AoKana released like 3 or 4 years ago, I think can’t compare.
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After read four heroine routes, and still in Umi’s route. I can’t judge this game easily much like previous Key’s works, there are some touching scene in this game but still this it can’t reach my high expectation, more like I already expected that the quality of game is lower than AB.
Overall, it’s a good ride tho. But still I’m disappointed with this game. Tho I like the idea of the legends, Umi’s route…
でもさ、私はまだ蒼と紬推しですよ
Just finished Pocket, this game moved me so much, I’ve made an account just to say this.
CLANNAD is not distant memory for me, was only a few months ago that I’ve watched the anime and finished the VN. Watching clips and hearing the OST now still makes me emotional.
Like many of you, I initially felt Summer Pockets is just a struggling attempt by KEY to get back what they had in their prime. After the first four routes, it still felt that way. But by the end of ALKA, I was holding back tears. Then Pocket happened and I just sat there, crying. To me, it’s like they took CLANNAD and turned it up to 11. The family aspect and self sacrifice of both stories really hit it home for me.
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I can’t read Japanese, so I just want to know if Maeda had any songs in this I should listen to. @ me if you know any good ones! Though unsure if they’ll have any way to listen to them so soon after the game released.
Just finished the game. I think if you love Key’s works, you’ll love it, but if you tend to be more critical and picky (like me) you’ll find a number of issues. It maintains that magical Key atmosphere that people love but the actual writing quality falls short of their better works. Not to say the writing is bad, just definitely not their best. That said, I totally cried at the climax and the whole family love and self-sacrifice themes reminiscent of Clannad were really well done. Like all Key works, the biggest factor ends up being how much you resonate with the themes and story.
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Maeda writing lyrics for the grand ending song “Pocket o Fukuramasete”, which is the best song with me in the game. You can search it’s name to listen on YouTube or Nicovideo.
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Found the track. Yep; love it! I’ll have to avoid reading the lyrics to it before I get the chance to actually read Summer Pockets.
So I really have no idea why, but it appears the pre-order store exclusive drama CDs are actually included in the game’s voice files. There’s a bunch of stuff towards the end of the koe folder that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, so I don’t know if this is a mistake or something, but I won’t say no to free things.
z0265 - Shiroha
z0266 - Kamome
z0267 - Ao
z0268 - Tsumugi
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http://key.visualarts.gr.jp/diary/2018/07/post_172.html
Soundtrack is being made at the moment, no release date yet.
Na-Ga is doing the cover art.
Will be 3 discs with 48 tracks.
I can’t wait!
EDIT:
Found some twitter posts of people visiting the real life locations in the game:
Far view of the island
Ferry Terminal
Shiroha’s secret spot
Cough
Snack shop, side street, cafeteria
Sea side path, light house
Katou family’s home
Bonus
Some guy singing Alka Tale with actual game CGs at some karaoke box
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http://offtama.hatenablog.jp/entry/2018/07/02/231712
This person did a comprehensive blog with heaps of photos of locations from the game!
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http://key.visualarts.gr.jp/summer/sp/car_auction.html
The Summer Pockets promotion itasha is going up for auction on 7/26.
I have yet to play the game, but I hope I enjoy it more than Rewrite. While I did enjoy a large bit of Rewrite, it wasn’t near the rest of the Key family by a long shot. For me, it is the least coherent of the games in terms of writing (waiting to read the new version that is to come out some day in English). I would also put AIR above Rewrite too.
So I still have high hopes for the game and the high rating have me intrigued.
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Following the post about the Summer Pockets main menu music trancription (Key Musical Transcriptions), I wanted to talk about the original piece itself.
Similar to the Tomoyo After menu music, this is a piece that kept me from starting the actual VN, and I think that the one thing that both pieces of music share in common is their simplicity in composition. Sure, Summer Pockets has some fucked up chords at times, but most of the time it sticks to regular major or minor chords and fifths, which aren’t something spectacular for a piece of music. And the whole track doesn’t have a single alterned note that deviates from its key signature. And yet with such simplicity of composition, it manages to grip the listener.
