My Favorite Seasonal Events #1: Summer

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Welcome to My Favorite Seasonal Events! In this section of the blog, I’ll be making a Top 3 of events centered around a certain season or holiday across all the mobages I’ve read stories from, shortly explaining their plot and the reasons why I like them. 

Summer has been going on for a while, but most games tend to hold their summer events during August as that’s the month Japanese high schools are usually off school for their holidays, so that’s why I decided to post this entry around this time of the season. Without further ado, let’s start!

Top 3: Gift of Summer Vacation (Promise of Wizard)

First of all, we have Mahoyaku’s first summer event, all the way back from 2020. It focuses on Rustica, featuring him on the events’ banner for the first time ever since the game’s release. I have a personal preference for Mahoyaku’s early events, and this one is no exception!

As most of Mahoyaku’s seasonal events do, it follows a group of the Sage’s wizards independently of their country engaging on a mission somewhere across the land, usually related in some way to the season the event is held in. In this case, they head for Borda Isle, where they meet a certain woman requesting something from them… which unfolds differently from what they expect.

Even though it features a nice story in which all the characters featured are allowed to shine, obviously focusing on Rustica and his compassion in the typical Western wizard fashion, I feel like there are other events out there with a similar theme I’ve enjoyed more, both within Mahoyaku and in other games, so third is as far as it goes! Next up, the second place is… 

Top 2: Mesmerized by Mermaids (Project SEKAI)

This event isn’t exactly a summer event by definition, as it’s Nene’s second song event, but its motifs and overall general atmosphere made me categorize it as a summer event, and therefore I included it in this ranking! 

After establishing themselves as Phoenix Wonderland’s Ambassadors with their park-saving show, Wonderlands x Showtime are tasked with traveling to different places to promote the park and its different tropes, starting by a seaside show in which they’ll put on their own version of The Little Mermaid, a play that Nene has loved all the way back since her childhood. 

One of the reasons why I like this event a lot is because it introduces one of the plotlines for Wonderlands x Showtime teased all the way back in The World Hasn’t Even Started Yet’s lyrics – the prospect of a future disbandment once their goals are too big for their small group, and how this is treated by something they shouldn’t have to worry about now, and instead enjoy their present together. Furthermore, the play the characters put on based on The Little Mermaid is absolutely hilarious, completely in character for a trope like Wonderlands x Showtime, which only adds to the enjoyment I had reading this event. However, even with all its good parts, I usually like when the conflicts are explored slightly more dramatically, which is why this was placed second instead of the first place… 

Runner-Ups:

… But before getting into the Top 1 event, I want to highlight other summer-y events I considered for this entry! As I said, there are many games that hold events with these themes, so choosing just three was pretty difficult, which is why I created this little corner with a few runner-ups!

Summer in the Shining Land of Water (BanG Dream): I admit I haven’t read BanG Dream (or Bandori, for short) events in a good while, however, this one stood out to me when I read it a few years ago, mostly because of the song that accompanies it, Sanctuary, and because it manages to keep things lighthearted while still resolving an on-going conflict with Roselia. 

Ringing Sounds at the Summer Festival (Project SEKAI): Another Project Sekai event takes the cake! Even if it lost to Mermaids when putting together this ranking, I consider this event super important, lore-wise, if you’re a fan of the Shinonome siblings (especially Akito), as this is the event that reveals the reason why Akito started singing, which makes it worth a read even if it doesn’t really push the story forward for any of the groups featured. 

Now, and finally, for the first place, we have… 

Top 1: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ensemble Stars!)

This might be the first time Ensemble Stars (or Enstars, for short) shows up in this blog, as it’s the game with the widest cast I’m into (49 characters… for now!), and due to the sheer amount of stories the game has, there’s no way I could cover every single character with what I’ve read in the three years I’ve been into the game. However, I am a big fan of it despite its numerous quirks and flaws (mainly the dramaticness of their stories, completely on another level compared to any other mobage), and its stories are no exception.

Finally free from their ban on activities after the incidents at DDD, Knights decide to participate in a summer festival known as Starmine to get on the workflow again, with Trickstar tagging along to organize a joint live between the units. However, still stuck in a conflicting relationship because of said incidents, not everything goes completely as planned as Izumi starts acting strange because of Makoto… 

It’s hard for pre-Leo Knights stories to catch my attention, as I believe Leo’s return is the inflexion point for most of their character development, and since he’s also my favorite in the entire game I tend to look at it from a biased perspective. So, because of that, I think that the fact that this event was so interesting to read to me even if it doesn’t feature what I am biased for is very impressive, and therefore gets first place in this ranking!

It’s also one of the very first events that features more of Izumi than just being mean to his juniors (and others, in general), common in stories of Enstars’ first year, which I find pretty important since his character, while complex, is often misunderstood. It also helps set up the mood for Horror Night Halloween, the next Knights and Trickstar event, this time with the addition of Leo, and all that implies for parallels and interactions. 

Closing thoughts:

With that, we’ve come to an end to the very first ranking on the blog! I’ll admit it was hard to actually rank these events, as it’s very rare I have marked preferences unless I really really like one story in particular, so I want to note that, in the end, this is all subjective and just my opinion, and that everyone is allowed to like whatever events they like (and vice versa)!

Sadly, next month doesn’t have any noteworthy celebration, so there won’t be a new entry for this series, but look forward to the Halloween entry in October! And, of course, to the next post for my other series, Recommending Characters, coming out this Sunday! Hope you enjoyed the read!