Sisters: Last Day of Summer (sisters ~Natsu no Saigo no Hi~) is a short visual novel developed by Jellyfish and published in English by JAST USA. Notably, it’s fully animated, which gives it a feel closer to an interactive anime rather than a stereotypical visual novel.
The English version is based on the ‘sisters ~Natsu no Saigo no Hi~ Ultra Edition’ which includes additional animations and an extra H-scene compared to the original 2011 edition.
Quiet Countryside Life
Sisters: Last Day of Summer opens with a traffic accident. The next thing we know, the protagonist Keisuke (or your choice of name) is living in a house in the countryside with a young widow named Akiko who looks like she jumped out of a hentai OVA. The reasons why are purposely kept vague. At first, I found this a little frustrating as Keisuke never seemed to question much, but I later understood why this was done.
When I first read the opening of Sisters: Last Day of Summer, I wondered if it was the type of visual novel primarily intended to play one-handed. It jumped into an adult scene quickly enough and the vagueness of the story added to that feeling. However, I soon found out that more details and events would be slowly revealed.
Akiko sets up some important background, though some aspects make more sense on a reread. Despite setting up the story, she soon leaves Keisuke in the care of her two daughters, Haruka and Chika.
Sisters’ Secret
Keisuke quickly settles into a familial-feeling living situation with Haruka and Chika. They’re cooking dinner together, doing chores, and other standard household activities. It’s a pleasant situation, but I found it a little odd how quickly they seemed to accept him. It helps that they’re both kind girls, with Haruka being the calm type who enjoys cooking and Chika being friendly and energetic.
These little oddities stack up and it’s soon made clear that something is going on. From smaller moments like Haruka acting shifty about a phone call, to more outright clues such as Chika thinking to herself about going along with a facade, these moments are used well to create a feeling that something is unnatural.
As the story continues, it lays out hints through the use of flashbacks, comments, and moments of introspection. Rather than outright stating details, it often implies them, which I felt worked well to let me puzzle the story out myself. There are several parts to the mystery, none of which were particularly difficult to guess, but each clue is used to build on the last and make things clear. I did only pick up a few extra pieces of the puzzle on a reread, but these were minor such as how a name that was mentioned early on, then not again for quite a while fit in.
While Sisters: Last Day of Summer is about both sisters, the younger sister Chika certainly feels like the main heroine. Her point of view and actions are often the most important. Throughout the story, Chika’s feelings are key to the main mystery. There are some rather emotional moments throughout the story, most of which we experience from her point of view.
It’s difficult to be too specific without spoilers, as this is a rather short story and the main narrative is supposed to be slowly revealed, but I can say that I enjoyed it. The ending won’t be for everyone though, as it may come off as unsatisfying to some.
Like An Anime?
The main selling point of Sisters: Last Day of Summer is that it’s fully animated. Perhaps because of this, it tells its story primarily through dialogue lines rather than a more typical style of visual novel writing. This pairs well with the animated scenes.
The animation itself is a mix of different techniques. Some scenes use what looks similar to animated sprites, with minor looping movements. Other scenes use clips of video that connect, advancing when the script goes to the next line, but looping part of the motion naturally until then. Both of these look great, particularly the video clips. This style actually had me using auto mode (which is unusual for me) and I felt that it helps to make the characters more expressive in a way that using just a sprite and voice doesn’t always reach alone.
Some scenes of moving around the house along with a handful of others that use a very old-looking 3D animation are included too. Luckily these aren’t too prominent, as they don’t look great.
Is it worth noting that this visual novel uses the older aspect ratio of 4:3. It still looks great in full screen, but does have the black bars along the side.
In terms of the soundtrack, it set the scene well but was quite limited. I was surprised when a song that sounded like a Vocaloid suddenly started playing, but nothing else stood out. The heroine’s voices fit the characters well too.
It is an Eroge
The nine adult scenes in Sisters: Last Day of Summer are mostly very long, with multiple parts, and are completely animated with a wonderful amount of detail. Some scenes involved the protagonist’s point of view, while others were from a third-person view. Mosaics have been removed from most scenes, though one briefly did flash up at the time I was reading Sisters.
The content was mostly vanilla, with a mix of positions and quite a lot of oral. Readers sensitive about consent being absolute may not enjoy some of these, but “no” turning to “yes” during the event in the context of a relationship isn’t anything unusual for this type of media.
While I’m sure that fans of the character involved will be happy with it, the first scene felt somewhat unnecessary to the story. After this, it takes quite a lot of time to focus on the story, then throws repeated adult scenes at the reader.
Some of the erotic scenes worked well with the emotions involved, having a feeling of near-desperation. I did think that they didn’t always come off well though, with the main character occasionally feeling uncaring compared to his typically kind self.
Some Downsides
While I enjoyed Sisters: Last Day of Summer, it did crash twice when reading through it. There were also some minor text errors such as typos, using the wrong name or word, and similar errors, though these were uncommon. In fairness, while I am playing the final build, I’m playing before release so there may be a few last-minute changes before it goes on sale.
The user interface is quite dated too. Auto mode is hidden away in the menu screen, you can’t jump backward via the backlog, and there’s no ‘next choice’ option.
On the topic of choices, there are quite a few of them to make. Often a choice leads to an animation of very slowly walking through the house to the chosen room. With one ending and no significant missable scenes, the choices generally don’t matter except for how much time is wasted by going to the wrong room or repeating scenes by choosing the wrong one, so you may wish to follow our Sisters: Last Day of Summer guide to avoid this.
Verdict
Sisters: Last Day of Summer uses animation well to tell what I found to be a surprisingly interesting story. While it certainly doesn’t lack adult content, I found myself more engaged with the central mystery and the emotional moments.
SISTERS: LAST DAY OF SUMMER IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another anime-like visual novel, you might want to check out KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire!. We have also covered a wide variety of visual novels both original to English and localized from Japanese, which you can check out here.
Many thanks go to JAST USA for a PC review code for Sisters: Last Day of Summer.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
