I can't lie, I started Florence with a bit of expectation, knowing that it was well-received, and that also did a good job at portraying a relationship that starts, and ends. I also can't lie, and I must say that I had mixed feeling about this experience.

I've played Florence in one sit, it is a short experience that only requires some clicks to be played, so something that everyone could play, and also what I was looking for (having some spare time on the train to my hometown).

The good

Visual

So, first the good. I liked a lot the visual style, the sketch-style drawings, with only some colors (though I'm not sure if it was random or every color had some meaning), I liked how these sketches were animated and how they transition from one another, it's very fluid and feels super polished.

This visual style also adds to the cozy atmosphere the game creates: since all the images feel like a sort of draft, it feels more personal, and you feel more willing to listen to it.

Puzzles

Another thing I liked a lot was how some puzzles truly managed to intertwine with the story, and was not just a thing to make you do something but were made to help make you better empathize with the situation.

I loved how they used literal puzzle pieces for speech bubble, so that u had to compose a puzzle to form the speech bubble, and so answer/speak. At first, the speech bubbles are more complex because you have a harder time trying to put together something to say, but going on it's easier and easier, and so you have only two puzzle pieces to use.

Later on, they used the same thing when they are arguing, to the point you only have one big puzzle piece to use, like when u are arguing and are not even thinking about what you are saying, but only care to say something first.

I also loved how they used a simple "clean the image" interaction to show the dream of the guy. I mean, I didn't actually love that section, but when they reused the same interaction to show how his dreams became something that was not a pleasure anymore, since he went from playing the violoncello outside for fun, to go to a school and need to study and work hard, when maybe it was not what he truly enjoyed about it.

There are also other puzzles that are just there to make you do something, and maybe give u one more reason to look at the images with more attention. Nothing special but I can say they worked.

The ok

Music

As for the music, I liked it, like the sketch-like visual style, I feel like the music also strikes the right feelings, an amateur feeling I would say, but in a good way, especially for the kind of game. I was not blown up by it, it was nice but I've to say that, even though it's nice, it felt like a """generic""" cheerful/nostalgic music that I've already heard in other games like this, with nothing more to it.

The meh

Story

Yeah, it feels weird since I thought this would have been a strong point, but it really didn't work for me.

It's not the fact that is mostly told with images and puzzles, with no text: that is something I like and can totally do a great job. Also, there were some bits I enjoyed, that are mostly tied with the puzzles I talked about previously, since in those moments I feel I could connect with the specific situation.

Is that overall, the story is so... shallow.

Like, they fall in love, and it's all so "hipster-style" stereotype, like they do trips together, super happy and cute, pushing each other to try more with their passion. Then she is like "I want to start drawing" and, obviously, it is instantly good just because life is good (the game makes it feels like she never really drawn apart from when it was a kid). And without any interesting reason ("a year after") they just start to not go well together anymore and have fights, and all things in their lives just go wrong and so on. And when they broke up, she starts drawing and, of course, create her style and her drawings go into galleries, and she opens a shop and, like, life couldn't be better.

It feels like the basic plotline for a relationship-focused story, and I personally hate so much the cliche of "and now I start to follow my passion and proceed to succeed in one scene".

So

Despite the story being kinda meh, the game is worth it overall.

The experience is relaxing, the music is touching, the sketches are heartwarming, and it's all packed in a short experience, so, even if the story is not that original and deep and, I still enjoyed it.

Florence, in a sea of video games about shooting bad guys and saving the world, comes across as uncomfortably human and relatable. A simple story about the relationship between two youngins in their 20s falling in and out of love while having big creative dreams.

It does several things I really like. The big one is it's almost entirely a wordless story. There's no dialogue, no prose. Right there you've escaped the trap many video games who want to focus on their story fall into, which is fully copying how film or literature tell a story. It FEELS like something designed to be a video game, which is always nice.

My main issue is the length is far too short for the deeply emotional arc it's trying to convey, and it's stuffed to the brim with mini-games, a couple of which are divinely inspired, but most of which are so insipid they actually take away from the experience.

The two that really blew me away were the dialogue mini-game and the moving in mini game.

In the dialogue one you have speech bubbles you have to put jigsaw puzzle pieces into in a back and forth conversation. On the first date there are many pieces, but as the two characters get to know each other there's fewer, bigger pieces, until they're so comfortable in each other's presence there are only two pieces, and the second piece mirrors your actions with the first and fills itself in for you. Then they kiss. Absolutely BRILLIANT merger of gameplay and story/emotion. Not since the fish mini-game in Edith Finch have I been so emotionally moved by GAMEPLAY itself. And the kicker is, they re-use it in the opposite direction later when the relationship begins to fall apart. The conversations are no longer easy, they're no longer cooperating. So, so good.

