When Summer Lessons was first revealed, the idea of interacting with a Japanese school girl with PSVR certainly turned some heads. But what exactly does the game offer? What is it about? 4Gamer shared a better idea during their playthrough of the demo at TGS 2016.
The demo at Tokyo Game Show 2016 was available at Sony Interactive Entertainment’s PlayStation VR Play corner, where Bandai Namdo’s “Summer Lesson: Hikari Miyamoto Seven Days Room (Basic Game Pack)” was available to try out.
The latest version of the game that lets you interact with characters in VR with various situations had a playable demo that was different from what was available in previous demonstration events. This time, it was more of a focus on being able to experience meeting Hikari Miyamoto for the first time.
As the title suggests, you take on the role of a home tutor, and get to spend seven days with a student named “Hikari Miyamoto.” The TGS 2016 demo featured what would be the first of the seven days, on August 24.
You start out in a coffee shop, where you receive a call from the dispatch agency. You’re then dispatched as a home tutor to visit Hikari, who is about to take a test near the end of summer.
The scene changes, and before you know it, you’re in Hikari’s room. As she enters the room, she sees you waiting on the chair, and puzzled by everything happening so suddenly, and you can watch her asking her family about what’s going on and such, but it doesn’t take long until you can communicate with her.
Rather than studying, she seems to have more interest in you, the player. When the communication part starts, you’re given the option to continue the flow of conversation with “Yes” and “No” responses. While there are some slight differences in reaction depending on the choices you make, it doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on how the story carries on. The day ends there with both the player and Hikari not having learned much about each another.
Afterwards, it takes you back to the cafe from earlier. You get a call from the dispatch company again (and this time, you’re able to use a controller to pick up the phone), and they tell you that the actual lessons start the next day… and that’s where the demo ends. It seems like it’s from here that you’ll get to have proper study sessions with the young girl, and 4Gamer points out how curious they were to see what happens next.
4Gamer also noted that “being freely able to observe parts that you want to see” is definitely a big appeal for the game, not only during communications, but you’ll get to check out everything in detail in the cafe and also Hikari’s bedroom. Things such as her many shark plushes and photos stood out.
One more thing that 4Gamer pointed out is something that they weren’t able to notice from screenshots alone, but about a certain white line (bra strap?) that you can see through her white blouse. They felt that it may have been something they saw by mistake at first, but for the sake of VR science, they decided to get a closer look and got to confirm that it’s what they thought it was.
Summer Lesson releases in Japan on October 13, 2016 for PlayStation 4.
