Florence

Is a short game, nearly 40 minutes, but its charm, and present a very real situation, got in on sale, im not regret anything

At about 30 minutes, ‘Florence’ is indeed a short interactive visual novel as advertised. The playing time may double if you decide to seek out any missing in-game achievements. However, the quality of the story balances out this visual novel’s short length. The story of ‘Florence’ is one of dreams, singlehood, and relationship, as well as the joy and sadness that accompany each of the three. There are many aspects of ‘Florence’ that resonated with me, mostly due to my history with my family and ex-partners. Whether or not you’ll find the story similarly touching will depend on your experience. Having played three intense action games back to back, ‘Florence’ is a really great visual novel to go through given its serene pace and tone. Despite its subject matter, it’s also uplifting and reassuring. I can understand why some have critiqued ‘Florence’ being too short of an experience at its full price, but I do feel that this is a visual novel that many people should check out at some point.

The story is told in part through the mechanics it has the player engage in. It's a bit reductive to describe that as "a popup book"- this is actually quite an interesting way to deliver a wordless narrative. It's fun, well presented, and worth a look.

I OWN THIS on mobile. AS A GAME I have to give this one star because A) It's Not A Game B) it's short C) the minigames it actually has are either too simple or with a predetermined outcome, because D) there's just one ending. Choose-your-own-adventure printed books are more interactive than this. AS A VISUAL NOVEL, its proper genre, without being a visual novel fan I'd give it two stars. Cons: too short, too simple, no choices, single ending, bland story. POSITIVES: production values are really nice for their chosen style, and a few of the minigames (specially the one dealing with conversations) do a good job portraying relationship issues. It's simplistic, but does its job; the story has been told and lived a zillion times but there's nothing wrong with that, although I do think the ending is uninspired. SHOULD YOU BUY? IF relationship stories are boring to you, skip -it's pretty much all this is, and not a particularly good one. IF you are a visual novel fan you might want to skip, it's too small, too shallow and too simple, but if you approach it as some sort of "demo" you might like it -it does have some cool ideas that could improve actual visual novels. If you are into game design you'll probably get cool ideas from this. I purchased this on mobile and while I don't regret my purchase (I'm into game design) I did feel misled (this is not a game) and I only read through it once, because the story is too bland and the minigames too simple to warrant a second read. Let me get it out of my chest (again): you don't "play" Florence, you read through it.

Florence tells a very touching story about first love. It's super short - it laster around 30-40 minutes for me - and you don't have much of a influence on what is happening, but still it's a time well spent for me.