Flower, Sun and Rain

As I sit here, trying to type out my review for Flower, Sun and Rain, I am almost at a complete loss as to what exactly I should be saying. Put simply, this was one of the most bizarre, confusing, and at times nonsensical games that I have played in a long, long time.

And that, precisely, is why I enjoyed it to the level that I did.

Playing FSR is like watching a dream unfold on your DS; events and characters and locations are brought together without any logic to their connections, and yet, that complete lack of logic is in itself logical, just as the best dreams we humans have are a seemingly random series of events that make perfect sense at that moment.

Expert "searcher" Mondo, our hero, seems way too calm about the hellish insanity he finds on Lospass Island, but his demeanor is exactly what helps us stay sane through it all. Sane, that is, until you realize that while as a game, FSR is sometimes great and sometimes only okay, we might actually be the game, and FSR might, in fact, be the one who is playing us. There are storyline elements to discover; puzzles to solve; characters to meet and interact with. All of the elements of a game are there, but wrapped in an experience that I have trouble defining as a game. If I were to review FSR simply as a game, it probably isn't an especially good one. Control can be a bit clunky, player interaction often butts heads with a "style over substance" attitude towards gameplay, and simply put, the overall experience can, from a gameplay standpoint, start to feel very repetitive very fast.



Sometimes, however, the experience can trump the gameplay, even if that very idea goes against a lot of the rules I hold dear to game design. Disaster Report--the PS2 adventure where you must survive the aftermath of a series of gigantic earthquakes--was a game I loved, yet the gameplay itself was quite dreadful. The experience, the adventure, the idea, those were the things that kept me intrigued and excited all of the way through, and what made me appreciate the overall package even if I wanted to break my controller at times. Flower, Sun and Rain is the same way: it is an experience you enjoy despite the core gameplay mechanics, simply because what you are presented and offered up is something you simply aren't prepared for (something sadly missing in the world of sequels and "me too" games we're inundated with these days).

So, taking all of that into account, I cannot, with any clear conscience, recommend Flower, Sun and Rain to everyone. Simply put, some of you would try it and then swear that your DS is possessed by some spirit hell-bent on driving you mad. But for those of you out there who can appreciate the surreal and enchanting mind-trips that gaming's weirdest efforts allow us to experience, a flight to Lospass Island would give you one crazy ride.

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