If you’ve spent any time in Japan, one of the first things you notice about its pop-culture is its complexity. The plots of Japanese horror (J-Horror) movies, for example, are often quite difficult to follow. Japanese chess, called shogi, makes western chess look like checkers! Then you have the nation’s written language to consider. There are three distinct alphabets; one of which contains thousands of characters to memorize, and another that’s used primarily for words borrowed from other languages!
It’s on this note that we welcome you to our game review for Shiny Days…and I’ll try to get this out in one breath: Shiny Days (2015) is a remake of Summer Days (2006), which is itself the sequel to School Days (2005); all of which precedes the most current title in the series: Cross Days (2010), which is actually a retelling of School Days. If you’re confused now, just wait until you start playing.
Shiny Days tell the story of a high school girl named Setsuna. Looking forward to her upcoming summer vacation, Setsuna is summoned to the sick bed of her friend, Sekai. It seems that Sekai was hired for a summer job as a waitress, but her illness forces her to ask Setsuna to step in as a replacement. The latter is not happy about it, as this particular restaurant requires servers to parade around in skimpy costumes. Setsuna ultimately agrees to take the job on a part-time basis, after discovering that a boy she likes lives near the restaurant.
If you’ve read or watched much manga, it’s not hard to guess what’s coming. Setsuna‘s first customers include an unruly child, a slimy lecher, and possibly the most snooty customer service critic you’ve ever seen. Will our heroine get some reprieve from embarrassment after clocking out on day one? No chance. She trips over another girl on the street, resulting in a clothing mishap that would make even Art Frahm blush! Inexplicably, the two girls are now obligated to become roommates.
The gameplay itself is divided into episodes, which are further broken down into scenes. You can save your game during any scene, and for good measure the game prompts for a save at the end of each episode. The story progresses as a typical graphic novel, competing with Pause, Play, Rewind and Fast Forward buttons. Occasionally, the game will ask players to make a choice as to what the protagonist will say. This can have an impact on the sequence of scenes within an episode, and can actually cause a shuffling effect when rewinding or reloading a past save. For instance, you attempt to return to a certain scene, only to find it replaced with another! The moral here is to save often and pay attention, lest the story changes on you.
By this point, you’re probably wondering about the good stuff! Yes, this game is racy…every bit as much as its predecessors. While the game has plenty of cute moe (mō’ eh) moments, it’s true selling point is a hentai; that absolute “fan service” that signals a rating of “M” for mature…if not higher! With or without its erotic gratuity, this novel successfully serves up its original message; updated and remastered for the modern gamer.
Overall, is Shiny Days worth it? I say yes. If you’re a fan of the “Days” series, then you already know the premise and story arcs of this remake. If you’re new, this title is a great way to introduce a simple “slice-of-life” genre that can only be found amid the complexities of Japanese pop culture.
-Chris Roberts-
An autistic gamer with opinions on games who also enjoys making dumb videos on the internet!
“it’s true selling point is hentai; the absolute “fan service” of which much has been censored by game distributor JAST USA.”
That’s a bizarrely vague thing to say.
It sounds from your comment that you are unfamiliar with the term “fan service”, pronounced “fan-saabisu” in Japanese. It refers to visually suggestive content, and is part of anime culture. JAST-USA, the distributor of this game, decided to censor some from the original Japanese version. My first draft of this article contained more adult content…including the mechanical accessory that male players are prompted to install and configure before starting the game. At length I decided to remove that and other items. I appreciate all comments. As always, thank you for visiting and contributing to the Gamers-Haven.
Um no. I was referring to the vague way you dance around the subject of censorship. Censorship sets off alarm bells in English audiences; you shouldn’t just say the game was censored and move on. What was censored? How much of the game content was it? Why? These are the questions that your audience will want immediate answers to.
Regardless, anyone interested in details can read my post if you don’t want to discuss them in your own article. When an uncensor patch is released I’ll likely link to that too.
If you’re curious to know what’s been censored and the circumstances surrounding it, take a look at my article.
Why I endorse JAST’s censorship of Shiny Days
http://sanahtlig.blogspot.com/2015/07/why-i-endorse-jasts-censorship-of-shiny-days.html