Summer Daze: Tilly's Tale

I want to preface this review by saying I'm a huge fan of the Cole's work and always have been. Every game they make is fun and appeals to my adventure game roots. Quest for Glory will forever be one of the greatest series ever made and Hero-U original was also exceptional. I write this review to give my honest feelings having just completed my first playthrough of Summer Daze. It's to give others a sense of my experience as a long time fan so they can decide whether to try this game or not. If the Cole's are reading this, which they probably are, please don't stop making games! I'm just being honest. Summer Daze was on hold for what seemed like years. There were previews for ages but we never knew when the game would actually be released, if ever. When I discovered it was finally being released today I set my alarm to be among the first buyers. I want to support the Cole's work and I don't regret my purchase. Overall I have to give a thumbs down, sorry. Here are my pros and cons: PROS: Wonderful artwork! Really enjoyed the ambience. Though it's a "graphic novel" style rather than fluid motion as in Hero-U original, it still has it's charms. The burning candle in the lamp, the blinking eyes and the focus on the character in the foreground. Music was pretty good and gave a nice atmosphere. To be honest the game zips by so fast you have little time to even notice it but when you do it's nice. The characters are cute and the puns are plentiful as you'd expect from Lori and Cory. The transitions were smooth for me as I've come to expect with all Cole games. Nary a glitch to be had in any of their games which is always a bonus. Nice voice acting especially Tilly. CONS: Incredibly short play time. There may be a lot of variety in the playthroughs based on your choices but the actual time to complete the game is probably less than an hour. That's the whole game. Seems awful slim for how long it took to make this game. The concept is more kid friendly than Hero-U. That can be gathered from the trailer so it's not like you weren't aware of that before you bought the game. I understand the Cole's have nothing to prove to anyone and the focus is more on having fun at this point. But you ARE charging for these games and it would be nice if the content was more relatable as an adult. There were issues with the volume. Some scenes the volume changed drastically from one moment to the next. The voice seemed to be lower than the music and background noises. Even with adjustments in the settings menu the volume seemed very uneven which surprised me from 2 polished game creators. Hopefully it gets patched. Some scenes talked about stuff that hadn't actually happened in the game, leading me to believe I was supposed to have chosen a different convo thread or location to visit. Just suddenly makes a statement about something happening to a main character and I'm like "Huh?" Game feels very lonely compared to Hero-U original. No scenes of sitting with your friends in the dining hall or in class. No answering test questions or honing your skills. Just one person in each room and the pace is so fast that before you can blink the day is over. Again, please forgive me Lori and Cory and don't stop making games if you get bad reviews over this one. I know budget is a key factor. If you had millions of dollars you could have made this game 20 times longer and it would have been fantastic with a couple patches. Instead it's one of the shortest games I've ever played, certainly in modern times. Hardly justifies the cost unless you just want to support their work, which I do. Playtime was so short I could refund after completing the game but I won't. I'll play through a few more times and hopefully uncover some new details to make it funner. GL to the Coles.

I backed this game on kickstarter when it was first announced simply to support the Coles, whose work I have loved for over 30 years. I'm old (40s) and old-school, so my opinions are atypical and your mileage may very. I really, really want to be able to recommend this game, but I can't. Certainly not for more than $5. I didn't find it fun in any of the ways that made the QFG games my all-time favorites, and it was step down from Hero U, which was a step down from previous games. I don't regret backing the project, because my goal was to support the Coles, not because I was interested in this particular game. Summer Daze is pure conversation, and very short. I finished the game in 79 mins, acing the final test and putting on a top-notch festival (neither of which involved skill on my part or much plot or content on the game's part). To be positive and fair: The voice acting is great, and the art and music are good (like Hero U). My advice: Buy Hero U, support the Coles on patreon, play the orignal Quest for Glory games (and Heroine's Quest!), but skip Summer Daze, unless you enjoy clicking through dialogue. The puns aren't very funny (though the Kalb cook is the best part of the game), and there aren't really any puzzles, development, or challenge. I'll play it through again in the future, and perhaps I'll find more to see and do (if so, I'll update the review). There were at least 7 areas that never unlocked, and I met onl 6-7 NPCs.

[b]Summer Daze[/b] is an interactive story set in the world of [b]Quest For Glory[/b] and [b]Hero-U[/b] (check out [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/python777/recommended/375440/]my review here[/url]). If you're looking for an experience similar to these two games, I have to disappoint you. This is no point-and-click adventure game, nor is it an RPG. Basically, all you do is talk to people and try to convince them to help you with the organization of the Harvest Festival. Of course there are some references to the aforementioned games. The protagonist, Lilly, is the adopted daughter of the healer from Quest For Glory I. Then there's minotaurs, Kattas, a couple of characters from [b]Hero-U[/b]... And of course the typical Cole humor is back as well. The story is rather short, but after two play-throughs, I can only assume there's probably a dozen different endings. It's a shame there are no achievements (yet?) because usually those give you a pretty good idea what to try next. The voice acting is pretty good, though. Zehra Fazal especially, does a great job voicing Tilly. If you're a big [b]Quest For Glory[/b] fan, I'm sure you'll appreciate the story and the humor. But if you're not familiar with either [b]Quest For Glory[/b] or [b]Hero-U[/b] you'll probably miss half of the fun. Give those a try first and then come back to give [b]Summer Daze[/b] a try.

