Flower, Sun, and Rain

Fans of Grasshopper's original work will not be disappointed, but adventure game fans that don't have any previous experience with Suda's work may want to think twice about this one.

Flower, Sun, and Rain suffers from an extremely dated presentation and a strict, not entirely likeable, code-based puzzle system. These elements gradually wear on the nerves, yet they're not enough to drown the entire experience.

If you can handle the strangeness, you’ll find great rewards here.

While Flower, Sun, and Rain has a cool premise and story, the game falls short on the delivery.

Flower, Sun and Rain is a great remedy for those pesky times that you start to actually feel sane and rational.

While it may not be a must have game, if a person has the free time and the tenacity to stick with it, the game can really be quite enjoyable.

Proof that not even bona fide geniuses like Suda51 get it right every time. [Dec 2008, p.73]

A lack of interactivity makes playing Flower, Sun, And Rain an experience not unlike listening to a favourite album, letting images wash through the mind for their own worth. [Dec 2008, p.119]

Flower, Sun and Rain is an incredibly ambitious release for the DS. Most will find it overly frustrating and just a bit too weird. Some will love it, though.

Flower, Sun and Rain for Nintendo DS is a remake of a game that was released in 2001 on the PS2, but doesn't take advantage of the characteristics of the Nintendo handheld being the puzzles so repetitive. A special game but so weird for moments with a poor graphic textures.

Unless you're a Suda51 completist, though, you'll likely find Flower, Sun, and Rain to be little more than an artfully executed curiosity. [Apr 2009, p.84]

While I salute Flower, Sun and Rain for its innovation and uniqueness, its mind-boggling puzzles met with surreal gameplay makes for one hell of a trip in every sense of the word.

It's Groundhog Day meets Philip K. Dick in this entertaining but muddled mystery adventure.

Though flawed, Flower, Sun and Rain offers perhaps more than one would expect from a game certain to be remembered as Suda's rookie effort. The story is shockingly original and fearless, and the game's style is irrefutably Suda. It's just a shame there isn't much of a game beneath all the ideas.

A genre-defying postmodern game but lacking the punch of Suda 51's more recent efforts. [Dec 2008, p.79]

The one saving grace of Flower, Sun, and Rain is the story. [July 2009, p.90]

This one just isn't that good.

In the end, the game's dated feel is a double-edged sword. It might be odd to feel nostalgic for a time that's less than a decade ago, but Flower, Sun and Rain will make you feel exactly that.

Some ill thought out mechanics really make this already niche title further marginalised, but it's nonetheless a very quirky adventure game.

In striving to be unique, this title actually manages to loose itself in the attempt. The puzzles are repetitive and the sense of progress is often lost in all the "unique" features of the game. There are better games in the genre available on the DS.

What holds Flower, Sun and Rain together, in the end, is Suda 51's inimitable sense of humour.

It's a shame that a game with so much promise in the areas that maybe we underestimate in games such as the story and scripting, can fare so badly in the audiovisual experience and general gameplay.

But the game feels low-budget and leaves more questions than answers, and the underlying "math" theme isn't exactly the best implementation of the puzzle system.

There is absolutely no reason to buy, rent or even think twice about this game. It will only continue to break your heart over the course of one repeated, anguish-filled day.

Right off the bat, there's really nothing marvelous about Flower, Sun, and Rain. If there's any reason to play this game, it's to see how the developers were before the releases of games like Killer 7 and No More Heroes. Either way you look at it, while the game isn't bad, there's nothing impressive or particularly enjoyable, so it's best to just skip it entirely.

An addition to the long line of adventure video games that will leave players feeling cold where gameplay is concerned. Suda 51 fans should play it for the story and the music, nothing more.

A patience-trying acquired taste.

As a script, Flower, Sun And Rain is, for at least two thirds, hugely witty and effortlessly mad, eliciting enough regular laughs to cover for the game's otherwise painfully tedious forms of interaction. [JPN Import; Dec 2008, p.96]

If you can make it past the horrible audiovisuals and laborious gameplay then there is some fun to be had here, but you really have to work for it.

The music is awesome, the characters are quirky and the story, is a little like 'Lost', but none of this can lift the game above an interactive story with a poor puzzle mechanic at its core. Let's hope Suda's next DS outing, The Silver Case, fares better. This one is strictly fans-only.

Despite its few moments of levity, however, the surreal nature of the storyline remains a little too odd throughout, and the repetitive nature of the gameplay makes Flower, Sun and Rain more of a slog to play through than it is enjoyable.

Although Flower, Sun and Rain shows signs of innovation, it's much too confusing to enjoy. There is originality here in spades, but the experience lacks direction. Skip it.

Flower, Sun, and Rain is largely unenjoyable.

Flower, Sun, and Rain is barely a video game at all. Calling it such is almost too high of praise for a blemish such as this. FSR manages to fail in almost every way, and so completely does it fail that I could scarcely finish half of the adventure.

It just goes to show that high concept ideas don't always materialize the way they look on paper. If you have a thing for games barely sewn together at the seams, inner monologues and lots of filler you might be able enjoy Flower, Sun and Rain. Might.