#flowers le volume sur printemps

[miyakuli]

Flowers - Le volume sur printemps

Amour et les fleurs ne durent qu'un printemps

Flowers is a series of visual novels immersing us in the daily lives of young female students at a Catholic school where friendship and love collide. We follow the shy Suoh, freshly arrived in this new school, whose objective is to make friends and try to detach herself from her traumatic childhood. This springtime introduction is full of sweetness and poetry, but I still felt that certain aspects were still a bit in the bud state.

❤ The aesthetic of the game is really well done, whether for the menu, the illustrations, the sprites or even the text window. It's flowery, soft and cute, and totally in tune with the calm and romantic atmosphere of the story. ❤ Beneath its air of innocence and purity, the game tackles some fairly sensitive subjects, such as psychological abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and neglect… but remains very modest in its approach. Also, in terms of its girl's love theme, I liked the fact that the character asked herself questions about her sexuality and that it wasn't something she immediately assumed. Her reflections on the fine line that can exist between love between friends or a deeper love were, in my opinion, very relatable subjects, especially for a character of that age. ❤ I think the development of the main character is very well carried out. She gradually opens up to the world around her, her dialogues become less indecisive and we gradually feel her more relaxed in her relationships with others. We don't get rid of her shyness, which is an integral part of her personality, but we do see Suoh gain in confidence and self-assurance. I've seen far too many media where the shy side of a character's character was quickly erased in favor of their development, as if it were something to be ‘’fixed‘’, so I was reassured that this wasn't the case here. ❤ The secondary characters are all very engaging (more so than the love interests, which is a bit of a shame) and add a lot of dynamism to the life of this school. A special mention goes to Erika (who's supposed to be the focus of another episode, bless), who has the best affinity with the heroine, and who clearly should have been a love interest (or at least earned the status of best friend, because frankly, she's the best).

+/- The music played by the strings and piano is perfect for accompanying the scenes, but there isn't much of it. One particular piece of music takes up 80% of the sound space and although it is long and beautiful to the ear, the musical redundancy is often felt. I also think there's a problem with the sound balance, as I had to turn the volume of the soundtrack down as low as possible to get the best out of the voices of the dubbing actresses, who interpret their roles very well, and it would have been a shame not to appreciate them more. +/- The story is easy to follow and plays out like a slice of life, with little episodes from the daily lives of these teenagers. Personally, I liked this approach, but some might criticise the lack of more intimate moments with the LIs. On the other hand, I found the last 2 chapters almost inconsistent; relationships suddenly rush in, and the attitude of one of the main characters changes drastically to the point of becoming toxic, with no real transition and no consequences at the end. It's quite confusing, and I was even put off playing this character's route after those events (because, on top of that, the route only unlocks after you've finished the ‘true end’, something that's never made clear). You should also bear in mind that the ‘true end’ is not really a happy ending either which leaves a bitter taste in the mouth once you've finished the whole game. It's a daring decision but one I didn't really like.

✖ At times, Suoh lends herself to games of deduction in which you have to pay attention to small details to solve enigmatic situations (otherwise, it's game over). The problem is that these ‘investigations’ are extremely difficult, as they either involve word games based on kanji that are not translated, or require highly specialized knowledge that is never mentioned in the story. So it's almost essential to take a guide with you… ✖ I don't usually pay too much attention to the cliché of femininity in Japanese games (which doesn't necessarily bother me) but here, it was over-emphasized at times with some rather embarrassing remarks; girls outside the norm of gentleness/politeness are called tomboys, the emphasis is often on the heroine's larger breasts, which make her seem more ‘feminine’ than the others, and too many categories are put on what it means to be a ‘real girl’. The game isn't that old (2014), but it feels that way :/ ✖ There's a lot of typo in the English translation, with mixed-up letters and repeated lines of dialogue. I was even given white text on a white background - genius!

It's a pretty good first part, in my opinion, although it's a bit frustrating in terms of its conclusion, which I think will encourage us to get on with the sequel. I've also heard that the following games are much better and focus more on the secondary characters, which makes me all the more intrigued. In any case, if you like your romances flourishing against a backdrop of slices of life, your spring will surely be more radiant.

➡ My personal VN ranking (in french) ➡ My Steam page

[medium-amount-of-gay]

Why must you attack me like this.

[takekawa]

started reading flowers le volume sur printemps and i have to pause every few seconds with how flustered it makes me. women. cute girls. princess-y ladylike adorable-ness. I am going to die

[citadelofmythoughts]

I've got a few sapphic NV suggestions, though most of them also have male LI options.

First though I wanna reemphasize that Studio Élan and both of the Arcade Spirits games are really good.

a new life.: modern angsty af, 1 female LI, for when you need a good cathartic cry sesh.

Arcadia Fallen: high fantasy, 2 male, 2 female, and 1 enby LIs, if you're familiar with The Owl House, Luz's VA voices the enby LI.

