Customer Reviews

Flower, Sun and Rain

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I agree with the other reviews that say this game is not for everyone. I'll start by listing its faults, because if you can't get past these, you're really going to hate this game.

- Repetitive puzzles: most of the puzzles are of the same type, they are numerous, and they are required to progress through the game. If you get tired of the same puzzle mechanic after awhile, this might not be your game.

- Lots of backtracking: You're going to visit the same locations over and over early on, there's no vehicular travel and no fast travel/teleporting. You walk A LOT. If you get bored with this kind of gameplay, you're almost certainly going to hate this.

- Graphics: There's no two ways around it - this game is ugly. It's an older PS2 game port, so there's only so much you can do, but if staring at blocks, jaggies, and indecipherable human features bothers you, you'll be bothered by this game.

OK, so why 4 stars? Because Suda 51 and the gang at Grasshopper have created such a quirky world full of unforgettable characters, a genuinely engrossing storyline, and great atmosphere that none of the things in the list bothered me at all. The main plot of the game actually provides a good reason for all the backtracking. Every character has personality to spare. The music (quirky versions of things like Ravel's "Bolero" and "Who Could Ask For Anything More", among others) will get stuck in your head, guaranteed. And at its heart, this game is a well-done throwback to the Sierra or Lucas Arts type adventure games of the 80s and 90s. You walk around, find things, talk to characters, solve puzzles and get lost in a far out story. I loved those games, and this one does the genre justice and then some.

Again, the game is not for everyone, but I think it's worth a shot if it sounds at all appealing to you. I had a blast playing through the story and unraveling the mystery.

From the same people who brought you Killer 7 and No More Heroes, this game is very similar in style and humor, but not in game play. Flower, Sun, and Rain can be best described as a 'point & click' adventure, with puzzles that must be solved to advance.

When I say this game isn't for everyone, I mean that this is a very hard game to play, as in the game almost wants you to stop playing it, as in most of the puzzles involve reading comprehension, repetition and basic math skills. IGN even said that you have to be masochistic to play this game, and I actually have to agree, but if you go into this game expecting to be challenged mentally then within lies one of the most interesting games I have ever played. The story is funny and confounding, and it was hard to put this game down.

You should also know this game is a port from what I believe was the original PSX release, but with touch screen add-on and an updated HUB and save features, so the graphics are dated, but done in a stylized way, so they are still interesting to look at.

Basically what I'm telling you is that if you love Japanese story telling and want to be challenged mentally (and almost physically) than definitely pick this game up for the $20 sale price.

Like the other reviewers said, the graphics are not amazing but, the story is. Its like playing a character in a dreamy foreign film with a great soundtrack. Some of the chapters are tedious I will admit but, the overall feel of the game and the characters make the game interesting for sure. I am hoping that the rereleased Silver Case and the new sequel for the DS will provide a similiar style. Suda51 is a genius!

If you are a fan of Suda51's innovative style in his other games (Killer7, No More Heroes), you'll probably like Flower, Sun and Rain. Where this game really excels is in its story and atmosphere. It plays like an interactive novel, so the "gameplay" is limited to solving puzzles with numbers and running...a lot. If this doesn't appeal to you, I suggest you turn away right now. However, if an mysterious, engaging story appeals to you, you'll probably like this title. The atmosphere of this game is incredibly tangible, as it is frighteningly surreal and dreamlike, especially in certain scenarios. Also, at only $20, this is a great deal.

I dont know whether to give this game 4 stars or 1 star. The graphics arent that good, and the story line is kind of dumb, but it is addicting and I find myself wanting to finish the puzzles even while I am complaining about the game. Like the other reviewer wrote, you must enjoy puzzle games or you will be bored with it. Did I mention it was overpriced? It also kind of hard. But I am going to go and turn on my DS and play it somemore as soon as I send this.

I have to admit that I bought this game for 10 bucks at Gamestop today and was really disappointed. XSeeds does some really great games but this game is just a pile of crap. My reasons are as follows:

Graphics are ugly for even Playstation standards yet alone DS.

Gameplay is buggy and confusing.

Story is too simple and uninteresting.

If you want and love story based games that go into great detail about characters and are fun, my suggestions would be games such as Again, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 or Last Window: The Secret of West Cape. Skip this one and save some money.

The majority of Nintendo DS games I own are puzzles. I spend more time than I should playing Point-and-Click games online and when I'm not doing either of those I like to jump into a good ARG. In short, I enjoy puzzles and point-and-click games. So I should have liked this game too.
But it's too terrible to be liked.

The visuals are ugly. The only remotely tolerable images are the animated scenes that start with the game. Yet I can handle a noseless blob of a man chatting with equally hideous characters if the gameplay is good.
Unfortunately, that went all awry as well. Your character walks slowly and I couldn't shake the feeling that I always had to jump through far too many hoops (and walk far too long) to get anywhere. In order to activate any puzzle you must first "jack" into it by choosing from a selection of different jacks and finding which one fits. There is no challenge to this and, quite simply, it becomes very repetitive and then soon obnoxious.
The puzzles themselves are equally repetitive, obnoxious, and simple. That's not too unexpected as most puzzle games come into this problem (you can only do so much with puzzles, after all!) but where all other puzzle games and this one split off is at a very major point in the road: being FUN. I don't play games because I want awful, borderline-offensive jokes, pretentious metaphors about life, or to see how long I can sit through an absolutely meaningless dialog sequence before I lose my mind. I play games because I want to have fun.

Flower, Sun, and Rain just isn't fun. The puzzles aren't fun, looking at the scenery isn't fun, the characters aren't fun, the story isn't fun, and the audio, ruined by the meaningless screeches the characters belt out while "talking," isn't fun either. This game should have stayed on the PS2 to be forever forgotten by society.

I wanted to like this game after reading the other reviews, but this game was very frustrating. I like a challenge, but I don't like needing to read walkthroughs just to progress. The graphics were very poor. This was frustrating because they included a very good movie clip at the beginning. Why would they do that but then have sub-par game graphics. (Another reviewer mentioned this might be a PS port.) The puzzles were difficult to find initially and also repetitive. I had to re-read the same dialogue before every puzzle. Maybe this game got better, but I gave up pretty quickly. Difficulty aside, it just wasn't very fun.