I’m still playing but haven’t reached this point yet
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I’m playing after the club has ended
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Game Systems / Tips
Saving happens at the end of each day when you write in your diary.
Remember that starting on day 2 you can pull out your bug net at any time (right trigger on PSP)!
Registering the bugs (creating a 標本) can be unintuitive at first – First, this must be done in Boku’s room at the desk (it’s a good thing to do before bed!). Select the bug in your box, select 出す, pull it down and place it on the screen below. Then you use the needle, into the pink liquid, and finally into the bug. This removes it from the box, registers this specimen permanently, and gives you a little description.
Try to interact with anything that looks interesting. There is a lot of flavor text and even many paths where Boku can hop to places that require pressing interact on them.
Time passes when you transition between screens, so you don’t need to feel rushed within a location. When the day ends, Boku’s uncle will find you and take you home.
Game Manual
In this post TheNerdyNova helpfully provided us with images of the game’s manual which include a map, tips for bugs and fishing, advice for progressing certain quests, cute art, and more!
Boku no Spoilers (Please read)
It’s customary in these clubs to collapse or otherwise hide your in-depth explanations of what happened for the week. I would just like to also request that because this game features so much optional and non-linear content, that you use your best judgment for what might be worth hiding, and do your best to make it generally clear outside the tags what you’re discussing. For example, in my week 1 post I referenced locations (the hideout and the shed) where I think interesting things happened but I further spoiler tagged discussion of what happened within them in case anyone who hadn’t visited one yet wanted to save the surprise.
Mentioned this when linking in the main club thread but yeah, this thread is a little early. Works best for the things I expect to have coming up to make sure it’s not late.
Picked up my new kite. Since I was headed that way I figured I’d talk to Saori and managed to get the sugar set up in front of the camera. Going light on description since this is something others already talked about finding. Got my credit for flying this kite and it was time to go home.
Finally had the talk about the whale ear bone. I like how everyone is getting reflective now; we’ve entered the “summer is ending” phase and it really is kind of bittersweet.
Got in another kite order, and the kiln stuff is happening in the evening, so I decided to check in on my camera trap. The water was gone but Saori didn’t have much to say about it? I can make faces into the camera but… feels like I’m missing something… I know others have made more progress with getting a book from her and the like but I’m not quite sure what I need to do with the state my save is in. Oh well. Lacking in other ideas for now I did a little more bug sumo. I have a bug that was beating all their kings and then some strong ones and is currently 17-0 but I’m a little unclear if there’s a way to make the bug sumo progress beyond what it’s doing now? Repeatedly going through the kings maybe?
I was a little unsure if by evening the uncle meant before the time you get brought back, so I ran towards home and luckily ran into him. I didn’t even realize that was the kiln on the slope to the sort of… back path to their house, lucky I went that way. It was really funny leaving the uncle behind at the kiln and 2 screens later seeing him appear in front of me like the dinnertime demon he is. Checked on him with the kiln before bedtime too, heard a difficult poem heh. Apparently this counted as a nothing day.
talked to uncle, he mentioned lighting his kiln and gave me my new fish kite
caught 2 new dragonflies
flew the new kite to the limit, was losing my mind a little bit cause the wind speed was so low for ages and it just would not rise lol
I was thinking how it’s kinda weird the tree bridge path to the beach opened up and then nothing really happened there (so far), all the new events have been centred around the mountain way
won a king beetle match
after dinner saw uncle at his lit kiln, it was lit
Saori brought the picture of the wolf over; we did it! Saori’s amusing every single time; I guess she’s my new favorite. Checked in on everyone at the kiln then ran into アニキ for the first time in a while. He was bummed at the realization I’m leaving and he didn’t make a friend he could see longer term – once more, everyone’s reflecting on the end.
Without too much in mind to accomplish today, I went back to Saori’s tent and talked a bit more about the wolf. At least she keeps giving me pictures from the camera; they’re great.
I crossed all the way back over to the hideout entrance and once I was under cover this beautiful cutscene of rain played, same as WeepingWeeb saw. Hope the rest of you all catch that too.
