Annapurna Interactive hit another home run with Florence. The game was released on Valentine’s Day 2018 and is currently available on the Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, and PC/Mac. The high praise doesn’t come from just me. Florence had been nominated and won various accolades, including the BAFTA Games Award for Mobile Games.

I played it on the Nintendo Switch in two brief sittings. Yes, Florence is the finger sandwich of video games. With game play time of approximately 30 minutes, you can easily breeze through from start to finish; however, the quality of content was just as polished and satisfying as many AAA-titles.

Florence is best described as an interactive story, following a girl named Florence who lives a boring, monotonous life until she hears beautiful music. She follows the melody and meets Krish. All throughout the game, you complete simple yet symbolic puzzles to progress their relationship…and clean up after the fallout. This game is a perfect example proving interactive stories are true video games. Although you don’t have objectives or need to destroy enemies, Florence gently guides you through quite some cathartic exercises. The best example is solving the puzzle pieces of dialogue. During the first date, there are more pieces to sort through, and during the full-blown relationship, the puzzle becomes simpler. It’s a genius way to symbolize human communication.

I also cannot say enough regarding the art style and beautiful music. It evokes our deepest emotions and projects them onto the characters. Even though this was the shortest game I’ve ever played, it simply is one of the most impactful. There’s even a benefit to the brevity of Florence–I’m keeping it on my Switch to reboot anytime I crave the emotional experience.

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If you are a fan of video game music, I highly recommend you give the Florence OST a listen:

Have you tried Florence out yet? Let us know if this is a title you’d pick up on our Boss Rush Discord channel.

Source(s): Wikipedia