That is not a pun by the way. This game is absolutely amazing. It truly is art as a videogame, more so than just about any game I've played. The creator said he set out to make a poem in the form of a videogame and he succeeded in every conceivable way. It's absolutely beautiful aesthetically for one. The vibrant colors, the way all of the grass sways and parts as you fly through it, each blade of grass being rendered without looking cheap, and I mention again the colors, my god man the colors. The soundtrack is beautifully orchestrated and sets the mood of each stage impeccably. And with each flower making it's own tone as you hop one to the other or fly through them in a stream makes it feel like you're part of the music just as much as you are a part of the scenery.
At the beginning the music is calm, but curious and as the levels go on the music begins to hit more and more powerful notes as you feel more and more empowered, flying faster and faster, sweeping through canyons, and through fields, and then in the night time level the music goes a bit quieter and sounds mischevious, then ominous. It always compliments exactly what's going on and adds a incredible amount of emotional impact to what you're doing, and being able to add to the music with each flower is a touch of genius because it makes sure you are always aware of it, and by contributing to it it becomes even more meaningful.
The sense of flight is fantastic. The speed, the ease of movement. this further convinces me that some kind of motion control, or physical control will have to be standard in upcoming generations. It won't be standard for every game, but it's power is too much from an artistic standpoint to leave out after this generation. By being physically involved in what you're doing, having to actually use your body beyond a click of the finger really adds an immersive element that would be absent if the game just used dual analogue. I felt the same was true in No More Heroes where suplexing a boss was one of the most satisfying things, it always had me sitting upright on my couch instead of leaning back or laying down yelling at the guy I'm fighting on screen. And with flower the flowing sense that you get from gentle but precise movements makes it feel like you're legitimately in control of something without it feeling robotic and utilitarian. It has a feeling of grace to it.
As a poem I felt exactly like I was reading something profoundly emotional and deep while playing it. I had the same reactions playing the game as I do when reading something that floors me. I kept asking myself what is this making me feel? Why am I feeling it? What was the intent of the artist? How did he accomplish this? What is he telling me? And it's not done in strictly a mental intellectual way, but rather introspectively as I'm actively experiencing what Jenova Chen wants me to. I will openly admit this game made me feel alot of things in the course of the hour and some minutes that it took me to beat it. It made me cry, few games have done that (Earthbound being one of them, I can't get through that battle with Giygas without getting choked up even now), but by the end of this game I was actually shedding tears. Because, if you let it, this game takes you through such a range of feelings and it does it masterfully. (some minor spoilers coming up, I'll try to be as vague as I can while being necessarily specific, but if you want to experience it in whole for yourself stop reading, and go download it NOW, or skip to the summation at the end and THEN go download it NOW)
By giving no instruction, no input, nothing but showing you how to hold the controller in the opening screen before the game even gets to it's opening menu, you start out like an infant, placed in a new world learning to walk. You start in a beautiful field with nothing around you but grass, and a flower or two in the distance. When I say "you" I mean a small petal floating around barely even on screen if you move it around a bit. A little experimentation and you learn you can blow it around a bit, and flower by flower you gain more and more petals and more and more speed. Before long you are a massive stream of petals blowing through with great speed, up and down swirling through rocks around trees. You bring the brown grass back to life and the already beautiful fields become even more alive and vibrant. And as the levels go on you explore, always an element of curiosity and freedom, so much freedom to just float around without even being anything, float and fly without form or reason. It's what I wish life did feel like, and even as an atheist what I deep down hope death would be like. It has such a profoundly spiritual feeling to it's movement, it's exploration, it's liberating.