Did a little more bug sumo to beat the king ones again. One of my opponents was just my exact beetle but 1 mm larger. It was a close, drawn out fight, but my champion won . 20-0
TIL you can also portray sleeping with zzz in Japanese I guess, haha
It’s kite completion day once again. The uncle also told me to come see the kiln get opened.
Stopped in for more bug sumo and this time it started with my bug but 4mm larger. Still won 23-0 world champ beetle.
I’ve never had issues with the kites before, but I swear this bird kite is defective. It took me several tries and a lot of near crashes even on the successful one. Suddenly this is a hard game!
I thought uncle said night for the kiln but wasn’t 100% confident so I bee-warped back, but it’s indeed night. For the first time I triggered dinner by walking into the house at about the right time instead of being dragged there. Talking to Moe while she gets wistful and poetic has been a highlight most nights but I especially liked listening to the bugs with her and talking about the night sky. It’s a shame we don’t seem to get a decent view of the pottery, but at least uncle is happy about it.
After I had the world’s hardest fight with the world’s worst kite Boku had the audacity to say we did nothing.
沙織 came to show the picture the camera took of the ニホンオオカミ - though it doesn’t seem like the ghostly one we’ve been seeing…
I gave the book to 萌 but it’s written in English. Turns out there’s a letter inside too, also in English, but she’ll translate it for us
Talked to 沙織 and had one of my favourite interactions in the game (ボク asks how she carried so many books with her, and in an absolute deadpan she answers “根性” (willpower))
Got my new kite, and also had enough time to fly it
Found a king beetle on one of the trees
In the evening 萌 read the letter and it was quite sad. A person who wanted to go to America and had to hide their English dictionaries during the war
萌 has bounced back in a big way, after reading the letter yesterday. She feels like her problems are nothing compared to what was in the letter. I wonder what she’s like if you don’t find the letter - does she stay in her funk?
Conversation about how it hasn’t rained all summer. Got me wondering why the grass isn’t dying then lol
Tried out my king beetle and it was alright - managed to win a fair few fights
Wanted to see the kiln being lit, but didn’t realise where it was and wasted my time
Did get to see it in the evening though
Talked to 沙織 and she asked about the snake from the other day (speaking of which I found a snake skin on the route to the forest)
おじさん was asleep in the evening lol
萌 and ボク’s conversation about what the world will be like 20 years in the future was nice. Quite resonant with the themes of the game
Got my new kite and went to go fly it. Managed to fail for the first time, since the wind was just not on my side
Got it on my second try
Talked to 沙織 and turns out she’s leaving
I’ll miss the 漫才 interactions between the two
萌 out of her room again and with another great bit of dialogue
Oh no I’m learning I failed Moe! Really if you don’t do that event, which I didn’t, I think while she doesn’t have as drastic of a turnaround she still sort of comes out of it over time. She’s very reflective but that might happen either way and she seems to be increasingly thinking about the future and moving closer to normal as the ache dulls.
-Saw that the flowers are wilted now
-Was able to pick up the book in the cave!!
-Lol, Saori was not in the mood to talk, and just answered Boku’s questions with one word
grab the book?
-Went and did bug sumo, they told me if I beat all their strong bugs, they’ll bring even stronger ones. I can’t tell if it’s generic dialogue, or if I have to beat a certain number of bugs to trigger that?
-Yayy, Moe is playing her clarinet!!! Hopefully she’s feeling a little better
-Caught a bug in the yard at night that I didn’t have before
-Told Moe I picked up the book. I’m going to go to her room tomorrow
-Picked up my new kite and flew it to 120m
-Aw, Moe was flopped in her bed, but maybe she was just taking a nap
-I thought the book was an English dictionary! Yayyy, she’s going to translate the letter
-Went to go do bug sumo, and today there was a male カブトムシ, it’s a king and it’s won 100 times, so I wonder if defeating this one does something? I wasn’t able to beat it. I don’t think I have that type of beetle, so maybe I need one
-I remembered others talking about the beach, and realized I missed a whole area!! I was like ahhh I bet it’s past the sunflowers. Yup! If I was playing on my own I would have completely missed the beach haha
-The whole area is sooo pretty!! I love this games art. Even the sound of artificial in-game ocean waves is nice lol
-Moe read the letter at dinnertime
-Then I showed them the whale bone after dinner
-Moe is playing clarinet again! But the song has more instruments layered over
-I won fighting against a male カブトムシ, so I was able to exchange one of my bugs for it! I haven’t encountered it in the wild on trees, so I figured I could get one this way. Mayyybe it would be able to win against the king カブトムシ? I’m not getting my hopes up, but that would be nice
-Awww, uncle fell asleep after dinner because he worked so hard at the kiln
-I got my new kite! Man, this was the first time I had difficulty with a kite!! But I wasn’t gonna let Boku spend his last week of summer break as a loser! So after much trial and error, I got to 120m!!
