Hey everybody, my name is Dave Jackson, and this is Tales from the Backlog, a video games podcast where I bring in guests to talk about the games we play My guests today are friends of the show and cello fetishizers, Heather Siddiqui and Nick Greenberg Today’s game is Florence, an interactive story/visual novel game developed by Mountains and published by Annapurna Interactive in 2018. Elevator pitch for Florence is visual novel about a relationship with mobile game touch screen puzzle mechanics. Before we get into our focus on Florence, what has everyone been playing lately? Ok, let’s get into Florence. We will attempt to avoid spoilers until the spoiler wall later in the episode, so if you haven’t played it, fear not, and if you have, we’ll get into the story and specific spoilery mechanics later in the episode. Our histories with the game, what got us interested, where did we play- I first heard about the game on the Cane & Rinse podcast, where one of the panelists described playing through this game and being absolutely taken by the song that Krish plays at the beginning, not unlike the main character Florence. I took a look and saw it was only like $2 on Switch, and knew it’s a short game, so I figured I’d give it a try. I then used this game in a class I was doing about using games to improve English, and I replayed on iOS for this episode. Game takes about 45 minutes to an hour to complete. Basics of how the game works, key mechanics, what makes this game stand out? Story Florence is the story of a 25 year old woman named Florence Yeoh, and her relationship with a man named Krish Hemrajani who she meets in the park as he’s doing a street performance playing the cello. Is this Seattle? Story is broken into 20 chapters, and for a game that takes an hour or less to play through, that means it moves pretty quickly from scene to scene Lead developer Ken Wong said that he wanted to make a game that explored love and human emotions, something that other media consistently do but not games. Can’t go much further than that, but Heather and Nick, without spoilers what do you think? Puzzles The gameplay is based on these little puzzles, a different one for each chapter, and the puzzles serve to capture the mood or actions happening in the story. For example, in an early chapter, Florence is on a first date and the puzzle is to literally put puzzle pieces together to build speech bubbles, but it’s a first date, and things are awkward, so the puzzle pieces are weird shapes and it’s a bit difficult to put together the speech bubble, which mirrors how its sometimes hard to find the right thing to say on a first date. What do you guys think of the puzzles? Puzzles definitely work better on the touch screen- this is a good game to play on your phone. Music The thing that actually drew me to play the game was hearing the soundtrack, and I sometimes go back to it. Soundtrack by Kevin Penkin Absolutely fantastic, matches the mood of scenes, and brings back the main melody in all kinds of different moods, something that’s really effective whenever composers do that. Visuals Simple color palettes don’t overwhelm. Use of different color schemes and black/white sections to convey mood. Visuals are clean, animations simple. Final thoughts, Do we recommend? At what price point? I’ve played this game 3 times now and cried each time. It’s a touching story, coupled with the music and the way the puzzles engage you with what’s happening Housekeeping - Thank you for listening! If you want to support the show, please subscribe on your platform of choice, leave us a rating and review if your platform allows it, and spread the good word! I also do a podcast called A Top 3 Podcast where each week we pick a topic, pick our top 3s in that topic, and discuss. It’s a good time, so check that out if you want to hear us talk about other subjects. SPOILER WALL Chapter 1- Adult Life- Florence’s daily life. Commute, work (Matching game), annoying mom phone call, tv, bed Chapter 2- Memories- find an old art project, use the screen to make it inside the memory, mom isn’t happy with it, study study, you have to do math problems. You make time pass. Florence wistfully remembers. Chapter 3- Music- walking along the street listening to music, on twitter, phone dies, so you have to take out your headphones OH NO. Music notes on the screen that you tap and florence follows the song, and starts floating as she gets closer to the source. Krish is playing cello in the park. Florence goes home and is thinking about him. Chapter 4- Crash-Florence is riding her bike and thinks she sees Krish, is distracted and crashes. You have to manually focus the picture like on a camera lens, nice way of showing how you are distracted looking at someone on the street. Focus the last picture and it’s Krish helping her up. They chat and Krish gives his number. Chapter 5- First Dates- the first date- you have to put together puzzle pieces to make speech bubbles, the pieces are weird shapes and are awkward at first but they get much easier as the scene goes until it’s literally just one piece. First kiss Chapter 6- Dreams- talking about their dreams, the mechanic is to wipe away the thing covering the dream, as Florence discovers that Krish wants to be a concert cellist. Slowly uncovering each others hopes, getting to know you, etc. in the process Florence uncovers her dream-in-hibernation. Chapter 7- Inspiration- Krish cleans his room and invites Florence over. Florence sees a pamphlet for a music academy and you literally push him in the front door. You do the uncovering thing again and it’s a sketch of Krish Chapter 8- Inspiration- clicking points on a map and shaking your phone to develop polaroids of their dates. Hiking, art gallery, skateboarding, meeting Krish’s parents, sushi date, live music, etc. happy happy Chapter 9: Groceries- Fight at the grocery store. The speech bubble puzzle from before, but the shapes are a bit more pointed. Racing against Krish to get your lines in before his. Make up and hug. Chapter 10: Moving in- six months later. Krish moves in. arranging his stuff on shelves along with Florence’s. Kinda tough because there’s not enough space for everything so you need to choose. Krish goes to an audition and gets Florence a watercolor set as a gift. Chapter 11: Happy together- eat breakfast together, texting Krish on the train, Florence’s work goes by this time really quickly without player input. Florence paints Krish. Chapter 12: routine- Same routine as chapter 11, but the colors are colder, no real joy, you have to do Florence’s work matching game this time, Chapter 13: erosion- spinning the clock fast forwards from super happy couple to indifferent. Image of Krish playing cello happily, wipe away to reveal his unhappiness. Spin the clock again to see Florence’s watercolor set get covered up on her desk. Chapter 14: Fight- They get in a fight. The speech bubbles are bright red this time, and the shapes are really pointed. No other color in the scenes. Chapter 15: Drifting- putting together a picture of them holding eachother with worried looks, but the pieces are drifting away constantly and it’s a struggle to hold them together long enough to solve it. Big imagery. Chapter 16- moving out- black and white. Packing up Krish’s things that you moved in in chapter 10. Place looks empty without his stuff. Throw away the map with your fun polaroids on it. Chapter 17- Fragments- Spin the clock, time goes by, Florence goes on vacation, winter comes and goes, but she’s always looking left to where Krish was before. Call mom. Chapter 18- Let go- Florence and Krish are walking and Krish fades away like a ghost. Chapter 19: wake up- Pull out that watercolor set. Start painting. Spin the clock, color returns, Florence is happy, plants appear, etc. Series of polaroids of her activities post-Krish. Cooking with mom, sketch club, getting a cat (Loaf), opening an etsy type shop, selling stuff. Doing great. Do the same accounting minigame from before but this time it’s her earnings from her business. Chapter 20: Moving on- quits her job. While packing up the office, she finds a picture of her and Krish under the keyboard. Looks happy, puts the photo in the box (not the trash). Has an art exhibition. Ending scene of her looking out the window smiling. WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK ABOUT THE STORY/ENDING?