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[GregWS]

EDIT: changed article link from old [now deleted] blog to my website

I recently finished playing Flower, Sun, and Rain on the DS and really loved it; it's a re-release/port of a PS2 game Suda51 released in Japan in the first half of 2001; good thing they got it out when they did, too, as the game's plot includes terrorists blowing up a plane.  It's an adventure game, but not the classic kind; no item puzzles, instead you search for information, often in a 49 page guidebook (inside the game).

Anyway, I was really blown away by the sophistication of the game, despite the fact that instead of trying to be fun, it tries to be tedious.  The narrative and gameplay are very, very intertwined; they've both about searching through information for the truth.  I've done a pretty big (spoiler free!) writeup on my site: http://gregws.ca/hello-searcher-2/

So I guess what I'm saying is, anyone looking for a really unique and meaningful video game experience should play it...anyone looking for a fun video game experience shouldn't (unless you consider reading dialogue fun, because the dialogue is brilliant and it's what allows you to put up with the tedium).

[Karuvitomsk]

I was going to reply to this thread later, because I thought more people would make some thoughtful comments. No love for Suda here?

It is an ugly game, which is disappointing because I think they could've really done a lot with the lowres, cel-shaded aesthetic on the DS. But Grasshopper isn't known for making normal-looking games, either (outside of Samurai Champloo, or maybe NMH2, but even then they were still both stylized anyway), so what are you gaining for criticizing that, really?

I've played through some of it, and I liked it, but the answers can be a little hard to pick out sometimes. Maybe I should try it again. I have heard that outside of Killer7, it's one of the more "depthy" games Suda's released to western countries.

[agj]

All I can say is that I haven't played it, yet I am interested in doing it at some point.

[GregWS]

Yeah, it's a very deep game; I've won it and still don't really know what happened.  I quite like that feeling though, and I've only gotten it from a few games.

Overally I really didn't think the answers were too hard (unless you try to do the optional Lost and Found sidequests, which I guess I didn't even mention in my writeup...oops), really, it just came down to flipping to the page in the guidebook relevant to the current day.  That said, there were a few that pissed me off and took a bit of playing around to get, so I can understand your frustration.

And yeah, I wasn't trying to rag on the graphics in my writeup; I just felt I had to criticize something, and I the missed potential there really did bug me.

Maybe Suda just needs to make a new experimental game set in an interesting world like Lospass; I'd really love that, doubly so if it was non-violent like FSR.

[John Lee]

Actually, the graphics are bad in a manner that makes perfect sense within the context of the story.

Additionally, it's worth noting that Edo, the hotel owner, appears in a hotel in Killer7, implying some very interesting things about FSR's ending.


It is tedious, yes, but it's also good. As you say, GregWS, people who think video games should always be fun will no find it here. But it is always interesting, and very often confusing.

(I hope The Silver Case comes out soon...)

[C.A. Sinner]

This is one of my favorite DS games, actually and one of the few I've played "for the story". Yes, the gameplay is tedious and the puzzles become ridiculously easy once you get the hang of extracting information from the guidebook, but all that matters to me in a game that goes the all-out story-based route is whether the gameplay supports the story/atmosphere and FSR does that really, really well. It would lose a lot of its charm if it was a more conventional point&click adventure.

On another note, the term "punk games" gets thrown around quite a bit these days, but Suda51 is one of the few people where the label really fits. Just like the original punk rock bands purposefully went against any notion of what anyone considered "good" music at the time, he makes aspects of his games purposefully un-fun and includes redundant/senseless mechanics, such as the "plug system" in FSR.

[tim_the_tam]

i found FSR at Kmart the other day and instantly bought it! now i need to get my ds back from my friend and play it.

[Josiah Tobin]

Really, really want to play this-- Killer7 is one of my absolute favorite games (experiences?) and I love the way Suda51's mind works. I also hear tell it's part of the same loosely-defined series "Kill the Past" as Killer7? It's also pretty cheap on eBay, guess I've really no excuse by now...

~Josiah

[Gimym TILBERT]

punkware > artware ? 

[GregWS]

I'm 99% sure it's not in the same universe as killer7, regardless of the Edo Macalister cameo.  It is the sequel to The Silver Case though, which hasn't been re-released yet.

[C.A. Sinner]

It is the sequel to The Silver Case though, which hasn't been re-released yet.

There are some gameplay videos of that on Youtube (some videos of that on Youtube. Gameplay looks different from FSR. Unfortunately, no English version, fan translated or official, exists yet and the planned DS port is put on "indefinite hold".

[Hangedman]

I recently and very abruptly became a huge Suda fan after digging up an old Gamecube copy of Killer7. And now I have NMH as well. Good stuff.

I want to pick this up at some point, I don't mind a good story-em-up.

[GregWS]

It is the sequel to The Silver Case though, which hasn't been re-released yet.

There are some gameplay videos of that on Youtube (some videos of that on Youtube. Gameplay looks different from FSR. Unfortunately, no English version, fan translated or official, exists yet and the planned DS port is put on "indefinite hold".

My understanding was that the port was finished (more or less) but Grasshopper had been putting their focus on finishing NMH2 before properly wrapping it up.  Suda was also worried that the gameplay in The Silver Case was dated, as that game is played kind of like a visual novel from what I understand.  I think they'll release it though; you don't put all the work into porting it and then just toss that away.

[C.A. Sinner]

The important question is whether it's going to be released outside of Japan. The DS version of FSR was released in Europe (but not the US) in a small run probably sold poorly. Most of the game stores and electronics retailers in my country never even carried it.

I think a good option would be to release it on DSiware, but I hear Nintendo has pretty strict regulations in terms of game size and stuff.

[GregWS]

It was released in the US too to my knowledge, just quite a bit later.