Disaster Report Diaries (Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories) Part One

Back in 2011, developer Irem was working on a PlayStation 3 Disaster Report 4, with PlayStation Move support. It was cancelled days after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, somewhat understandably. After that, Irem moved away from videogame development, so former staff created the company Granzella and developed Kyoei Toshi, a spiritual sequel featuring giant robots and monsters, in 2017.

However, in 2020, they finally published Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories (AKA Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4 Plus: Summer Memories)! It released on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in Japan a couple of years before that, but the worldwide release also brought it to PC, where I’ll be playing it. The manual is available on the publisher’s website, and it says that there is a Stress meter which will lower if you rest at a save point, the same as the previous title, as is everything else, really. Except for the VR Mode, which allows you to explore previously-cleared areas to find stickers, which earn you points to exchange for items usable in your current save game only.

The player character is customisable, but I’ll be going with the default name and the female-presenting body type to make things easier. So, with that out of the way, let’s get into Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories!

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This is my exploration of the Disaster Report series, where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. Now let’s begin Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories...

The song Jingle Bells played on piano was accompanied by falling snow on a black background while a narrator asks what kind of reaction you would have to an earthquake. Voices read out a list of reactions, and I chose “I want to help others and survive”. I then customised my female protagonist’s face and hair, and the game began.

I was on a city bus in Hisui City, and it was July 201X, around 10 AM. An elderly lady stood near me, and as I was getting off soon, I offered her my seat and received one Moral Point. I was on the way to a job interview near Suiren Park, and as I was about to press the button to disembark, a phone notification startled me. In fact, it was a literal bus full of phone notifications!

It was a message from the Japan Meteorological Agency and read “Emergency Earthquake Information”, warning that a strong earthquake had occurred in Kawase Prefecture. Emergency rules said that I should hold on and duck down, so I do exactly that moments before the shockwave hit us, causing the bus to vibrate and traffic to crash in front of us!

With the screen black, I’m asked if an earthquake hit, and it’s my first visit to a city, what would my reaction be? The list appears again, with some slight variation to wording, and I choose “I’d try to survive by cooperating with others..

Regaining consciousness, I could hear people still alive in the vehicle, but I couldn’t see anyone as I was next to a window, so I climbed out. Someone asked my name, Yuko Ichikawa, and beckoned me to come away from the bus. Behind me was a wall of fire, and the aftermath of the earthquake was apparent in the amount of damage I could see on the walls and road. A cicada was going nuts on a nearby tree, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get far from it initially.

Someone was listening to the radio on their phone, with a news report talking about the earthquake. As the group listening to the news broke up, I was informed that my phone had a Radio app — which made me realise that I had no idea what the controls were.

As I entered the park, the game informed me that it was the safest place to be, out in the open, but that I had to leave to actually advance the story, and presented me with three options, where I chose that I would help people while exploring. To that matter, I approached a middle-aged salaryman sat on a bench looking at his lunch, which now covered the ground. He bid me to sit down while he talked about how he had been forced to retire and had been hiding the fact from his family for a month. I agreed with him that it was a huge earthquake, then quietly decided that I felt bad for him and wanted him to do his best.

I decided to leave the park, and hadn’t gone five steps before the ground shook and a nearby building smashed down into the road nearby! The two people standing closest were nonplussed by it, but I moved swiftly and with purpose in the other direction — only to almost get beaned by a falling lamppost!

As I looked around, more tremors shook things, and I was suddenly approached by a man in a pinstripe suit with a black shirt and tie. I asked if he needed something, and he told me that he was looking for a man in a black t-shirt — who chose that moment to run past him! Having learned my lesson when it came to telling angry people where to find other people, I instead pointed north and lied, though this gave me four Immoral Points.

After checking out the area, I went into a clothing store called TWDA. Right there on a counter was an Emergency Bag, which I equipped, replacing my pockets with 20 storage spaces. While looking around, I overheard two teens chatting in a changing room, and encountered several people looking for a Ms. Akemi. For some reason, I was able to comment on one outfit — a men’s white jacket and green swimming shorts — and decided that the designer had good fashion sense.

