Second Feel and all related DLC comes prepackaged on the same disc as the base game. These packs introduce special content and add more intimate moments after each lesson. Unlike the normal conversational events mentioned above, this new content involves physical interaction. Make no mistake, you’re not able to “get physical” with Hikari, but there are a number of special activities ranging from having her serve you at a cafe, fanning her off after a run, feeding each other pieces of cake, and applying anti-itch ointment to a mosquito bite on her neck. There are also some special events involving the two of you lighting sparklers and watching fireworks together. All of these events (with the exception of the cafe event) take place during your breaks from studying and can either occur at random or be selected using earned items at the beginning of each day. While I’m sure that some players will be disappointed by how tame these events end up being, they are still a great addition to the base game and I honestly think it would feel incomplete without them.
We’ve talked a bit about the lessons and events themselves, but what is it that set’s each playthrough apart? Well, aside from interacting with your VR waifu and changing her outfit around, the main focus of the game is to help Hikari pass an exam at the end of the in-game week. At the end of each lesson, players are given a score for the day which shows how much Hikari’s “Guts” meter has increased or decreased as well as how much progress she has made in each of her five skills. Each time you complete a specific type of lesson (regardless of playthrough) your proficiency to teach it increases. This means that if you play through the game five times and choose the “Reading” lesson twice each time, you will attain a teaching proficiency level of 11. The higher your level as a teacher, the more progress that Hikari will make when you choose that type of lesson. With that in mind, playing through the game multiple times is both warranted and expected. Not only is Hikari making progress, but you are as well.
After a full in-game week has passed (Sunday to Sunday), Hikari will call you up and invite you over to share her test scores. Depending on how well you structured your lessons, what advice you gave, which topics you used in conversation, and how well-rounded Hikari’s five skills turned out, your endgame will vary. On my first blind playthrough, Hikari ended up with a C. She didn’t seem too mad about this, but I got the feeling from what headquarters said that they were a bit disappointed. Once you get a hang of the mechanics though and build up your teaching proficiency to a decent level for each lesson type, earning an A rating isn’t too hard. The highest rank of course is the S rank, but I was only able to earn this once. The biggest struggle for me was always raising Hikari’s happiness. Be sure that your persevere and work for this rank though as it offers the best ending sequence with both Hikari and your contact at headquarters.
After that mountain of gameplay topics, let’s wrap things up with some thoughts about the visuals, sound design, and controls. Despite the PSVR headset having a lower resolution than its contemporaries, I think that the developers did a great job working with what they had. Text displayed as part of the background (i.e. on books, posters, etc.) is admittedly fairly blurry. Pressing your face close up to most objects often reveals that they have fairly low-res textures. This is okay though because in looking at each background normally, I never really noticed this as an issue. It’s actually more than okay because all of the detailed texturing work went into Hikari’s character model. Her face is very detailed and the way that they animated her movements makes her appear very realistic. Her clothing texture can be a bit blurry when you get close up, but again this was not a huge issue most of the time.
The music was honestly pretty generic and forgettable, but would you expect any different? The background music only plays in areas like the cafe, so it’s meant to be purely ambient. The background noises though are really realistic. When visiting the shrine during the day with Hikari, I can hear what sounds like lawnmowers off in the distance along with the sounds of cicadas. While tutoring her at home, I can hear the hum of her fluorescent light fixture in whichever ear is facing it. Of course, the main attraction here is Hikari. Her voice actress did a wonderful job conveying emotion and this made Hikari feel all the more real.
Sadly, you don’t have the option of using PlayStation Move controls here. I’ve no concerns about this as the controls that are used are pretty solid. Your interactions with Hikari are done mainly by using the buttons on the controller, physically moving the controller, and by tracking the position of the headset itself. You navigate menus and make basic selections using the D-pad and controller buttons. Using objects during the Second Feel events is done by moving the controller in front of the PS4’s camera. As for the bulk of the input though, much of it is done by tracking the position of your headset. When giving Hikari advice, responding to her questions, or even giving simple yes or no answers, you’ll either stare at the appropriate option displayed on screen to select it or move your head to indicate yes or no. I found this style of input to be very interesting and never noticed any issues with how it functioned. Control schemes for VR games can make or break them. I’m happy to report that the controls here pass with flying colors.
I went into Summer Lesson: Hikari Miyamoto pretty blind just to see how someone would feel after importing it on a whim. I expected a game filled with fan-service and interesting uses of PSVR’s interactive controls. While it definitely lived up to both of those expectations, I was also quite pleased to find that the gameplay itself was both solid and incredibly complex (in a good way). My main point of frustration came from the subtitles which were very hit or miss. Sometimes they would be slightly out of sync with Hikari’s spoken lines and other times they would simply not be present at all. There are also points where being too close to Hikari will hide the subtitles from your view. These annoyances were minor though and I didn’t lose too much sleep over them. In the end, I spent somewhere in the ballpark of 10-12 hours playing. A single playthrough takes around 45 minutes to complete, but you won’t be able to see all of the Second Feel events or attain a high rating in just one playthrough. I found myself wishing for more content, but in the end I was still very happy with what was presented. The game’s $59.99 price tag may seem a little steep for what’s included, but it offers a type of experience that you’ll be hard-pressed find anywhere else. For those who don’t mind a language barrier, there’s also a 3-in-1 release which is only $10 more and includes Hikari, Allison, and Chisato’s routes (albeit with none of the DLC). Any way you slice it, this one’s worth picking up even if only for the sake of curiosity.
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Review Copy Provided by oprainfall
