Florence

 Switch
User Score
6.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 73 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 73
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 73
  3. Negative: 25 out of 73

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  1. TokyoFerret
    Feb 28, 2020
    6
    This is an interactive story with a linear path and some very basic game-like elements. It is not a game in the traditional sense and even less of a game than most visual novels, which at least commonly feature puzzles or branching paths.
    The story inspires some self-reflection, and your mileage will vary largely depend on your personal taste and life experiences . The art and animation    This is an interactive story with a linear path and some very basic game-like elements. It is not a game in the traditional sense and even less of a game than most visual novels, which at least commonly feature puzzles or branching paths.
    The story inspires some self-reflection, and your mileage will vary largely depend on your personal taste and life experiences . The art and animation is pleasant and expressive, and the music was good enough for me to add to my library and contributes greatly to the emotional impact of key scenes.
    Overall it runs for only about 45 minutes, and despite it being cheap for a Switch game, it is cheaper still on mobile devices.

    I am rating it as a 6, because its good for what it does, but very limited by the fact that it doesn't do very much more than an animated storybook with great music.    … Expand
  2. nusco
    Feb 23, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Florence is a very short (~40-45 minutes) interactive story about falling in and out of love, that uses videogame-inspired mechanics to keep you engaged. As a story it succeeds on most levels, mostly thanks to the beautiful storybook illustrations. Even though the ending feels a bit tucked upon, Florence is a touching little tale that any adult person could identify with.
    Florence's interaction ranges from the minimal ("swipe to see the next frame") to slightly more involved actions that go a long way to make you feel part of the story. Slightly spoilery examples: when Florence's partner moves in, you're called to decide which duplicated house items to keep around, and which ones to put away in storage. When they break up and he moves out, deciding which of those personal items to take away is surprisingly heartbreaking to anybody who lived through the experience–that is, probably mostly anybody around the age of 30.
    There is also a genius moment around two thirds of Florence where the interactivity is used to amazing effect to communicate the feeling of a couple breaking apart. (I won't spoil it, but it involves a bed and a jigsaw puzzle.) I got a sudden shiver when I realized what that sequence had done, and I was left wishing that the rest of Florence could be as subtle. While it mostly isn't, it's still a nice, if fleeting experience.
    Florence is worth going through–but probably wait for it to get discounted. It's unfortunately overpriced on the Switch.    … Expand
  3. bulger_paul
    Sep 4, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I picked this up on the Estore for $3, and I think it's absolutely worth checking out at that price, if you're into the visual novel/walking simulator genre.

    Florence is a visual novel that a lot of people in other negative user reviews have derogatorily referred to as a book or a graphic novel, but the interactive story telling elements in this story do some very interesting things that would be lost if it were attempted to be transferred over into a book.

    For example, one thing I found very interesting, was how when the title character meets Krish, who will become the romantic interest of the story, the way their conversations are represented is through dialogue boxes that are broken up into puzzle pieces that you have to fit together as the conversation progresses. Over time, the puzzles get simpler and simpler as the two characters get to know each other, until it gets to the point that the conversation pieces literally just come together, which I thought was an incredibly nifty way to represent Florence and Krish's growing comfort and familiarity with one another.

    I won't spoil any other of the neat, simple little story telling mechanics that are scattered around throughout this novel, but there's quite a few things that I thought were very creative and clever ways to convey the story.

    Now, my main issue, is not with the length or anything, because I think giving a game a bad rating purely on length alone is a dumb and reductive way to engage with video games, it simply has to do with the fact that the character development, though conveyed in interesting ways, is actually fairly weak from a purely storytelling perspective.

    Major Spoiler Alert Ahead: Florence does the (500) Days of Summer thing where the relationship doesn't work out, but the main character takes the opportunity to leave their boring, unfulfilling job and finally pursue their passion. But where Tom's arc in (500) Days of Summer, starting as a man who thinks he is incapable of finding fulfillment in his life without a girl, and pinning all of his self-worth on a woman, which is a main point of contention in Tom and Summer's relationship throughout that movie, and by the end of that relationship, Tom learns how to pursue his own fulfillment instead of depending on a woman to do that for him, whereas in Florence, Florence's arc doesn't really have anything to do with the beginning and end of her relationship with Krish. Her arc in the end doesn't feel like a direct result of that relationship, their story together doesn't seem to have any connection at all whatsoever to her decision to pursue her own self-fulfillment.

    So, in the end, it feels as though Krish didn't need to be in the story at all, because he didn't really contribute much to Florence's story, he was more of a very long intermission between a woman leaving her unfulfilling job to pursue something that makes her happy.

    Like I said though, this game does a lot of very interesting things with the mechanics it uses to tell its story, and I think it's a great example of the potential video games have to create interactive stories that can't be told in any other medium, and I really hope that video-games fulfill that potential one day, and I think it's worth checking out on sale, but it's not perfect.    … Expand
  4. psychomantis39
    Jul 13, 2022
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It's cute and stuff, but the OST and the graphics doesn't mix well with each other, I was only bumped really because of the sad ending of the story, it's some sort of La La Land but I won't spoil.… Expand
  5. luciamelier
    Mar 31, 2023
    6
    Don't get me wrong, the game has such potential and was able to dive into many topics related to life, relationship and finding ourselves. I enjoyed playing it (even if it didn't feel like "playing" in the traditional way) but it was WAY too short. I finished it in like 15 minutes, and that was it. I was pretty disappointed by this mostly because of its price.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Nintendo Life
    Jan 6, 2021
    90
    It's an evocation of the beauty, sadness and hope that comes from any human connection we make in our lives, whether with art, nature or another person. It's a succinct and incredibly successful exploration of moments you'll recognise from your own life, and the way it mirrors thoughts and feelings through small gameplay mechanics makes it one of the most affecting experiences we've enjoyed on Switch, or any other platform.
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  2. GameSpew
    Feb 18, 2020
    90
    What’s really special about Florence, though, is how relatable everything is. No matter what walk of life we come from, there’s something here we’ve all experienced. Be it falling in love, breaking up, being stuck in a boring job – there’s a bit of Florence in all of us.
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  3. TheSixthAxis
    Feb 17, 2020
    90
    Through the highs and lows of a newfound love, Florence is a wonderfully told and emotive story that engages you in such simple, but effective ways.
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