Florence

Originally Posted 10/20/24

Digital drawing of the main character from the game Florence, from a side view as she walks towards the left of the image. The words 'florence a story by mountains' are above her head. The entire background of the image is yellow.

Brief Overview

Quick Overview

I think the developer sums up the game the best:

FLORENCE is an interactive short story about love and life.

At 25, Florence Yeoh feels a little stuck. Her life is an endless routine of work, sleep, and spending too much time on social media. Then one day, she meets a cello player named Krish who changes everything about how she sees the world.

Experience every beat of Florence and Krish's relationship through a series of bespoke gameplay vignettes - from flirting to fighting, from helping each other grow to growing apart. Drawing inspiration from 'slice of life' graphic novels and webcomics, FLORENCE is intimate, raw and personal.

In Depth Review

Because of how short this game is, the best overview of the game I can give is that quote above from the developer. You interact sort of minimally with the game - help brush Florence's teeth by moving the joystick back and forth, place some items around her house, put stickers on a drawing, etc. The main star of the game is the story it's telling, despite not saying anything. There is no dialogue in the game, outside of short conversations with your mom over the phone. Outside of that, the game is entirely show don't tell.

To avoid spoilers I'm going to have to be a bit vague here, but while playing through this game with my girlfriend there were a lot of moments of "OH, this sort of represents this aspect of a relationship". I found it really cool to see all the ways this story got the story across without actually saying anything. I found myself almost immediately connecting emotionally with the main character, and became really invested in the story. Which...is kind of nuts given the story is only about an hour long.

I'm a sucker for these sort of games. Some of my favorite games are things like Life is Strange where I can really put myself in the character shoes. Media that gets me to feel strong emotions like sadness or hope or excitement are pieces of media I absolutely love. I do know for some gamers though, these sort of things aren't appealing - I've had discussions with friends before who do not put themselves in the shoes of characters while consuming something, and so I don't think this sort of game would be up their alley.

Wrap Up

Overall I think this game is worth playing if you want a slice of life game, that's really easy to just play and relax to. The price I think is good for the length of game. My only sort of concern is I don't think there's much replay value, outside of wanting to get all the achievements. At this price point though I don't think replayability is that big of a factor.

Let me know what you think though! Feel free to reach out to steventanzimedia.com with your thoughts/ opinions!