Florence

An unexceptional story, exceptionally told.

Why

Why Not

Review

Florence is a visual novel where rather than selecting dialog options you interact with the world as the titular character, much more effectively putting you in her shoes.

These interactions take the form of simple mini-games, designed more to align you with Florence's state of mind at that point than to provide any sort of challenge. I don't use simple as a pejorative here, far from it. The minigames are effective at making you empathize with Florence by eliciting similar emotions without demanding too much mechanically which might distract from the story. And many of them have cool interactions/callbacks later on which make them feel worthwhile rather than just 'click button to advance story'.

And what a story it is. The game took me just an hour to complete, but definitely takes you on an emotional journey if you let yourself sink into it. There's nothing supernatural or world-threatening going on here, just the story of a woman struggling through life like the rest of us. The grounded setting keeps everything feeling relatable, and prompted me to go give my fiance a big hug at a particularly tough moment in Florence's journey.

Though there are definitely some roadbumps, much like in real life if you just keep muddling along, trying to find your way, eventually you can end up somewhere you're happy with. That's a message I can get behind, and Florence is an experience I can wholeheartedly recommend, especially when it goes on sale for ~200yen. Do yourself a favour and pick this one up when you get tired of saving the world or slaying hordes of monsters, for a reminder that even the real world has satisying stories to tell.