Someone on the third floor was in a poor mood, but music started playing when I spoke to them, so I did it again. I agreed that earthquakes were unpredictable, and approached the person with care, saying that they didn’t do anything wrong. They asked me what I did, and in return, I asked if they had seen the key which an employee was looking for. They admitted to having it and handed it over, saying they had wanted to mess with me first. With the Apparel Office Key in my possession, I went to the locked door also on the top floor and found Ms. Akemi trapped under some boxes.

After pulling her out and following her, she thanked me and I asked if she was hurt, using her name in the process. She confirmed that she was fine, then asked how I knew her name, so I explained that people were looking for her. She formally introduced herself as Akemi, a fashion designer, so I elegantly introduced myself. She seemed off put by that, then said she was going. Before she left, however, she told me that if there was clothing which I was interested in, I should try it on.

You may, like me, think that this was an invitation to keep an outfit as thanks for saving her life. However, after grabbing a T-Shirt & Shorts outfit from a mannequin and trying it on — and speaking to Akemi after I did so — I tried to leave but she stopped me! I said that I had forgotten about it and wanted to return it, but she said that I was trying to run away and changed me back into my interview outfit, keeping the clothes.

I went inside the reception area of Glitnir Inc., which had a notice posted saying that interviews were being rearranged. So much for that job…

While looking for some way to leave the area, I encountered a teacher who had lost three students. She urgently asked if I’d seen them and their blue vests, so I asked her to calm down and tell me what happened. Her name was Natsumi Higa, and while that name doesn’t mean anything to readers of this series, she used to be known as Kelly Austin! Survivor (and teacher) in Del Ray, as well as a survivor (and student) on Stiver Island!

Natsumi was a new teacher at Hisui Gakuin High School, and had been looking for three truant students when the earthquake happened. She asked me to find them, and thinking that she’s pretty and my type, I agreed enthusiastically. I remembered hearing the chatter in the changing room, so headed back into the store. Sure enough, two Hisui Gakuin High School students were standing just outside of the stalls. One was using her phone to take photos or video of… well, I’m not sure, because she kept aiming it at a stone pillar, and the nearby window didn’t offer much view of the city.

I told them that their teacher was looking for them, and they correctly guessed which one it was. The other one thanked me, then they resumed looking out the window. The two seemed like high-maintenance “mean girls”: Hidemi, a redhead with chunky thighs and too much blush, and Eri, a blonde with an almost refined air about her — if not for her best friend proving it was likely a front.

I reported the update to Natsumi, and she explained that she had only recently started. Despite being a teacher since at least 2010 (so between one and nine years), she didn’t really know how to deal with students. She apologised for complaining, but I offered to keep listening if she needed it. However, she realised that I’d only reported the location of two students when she had wanted me to find three — she was the one who started chatting, but okay… Luckily, I found her on the other side of the street, looking at a hole big enough to crawl through to escape the intersection.

After saying that her teacher wanted her, and Natsumi running over, Hiroko started crying and said that she didn’t want to return to school. She had brown hair, and she seemed very timid, not helped by Eri and Hidemi also arriving, the latter speaking in a very over-the-top polite manner. The pair suggested they go to the school, which was a designated shelter, and crawl through the space Hiroko had been looking at. Natsumi said it was dangerous, so Hidemi recommended that Hiroko go first.

Hiroko hesitantly agreed, but Natsumi told her no, she would go first as she had survived multiple other disasters. Since they were clearly all too afraid, I said that I’d go through first (receiving eight Moral Points) — though I was severely tempted to tell the annoying girl to do it…

As I crawled, a tremor shook everything, but the solid metal structure above me remained intact. A fallen building blocked half of Obako Main Street in front of us, the others having quickly joined me, but it had collided with another building, giving us enough room to pass beneath it. The group waited near the gap while I checked on someone bleeding against a wall. They asked what had happened, so I told them that their head was bleeding, and they realised that was the cause of them feeling dizzy. So I left him to it.

Leading the way, the building shifted but stayed up. The road was blocked by a fallen tanker truck, and gasoline covered the road. As we began to push a truck out of our way with all of our might, the fuel caught on fire! It was close, but the truck moved and we got through.

Unfortunately, this area was perhaps worse off than around Suiren Park had been! And with the fire behind us, even if we could climb up the broken road, we’d never get through it…