Flower (2009)

Flower is a lovely game with beautiful sound design. I wish I liked it more.

My main issue isn't with the controls (which seem divisive, regardless of platform), but how often control is taken from you. The game presents you with seemingly open areas, only to corral you into a smaller space, pull you down a happier path, or otherwise slow, reorient or teleport you toward an intended focal point. I'm fine with a bit of that, but it feels heavy-handed and distracting here.

Otherwise, the game is nice. The story it tells isn't particularly deep, and the soundtrack does the lion's share of the heavy lifting in terms of its emotional impact. But compared to the landscape of grimdark and gray-brown gun games that dominated around 2009, this was a real breath of fresh air.

J'avais adoré Abzû, il fallait bien que je teste Flower, le premier jeu du directeur artistique acclamé Matt Nava.

La recette est la même que pour Abzu, un enfilement de zone semi ouvertes, une narration sans dialogue qui dénonce l'hubris de l'Homme sur son environnement au mépris d'une nature sacrée.

Si la technique a bien évolué depuis 2009, le jeu reste beau, c'est dû en grande partie à sa simplicité et à sa direction artistique. On contrôle un courant d'air qui entraine avec lui des pétales de fleurs qui cherchent à s'épanouir en proposant une ville propre où les hommes et la nature vivrait en harmonie.

C'est court, c'est magnifiquement porté par la musique et les chœurs intra diégétiques des fleurs, on a plus l'impression de parcourir une installation d'art contemporain qu'un véritable jeu.

Mon seul bémol serait sur les contrôles que je trouve un peu lourds, ce qui est quand même le comble lorsque l'on joue le vent. Bémol supplémentaire pour les trophés du jeu qui donnent l'impression qu'il n'a pas envie de jouer ("poser la manette pendant 10 minutes", "faire une pause d'une semaine"...).

Flower is, perhaps, the most unlikely inclusion on my list of favorite games. I tend towards very actiony games where you kill people/monsters in dope ways. Dark Souls, Diablo, Darksiders, and DOOM. You'll find something more puzzle-based on there from time to time, such as The Witness or Outer Wilds. You might find some wholesome platformers like Sly or Mario.

Rarely will you find "art" games that solely exist to impart an "experience" with minimal gameplay. I've played quite a few of these, actually, they just rarely resonate enough to get five stars. Flower, on the other hand, has been like a church bell in the background of my life for the last 14 years.

I usually don't care much about the music in the video games I play. Often I'll turn the music off entirely, especially if it's a game I'm playing with a friend or while listening to podcasts. I almost never listen to video game music on its own. The flower OST, on the other hand, I've listened to over 50 times according to lastfm. It's my happy place. It's what I listen to when I'm stressed or feeling particularly nostalgic. When I want to remember what it was like being 18, on the cusp of adulthood, being in love for the first time. It's an album for muggy summer remembrances of summers long past.

The game itself is beyond basic, but I can't help but find it beautiful, even all these years later. The swaying grass, the ever-growing swirl of flower petals marching behind you, the way collecting them adds beautiful improvised notes to the spacious music.

The driving theme of tension between urban development and nature is perhaps rote to many, but is a particular weak spot for me, having been born in a rural Louisiana town with a population density of less than a thousand people per square mile, before moving to a suburb of Chicago in 1st grade with 3,500 people per square mile, then moving into a neighborhood in Chicago proper when I was 20 with 11,000 people per square mile.

My entire life is a story of moving farther away from nature. Every summer in Chicago brings with it bittersweet memories of running through Louisiana forests, of playing in my aunt's backyard, as big as a football field, and plucking honeysuckle from the woodland's edge. Summer will never be just a season for me, it's a particular time and place.

Many pieces of media have tackled this theme, but none hit as hard for me as Flower did and none capture the nuances as well as Flower does. It's not as simple as nature good, city bad. They both have their own beauty, and they create an entirely new beauty when mixed together. Natural spaces within cities can be just as powerful as my aunt's backyard. I've read entire books on urban planning because of Flower, just to try to understand the effect certain spaces have on my brain. If that's not art, I don't know what is.

Flower is a beautiful game. it’s a prime example how to tell a story without using a single word. It’s a very chill experience with a clear objective; collect flowers. I appreciate having a clear goal, since many similar artistic walking sims, for some reason, don’t clearly define what should player actually do. I played Vita version and the controls weren’t too bad. They were precise enough. The story was okay, although I do not really understand the ending. It shifts from a very understandable pessimism to a weirdly random optimism, regarding the environmental theme.

But nonetheless I think it is a very nice game to experience. It looks nice, sounds nice and creates a very unique gaming experience. Would also recommend to non gamers.

In this hot summer day I bring you the coldest of takes. Flower, the lauded classic from the creators of Journey, is, indeed, good.

As is become the norm in my written reviews, I won't say much more than just a random thought that occurred to me while playing the game. Flower is a master class in minimalist story telling to the point that it doesn't really tell a story at all. Instead, the game just pushes the correct emotional buttons in order to create the classic arc of exposition, conflict and resolution. And it achieves it incredibly well.

I was tearing up from joy as I was flying around cursed environments, bringing light to darkness. And I realised how deep that instinct was inside of me. Particularly after playing If Found, and in a country on the brink of finally legalising abortion, more than ever I feel the cracks in the world that need fixing.

I know that bringing light to the darkness is not as easy as thumbing the controller, but Flower brought me a much-needed moment of catharsis.

This gaaaaaame.

I picked up the multi-pack of Journey, Flower, and Flow for PS3 years ago, with the intention of playing Journey. I ended up playing Flower first, and was just blown away.

After a few areas of flower petals being gently guided by the wind across lush landscapes, the game abruptly gets rather dark, showcasing the destruction of natural landscapes and the spread of "darkness" where there are manmade structures. Navigation becomes a little trickier at this point, and it can get a little frustrating, making the wind go at a snail's pace around structures, but it was so worth it in the end.

1001 Games - #920

Pros: mostly successful experimental gameplay, responsive motion controls (PS4)

Cons: very short length, limited replay value beyond hidden flowers, may not appeal to all gamers

Recommendation: one of those games that is very difficult to recommend. I enjoyed my time with it but can't see myself coming back to it very often. Worth trying, even if only to see what the hype is about.