Summer Lesson from Bandai Namco was one of the very first PlayStation VR titles to gain much public notoriety. In the game, you take on the role of a tutor for a teenager named Hikari Miyamoto. Details have, for the most part, been relatively scarce on the title, but a new trailer released today (shown below) officially confirms full English subtitle support when it releases in Southeast Asia early next year, according to Gematsu.
The game features a unique twist on the popular ‘dating sim‘ genre of games. Rather than simply tasking you with developing a relationship with the female character, you’re in charge of her education as well. But as you can tell from the footage and screenshots, the undertones are not purely platonic.
We’ve known these general themes all along though, as the game is clearly designed and marketed as something to fulfill a very specific niche that enjoys much more popularity in the Japanese gaming industry. But in the trailer, embedded above, we’re now getting an official glimpse at the English version of the game’s elements. Hikari is shown telling you things such as:
“We went to the pool recently, want to take a look at the photo?”
“It feels awkward to have someone besides my family in my room.”
“Isn’t this the moment where couples would hold hands?”
The majority of the game appears to take place inside Hikari’s bedroom, helping her study. On Twitter, the Game Director for the project, Katsuhiro Harada stated that Summer Lesson will be a download-only title with no retail packaging. That means players interested in getting the game somewhere other than Southeast Asia will need to create a new region-specific PSN account, since the stores are separate. It’s a common work around that people use on PlayStation 4 for purchasing and playing titles from other regions.
It probably goes without saying that Summer Lesson isn’t going to appeal to the wider Western audience, so a full release is unlikely. The sexual undertones and intimate content are likely to be off-putting in general and, in all likelihood, will be rather uncomfortable for people to experience this level of intimacy and interaction with a digital character.
But to be clear, Summer Lesson is not a VR sex game, hentai game, or even a ‘Girlfriend Simulator’ from what we have seen so far. To avoid confusion, VR Kanojo is a decidedly different game entirely, albeit quite similar visually, and could be easily confused.
That being said, a number of Japanese developers are well-known for their use of sexuality in games, such as Dead or Alive’s VR mode and many VR events. Western and Japanese audiences, and cultures, are quite different.
Summer Lesson is anticipated to release in early 2017 for PS VR.
