Friday, April 4, 2014

Flower


There have been some debates for years already whether game is capable to become an art form and in my opinion, a handful of them can be considered to be an art but indeed majority of games can't be considered as one. One of those game that i considered to be artistic is Flower, a simple title yet offers immersive even though short experience and powerful message. The gameplay is very straightforward, you control a flower petal and try to bloom other flowers in the stage and getting bigger in the process. Throughout the game, Flower try to deliver message about the relationship between human and nature and i feel the wish that this game contains is that someday the relationship between human and nature would be more harmonius than the present which is not that ideal. Flower is quite similar with Journey which is another game developed by the same company as they share the common theme which i believe to be Life, Death and Rebirth though Flower heavily emphasized on the Life part where as Journey focus on the latter aspects.
 
For me an art is a crystallization of human expression manifested in physical form which contain a strong emotion or a wish and Flower fits very well in this description which is why i consider it as a work of art. For a game to be an art it can only rely with its visual and audio to deliver the message which is abit tricky and that's why most of the games are just merely entertainment. If you only like intense action game you probably will not like Flower but if you look to unwind yourself and seek tranquility in game i think you will appreciate this game. I still feel 6 stage is abit short for Flower since i feel alot more can be explored with this game as the medium for instance an oriental stage with interactions of the water ripple with the contrast between past and present would be interesting to see. If you like Flower you may try Zen Bound which got different gameplay but works wonder!

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