Summer Pockets

One adventure that dwindles into one fairly engaging experience through all its ups and downs while continually preserving its adventurous spirit of summer on a small, reserved island. Sharing the time of exploring this peculiar setting through all the more youthful eyes and encountering hidden inner struggles of these several heroines, ultimately growing stronger together and finding time to cherish every one of these fleeting, precious seconds until this summer has to end. Marking another notable entry in Key's library of works by living up to past endeavours.

If there's one thing I wish for more than anything else, I'd like to spend one more summer with you

Filled between and during all its routes, perhaps Summer Pockets atmosphere is one striking element that usually pulls it off and genuinely does have the right sense of exciting summer days that not only during its common route makes for a relaxing but also engaging time that slowly but surely touches on more emotional notes subsequent to entering one route, enhanced largely by its soundtrack that does have many comforting tracks. During these character routes, Tsumugi for sure ended up leaving one of the most positive notes on me mainly due to the way of how hell a cute and adorable she is while further diving into her indivdual and hardships, paired with other routes such as Kamome's which can end up being engaging on a different note due to the shifts it can take. Not disappointingly this works white haired girl Shiroha could be considered a standout as well, whose route initially might not be that outstanding but persistently lives by her intriguing character and rather shy, inner going personality. Whereas a few of the initial stories themselves can sometimes be slightly on the weaker side, it still manages to pull it off with their respective character moments most of the time.

Through all of this the Alka route might be one of the best that sets the bar relatively high and doesn't miss. From everything that happened before, I'd certainly consider this to be one of the biggest highlights of the game that reaches the right emotional key notes while somewhat neatly tying most things together, hard to talk about in detail without potentially spoiling things yet paying off in a fairly strong way. While ending on its last and final part, one of the only fallbacks I can think of would be a certain kind of repetition that can be felt in the way things are played off at the start of some routes and restarts. Not saying this is inherently bad and it works with the way things play out, but it certainly can feel slightly recurring at a certain point. Yet it doesn't falter with how it weaves the story together and hits the landing, making for a great experience that makes going through most of what came before worth it with the climax it ultimately reaches.

Extra character routes introduced in Reflection Blue have a pleasing touch to them as well and add some worthwhile, deserved content for the likes of Shizuka or Umi. Not setting the world anew, but being welcome additions that don't take anything away, perchance merely padding things a bit too long out until arriving at its final routes. Newly introduced heroine Shiki otherwise has a fairly interesting story but as far as my feelings go, I didn't vibe as much with her personally, besides she can feel quite disconnected from the rest. Given she is a whole new character that's likely a given but still noticeable whereas most other characters manage to develop a closer acquaintance with each other over time. Not necessarily in a bad way and still somewhat suits her character resulting from her story though.

Like feathers in the wind, time distorted and flew by, yet somehow we still managed to meet and found a way to treasure this time between us, almost as if it was all a dream, yet it felt all so precious. Please never forget the bond we shared, promise me to look forward and maybe we'll meet again in the future, the horizon that awaits us

Usually I'd say Key games tend to fall in one of two major categories for me, on one hand there are the ones I very much love and ultimately managed to make me more than emotional, succeeding with their high points and inner character relationships paired with all the resulting emotions, on the other hand though there are the ones that kind of failed for me because they either didn't resonate much with me personally, their humor being something I don't vibe as much with or being ones that can feel a bit too uninspired, tracing the success of former works while not having as much of an identity of their own, ending up as too short as to really make a name for themselves. Coming from this perspective, I'm glad to be able to say that Summer Pockets for all I felt managed to fall in line with the former half, ending up as a work that did well and surprised in a positive light.

Therein I for one feel more confident in Key and the team's capabilities even without someone like Maeda in the forefront who previously enchanted beautiful works like Tomoyo After, Clannad or Air with his talent that ever so often shined through in key vital moments of these titles. Maeda made them big and from thereon these roots spread and might give other talented people the chance to come in the spotlight to show their potential.

Hopefully more beautiful and moving works can arise from Key, with a bright future lying ahead that doesn't ditch their roots and can also go back to what they previously encompassed. Not being ashamed of eroge and their past endeavours into erotica. In fact, Summer Pockets could've certainly benefited from being one, every once in a while I felt like there's something missing without it, there being several instances where it could've been enriched by it, and I for one always had a liking for their adult content.

Coming to a close, I look fairly fondly back on this adventure and am once more reminded of how special some of Key's games can be... Thank you for staying until the end

Ghonf