Developer: Otchakun
Version Reviewed: v0.04.3
Genre: Sandbox / Slice-of-Life / Adult Visual Novel
Platform: PC (Ren’Py)
v0.04.3 is a stable, incremental improvement. If you haven't played since v0.03.x, enough has changed to warrant a replay. If you're current, this is a safe update – no new bugs, just a little more heart in the shrine scenes. May--39-s Summer Vacation -v0.04.3- -Otchakun-
Most developers would be mortified to have an early alpha like v0.04.3 publicly available. The pathfinding is broken (May clips through the sunflower stems). The dialogue with the grandparent consists of only three lines, one of which is a placeholder: “[Insert wisdom here].” The “summer vacation” promised in the title never ends—there is no day counter, no return home sequence. You simply exist in a perpetual July. Developer: Otchakun Version Reviewed: v0
But it is precisely this incompleteness that fans worship. The glitches feel intentional, like memory itself eroding. The missing textures (sometimes the river turns bright magenta) are interpreted as “emotional shifts.” The community surrounding -Otchakun-’s work has coined a term for this: “Beta Nostalgia.” It is the feeling of remembering something that was never fully formed. Most developers would be mortified to have an
In 2024, a TikTok user posted a 15-second clip of May--39-s Summer Vacation -v0.04.3- -Otchakun- with the caption “POV: you are a ghost watching your own childhood.” The video received 4 million views. Suddenly, a game that had only 2,000 lifetime downloads saw a revival.
Modern players often approach it with frustration. “Where are the objectives?” they ask. But those who stay are rewarded with a strange peace. In a world of battle passes and daily log-in bonuses, v0.04.3 offers the radical luxury of doing nothing. It is a game that respects your boredom.
Speedrunners have ironically adopted the title, competing for “Any% No Talking” categories (finished in 47 seconds by walking off the map). But the true fans are the “Summer Stayers”—players who leave the game running in a background window for days, listening to the cicadas while they work from home.