Sisters: Last Day of Summer Reviews

Do not buy this game. -Choices you make don't matter, defeating the purpose of choices. -This has the visual novel equivalent of unskippable cutscenes. -Skipping is inconsistent. -Game crashes consistently in key scenes. -You can't even patch in the 18+ content without running into crashes. If you still want to play this game, I recommend getting it elsewhere.

Animation good, but too many crashes. Cant recommend.

Garbage not worth the high price for steam making it crash for whatever reason, to make it boring.

This is an older game and it has not been optimized. I ran into several bugs while playing the game, forcing me to back-and-forth with Compatibility Mode on Windows 11. This visual novel is slow. Player agency is taken away from being able to simply skip through text boxes. It made me appreciate the anime artwork more, but the CGI housing transitions have aged poorly and don't mesh. I liked the experience, but this was a slog to play. I would have appreciated this a lot more if it ran better on modern PCs.

[h1]Imperfect but Remarkable Masterpiece🌟[/h1] Developed by Jellyfish Limited, [i]Sisters: Last Day of Summer[/i] is a short visual novel based on the story among the protagonist, two girls, and their mother. The game was released in April, 2011, followed by its Ultra Edition in 2013. It’s currently priced at $24.99 on Steam and Jast USA with only 9-hour length, but compared to other visual novels such as [i]Riddle Joker[/i] and [i]Aokana[/i], I’d rather say it’s somewhat cheap??? That being said, if you really enjoy a visual novel with animation, it’s highly recommended to try it. [h3]Fleeting yet Pleasant Summer🌟[/h3] The story begins with a boy making a call from a telephone booth. Next, he rode a bike and got in a traffic accident, being severely injured. Little things do we know next. Then, it jumped into a greeting from an unknown woman. She asked the hero to do chores without revealing her name until they watched the TV show. Next day, she disappeared, leaving her daughter Chika and Haruka to take care of the hero, whom he encountered on the porch. Chika and Haruka accepted the boy very soon and treated him normally, as if they’d seen him as a family member, though at first, Haruka was surprised to meet him. In fact, if it’s your first time to play this game, you may realize how impossible that is: the protagonist was quite reserved, doing housework without any complaint, while these girls were so open to him, showing him kindness and friendliness. However, as the story develops, you will come to understand everything. The story isn’t that long: it takes place between August 1st and 17th, 1990. As I mentioned earlier, it lasts only nine hours in total, which seems a little bit short for a visual novel. Yet, the narrative itself is impressive and touching. It unfolds in a way that evokes strong empathy. When the heroine cried in agony, it’s truly heart-wrenching. For me, I got deeply moved when reading Haruka’s words: “Do you know why you are sad right now?” “That is because you were happy before.” “Because your memories have become treasures.” “The fact that you are sad right now is proof that you were truly happy.” [h3]Hentai Part🌟[/h3] [i]Sisters[/i] wouldn’t be nearly as extraordinary if it didn’t have the Hentai part—a key element of H-games. Personally, I’m exceptionally fond of this segment. [strike]In fact, before I started to play Sisters, I’d already watched its Seijin clips dozens of times. Believe it or not, I even downloaded the full-length versions to my phone such that I could enjoy them offline.[/strike] This section contains eight parts of physical relationships, all of which are based on real-life Seijin videos. Unlike a nukige that solely focuses on ecchi gratification, it’s rather similar to an eroge, starting with romantic moments and French kiss, and gradually moving toward more explicit scenes, which in turn creates a natural flow as the romantic relationship deepens. The description of reactions also contributes to its remarkability, as it makes the characters feel more real. In the gal’s first experience, when the protagonist gently parted the gal’s petals, she tensed up and flinched, showing signs of fear and nervousness. While it was going in, her tears fell and her hands started to tremble. Yet, after it was over, she still desired another chance. All these reactions make the heroine feel less like a fictional character and more like a real individual with mixed feelings toward her loved one. [h3]Anime or Novel?🌟[/h3] What sets the game apart from other traditional visual novels is its use of animation. Some sequences are looped, consisting of repeated body movements, whereas others act as transitions between two scenes. Through this technique, certain effects become possible, such as swaying grass and drifting clouds. It also employs 3D animation, which doesn’t appear too awkward when combined with lighting. Thus, the animation works well in the game. Nevertheless, the game retains certain VN-like aspects, including the reuse of settings and CG. Certain illustrations stay largely unchanged; apart from the characters’ clothing, little else varies. Besides, some of the scenes remain static since they just involve mouth movements and eye blinks. In some sense, the game is still a visual novel. [h3]Drawback & Problems🌟[/h3] The main drawback is the bugs and incompatibility. During the session, I experienced screen flashes along with multiple game crashes, after which everything got lost except my save files. Also, after the patches were applied, the interface switched to stupid Korean without an option for other languages, and words just got corrupted in the dialogue. In addition, there’s no way to return to previous conversation as the game doesn’t even provide a button to do that. Last, choice doesn’t matter: the game features only a single ending, any other potential branches being cut off. [h3]Some Tips🌟[/h3] * Save the game each day in case of a sudden system failure. * Lower the sound effects and BGM for better audio balance. * Set autoread to slow to free up your hands and enjoy yourself. [h3]Summary🌟[/h3] Although [i]Sisters: Last Day of Summer[/i] has numerous issues and the ending isn’t quite satisfying for everyone, it still succeeds in several areas, such as the refined CG and layered storytelling. More importantly, the animation technique makes it exceptional and outstanding. Overall, I’d rate this game 8 out of 10.