Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories

For all its technical issues, Disaster Report 4 is a truly astounding bit of video game art and a true reflection on something that is important to understand about the Japanese culture and mindset. It is nothing like the disaster stories and games that come from western creatives, and the more melancholic, sympathetic, and people-focused themes of the game might confuse those that expect a disaster experience at first. Embrace it for what it is, however, and the game is so much better than any of that blockbuster trash. There is something very subtle, but very powerful at the core of Disaster Report 4, and, even as I've had the likes of Animal Crossing and Resident Evil 3 to play this past two weeks, I've found myself coming back to this one, and reflecting on it to a far greater degree. It's not necessarily fun, in a traditional sense, but it's culturally insightful and intelligent, and that makes it valuable.

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories is not the most refined game you’ll find in 2020, falling short on multiple technical levels, but its blend of personal dramas and crisis management with slivers of wit and absurdity makes for a surprisingly impactful disaster movie-inspired experience that is arguably one that’s difficult to find elsewhere.

Disaster Report 4 is a shambles. But we love a lemon here at PSC and couldn't help but like it. It's almost so bad its good. We enjoyed ourselves despite the obvious shortfalls.

What players might expect out of Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories and what it actually is are two entirely different things. It markets itself as a serious yarn centered around a catastrophe where player choice matters, but it’s actually an intentional comedy that uses the drama of the situations to heighten the absurdity of it all. It’s weird, but in a fantastic and enthralling way. Players with patience and a great sense of humor will come away extremely pleased. Those that can’t abide a laundry list of technical imperfections would be well served staying away. Disaster Report 4 is heavily flawed with too many irritating parts to suffer past, but it still comes recommended for anyone that believes Weird Al’s “Dare to be Stupid” should be the national anthem.

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories has solid ideas, but very few that manifest themselves properly. There are snippets of charming, personal stories of regular people struggling in the face of catastrophe, and these moments can be incredibly powerful considering real world events. Unfortunately, they're all strung together with clunky exploration, unsatisfying gameplay and half-baked survival mechanics that fail to complement any of the positive aspects of this game. There are things here that lovers of obscure, Japanese passion projects might be able to appreciate, but it will require digging through the metric tons of rubble to find them.

With the game finally completed and released to the world after nine long years, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories marks the return of Granzella’s cult classic series about surviving natural disasters. This time around, the team has traded action set pieces in for a more personal look at the human toll of horrific events—but they’ve done so without injecting enough humanity into that new direction to make it truly work.

Disaster Report 4 should be avoided. If looked at as a survival game it fails even on the merits of past titles in the series. If looked at as a visual novel it fails on the fact it is not compelling, poorly written, and lacks any sort of gameplay hook to engage the player. I am unsure who this is for, but for people like myself who found entertainment in Disaster Report and Raw Danger this is nowhere near as good as either of those games. If I had to sum up this game in one word the best I could do is two words and a hyphen: half-baked.

thats a good game I really liked,need some adjustments the next could be better.hhhhhhhhhhh

I must say, I'm a fan of the Disaster Report's games. Loved the second one. This one is great, but still have the usual bad parts of those games. Technically, it's far from great, sometimes not even good. But on PS4, the framerate is at least constant. The camera sometimes becomes crazy in small corridors, and maybe the second part of the game is less impressive, with less disasters and a more human's side to the story. But it felt good to play this game again, to have those heavy moments, to survive earthquake and stuff. Worth playing if you like those games, and want to play something different.

A clunky but fascinating game. Tonally the game is bit of a mess, with some very heavy moments mixed with goofy humor. But the big emotional scenes generally pay off, and the game is at its best when it tugs at the heartstrings. The gameplay is pretty basic, although some of the light puzzle solving can be enjoyable. All in all it's worth playing if you are up for something slower paced. There's really nothing else like it.

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories reminds me of a time when Japan released a lot of quirky games regardless if it would sell or not. Nowadays you don't see many games like that because it's all about what works and what will sell. When I read this game was about survival during an earthquake, I thought, "Oh, I'll need to find help. Maybe help other people, and gather supplies. Or I could just be a jerk to everyone!" Sadly what I got is only sort of that. You do help other people and you're given tons of dialogue prompts to do so in conversations. But at the end of the day, a lot of the actions you do in the game don't really effect the overall direction of the story. I was hoping to be a total jerk to everyone else only to help myself get to safety. You're not given this option. There will be people in your path that you will have to save to push the story forward. This annoyed me because I wanted to roleplay as a young businesswoman that was mean to everyone she met. But, how can I do that when the game won't let me progress if a woman is shouting for help under some rubble? The humor here and there in some scenes from your choices and what not did case me to laugh. Although ridiculous given the circumstances. Maybe that is what makes them funny? It just sort of clashes with the times the story get serious. But towards the end there are just too many of these kinds of "humorous" scenes, and it is really jarring. There is also a scene with a female character and you can do nothing to change the outcome. And if you get a certain ending and that character joins you for it, the whole situation feels very awkward. The survival mechanic is half-baked. I was expecting there to be a sort of hunger and thirst meter. There is one sort of, but I went through the whole game without eating, drinking or pooping. No repercussions AT ALL. You can buy food and drink, but they only serve as ways to regain lost health from when you get hurt by an aftershock or other objects. The tremors and destruction it brings are actually really cool. The first time I died was from a building just falling on top of me during one. The graphics are blurry most of the time and controls are very clunky. The camera is all over the place sometimes. They really bring the immersion and enjoyment level down. Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories tries to be interesting but it just wasn't the sort of game I was expecting. I was expecting more freedom and less of an on rails sort of experience.

Disaster report 4: Summer Memories is a bit of a disaster itself. It's good for the first little while when you talk about all the goofy choices the game gives you in conversation, but without any real direction or meaningful plot, it feels a lot more like an earthquake simulator than a real game. I'd like to personally apologize to anybody who payed full price for this game, but I **** the PS Plus Extra for Stray and this game came with it. I got about an hour of enjoyment out of it, and from what I'm seeing there isn't much past that.