Everlasting Summer

Everlasting Summer
Developer(s)	Soviet Games
Publisher(s)	Independent
Director(s)	Dreamtale
Producer(s)	Dreamtale
Designer(s)	Huyase ArseniXC SoraSora OrikaNekoi
Programmer(s)	Lolbot Dreamtale
Artist(s)	ArseniXC Huyase VVCephei SoraSora Veel OrikaNekoi
Writer(s)	Dreamtale
Composer(s)	Sergey Eybog (SilentOwl) Between August and December
Engine	Ren'Py
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android
Release date(s)	December 21, 2013 (Russian)[1][2] November 19, 2014 (English)[3]
Genre(s)	Visual novel, eroge, dating sim
Mode(s)	Single player

Everlasting Summer (Russian: Бесконечное лето, tr. Beskonechnoe leto) is a visual novel, produced by Soviet Games, that tells the story of a 25-year-old man living in modern Russia who finds himself mysteriously transported to a summer camp somewhere in the former Soviet Union. It was originally produced in Russian and was first released in December 2013. The English translation was released in November 2014 when the game was made available on Steam. The game includes some adult content which was removed from the Steam release^[4] though it is easily restored.^[5] An online version with restored adult content was released on Nutaku in August 2015.^[6]

Story

Semyon is a reclusive 25-year-old living in a large city somewhere in early 21st century Russia, spending most of his time in his flat interacting with others on his computer and earning enough to keep the bills paid. One winter day he boards a bus to attend a reunion, falls asleep along the way, and awakens to find it's now summer and he's dropped off at the front gates of a place called Sovionok (Совёнок, "owlet" in Russian). Semyon soon discovers it is a Pioneer Camp populated by youth, including several attractive girls who show interest in him; furthermore, he has reverted to his 18-year-old self and it is now the mid-1980s. In the days that follow, Semyon must navigate the relationships and possibly find love with the various people he encounters, while trying to solve the mystery of how and why he was brought to this place, and how to escape and return to his former life once it becomes evident he may be trapped in a time loop.

The game uses texts and sprites in a manner similar to many Japanese visual novels and runs on the Ren'Py visual novel engine. At various points the player must make choices which will affect dialogue and determine what path the game will take. The game has multiple endings, some of them portraying Semyon forming a romantic relationship with one of the female characters, while others end badly. Some of the endings are not available until they are unlocked by completing other endings.

Characters

Primary

Semyon/Семён

Semyon, a male of age 25 in the opening but regressed to 18 during most of the game, is the protagonist of the game. He is portrayed as having brown hair. He describes himself as being nothing special and a person you could easily miss on the street. He attended the university but quit after half a year, and then continued doing odd jobs for a living. He also once used to be able to play the guitar and his programming skills were told to be above average.

Slavya/Славя

Slavya has gold hair in two braids that go down to her waist, is a nature-lover, and is the "good girl" who tries to help out around the camp any way she can. When asked where her family is from, she responds with "somewhere cold". Her loyalty towards the pioneer spirit is shown several times, where she states out the rules of the camp and tries to keep the pioneers together. She likes nature and hinted at pursuing a career in the subject.

Lena/Лена

Lena, who has short purple hair, is introverted and can often be seen reading a book. She has been friends with Alisa for a long time, since the grew up in the same town, but their relationship has gotten more complicated over the years. During the game she develops a more open and outgoing character that may grow to be fond of the Semyon, but she might not be as innocent as expected. She has no problem with being alone and can sometimes be seeing practicing by herself, but nonetheless she still maintains friendships with other characters like Slavya.

Alisa/Алиса

Alisa has short orange hair and is the more rebellious "bad girl", who also plays guitar. She is shown as a very outgoing and aggressive girl that doesn't take no for an answer, but her soft side is revealed later in the game. Her friendship with Lenya has led to a complicated situation, but she still maintains a relatively good relationship with her. She is often angered because of people labeling her as a punk girl with no sense of order, but even though some of it might be true, she only does it to escape the boredom and odd look from being at the camp.

Ulyana/Ульяна

Ulyana is about 3-4 years younger than the other girls and has medium-length red hair. She is the athletic tomboy and enjoys scary stories. She is shown to always be in some sort of trouble, and her childish nature does not help her with escaping the situations she often ends up in. she has become infamous for stealing candy and other things she finds interesting or funny, and this has led to the camp leader Olga always keeping an eye on her. During her development she show that she only want to be accepted for who she is, and not for the child people think she is.

Miku/Мику

Miku is Japanese and has long cyan hair in two ponytails. She can often be found in the music room. She is very bad at communicating in sentences that actually make much sense, and often ends up spewing out more than the main character can chew. She often makes obscure references based on the situation at hand, and doesn't not seem to be the brightest of the bunch. Yet, she shows talent in music and always seem to keep her head held high. Her unique story can be unlocked.

Yulya/Юля

Yulya is a catgirl with brown hair, whom Semyon believes knows something about why he was brought to the camp. She is only seen in some of the later unlocked storylines. She is shown as a very timid girl that has had no real connection to anyone since her arrival at camp. She often relies on the food she pilfers from the cantina and the different nuts and berries found in the forest surrounding the camp. Though it is unclear how she arrived at the camp, she is knowledgeable of the situation of the protagonist.

All of the girls except Ulyana are portrayed as being 18 years old.

Supporting

Olga Dmitrievna/Ольга Дмитриевна

Olga Dmitrievna, an adult well into her twenties, is the camp counselor.

Elektronik/Электроник

Electronik is a male, gold hair, who spends much of his time at the club house tinkering with gadgets. He is named after a robot character from a popular Soviet book/film series.

Shurik/Шурик

Shurik is a male with gold hair and glasses. He too spends much of his time in the club house building a robot.

Zhenya/Женя

Zhenya is a teenage girl with short black hair and glasses, who works as the camp librarian.

Viola/Виола

Viola is the camp nurse, described as middle-aged, who cares for the sick and injured at the camp infirmary.

"Pioneer"/"Пионер"

A mysterious pioneer, who appears to be Semyon from an alternate reality, visits him on occasion, often to taunt him.

Development

Game development started in May 2008 based off an image posted to the Russian IIchan imageboard. The project soon moved to IRC channels, and had some drama and personnel changes over the years. Little was heard from the development team until a preliminary version was released on November 5, 2013, followed by the general release of the Russian version on December 21. The English version was released November 19, 2014. A web version was released in August 2015 on Nutaku.net.

Reception

Feedback for the game has been generally positive. Two Russian-language gaming sites, itndaily^[7] and Канобу,^[8] gave it generally positive reviews, while a reviewer at Thumbsticks gave the English-language version a less favorable review following its release on Steam.^[9] As of November 2015, the Visual Novel Database gives it an average rating of 7.51 (good) with over 596 votes,^[10] and of more than 10,281 Steam users, 94% have given the game a Recommended rating.^[3]

References

External links

• Official website
• Everlasting Summer on Steam
• "Beskonechnoe leto". The Visual Novel Database.