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Flower, Sun and Rain - lost crocodiles, exploding airplanes, and cold breakfast.

cj_iwakura

Member
FlowerSunAndRainVideoGameCover.jpg


This rapidly shot up to #1 on my list of DS games to get while they're still around, thanks in part to some recommendations and the awesome PS2 OP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juRhRiFqVo4

The game is not a looker, but like most batsh crazy Suda 51 games, it makes up for it and style and outright insanity.

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It's $9.99 now at Gamestop new if you can find it.

If you have a tolerance for walking, mindfs, and some of the most deranged storytelling this side of Killer7, I highly recommend taking the trip along with me.

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The guidebook alone is a piece of work.

And if the credits are to be believed, Suda himself oversaw XSeed's localization, hence the quality.

I imagine this game is near and dear to him, and with good reason.
 
I really enjoyed this game. I normally can't deal with terrible 3D graphics but this held my attention to the end. I hope The Silver Case gets localized at some point since it has some connections to this game.
 
This game fucking sucks.

It's awesome.

Anyone who's played it knows what I mean.

Is a turning point when it's awesome? I've put time into it ( finished up to the wrestler stuff) but just felt like a drag after a bit... Though I smelled awesome around the corner all the time just didn't know if it was there...
 
This was me in the old thread:

Finished it.

*scratches head*

I think I'm too stupid to get this game. It's probably the strangest experience I have ever had the pleasure to play through, and I don't regret my purchase at all. But I need some help interpreting a lot of stuff, especially the last third of the game.
 
Glad to see other people appreciate this terrible game.

It's so good. Was one of my GOTY when the DS port/remake came out in 2009.

I suggest anyone considering themselves a Suda 51 fan, and haven't played this game, give this a shot.

Never have I been rewarded with such a memorable and amazing experience from playing such a shitty game.
 
Got it the other week but haven't had the time or energy to give it a go yet. If it's anything like killer7 I'll need to be on top of my game though. Can't wait for the mindfuckery and intentional terrible design :D
 
Shame we got the DS version which butchered the incredible soundtrack and sterilised the art direction (though the PS2 version never looked great to begin with).

FSR is a refreshing change of scenary from the usual dystopian/fantasy backgrounds in today's video games. The adventure in a tropical resort paradise with all its colourful esemble cast is really something else.

As usual, the Suda's hooks doesn't really set in till 1/2 through the game when the mysteries posed become much more engaging (
The nightime rooftop sequence, the secret facilities at Eleki Island, Elbow, the clones, and the silver eye
 
Is a turning point when it's awesome? I've put time into it ( finished up to the wrestler stuff) but just felt like a drag after a bit... Though I smelled awesome around the corner all the time just didn't know if it was there...
It becomes much more of a drag shortly after that point. But it also becomes more awesome.
 
I fucking love this game. It's a testament to its quality that, despite the jank, I desperately want to vacation on Lospass Island.

I wish someone would fan translate the PS2 version. The DS version is superior, but damn it really is ugly as hell in places. The PS2 version has a far better quality soundtrack (despite missing two tracks from the DS version), too. Anybody who likes this game should track it (or an audio rip) down. Masafumi Takada *bow*

I'm still mad the DS version of The Silver Case never came to the US. Someday, someone needs to fan translate that (and 25 Ward) and the Moonlight/Twilight Syndrome games. I must play them. (Also, Blood: One Night Kiss.)
 
That freaking kid. Breaking the 4th wall and everything! Loved this game.
I also loved the part where Edo was incredibly pissed off when you saved your games between chapters.
 
my somewhat spoilerish impressions:

we'll never have a video game written/directed by philip k. dick (r.i.p.), but we do have fsr (as it refers to itself). i'm not saying this's a good thing - while i'd strongly encourage anyone who hasn't read 'the 3 stigmata of palmer eldritch' to drop everything & do so immediately, he also had a strong tendency to wander off to places that, while obviously interesting to him, weren't really all that interesting (or comprehensible) to anyone else, & fsr tends to cross that line pretty frequently...

i'm maybe half-way into it (judging from the number of story-related puzzles), & my main feelings are a mixture of astonishment over the fact that i continue playing (devil survivor can't get here soon enough), & that weird kind of boredom where you're not really disappointed so much as just repeatedly thinking 'wtf?'. there're sections of this game where the moronic meter hits 11, & other parts that come off so hallucinatory/dream-like, you can't help but think suda must've spent a lot of time quickly writing stuff down when he'd wake up every morning, & then just go ahead & stick it all in (anywhere). & then, of course, there's the little boy who, in a penultimate version of 4th wall-breaking, trashes the whole game, soundtrack included (& also anyone playing it)...

briefly, you're this guy who's a 'searcher'(?!), who comes to this (supposedly) luxury resort to do a job. but what happens is, every day, you get your wake-up call, step out of bed, pass out, have a coffee, manage to get just so far along, & then, next thing you know, you're in bed, getting your wake-up call again (i know, like this kinda thing doesn't happen all the time). anyway, the gameplay's all about solving number-based puzzles by deciphering clues contained in the resort's guide book (which, when i initially realized it, had me thinking 'no way!', but, yes way, that's the whole damn thing!), while having one bizarre personal encounter after another, & all the while being soothed by maybe some of the most bogus game music ever (think 'elevator from hell')...

it's hard for me to say fsr's 'so bad it's good' - i have a pretty high tolerance for that kinda thing (bayonetta!), &, as someone who loved killer 7, & wasn't so crazy about contact, i'm convinced at this point that fsr's just plain bad, period... tho in a very distinctive, unique way :) ...

still not sure whether i'm actually glad i played it :) ...
 
