Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery (2021)

With its animated and colorful visuals, this game focuses on the story of a woman who is trying to finish her painting across the span of a few days. With a sprinkling of puzzles and exploration of her apartment, the gameplay mechanics seemed they'd be more satisfying via touch controls than with controller/keyboard, especially the painting aspect. A VR update has been announced that may satisfy this preference for those who don't want to play on mobile devices.

I found the plot lacking. I ended up Googling the story to understand the ending as it was a bit vague.

Overall, I think if this game is visually appealing to you, then I'd recommend it. Otherwise, I'm not sure the gameplay or plot will be enjoyable enough as there isn't much of it.

Had my eye on this ever since I saw the trailer, because of it's beautiful aesthetic. Decided to pick it up in summersale after reading tons of glowing reviews.

Narrative

You are a girl/woman who is painting in her studio to make a deadline for applying for an art exhibit in New York. Not much more than that to say without spoiling.

Gameplay

It's mostly a narrative game with a couple of paint based puzzles. The story is told through sentences said by the main character (said is just written there is no voice acting) and through paintings. You have to do puzzles around your apartment and so some painting.

Setting

I am actually not sure where the game takes place, somewhere far away from New York it seems. The art style is reminiscent of Ghibli, something that attracted me to this game in the first place. It's absolutely stunning. The few animated parts are very well done as well. It's super colorful and just wholesome. There is a good fitting soundtrack as well, nut nothing super memorable.

Other

Recently they released a DLC story which is similar in style but about a different character in the same story. I played it right after and it was fun.

Conclusion

I guess my expectations were a tad high for this one. After reading reviews about how amazing the game is, how it made people cry, and so much feels, and the usual words, I though wow, this must have an amazing story besides the amazing art. While it didn't 100% do it for me, It wasn't bad. It was pretty cute, but it wasn't the epic amazing story I was expecting.

Besides that, the game is incredibly short. It took me maybe 1.5 hours. Which is not bad per se, but for a full price of over 10 euros, not entirely worth it. I get that a lot of love and hard work went into this and I respect that. But something like half that would have been a better price point in my opinion.

In conclusion, this game looks absolutely amazing, and that was it's major pull for me, and also the best thing about it after playing. Puzzles are not bad, but not really hard. Story was a 'just ok' for me. You could pick it up if there is a decent sale on it.