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood: sci fi/urban fantasy vibes, there's like... one dude in the game and he's friend shaped.

Flowers Trilogy (Le volume sur printemps, Le volume sur ete, Le volume sur hiver, in that order): occult/psychological horror/boarding school setting, you play as different characters and have different LIs in each game but you're at an all girls school so... game was originally in Japanese and has English subs.

Heaven Will Be Mine: sci fi, 3 female LIs (only two for each playthrough, however, as you play one of them), to quote the creator "select one of three terribly behaved girls to fight and/or make out with each other in their struggle for the fate of space."

I Was A Teenage Exocolonist: sci fi, 5 male, 4 female, and 1 enby LIs w/ some poly options, game's 80% VN, 10% deck building, and 10% world exploration. My highest recommended game period.

Love Notes: urban fantasy/horror, 2 male and 3 female LIs, extra point for this game because you can choose to play as a guy or girl and while you can romance all five LIs as either, the actual romances play out differently, which is kind of a staple with this studio.

Royal Order: high fantasy, 2 male and 1 female LIs, if you're familiar with Fire Emblem: Three Houses you can tell this game was inspired by it at least a little bit.

A Summer's End - Hong Kong 1986: modern (or well, real world in 1986), 1 female LI, just a nice journey of self discovery and love.

When The Night Comes: supernatural, 4 male, 1 female, 1 enby LIs w/ some poly options, was aimed more towards the BL side but is worth if either the female or enby LI appeals to you.

And some up and coming VNs to look out for:

Arcadia Fallen II: the sequel to the aforementioned Arcadia Fallen. LI information unconfirmed on the store page so far so numbers.

Call Me Under: urban fantasy/horror (but in an underwater city?), 2 male, 2 female, 1 enby and 1 genderfluid (he/they) LIs, same studio as When The Night Comes and has Robbie Daymond (The Curious Cat, Dorian Storm) voicing one of the LI characters.

Drops of Death: modern/murder mystery, 2 male and 2 female LIs, one of them is the killer... but it changes every game so you might end up romancing them and then it's up to you if you can forgive or not.

Our Life: Now & Forever: modern, 1 female LI, the sequel to the (typically) BL game Our Life: Beginnings & Always, childhood friends to lovers and navigating the journey to adulthood.

Nova Hearts: modern/superhero, LI info isn't available yet but it's a LGBTQ+ tagged dating sim and the premise is fun, all the local "hot singles" got turned into superheroes/villains and now you can date them.

Wow, thank you so much anon!

Definitely quite a few on this list I hadn't heard of.

[wcdonaldo]

my VN backlog is starting to encroach on my sanity

tsukihime remake (arc is only route translated for now so i'm working on that)

umineko ch 5-8 (might switch this to before tsukiremake)

flowers -le volume sur printemps- (followed by ete, automne, hiver once i own them)

mahoyo (#MAHOYOSWEEP)

AI the somnium files nirvana initiative

muv-luv (surprise christmas gift, might move onto ML alternative if i like it and it's on sale)

the house of fata morgana

steins;gate/steins;gate 0

chou dengeki stryker

higurashi (easily spooked and can't get a clear answer on jumpscares so i'm fine being anime-only for a while :P)

[asolivera]

[amvsharing]

【MAD】 离别的春日 ( uploaded by セーラー葵)

[margieargie]

MAYURI.

[goldom]

The writing in Flowers is so 💖

(Except for the end, but w/e, cliffhangers gotta cliffhang.)

(p.s. Thank god it doesn’t do like way too many Japanese media and have 15 lines of dialogue for every 1 that actually conveys any information. I think this is the first VN I’ve ever left running on auto without getting tired of waiting and clicking faster.)

[fairyetc]

Refreshingly androgynous

[mag--pie]

Heres a fic i wrote for my good pal @ShiinaShirakami on twitter! I know no one has ever read FLOWERS so uh im here to suggest you play it because the second game is coming out and i love suoh id die for her shes a queen i-

Anyways! I recommend it!

[22degreehalo]

Just finally finished the true route of Flowers! (I got one of the bad endings back when I first got it ages ago, but then was too lazy to go through the many many maaaaany choices all over to get a proper one;;;) It’s certainly a flawed piece, but one I enjoyed!

So, the plot: Suou is a 14-year-old girl who lives with her grandfather, has never gone to a brick-and-mortar school with kids her own age for more than a month, and has severe social anxiety disorder. She is currently making her second attempt at going to school - an isolated Catholic all girls school in the middle of nowhere. There, they practice the Amitie system, where students in the same year are put into pairs as designated partners. However, this year is different, and Suou finds herself with TWO Amitie partners - the proper, confident, but rather bossy Rikka, and the cool, slightly boyish, and reserved Mayuri.

The story I’m describing is Flowers ~ le volume sur Printemps ~, the first part in a four-part story, each focusing on a different season in the same school year. Only Printemps is available in English so far, but all have been released in Japanese, and JAST have brought up Ete recently so I expect a release date will appear for that soon, too.