Flower, Sun & Rain is my favorite video game. I loved it. I like how it works as a deconstruction of video games in general. I don't think the game is bad so much as it is experimental. It doesn't feel like a game where they tried to make it one thing and it failed at that and is therefore bad. Instead, the gameplay choices that it makes seem very purposeful. Heck, half the time the game references those choices directly.
 
Flower, Sun & Rain is my favorite video game. I loved it. I like how it works as a deconstruction of video games in general. I don't think the game is bad so much as it is experimental. It doesn't feel like a game where they tried to make it one thing and it failed at that and is therefore bad. Instead, the gameplay choices that it makes seem very purposeful. Heck, half the time the game references those choices directly.

I agree totally.

Man, wouldn't it be nice if Suda would write and direct games like this again? I love NMH and Lollipop Chainsaw looks great, but he really needs to step up and create a game again instead of just overseeing its creation from a distance.
 
I will finish this game one day. Fuck my attention span.

If I'd known ahead of time that Suda would be there, I would've brought my copy to PAX to have him sign it. I would've loved to see his reaction.
 
I'm playing this now and stuck at a puzzle. I need to unlock a PDA but cannot figure out the code but am also too proud to check a walkthrough (for now).
 
This is one of the worst games I have ever played.
Nothing here. It really is a terrible game, don't be fooled by the hype around here.
 
Got to agree with the terrible game notion, some of the gameplay choices are probably deliberate (walking miles and miles and miles) but it's not an excuse, it's just a bad game and I never recommended it to anyone. I do like it and remember it fondly, not thanks to the "game" parts of it but because of everything else; characters, setting, the text, music, the weird vibe. One of my favorite shitty games.
 
goddammit i literally played this for like 5 minutes and got lost in a parking lot.

all this Killer 7/best of times, worst of times talk is gonna make me hunt this one down now.
 
I loved it, untill the contrtols got better of me, and haven't finished it since then. I bellieve I was in the part where the game introduced the blues brothers

Terrible game, but I will get back to it to finish the story which I greatly enjoyed.
 
It also is my #1 DS game. Such a shame that the Silver Case port for the DS is in limbo... :(

To me, this game proves that graphics don't really matter: It's probably the ugliest game I've played this game, but I honestly couldn't have enjoyed it more. Also, love those Smashing Pumpkins references in the Island guide <3.
 
I've got an unplayed copy, but I'm waiting for The Silver Case to be localized one way or another. Here's hoping that iOS port becomes reality.
 
Probably one of the most difficult games I ever forced myself to play through. God bless those people that wrote the gamefaqs walkthroughs, because I would have never connected the dots at some of those puzzles.

The characters and premise were enough to keep me playing, thank goodness. I am a better person because of it.
Now we just need the silver case...
 
WTG OP. I have more games than I can handle already, but I've decided that I need to pick this up while I still can. Suda 51 was one of my favorite game designers before he went soft on us, so I know that I'll at least appreciate some aspects of this game.
 
WTG OP. I have more games than I can handle already, but I've decided that I need to pick this up while I still can. Suda 51 was one of my favorite game designers before he went soft on us, so I know that I'll at least appreciate some aspects of this game.
I look forward to seeing your follow up post when you've finished playing the game, hahaha
 
Someone told me this should have been the real LOST videogame, which always sparked my interest...never got round to picking it up though.
 
I agree totally.

Man, wouldn't it be nice if Suda would write and direct games like this again? I love NMH and Lollipop Chainsaw looks great, but he really needs to step up and create a game again instead of just overseeing its creation from a distance.

Yes please. Recent Grasshopper games have just been b-grade schlocky grindhouse without any of the intelligence or deconstructive punk rock soul of Suda's own games. They seem to have misjudged why they were appealing in the first place.

Although NMH is a Suda game, and a great one. NMH2 was the one directed by someone else.
 
I look forward to seeing your follow up post when you've finished playing the game, hahaha

I'd been intrigued by this game since GDC 2007 when Suda 51 gave a talk titled Punk's Not Dead. I had never heard of the Japan-only title before then, but the short video Suda played of several of his older games had me totally intrigued. He announced the DS port there, but it kind of slipped my mind years later when it came out in NA.

I'm stoked to check this one out though. All of the negative aspects of the game make me think I'd like it even more. We'll see. I think I'm just enough of a pretentious jerk to love this one.
 
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