Danchi Days Review

The prologue of Danchi Days begins roughly seven years before the main story, in which we are introduced to a little girl named Hoshino, her grandma, and her best friend, a boy named Rio. The two children play and explore Another Danchi, with Grandma encouraging them to sense the world around them, and to find wonder in the mundane. Seven years later, a now twelve-year-old Hoshino and her father are moving back into the danchi after living in America. Hoshino is reunited with Rio, who is now cold and distant, as well as Grandma, who is exhibiting symptoms of dementia. Determined to help Grandma feel better, Hoshino decides that she must revive Another Danchi’s Summer Festival, a long-standing tradition in the danchi that has not been held in quite some time. Appointing herself as the new Festival Leader, like Grandma before her, she meets Moro-Q, a kappa that once helped Grandma prepare the summer festival long ago. Hoshino then sets out to invite as many neighbors to the summer festival as possible.

This is the crux of Danchi Days’ gameplay. As Hoshino, you must explore the danchi, meeting neighbors and helping them with their problems, all with the goal of getting them to RSVP to the summer festival. Another Danchi offers plenty of areas to explore, secrets to find, and a grand total of 51 neighbors to meet and invite. Every neighbor has their own personality, interests and story, making each one really feel like their own person that you get to know over the course of the game. The game takes place over the course of nine days, during which Hoshino meets her neighbors, grows the summer festival, and uncovers the danchi’s past. 

The other main element of gameplay in Danchi Days is the Sense Games. Whenever colored sparkles appear on the screen, Hoshino can sense them to trigger a Sense Game, a minigame that is often required for progression. These minigames are simple enough, and the goal of each minigame is to fill up the Sense Meter while taking as few steps as possible. The Sense Games are easy enough to understand, but also require a good amount of thinking when it comes to making each move. Completing Sense Games earns you Sense Stars, and how many you earn depends on how few steps it took to complete the minigame. The Sense Stars can be used to pass through barriers around Another Danchi, uncovering the secrets that lie beyond them.

Hoshino also has a computer that she can use to keep track of her neighbors and who has and has not RSVPed, receive emails, search for key terms on the Web, and view her neighbors’ personal homepages. I think the computer mechanics add a good amount of extra depth to the gameplay, and I love the use of old school web design and aesthetics with the neighbors’ homepages. 

Another area in which I think Danchi Days really shines is in its artwork and graphics. The game takes place in 2000s Japan, and I think its visuals really reflect that. The game’s pixel art graphics capture the look of a Japanese Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS game maybe better than any other recreation of that aesthetic I’ve ever seen. For example, three games I felt like I saw a lot of influence from are Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire, and Mother 3. The gameplay takes place within a square frame, giving it an aspect ratio similar to that of the Game Boy Color. These nostalgic visuals add a lot to the game, and fit really well with its overarching themes of childhood and changes in your personal world, especially because I grew up with those systems and games myself. 

The soundtrack goes hand in hand with the graphics in creating the excellent presentation of Danchi Days. The tracks are catchy and memorable, with a sound to them that reminds me of Japanese DS games like the aforementioned Ace Attorney and Pokémon Diamond/Pearl. Although the same tracks play in each area during each of the nine days of festival prep, I never got tired of them, and they added a pleasant listening experience to the overall gameplay. 

To conclude, I had an incredible time with Danchi Days, and would recommend it to anyone to experience for themselves. The presentation, gameplay, and story are all excellent, and I’m very much satisfied with the full game after I was initially interested in it months ago. I also learned about numerous parts of Japanese culture that I didn't know before through playing this game, such as Ondo dancing and melon bread. Although I haven’t played too many 2026 releases, I would comfortably say Danchi Days is among my favorites, as well as being one of my favorite indie releases overall from the past few years. Danchi Days is available now on Steam, and playable on both Windows and MacOS, a nice touch as someone who used to be a Mac user frequently unable to play certain games. 

Purchase Danchi Days for yourself: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3107530/Danchi_Days/