I finally snagged this on a sale, and I managed to find a bit of downtime to play it. BACKGROUND:
I saw someone play this on YouTube once and thought the game looked charming. It was never a game I strongly felt like getting as soon as I could, but I did resolve to pick it up if ever there was a sale and I wanted something chill to play in between long playthroughs. PLOT: This game tells the story of Florence Yeoh, a young woman who's dealing with the ups and downs of adult life. She's kind of stuck in a dead-end desk job, is badgered often by her worrywart mother, and has a pretty uneventful life outside of work. We get glimpses of her childhood early on, and we see her dreams of becoming an artist be dashed as she's pressured to do well in school, and we see her childhood friendships drift apart. Florence's life changes forever when she meets Krish, an aspiring cellist looking to push his musical career further. The rest of the game chronicles the ups and downs of their relationship, as a chance encounter gradually grows into something more. The ups are sweet, as the two grow to be more comfortable with one another, they have all sorts of fun together, and they even manage to settle into a comfy routine. Perhaps the sweetest aspects of their relationship are how they both support the other with their respective passion, and how being with Krish influences Florence's daily life positively. The downs aren't pleasant at all, as the two get into ugly arguments and life slowly drives a wedge between them. The story takes care not to frame it as one is wrong and the other is right, but regardless, seeing everything unfold after a beautiful start is disheartening to see. To elaborate further would give away how things end, but all I'll say is that the story ends on what I feel is a positive note. I don't exactly have the same life experience as Florence (especially not with the dating bit), but a lot of what she goes through teeters into the "too real" territory. I'm familiar with being stuck in a rut, having to live up with pressure I didn't ask for, living with the sadness of seeing connections drift apart, having to set aside dreams for reality, and the struggle of trying to move forward after shitty moments. I can't say that I'm equally familiar with the more positive moments of Florence's life, sadly, and to be honest, seeing those moments be canceled out by rough patches makes me question if striving for that happiness is even worth it. For what it's worth, the game's central theme of finding the good within those rough patches and moving forward with that in mind is slightly reassuring. The game tells its entire story with zero dialogue from the characters, and everything is communicated extremely well with other aspects such as the presentation and what little gameplay there is. I'll elaborate on that in their respective sections. PRESENTATION: The entire game is like a webcomic come to life, with a lot of the story framed in "panels" and a simple yet charming art style that looks hand-drawn. It's a delight to look at, and I liked the occasional flourish with animations and the use of parallax scrolling to add depth. The visuals do more than just show you what's happening in the story, and elements like color and movement are used well to convey emotion. The music is equally beautiful, with the main instruments being the piano and the cello. This is also used effectively to convey emotion, with upbeat melodies to accompany happy moments and melancholic tunes to go along with sad moments. The most notable example of this to me is having a particularly discordant track play during an argument between the two main characters. GAMEPLAY: Florence's gameplay is best described as a series of minigames presented along with the comic visuals, and the activities line up with the event currently presented on the screen. These include moving a toothbrush back and forth when Florence is brushing her teeth, mindlessly clicking like/retweet as she browses social media on her commute, and her accounting job represented with a matching game. None of these posed a challenge for me, but that's fine, as I went into this knowing it was more of a narrative experience. Some of these minigames do an amazing job of communicating the story with their design. The most prominent example to me is the minigame representing Florence talking to Krish. Talking has you assemble a jigsaw puzzle of a speech bubble, and while it's never difficult at any point, the first few puzzles have you fiddle with a lot of pieces. As Florence becomes more comfortable talking to Krish, the puzzles get easier, taking fewer and fewer pieces to assemble. Even the pieces themselves convey emotion, as the pieces become jagged when you're putting together Florence's dialogue during an argument. Other minigames I found notable include wiping a mirror to replace Florence's reflection with her vision of her ideal self, minigames where the game does things automatically (to denote either the ease of what Florence is doing, or how a situation is completely out of her control), and one where you shake Polaroids (I just thought it was amusing). VERDICT: Florence is a short but sweet narrative experience about the all-too-relatable experiences of the titular character as her life changes with one fateful encounter. There's admittedly little else to the gameplay apart from the minigames I mentioned, but that combined with the beautiful visuals, lovely music, and clever design that utilizes these elements to communicate the story made the game a memorable time for me. This game left me pondering about my life, which is impressive given this game takes 30 minutes to beat. This is more of an interactive story than it is a game, so if you're seeking something more involved, Florence will probably not tickle your fancy. On the flip side, I think this game's slice of life narrative will resonate with a lot of people, and the minigames are simple enough that even the most casual of players will have no difficulty getting through the story. Don't be concerned about the game's length, either, as I'm pretty sure this game is cheap on most platforms it's on. Florence is available on the following: Here's the game's soundtrack on Spotify: Spotify – Florence (Original Soundtrack) - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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