Was heavily inspired by the Into the Aether podcast to pick this one up. Never played any of these Boku no Natsuyasumi "nostalgic adventure" games before, but this does definitely capture the vibe of an idyllic suburban town on the verge of modernization and such. Very pleasant running around and listening to the trains and cicadas.

The only other experience I have with this subgenre is FLCL, which while having a more coming-of-age focus, does still have monsters and aliens and absurd abstract ideas presented through a kids' point of view.

Personally, I enjoyed it as a succinct package but didn't really find the story or characters that engaging, which turned the game to more of a "run to this point on the map to progress the story" rather than an organic evolving story. Collecting the Glim was fine, and the card game is neat and cute in how it ties to the plot.

On the one hand, I wish that they didn't include map markers so you had to really explore more to find the person you were looking for, but on the other, map traversal started to become a bit of a slog in the second half of the game, especially in the southern bridge area.

Overall, a neat package, but don't think this genre's necessarily for me. Still enjoyed checking it out though. Being able to have different conversation topics with everyone and hear their mundane thoughts at the end is a gem.