Update [Thu 2nd Nov, 2023 09:45 GMT]: Hilltop Works announced yesterday on Twitter that the hotly anticipated English fan patch for the PS2 game Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 has now been released after eleven months of work.
The patch is the work of Hilltop (localization lead/hacking/programming), Cargodin (localization assistance), OldGameBox (graphic editing/video editing), blamerobots (graphic editing), SnowyAria (additional audio transcription), and two playtesters named Oculin and gwendolyn.
It is available to download now from Hilltop's Patreon page. It should work fine on PS2 and emulators, though there are some reported issues with early-model modded PS3s.
A special release trailer was uploaded to YouTube to celebrate the occasion, which you can view below:
Original Story [Tue 7th March, 2023 11:05 GMT]: In a recent announcement on Twitter, the prolific hacker and translator Hilltop Works revealed that they are developing an English translation patch for Millenium Kitchen's cult PS2 game Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 (commonly translated to "My Summer Vacation 2" online).
Along with the announcement, Hilltop published a roughly 2-minute trailer for the patch of the game giving us a small taste of the translation and some of the incredible editing work that has gone into making it more accessible for non-Japanese speaking players.
Boku no Natsuyasumi is a popular series of Japanese games that started all the way back in 2000, with the PlayStation title of the same name. Its sequel Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 followed in 2002 for PS2 and kept the same premise: you've been whisked away to the Japanese countryside on a Summer holiday with your family and must spend your days catching bugs and meeting with the locals.
Frustratingly, the four games that make up the main series were never given an official European or North American release, despite much interest, with Westerners only being able to experience its spiritual successors' Attack of the Friday Monsters and Shin-Chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation. Hackers and fan translators have therefore had to take things into their own hands, in order to try and bring this series of games to a wider audience.
In 2021, the Boku no Natsuyasumi super fan @obskyr announced that they were busy translating the PSP remake of the original, with that project presumably still ongoing despite a lack of updates. Now another team led by Hilltop is working on a patch for the original version of the PS2 sequel, providing more reasons for fans to get excited.
Hilltop issued the following statement on his Patreon about the hack:
"It's an honor to be working on this game. This is a truly wonderful and unique franchise that never made it to the west. A lot of work has already been poured into this game to get it to where it is. This has been one of the most challenging games to wrangle with but I'm beyond delighted at the state it's in. Boku 2 has so much charm and many deeply touching moments, I'm proud to be able to share it with you all."
While you wait for this patch, we recommend following Hilltop on Twitter and supporting their work on Ko-Fi and Patreon. We'll try to keep you updated on its development and will let you know once it becomes available to download.