Back in 2014, Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the fighting game series Tekken, started a new virtual reality project for the PlayStation 4’s Project Morpheus (PlayStation VR). Many fans were excited about the possibility of a new game, but they were certainly surprised when Harada came out with… a flirting simulator?
First starting out as a demo of what they could with the PlayStation VR, Summer Lesson gained enough interest to be released as an actual game this October in Japan. In the game, you spend time at a beach side cabin teaching and learning Japanese and English with a foreign beauty and a high school bishoujo. Its basically a virtual girlfriend simulator, or so the fans say.
For the rest of the world, Summer Lesson and the rest of the seasons including Spring Lesson, Autumn Lesson, and Winter Lesson will most likely not be localized outside of Japan. As Harada stated in his interview with Siliconera, due to VR games trying to mimic reality, the animation, especially with lip-syncing, needs to be readjusted for every language to show that immersion.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t all that he said about Summer Lesson.
“Also when you think about the current game situation and the climate in different countries where you have to have characters from every different race or nationality, someone else would say ‘mine is not included,’ which is the climate we currently see with games. Since there are people who can’t set aside the game and the actual problems in society, I don’t want open that can of worms.”
All hope is not lost, as Harada also stated that if a particular region has enough enthusiastic fans to localize Summer Lesson, it can be possible. The game itself wasn’t a game to begin with, but enough people desired an official release that Summer Lesson is now available for the PlayStation 4.
Summer Lesson will be released in Japan October 13, 2016.