Just finished the game. Didn't realise it was going to be so short. Finished it in 58 mins. The games days seem to fly by with the feeling of not really achieving anything of note or having any fun. The bong of the end of the day seems to occur so quickly with the teacher popping up cutting off any conversation ruining the pace and story. (this actually irritated me). It does have replay value for different threads, however at this stage I’m not sure if I care enough to go back. It’s a shame, as I LOVE their past work and I can see elements of that essence in here. Voice acting and the Artwork was good, humour was puntastic. I wish that I was mega rich and could fund them so they can go back making their bigger adventure/RPG games that they are great at doing (Humour, adventure and a great world building).

I'll preface this by saying Quest for Glory is one of my favorite gaming series of all time (even my screen name is in part a nod to it). I also really loved Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption when that was released years ago and noted that I got that same feeling playing it as an adult as I got playing the original Quest for Glory series as a kid. I knew Summer Daze was completely different so I went into it with an open mind. Overall, well it was okay. I liked the narration and I enjoyed hearing everything through the Coles' voice (figuratively speaking). Overall though it seemed pretty half baked at times, kind of like an extra lite version of Rogue to Redemption. The gameplay completely revolves around making choices, but the choices are extremely limited and seem to have little impact on outcomes. As an example, your character can study/prepare for the two tests you take during the game, but it didn't seem to matter whether I did well or not. It would have been nice to have been able to take the test or do anything besides going to a limited number of screens and choosing from a very limited number of dialogue options. In the first half especially the plot got old quickly, as well. There's a limited amount of time to do things each day similar to Rogue to Redemption, and even doing as much as I could each day it seemed like I was still coming up well short. I know it's designed that way to encourage repeated plays to get to know the other characters and experience all the content, but I'm not sure I'm interested in picking it back up anytime soon. Unless I'm completely missing something, it really seemed like there's only time in one playthrough to get to know one character well. Another character would have something going on that I was curious how it resolved, but then I didn't see them for the rest of the game, mostly because of the time constraint. It would be nice if the player could set the pacing, meaning end the day on our schedule and fully interact with everyone and do everything in one playthrough that we want to. I didn't mind it in Rogue to Redemption as I had to be mindful of the time but was still able to get MOST everything in that I wanted to, but in Summer Daze it's too limiting. As others have said, the game is short. I took my time with it and still completed it in roughly 2 hours, but again I acknowledge that it's designed to play it again and again. It crashed a few times but it's still a relatively new game, and as long as you save early and often (old Sierra credo) it's not a big deal. Listen I get it; I read an interview with the Coles where they explained how they lost money on Hero-U Rogue to Redemption which is awful to hear especially given how much I liked the game. I understand how that would scare them off from attempting another game of that scale, but I would have liked to have seen more content or at least more gameplay or less repetitive gameplay than was featured here. I can recommend this game but only if you're a big fan of the Coles as I am and keep everything I mentioned in mind.

It took me about 2 hours to play through the game. The voice acting was great and the game has ton of replay-ability. So some of the elements of the game are time management, problem solving through dialogue, trying to make friends/convince them to help you with the festival, and the game takes place in an interesting fantasy setting. I have played it twice so far and enjoyed myself.

To begin with the positives, the voice acting and dialogue are fun, and the setting and the basic premise are enjoyable. However, the vagueness of the game's systems left it feeling deeply unsatisfying. I don't expect every decision a player makes in a choice-based VN to be a fully informed one (in fact, some of the things I most like about the genre are inferring the characters' personalities based on their responses and being surprised by the consequences of past choices way down the line), but there's a difference between making decisions based on limited information and trial-and-error gameplay. With no indication of where the characters are at any given time, their responses giving you very little to work with, and the days blending together into a series of brief conversations cut short, I really wonder if the player is meant to constantly save and reload to find the optimal paths. I don't expect visible stats in a VN (although a date indicator at least could have seriously helped considering the game's based on time management), but some more feedback and information would have been extremely helpful. Even the exam and festival prep (which follow the obvious logic of more = better) feel weirdly nebulous. Maybe I'm missing something. I certainly felt like I was doing something wrong. Regardless, my experience was unpleasant enough that I don't really want to try again. If you want to play a game by Transolar Games, get Hero-U instead.

Love the Cole's games and have played every one they made and enjoyed them all, but I had no idea when I contributed to the kickstarter for this game that it would be so short. It took me just under an hour to complete this game and to me that is a poor value for the price paid. My first disappointment from the Coles.

Big fan of the Quest For Glory games as well as Hero U. This game was totally different from those games, which is fine. But as either a stand-alone or a spin-off game, it just doesn't hold-up at the current price point. Played through the first game so fast, like about an hour (once subtracting time for restarting when it crashed a few times), till it felt more like a demo for a larger game to come. Will probably reply a few more times, but after that I don't see myself coming back to it. Graphics are cute, the trademark puns are back in full force and pretty pun-ny, and the voice acting is great. But as a complete game, it really left me wanting for more. So I guess it's time for another run through of Hero-U to satiate me. Hahaha!

The reason I'm recommending this game is that it is a perfectly fine visual novel so far. I think there have been a large amount of negative reviews stemming from fans of the Coles' other works who don't understand that 'clicking through text' is an entire game genre that a very particular audience likes. I've played enough Visual Novels to see that this one is of a very high quality, especially in terms of the voice acting. At the same time, I can 100% see why many people would just... not like visual novels, period. I don't know what to say, they chose a very, very niche genre for a game, and their RPG fans didn't care for it. It's very normal, but it doesn't mean the game is bad for a VN audience.