Summer Pockets Walkthrough by Kaza member Takafumi!

Key News Blog Discussion
#1
For those of you diving into Summer Pockets, if you’re having trouble navigating your way through each of the character routes, community member Takafumi has prepared a bilingual guide for getting through the routes to complete the game! You can find a link to the guide here. It is based on information from this Japanese guide here with a few adjustments by Takafumi himself, along with his recommendation for route order. The guide does not include information on the minigames or Record completion, so you’ll need to look elsewhere for that information, but this guide should be plenty helpful for those who just want to get through the story. Thanks Taka!
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://kazamatsuri.org/summer-pockets-walkthrough-kaza-member-takafumi/
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#2

I’m going to have to disagree with the route order, specifically in terms of Ao’s placement. It really surprised me that Key decided to reveal so much information in her route despite not being locked, so it’s definitely true that it makes the other routes make more sense. But in my view, that mystery of not fully understanding what’s going on is what makes the routes more interesting and drives me to read the next route. I read Ao’s route last, and I’m glad I did. By the time you’ve read the other 3 routes, the hints overlap enough that you can piece together your own theories so when you get to Ao’s, it ends up being a confirmation of how much you guessed correctly. I very much enjoy that kind of journey in VNs. I’m sure there are people who are turned off by a route with unanswered questions and would enjoy it more if they could understand what’s going on better, but personally, that ruins a lot of the enjoyment of the overall story, even if it might make the individual route stronger. Just my 2 cents.

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#3

Thanks for the input Kaze! I’m glad we’re having some critical discussion about the route order, because I hate to see these discussions get dominated by one route order being the “correct” one.

I feel like I’d probably enjoy the reveals from the route coming up later than earlier in the story, but I’ll need to read for myself to find out.

#4

After thinking about it for a while, I can certainly see Ao’s route being a decent final route.

My main reasoning for having Ao’s route early is that it both pairs up super well with Shiroha’s route imo, and it helps the Tsumugi route out quite a bit. The Ao route itself is also fairly underwhelming as a mystery because of the messed up pacing. I can’t imagine how much that problem would increase if the reader had all of the knowledge of the other heroine routes and had to spend even more hours waiting for what feels like an inevitable conclusion…
The route also spends a lot of time fleshing out the island and its inhabitants that I find compliments the following routes. It also gives you the most time for minigame grinding, which can help out later for completing the Monquest. But those are very minor things.
Essentially, I’m not entirely sure if weakening an already weakish mystery is a good sacrifice to increase the retrospective opinion of the other routes.

However if that payoff does prove to be a good one for a reader, or if the reader enjoys having those “heavily implied but yet unconfirmed” details lingering throughout, then that’ll definitely be the better approach for them. The unfortunate thing about route order is that there’s no way to guarantee which way is better for each individual. Personally I do love my unanswered questions (nothing annoys me more than people hating on a show that doesn’t answer everything instantly coughwhenS;Gwasairingcough) however Ao’s route really seemed like it had other priorities to me.

I will say, I think diehard fans of certain VNs—particularly Higurashi and Rewrite—could appreciate Ao last. And people who like galge would prefer to see Ao earlier.

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#5

Agree with most of your points, and it’ll definitely become an individual preference on how they like their stories structured. One thing about her route though is it even supposed to be much of a mystery? I admit it did feel pretty boring waiting for the inevitable conclusion but I don’t think it’s related to route order so much as the route’s writing itself just being predictable.

I think there’s one related problem with reading Ao’s route early but it has Alka spoilers. When you restart the game after 2 clears, Umi regresses in her speech. With the knowledge you have from Ao, it makes it a lot easier to predict what’s really going on with her. Granted, things get super obvious early on in Alka anyway, but having that change right after Ao’s route just feels like revealing too much too early on. I haven’t finished Alka yet so my opinion might change by the end of Pockets, but what do you think about it? Honestly, this is all because Key decided to put so much info in Ao’s route. I’m really questioning that decision.

As a diehard Rewrite fan, I think this hits the nail on the head.

#6

They did say during promotion that Ao’s route was about a mystery or something. Though they also spilled the beans on the shichieichou, so I never thought there was much revealed in the route. The biggest mystery to me was Hairi’s past.

#7

Ao’s route is a tough one to decide when it should be read. I did her route first and have no regrets. In fact, I found all the elements explained in her route helped me to just enjoy the other routes without thinking too hard on what all the symbolism ensues. You think you know everything about the shichieichou after Ao’s route, but you actually don’t until Pocket. Well I do see what @Kaze is saying about not being spoiled at first, so reading Ao’s route later shouldn’t hurt one’s experience.

Shiroha’s route on the other hand, I think, should really be played last. ALKA and Pocket are more gut wrenching with Shiroha’s story still fresh in your mind.

#8

Part of the reasoning there is that Shiroha’s route does a very nice job of introducing Hairi and the Island, but one of my other reasons, specifically for the point you brought up, is that the earlier portions of Alka involve re-experiencing the Shiroha route with slight changes. I think this is a good way to both bring the VN full circle, and to give the reader time to reflect on it all. I also think chronologically it makes sense to have a representation of the story that birthed Umi be the one shown first since that is where Umi started her journey as well.

But it could be a final route. I know a lot of people want to save Shiroha’s route for last, and there is some benefit to doing so. For example, with Shiroha last, you start to question Umi at the end of the heroine routes rather than the start. That smooth question answer may be more preferable to a reader than wondering what’s up with Umi for 40 hours.