Natsuno-Kanata: Beyond Summer

Slow-paced post-apocalyptic adventure game where the biting loneliness that comes with living in a dying world is about as much of a threat to the heroine's well-being as the pandemic that's killing humanity in the first place Natsuno-Kanata's rogue-lite gameplay is not really engaging enough to hold the game up on its own. You will run out of new areas to explore pretty quickly, and the management of hunger and defeating enemies is easy enough that you'll never be challenged. Thankfully it's only one side of the game. The other side, and the core of the game really, is Natsuno-Kanata’s excellent narrative episodes which dig into the characters and the world they live in, without ever giving too much away and ruining the mysterious atmosphere of the game. I kind of wish there was more done with the text prompter in these sections, but when it is used it usually is pretty effective. The game goes by slowly, but it's very deliberate in its pacing, and you'll be finding out interesting things from episode 1. Character episodes can slow things down a bit at times, but they're also pretty good, so I recommend reading them as well – especially the ones that unlock after the game since they function as an epilogue of sorts. Meguru's episodes in particular I thought were very good. Overall, I highly recommend this game if you want an adventure game with a bit of a melancholic tone. The rogue-lite exploration sections can be turned off if you want, although I would recommend leaving them on since they give you a bit of a breather between chunks of exposition. Currently the game is not available in English, but hopefully it will get an English translation in the future. Maybe after a sequel releases or something like that.