Flower, Sun, and Rain

"Bizarre beyond comprehension. This game is best left on the island."

Bizarre beyond comprehension. This game is best left on the island.

Flower, Sun and Rain is a hideous game. Not only does it look ugly, the game play as well as the audio are just as ugly, if not more so. The developers know this, and they make no apologies. In fact, they make a mockery at their own expense at every available opportunity.

Plot

You play as a Searcher by the name of Sumio Mondo, whose job is to find something that was lost. Armed with his trusty briefcase computer, conveniently named Catherine, Mondo set off to the tropical island Lospass where he was hired by the manager of the Flower, Sun and Rain hotel. He was tasked with finding a bomb on an aeroplane before it takes off and explodes. But before he can do that, he needs to find something else for pretty much every guest living in the hotel. At the end of the day, the plane took off into the sky and boomed.

As each day went by, Mondo woke up only to find himself living the same day over and over again, as if the plane has never exploded. It gave him another chance to get to the plane, but also another chance for him to be stopped by some stranger with some weird request which Mondo must help resolve. Needless to say, he did not have enough time to reach the airport, and the day just repeats itself.

The story feels a lot like Groundhog Day. But even though Mondo relives the same day, he is tasked with a different request each day, so it does not feel repetitive. Unfortunately, the game play is tedious and repetitive.

Game Play

FSR runs like a point and click adventure in which you travel around the island (on foot, no less) and interact with certain objects and solve puzzles through your briefcase computer.

The basic flow of the game goes something like this. You are assigned a task, you then go and find some clues that somehow will help you to solve the puzzle. Then you interact with the object or person in question via some sort of 'jack-in' device and using a combination lock, you input a numerical value. You get it right, proceed to the next task, get it wrong, and start over.

Conceptually, it is simple, but in practice, it is hideous, laborious and sometimes downright frustrating. First, the puzzles. All puzzles are related to a number in some ways, but they do not necessarily derive from any mathematical equation or any lateral thinking. As soon as you arrive at the hotel, you are given a 40 plus page Lospass Island guide book, detailing things from hotel information to cocktail mix to movies to wrestlers to photographers. There is lots of text in it, but 80%, no, wait, 90% of them are completely useless. The ones that are of most importance are the numbers.

Many answers to the puzzles can be found in this guide book. For example, a drunk asks for a drink that the bartender does not know how to make. Just flip to the cocktail page, look up the drink requested and viola, the answer is right there. If the guide book is actually a paper based book, I have no doubt it would look like a dog's breakfast by the end of the game. That's how much you have to flip through the pages to get the answers.

And then there are some puzzles that actually do require a bit of thinking. Each morning, Mondo can access three 'quiz of the day' on a 'Lost and Found' list situated in his room. The puzzles are hidden somewhere in the hotel, and it is up to you to find it. So not only do you have to solve the puzzle, but also find it in the first place. Unfortunately, the list stays in the room, so if you have forgotten the questions, you will have to go back to your room and look it up again. A painful exercise when you are already half way across the island. Luckily, you have two screens of memo that you can write on, so it is best to write down the main points before you leave your hotel room.

Sometimes, you will be able to find the hidden puzzle near where the question is referring to. For example, you can find a deck chair related puzzle on the rooftop where the deck chairs are. If you are stuck, you can use a certain amount of 'scan' to search an area. The number of scans available depends on the number of steps you have taken, and will replenish as you walk around the island.

For every puzzle, Mondo will first go through a rant about how he will now use his assistant. It takes a good five seconds to go through his rant. It might not sound like much, but by the end of the tenth puzzle, you, like me, would really want to tell Mondo to shut the hell up and get on with it.

That is not the major problem. The biggest problem is Catherine. Before you can answer the puzzle, you need to plug into the object or person in question using one of nine jacks available through a trial and error process. It is completely pointless, utterly redundant, and absolutely serves no purpose whatsoever other than to waste my time. Instead of using a number pad, which is perfect for a touch screen, the developers opted for a combination lock that once again waste time flipping to the correct number. I might be nitpicking here, but doing it countless time for every puzzle, and it all adds up to the frustration.

When Mondo is not playing with Catherine (now, now, don't get any dirty thoughts), he goes around talking to people in order to trigger the next event. It is here that the next problem arises. The game developers seem to award long walking. The more you walk, the more stuff you unlock.

There is a huge amount of backtracking to be had in FSR. So much so that the game even jokes about it. Unfortunately, it is no joke when it comes to walking the whole length of the island only to trigger an event that requires you to do more walking. At least in an RPG setting, I can fight enemies and level up while backtracking, but in FSR, it is a total waste of time. One example had me going from the ground floor to the top floor, then back to the ground floor, then up to third floor, the forth floor, back to the third floor, and finally back to the ground floor. All that to get one item. Even worst is the fact that I can only walk in the stairway. Whose bright idea was it to force the player to walk rather than run?

FSR also suffers from a lack of indication of what to do next. If you leave the game for too long, you can easily forget where you are, and what you need to do.

Graphics

There is only one word to describe FSR's graphics and that word is 'ugly'. The visual is way past its used by date, with polygon count on the very low end. If it is not for the way the characters are dressed (in different colour), you cannot tell the difference between each one of them, as is the case with the cleaning ladies who dress in the same uniform.

Camera issues are persistent, especially when Mondo does not really walk straight. All camera angles are fixed. Getting to the precise spot on screen requires some practice.

Sound

Finally, something good to say about FSR. Original music mixed with some remix of classical tunes, music is nice and soothing to listen to. But that is all the good things I have to say. Yep, just one sentence.

Sound effects are a pain to listen to. More specifically, the sound bits that come with every sentence being said. Instead of the more familiar beeping sound such as those found in Phoenix Wright, a synthesised voice takes its place. It sounds like the conversation has gone through a voice changer five thousand times until all the words are jumbled up. The result is scratchy, and reminds me of fingernails running down a blackboard.

Replay Value

You can replay any completed request, most probably for the reason of finding a 'Lost and Found' puzzle that you have missed. These puzzles earn you a ticket that will yield an item when you exchange that ticket at the front desk. It allows you to change costumes after you have beaten the game once. But with the graphics that dreadful, you are not missing much.

Overall

Flower, Sun and Rain is a bizarre game in every sense of the word. Game play differs from the normal traditional form of adventure game, unfortunately not for the better. Graphics stayed in the 20th century, and the scratchy voice of the characters is anything but pleasant.

The single most annoying aspect of the game play is the 'jacking-in' mechanism prior to solving every puzzle that is totally flawed, distracting, annoying, unnecessary and adds to the bad side of experience.

Despite all the shortfalls, the game is not broken or unplayable. It is just taxing and can really get on your nerves sometimes. The story is bizarre beyond comprehension. I am surprised FSR is even released in the West at all. It will only appeal to a very limited crowd, and only a handful within that crowd will have the will and determination to finish this game.

Good:

* Music is nice

Bad:

* 'Jacking-in' process useless and excessive
* Too much walking
* The speech sound effect annoying and painful
* Outdated graphics

Score (out of 10)

Plot: 5
Gameplay: 3
Graphics: 3
Sound: 3
Replay: 4

Overall: 4

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/07/09

Game Release: Flower, Sun, and Rain (EU, 11/14/08)