[i]Disclaimer: I helped edit A Summer with the Shiba Inu, so my review will not comment on its writing or editing. However, all other aspects are fair game. XD[/i]
[i]A Summer with the Shiba Inu[/i] is a visual novel in which dogs are the intelligent beings in the world. Yup, that's right. There are no humans around. We take on the role of Syd, a Shiba Inu who had been living in Canine-da and has only recently returned to Shiba Inu island. The reason she has returned is to find her brother Chun-wen and to learn what has happened to him. However, upon immediately returning to the island, Syd is almost immediately approached by Quei-li, the only Labrador on the island full of Shiba Inus, and Quei-li offers her help to search for Chun-wen. Of course, Syd is suspicious but ultimately decides to accept her help. During this journey to find her brother, Syd is accosted by a few dogs, those who want to "rechallenge" her for the right to the Feather of Truth. (Oh, did I forget to mention it? Syd had run away from Shiba Inu island after having won the Feather of Truth, having defeated many dogs in many ARInas, which are virtual reality arenas where dogs fight to earn their ranking and place on Shiba Inu island.) What will happen to Syd? Will she find her brother? Will she lose in one of these rechallenges? And what is the deal with Quei-li? I'll end my story synopsis here, as to avoid spoiling the story.
I'll briefly describe the gameplay now. [i]A Summer with the Shiba Inu[/i] has many choices that can affect what ending you get. There are basically 3 different endings although you'll have many additional endings in regards to the dogs that Syd interacts with. For example, Syd's choices might affect how well she gets along with Quei-li. Then, there's also Max, Syd's best friend, and her choices with him will affect what ending Syd gets with Max. There are a total of 30 Steam achievements. The majority of them are unlocked as you progress with the story, but a few of them are unlocked depending on what endings you get.
Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my critique. I'll admit that what initially attracted me was the dogs. XD At first glance, [i]A Summer with the Shiba Inu[/i] looks like a cute VN. However, upon further playing through the story, it's definitely anything but cute. There's the recurring theme of survival and ranking, and Shiba Inu reminds me a bit of stories like [i]The Hunger Games[/i] and [i]Battle Royale[/i], except that here, the ARInas are virtual reality arenas and then there's the real world where the dogs live. There's a very deep story going on and plenty of mystery. While it seems that dogs who rechallenge Syd are there to take her Feather of Truth, the reward Syd got for being the final winner of the ARInas, these challengers may have more in mind or other motivations. I won't spoil the endings but the endings may very well be not what you expect, which I think is a good thing. ;)
As for art, I like how well done the sprites are dogs. They look clean, clear and realistic. The backgrounds are well done, too, and I like the animations where the dogs battle each other out in the ARInas. The soundtrack is nice to listen to, and I felt that the music tracks fit in appropriately with parts of the VN, especially during the battle sequences and where there were dramatic moments. I didn't run into any problems unlocking achievements although I have a few left to unlock, and the game itself ran very smoothly on my computer.
Overall, I found [i]A Summer with the Shiba Inu[/i] to be a very enjoyable, wonderful VN. It's a pleasure to read and follow along with Syd as she goes through her adventures. I'm really happy that I had the opportunity to help out with this VN, and I can't recommend it enough. At the full price, it's definitely worth getting. At the time of this review, I've put in almost 13 hours, and I'm still not nearly done. If you like VNs and love reading a story with twists and turns, I highly recommend [i]A Summer with the Shiba Inu[/i]. ^^
