Flower, Sun and Rain (DS)
A mystery is concealed within this review.
7/2/2009 7:53 PM | 8 Comments | Page 3 of 3
What's Hot: Making a TinyURL using the digits in the footnotes.
What's Not: Not doing What's Hot.
Even though parts of the game are ugly and play sloppily, the game is a triumph of style and execution. The writing (and the localization) are fantastic. They make up for the simplicity and repetativeness of the puzzles -- though I suspect Goichi Suda is getting at something with the mantra-like way he repeats things in all his games. Or the way he stacks things in hierarchies like the different levels of the Masons. I bet you Suda is into Matthew Barney. Anyway, like this review the game is really weird. Not always successful at what it's trying to do, but interesting and important because of the effort.
Did I mention that the game has a plot? It's about hyenas, eye-ball farming and terrorism.
I know me talking to you like this sort of undermines the whole attempt to be all experimental and whatnot. But I think it fits the theme. Throughout
Flower, Sun and Rain the characters comment on bits of the plot that don't make sense. They complain about bits of gameplay that aren't fun. It goes beyond breaking the fourth wall. The whole thing is kind of meta, you know? Like the fetch quests the game makes you run: You walk the length of Lospass island dozens of times. The distances are interminable and pointless. But there's a counter at the top of the screen that counts your steps. You get a reward every time the counter hits a big round number. Suddenly something kind of awful becomes kind of not awful because the game makes it more gamey. Running around is still awful (and the designers know this) but I suspect they're sort of critiquing videogames as a whole for baiting boring stuff with meager rewards. Besides, the whole running back and forth thing pays off with an awesome running gag later on.
Look at me. I'm chewing your ear off. Did you know they have all of "London Calling" on this jukebox? Now that I think about it, I was wrong. I think you'll really like this game.
This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.
