Pockets does love to borrow some plot elements from its predecessors. While Key often does this, it feels even more noticable here. With a lot of the drama and twists, I just immediately thought of some earlier Key arc/route and it took away a bit of the magic for me.
All in all though, I had an absolute blast with this VN. I think it does so many things right. It grapples with themes like coming to terms with trauma/heartbreak/grief (instead of running away from it), family values, nostalgia and making the most of those bittersweet, joyful, endless summer vacations. It's a VN that tells you that while cherishing old memories is important, you should not try to lose sight of the future and how you can make many more great memories. And I'm sure that one day, I'll look back on Summer Pockets with nostalgia and remember the precious summer memories that it gave me as a reader.
+Brilliant cast of characters full of charm and fun dynamics that will end up feeling like your own friends.
+Slice of life comedy perfection that you'd expect from Key.
+Ties together its different themes pretty well.
+Mugyuu.
+Addicting and in-depth mini games.
+Summer atmosphere and island lore.
+Powerful ending.
+Gorgeous art, music and character designs.
-Contrived drama with a lot of plot conveniences.
-Requires way more suspension of disbelief than you should be asking from readers.
-Reuses a lot of plot elements from earlier Key works.
-Tries a bit too hard and too often to make me cry.
-Epilogue taking away a bit of the impact.
To start off with the good, I'll quickly mention the crisp art, beautiful character designs (finally Key...), stunning CGs and memorable soundtrack. They all made the VN feel polished and made it one of the most pleasant audiovisual experiences with the medium I've had thus far.
I think the best thing about Summer Pockets is its colourful cast. If there is one thing Key does well, it's having charming quirky characters with brilliant comedy and character dynamics. Even 80 hours in I still had a smile on my face whenever I saw the gang hang out, goof around together and have fun. They somehow manage to even make the one-note comedic relief characters fun without ever getting overbearing.
My favourite character and route was Tsumugi. At first her design didn't even look that striking to me and she was the girl I was least interested in, but it didn't take long for her to win me over. She just strikes the right balance in so many ways. She has a childish innocent charm but not to the extend that she feels like a loli. She's quirky and weird but not to the extend that you feel alienated from her, you can still sympathise and understand her. She's cheerful and positive but not overbearingly so, and her voice is just nice and chill. Her route was the most slice of lifey and bittersweet of all, as opposed to the more heavy dramatic other routes, and I loved how it wasn't just Hairi and her, but she also had a best friend who changed the dynamic in a good way.
A cool feature of this VN is how after the prologue, you unlock a world map where you can select who or where you wanna hang out to spend your summer vacation days, and depending on your choices you end up getting locked onto a route after a little while. It was such a unique approach and made me feel like I had a better mental image of the island itself.
Speaking of the island, Summer Pockets goes through pretty great length with worldbuilding, having a bunch of history and lore, as well as reoccuring and memorable locations which all end up tying to the routes in a multitude of ways. It really felt like the island of Torishirojima and its inhabitants have its own culture and traditions, which I always appreciate.
Summer Pockets also has some awesome mini games. I was amazed by how in-depth and fun the ping pong mini game was, giving a bunch of extra dialogue options, a myriad of special attacks that were unique to each character, the ability to play doubles with anyone in the tournament and how intuitive and fun it was to play in the first place. It also had a pokemon style mini game where you collect cards and fight off against other characters. It's more luck based than the more skill-based ping pong, but still a fun way to spend your time when you wanna take a breather between routes.
While I have a lot I love about Summer Pockets that greatly outweighs anything negative, I do have a couple of problems, which are common problems I have with Key's works.
As usual, the drama more often than not feels very contrived and artificial. Plot elements are invented just to push the plot in a certain direction that ultimately leads to a sad scenario, and other plot elements also only exist to ultimately bring forth a happy ending. It's just so rare to find drama that feels organic and logical. I think the only exception is Shizuku's route, added in Reflection Blue. This route is far less reliant on magical twists and is far more character driven with actual good character writing. While there were a few other routes I had more fun with, this route was def the one I had the least amount of issues with.
I think to truly enjoy a Key work, you need to be able to suspend disbelief and roll with a lot of bs that Key throws at you. The less you think about whether everything makes sense and whether there are plot holes, and the more you just surrender yourself to Key's emotional storytelling and tragic twists and magical crap, the more you end up enjoying this. I can do it to some extend, but it still prevents me from being 100% on board with their drama. In the end I often just cannot feel as emotional as the VN wants me to be, few exceptions aside.
One of those exceptions is the original ending. The final scenes are incredibly beautiful and actually got me quite emotional, and I was surprised by how it ended. Sadly though, Reflection Blue adds an epilogue that undoes a bit of that impact in favour of a happier ending, but it's fairly minor still and didn't entirely ruin the ending for me.
Summer Pockets feels like a love letter to Key's previous works, with a couple of references and throwbacks. This is a double edged sword though, because while nostalgia actually fits one of the themes of the show and some references made me feel warm on the inside, Summer Pockets does love to borrow some plot elements from its predecessors. While Key often does this, it feels even more noticable here. With a lot of the drama and twists, I just immediately thought of some earlier Key arc/route and it took away a bit of the magic for me.
All in all though, I had an absolute blast with this VN. I think it does so many things right. It grapples with themes like coming to terms with trauma/heartbreak/grief (instead of running away from it), family values, nostalgia and making the most of those bittersweet, joyful, endless summer vacations. It's a VN that tells you that while cherishing old memories is important, you should not try to lose sight of the future and how you can make many more great memories. And I'm sure that one day, I'll look back on Summer Pockets with nostalgia and remember the precious summer memories that it gave me as a reader.
+Brilliant cast of characters full of charm and fun dynamics that will end up feeling like your own friends.
+Slice of life comedy perfection that you'd expect from Key.
+Ties together its different themes pretty well.
+Mugyuu.
+Addicting and in-depth mini games.
+Summer atmosphere and island lore.
+Powerful ending.
+Gorgeous art, music and character designs.
-Contrived drama with a lot of plot conveniences.
-Requires way more suspension of disbelief than you should be asking from readers.
-Reuses a lot of plot elements from earlier Key works.
-Tries a bit too hard and too often to make me cry.
-Epilogue taking away a bit of the impact.
10/10 would play this every year. Masterpiece from visual art Key
This review contains spoilers
Not going to rate it since i only played for the extra's.
I do think Reflection Blue is pretty necessary not for the routes but the extra little bits on the true routes that the original game misses. Otherwise the extra routes are more Summer Pockets content to consume. I don't feel that they contribute to the original story that much for me. But it explores the "main side-characters" more that didn't have a route in the main game.
I do think Reflection Blue is pretty necessary not for the routes but the extra little bits on the true routes that the original game misses. Otherwise the extra routes are more Summer Pockets content to consume. I don't feel that they contribute to the original story that much for me. But it explores the "main side-characters" more that didn't have a route in the main game.
I can't fully articulate how much this game means to me and the pure emotions it brings out of me in every route. I'll just say that this is the most consistent route based vn I've ever read, I genuinely adore every route and every heroine. Seeing the progression of Key from the beginnings of Kanon and Clannad to something this refined is so satisfyingly. While being familiar in the types of themes it tackles, Summer Pockets is able to separate itself as unique with how it executes on similar concepts of past Key works. The setting, the characters even outside of the heroines, all of it contributes to creating a fictional world I didn't want to leave.