In the moving-in minigame the guy moves into the girl's apartment and has to unpack his stuff. There's not enough room so you have to decide who's stuff goes into storage. Something that's not communicated directly to you, you simply realize the truth of it rather quickly, and it FEELS bad. It feels FAMILIAR. Anyone who has moved in with someone knows that pain. Whose posters get to go on the walls? Whose books get to go in the bookshelf?

Unfortunately most of the other mini-games felt like filler or like they were actively annoying me and my desire to progress the story. There's one where Florence falls off her bike and you have to adjust a bunch of sliders to get her dizzy vision into focus. It's unnecessarily fiddly, and while one could argue it does a good job of recreating in a game that feeling of regaining blurry vision after an accident, that's not a very emotionally strong thing even in real life. It's not like a first kiss or moving in with someone. It just isn't an emotionally resonant enough thing to deserve such an extensive mini-game, imo.

I usually don't pay for cell phone games, yet I saw Florence high on a "Best Games of the Year (So Far)" list and thought it sounded right up my alley. On a related note, I've also recently been thinking quite a bit about my past relationships and what they've meant to me. Sometimes it truly feels like the years I've spent in relationships that went nowhere has served no purpose.

Yet Florence makes me rethink that. The beauty of Florence is how it shows the beauty of relationships, how a relationship can move a person closer to who they should be, rather than tear them into half of a whole. As an interactive story more than a video game, Florence tells much of its story through simple actions. For example on a first date, the player must piece together speech bubbles as if they were puzzles. But with subsequent dates, these puzzles become simpler and easier to put together. Your character is learning how this relationship works and what the dynamics are with this person, which makes the puzzle easier. I love games like this, that utilize very simple dynamics as a way to put the player in the character's viewpoint.

Florence is a beautiful example of how much can be done with so little. At points near the end, I was moved to tears by the relatability and sweetness of this smaller story. While the game maybe took me an hour or so to play from beginning to end, I'll likely always keep it on my phone, whenever I'm down and I need a small reminder that the relationships aren't necessarily flaws, but pushed me towards who I want to become, even if that push can be painful.

In a sentence, the story that Florence has to offer is almost entirely non-verbal, and aside from one brief segment where this is technically broken, this rule is continuous throughout the entire game, which was a fascinating design decision, and while not one that has never been used before, kept me wondering and sometimes amazed at the ways they got around this rule at times in game.

I want to focus on that last word, "game" when discussing Florence. I find it almost disingenuous to call Florence a game, more so an interactive art piece. If you go in with the perspective of expecting any substantive gameplay to aid the observer in experiencing the narrative, you will be disheartened. Instead, viewing Florence like an art piece that has something to say, with you helping that vision be uncovered, is a far more accurate way of approaching it, and one that I believe the devs wanted players to experience it like.

I do not wish to discuss the narrative in any way, given that the game is under an hour in length and giving that away to a player before their experience would be cruel in my eyes. Instead, I wish to touch upon the adaptive soundtrack of Florence, the crown jewel of its achievements. Basically, as you do things in the game (perhaps building an oval puzzle bubble to form a speech bubble, organizing furniture in certain ways, or even cooking) the soundtrack itself adapts around what you do in-game, and changes tempo, rhythm, instruments, and more as a result. This alone kept me engaged the entire time just from simply how cool it was, ignoring the narrative and everything else entirely. This, I would say, is the reason to experience this story.

Speaking broadly, I would call the story slightly generic for lack of a better word, but that in of itself is not inherently an issue. While it may not have been the greatest, most influential narrative I have ever experienced, it served the game quite well and delivered its message excellently, especially given it is experienced in less than an hour for most people (I took my time a tad).

Overall, if you have an hour or less to spare, give Florence a try! Wear headphones, settle in somewhere without interruption, and experience the art piece firsthand. It's on mobile devices and Nintendo Switch, as well as PC which I played on, so there are plenty of affordable options to experience Florence for yourself.

Florence isn't the type of game that describes love as people want it to be. Florence is a story of finding your way and following your dream, but not without a messy one-year relationship with a hot guy that never has enough time for you. However, from lifting beginnings to hard endings, Florence tells an interactive story with very fitting minigames that draw the player in at every chapter.

The story is told through wordless pictures that the player can scroll by, motion graphics that are frequently peppered with simple gameplay exercises that communicate a story more than a challenge, which is fine if the gameplay suits the story well (and it does). Piecing together speech bubbles to form a conversation and slowly easing into comfort, simple representations of drawing, accounting, following a musical pattern - Florence doesn't win any awards for amazing gameplay, but is thoroughly fitting at every turn.

Storywise, it's easy to fall into the tale of love and expect this to be touching, but Florence isn't really a roadmap to love. Simple attraction gives way to squabbles over things like groceries and one year erodes a relationship simply because the guy wants to focus on school. It carries more complexities that end the relationship that it communicates a little too simply, but retains a good focus on the main character finding who she is through finding love and losing it.

Florence isn't the do-all end all interactive story, but tells its own tale in a well-crafted way that keeps the player engaged at every turn for its short but sweet playthrough.