-I asked for the airplane kite next
-YEAHHHHH I BEAT THE BIG KING カブトムシ!!! I used a 71mm ミヤマクワガタ and tapped it a few times before to make it stronger. Then I traded to get it
-The boys didn’t say anything about it tho so maybe it wasn’t that big of a feat? Oh well, I’m still happy! Maybe it will trigger something later
-I’ve liked how the amount of bugs changes throughout the summer too. Towards the end I’ve noticed a higher amount
-Got to have a nice chat with Moe after dinner
-Went and checked on the aunt and uncle working on the pottery
-Ah! Shirabe told me one time she accidentally broke her dad’s shelf and pottery! I wonder if that dialogue was slightly different for the people who accidentally broke it in their playthrough
Good catch! I talk a little about Tim Rogers’ video on this game in the last thread cause I watched it after finishing, but he said in it that the available bugs change to try to reflect the types available in summer moving into the almost transitioning into autumn time. Very cool.
I’ve realized since finishing that I think I did in fact totally miss the cave (hence why I never found the book); I wasn’t helped because I think I had a whole different thing in mind that I thought was the cave others referred to
On day 24 I finally went straight to Mount Teppan but it was already closed when I got there. I see on the map in the manual that there’s some sort of shortcut to get out that way but I never found it. Doesn’t seem like I’ll ever uncover the titular てっぺん山の秘密.
Side note: the English language sources I’ve seen romanize it as Teppan-Yama. How do I know it’s not san like 富士山? I figured the other two onyomi in the name would pull 山 toward onyomi as well.
Since I was in the area I went back to the cave and this time it let me pick up the book? Very old-school adventure game that Boku suddenly wanted to pick up the book when before he had just left it on the ground.
I got the same Moe storyline that a lot of people have already described. I’ve had the fully orchestrated version of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” stuck in my head for a real-life day or two since then. I still feel like I’m missing a bit of context on what sent her spiraling in the first place - I think it was a letter from a boy she was interested in? But maybe that’s just all the information her kid cousin is gonna get.
I also really enjoyed talking to Uncle throughout the process of firing the pottery, even though all the pottery vocab went over my head. I liked how excited he was to share his passion with his nephew.
I did a few more bug battles and flew another kite during these days, but I don’t think I committed hard enough to anything to see the end of those “questlines.” I also finally got the sugar water with @downtimes’ help, and I got a little event with the wolf, but I couldn’t figure out how to set the camera trap. I think I may not have talked enough to Saori either. She did say a kind of farewell when I talked to her on the last day, so I think I’m out of time there too.
Overall it feels just like the last round or two of a board game when you realize your game-long plans didn’t quite come together and you just need to wring out whatever points you still can. I’m very glad to have these threads so I can see all the storylines I didn’t finish on my own.
One of the primary reasons for her spiral is that she got rejected by a boy she was interested in. She spent quite a few days earlier in the game writing a letter (clearly putting a lot of thought and effort into it), then received one back and suddenly was very sad. Pretty sure you’ve had the bath scene by now, and she does tell you that she was rejected there
Yeah that’s everything I managed to figure out, too. I was mainly wondering if we’d find out things like who her crush was or what exactly was in the letter. I actually went through her trash a few times hoping I’d get a peek at it!
Game Club
and dragonfly 
. 20-0
23-0 world champ beetle.
So after much trial and error, I got to 120m!!
so maybe it wasn’t that big of a feat? Oh well, I’m still happy! Maybe it will trigger something later