Most of the track uses arpeggiated chords and appoggiaturas (musical ornaments) that together with the breathtaking performance of the piece turn the simplistic composition into a complex music interpretation. The alteration of the tempo during the first seconds of the track and the last ones is almost impossible to transcribe, and I pretty much gave up with the transcription of dynamic expressions (forte, piano, pianissimo and so on) because the performer plays such an expressive take on the composition that pretty much every note should have a different dynamics anotation.
Without having yet played Summer Pockets nor knowing anything about its story I can tell that the music evoques a sense of relaxation as if the breeze was caressing the listener while he’s falling asleep on the grassy slopes of the island. The listener could be either alone or with some friends, but I’m pretty sure that the listener is alone by the end, as the duration of the notes becomes longer and longer and the piece ends with a very basic “5-1-5” chord that doesn’t even specify if it has a happy feeling (major chord) or dull feeling (minor chord). It’s as if the end of the VN is going to be the main character being left alone in some bittersweet scene and then the reader has to decide whether that’s a good or a bad ending.
Overall, I can’t stress this enough, but the key to this track’s success is its simplicity and amazing performance. Add a relaxing blue and green drawing to an already relaxing piece of music and you have a perfect main menu.
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Oooooh great job moga! I absolutely love the menu music; it might be my favorite menu music so far! And seeing you make a transcription of it so quickly makes me glad 
here’s hoping this can open up for more fan covers of the song (though your performance is great too)
Might I suggest mirroring this transcript on the transcriptions topic? I’d move it there myself but this post contains enough summer pockets discussion that i don’t want to move out of here 
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So I said that, and the negativity and trauma is still a big part of Hairi’s personality, but I figured something out partway through Tsumugi. This guy is Mikorin. From that point I started reading his lines with Okamoto Nobuhiko’s voice, and I think it works really well. This guy is so goddamn moe! Glad this artist recognized that too. The picture is based on a Common event where Hairi tries to tease Nomiki. There’s a couple variations. This seems based on the one where Hairi tries to say he loves Nomiki but gets too embarrassed. Shiroha isn’t there for that one though.
I read the trial.
Better than expected/10.
Music is nice.
Shiroha is really good.
Could do without the map screen crashing the game more often than it doesn’t though.
So far it’s Shiroha > Ao > Umi > Seagull > Wenders > Hydro.
Just gonna assume cowtits goes at the bottom of that, I don’t believe she’s in the trial.
Mildly looking forward to the full in 4 years.
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Oh no the poor guy…
Anyways, so far while I’m still in common route, I’m currently really enjoying this novel and translation. I like how it’s story is set on the island and the characters on it are lively, funny, very enjoyable to watch and read and has quickly caught my interests which I really like. I can’t wait to see the official translation to come out later in the future and finish this visual novel entirely.
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I loved the mood, I loved the OST, the visuals are God-like level, I loved the characters, I loved Kamome’s route and fairly enjoyed Shiroha’s and Ao’s.
Alka (the main route), I liked much less. It takes way too much from previous Key works, to a degree that I found simply unacceptable. I didn’t really like Tsumugi’s route either, it drags on for a while.
Some characters deserved more story.
Also, I’m pretty sure Tsumugi’s Route and Kamome’s don’t bring anything to the overall story at all. Pretty disappointing, given that Little Busters and Rewrite managed to link all their routes together.
Overall, I’m not sure how I should feel about Summer Pockets. A part of me loved it, another one found it way too disappointing. Right now, I would say I loved it despite its flaws.
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I think you’re being a bit generous there. I don’t see how Samapoke’s are done less so.
About Rewrite, I’m pretty confident that I’m not generous. About LB… maybe ^^.
I mean, in Rewrite, each Route depicts the same conflict from a different point of view. If you miss a Route, you miss a chunk of the story and you won’t understand everything because every Route gives important explanations for the main story.
As for LB, maybe not all Routes were useful indeed. But at the very least, the story justifies the existence of these Routes. In terms of story, they may not be useful, but in the overall experience they do serve a purpose.
That’s not really the case with Summer Pockets, where Tsumugi and Kamome are really independant from the rest.
They don’t even appear a single time in Shiroha and Ao’s routes, and it’s not like they were really useful in Alka either.
But again, I loved Kamome’s route and I wouldn’t have enjoyed SP that much without her!