But then you start to see inklings of man of civilization. Innocent things, windmills at firsts, then at night light posts, that shine on your mischievous ways, but it starts becoming ominous when it gets darker and darker, and the light posts cease to light your way, metal towers jut out of the ground, the grass is grey and dead, and suddenly the peaceful world of freedom takes on a feeling of danger. The metal electric towers can actually hurt you, which after so much time being free, and happy, flying around without a care in the world enjoying the beauty and wonder of nature, now you're confined. The flowers are gone, the towers electrocute you if you touch them, it's very jarring, disconcerting. I empathized with my ethereal self I found this electrocution legimately unpleasant, it's suddenness when it happens, the shrill sound that comes from touching an active tower. It felt like pain. It's very impressive how well the people at thatgamecompany managed to make something entirely mental that so closely simulated something as jarring as pain. I really really wanted to avoid it. The level transitions to wandering lost in intertwining dark valleys. Confusion, fear, loneliness. There is almost no music at this point. Almost no flowers. It's raining a little. You seek any small flower that you can find in hopes of bringing life back to this dead place. And it climaxes with a dramatic attempt to escape these valley, quickly you have to fly, fast fast fast as you can as the towers collapse each false step getting you electrocuted, your petals are on fire and burning, it becomes more nightmarish as towers actually begin to spring out of the ground, out of the walls, all of them burning you, black smoke trails behind you, the music is now tense, dramatic, fearful as you attempt to escape this awful place.
It ends in a grey field. Mountains all around you, it's empty...and dead. The city sprawls in front of you, monstrous twisted towers, and swirling grey clouds, your path is block by what looks like a spider web made of twisted metal. But there is a whisp of wind in the midst of the twisted metal, something resembling life. And when you fly in it, flowers exlplode out and as you fly to them gaining more and more petals, more and more speed, and life, you begin to glow and the camera indicates towards the metal web, and as you fly at it it bends and bursts and dissipates into beams of light and life springs back up around it and now you're flying through the city destroying any and all traces of the gnarled necropolis, and life springs back up, new building are made that are bright and clean, there are playgrounds and plants, and the music starts to pick up and the feeling of empowerment created here is incredible. Because that which once choked you, that which robbed you of your joy, robbed the world of life, the only thing that could hurt you, the only thing in the game that actively showed it's power over you now loses that influence. It no longer holds that power over you, you had to be careful and meek around it, but now it fears you, it fears the life you bring, the color, the hope. As you bring life back to the city the camera makes you aware of a huge ominous tower in the distance and after you've finished cleaning up the city you set off towards it flying down interstate highways at breakneck speeds bringing color and life to everything as you fly by triggering flowers, their petals joining you in bringing back life. And when you reach the tower, you feel it's fear, jagged metal begins jutting out of the ground, but it turns to light as you fly through it, more gates and webs are erected in front of you to try and halt you, but nothing can at this point, nothing can stop you, you get to the tower and you fly straight into the center of it, and the music begins hitting this crescendo, and you begin flying straight up through it's twisted center, life springs up, and the metal turns to light, it's desperate now, more and more and more electrical towers burst from every wall around you but this thing, this thing that wants nothing but death and decay can't stop you, nothing can stop you from bringing life, and you fly straight through it's center and tear out of the top of it, and nothing in any game I can think of has made me feel that empowered as a character. It did it without guns, it did it without tanks, or realistic shell casing sound effects, without blood or F-bombs or gore. A game called "Flower" felt more empowering than any war sim, shooter or beat 'em up that I've played this gen.
(end any spoilers)
This game is a brilliant bit of artistry, and anybody that takes videogames seriously has the obligation to play this game. It will only take an hour to an hour and a half of your life, and only cost ten dollars and the creators of it deserve every last penny of that ten dollars. Anybody with a PS3 has to go play this. I think this generation is becoming videogames Renaissance, it's very legitimate rebirth. While the blockbusters may put asses in the seats, applications like PSN, Xblox live arcade and wiiware are pumping out legimately artistic things like Braid, World of Goo, and Flower, and of course PCs have a very vibrant and interesting indie game scene as well. Gaming has exploded in so many ways in this generation. It's reached out to a vastly wider audience, and the variety in types of games and creators visions of what videogames can be has exploded. It's only going to get better from here on out, but Flower is a great and meaningful piece that I hope will be remembered when the next generation hits.
You can find me on facebook as Markus Van Rijn, if you friend me just mention you're from VGchartz and who you are here.