Firstly, the structure is quite different to most VNs. There are only two real love interests - Mayuri and Rikka. However, they don’t really get separate routes - instead, the main storyline is pretty linear, telling the tale of a complex love triangle, and your choices only really impact how it ends. Not only that, but one of the love interests is clearly considered the ‘correct’ one for the story - I won’t say who, but it’s made pretty clear from early on. That love interest’s ending is the ‘canonical’ which the next VN will follow from.

Also, in each chapter except the last, there is some sort of mystery which Suou must solve (being a big book and movie fan, including detective stories), culminating in a series of questions the reader must answer correctly to continue. To be perfectly honest, all of the mysteries were ridiculous Moon Logic Puzzles to me, which often barely made sense even once Suou finished her five-minute-long explanation tying everything together. I basically just ended up using guides for them.

Now, the big thing that must be brought up is the writing. One of the reasons why Flowers was so in demand for a translation was the apparently gorgeous literary style in which it was written, giving it the feel of an old-school novel, with each character having their own distinct speaking style. However, when the first demo for the VN was released, the translation was... awful. In response to the outcry, a new translator was quickly brought onboard to fix it, but that translator admits that she could only do so much in the time they had (given that truthfully, the game really needed to be retranslated from scratch), and the result impacted on the writing quality of the final product.

I don’t understand Japanese well enough to commentate on the final translation quality. (At least, there weren’t any MAJOR mistakes like I noticed with In My Heart Had Wings, like ‘I’m scared’ being translated as ‘you’re scary’.) But I can definitely vouch that the writing quality is...nothing at all special, and occasionally outright not good. Sometimes it seems like it’s trying to sound literary, but it just sounds awkward more than anything - apart from that, the writing is just generic narration. Also, sometimes I felt that the tone of scenes didn’t match their content, though some felt more like pacing or structural issues more than anything. And, all the characters sound exactly the same. (Also there are some annoying little bugs, like a couple of lines that weren’t translated or just repeated the translation from the previous line.)

But, that’s pretty much the negatives out of the way. Beyond that, I mostly quite enjoyed it!

The setting - an all-girls’ Catholic school - is a very common one in yuri (and honestly, I should probably watch MariMite someday, just because of how much of yuri has been inspired by it). But Flowers takes a more serious, realistic approach than most. Suou is repeatedly demonstrated to be sexually attracted to other girls (and rather unhappy about it), and one of the characters outright considers herself a lesbian. The idea of the ‘two girl romantic friendship’ is present, but it’s presented as basically misapplied - the girls are definitely, queerly in love with one another, and the difference between how people react to ‘two really close girl friends at an all girl school who are playing at dating’ versus actual lesbians is explicitly brought up. (In practice, the message is a little muddled and confusing - again, maybe a translation issue? Someone unfamiliar with yuri genre norms would probably be very confused by some plot points.) It’s also not all light fluffy wholesome yuri - the characters don’t always behave like good people, and one character in particular pulls something actually kind of seriously unsympathetic. This sets it apart in tone from Kindred Spirits - that was a much more modern, laid back, relaxed story, whereas this is a more old-fashioned period-esque drama.

And, of course, the visuals and music are both stunning - the delicate, almost water colour art style perfectly matches the tone of the story, as does the score, which is dominated by wistful piano and longing string themes.

When it comes to characters, I basically enjoyed them - Ichigo and Ringo less so for some reason (though part of that may be because the mystery focusing on them annoyed me), but Rikka is enjoyable early-years-Hermione-esque, Mayuri is wonderfully relatable, Yuzuriha is delightfully eccentric, and Erika is a really nice example of a rough, sharp-tongued character who doesn’t feel too jerkish. (And she’s disabled!) But the star for me is absolutely Suou herself - man, but her social anxiety is just far too relatable, and very accurately portrayed. Even with the little things - like when Rikka admits she doesn’t know how to ride a bike, and everyone else’s first thought is ‘what teenager can’t ride a bike?!’ but Suou’s is ‘wait, does that mean riding a bike is uncommon in this fancy all-girls’ school?’ She’s so used to thinking of herself as weird and different it never even occurs to her that other people can also be weird!! Man, I know the feeling... Also, I love how she’s a fan of both books and movies, and both are treated as legitimate, equal interests, rather than books being treated as more ‘intellectual’. (Also, there’s a lot of references to Western movies from her, so movie buffs will probably get a kick out of that!)

Overall, it succeded in producing both a really nice, comfortable atmosphere when things were going well, as well as legitimately uncomfortable and painful drama when things weren’t, representing queer women in a much more honest and overt way than most yuri tends to. It’s a shame about the writing, but I hope that JAST learned from their mistakes with the last one and translated Ete right the first time around - and when that comes out, I’ll definitely be interestedin buying it! Erika is the protagonist of that one, with a new character as her love interest, and just from her description on the site she seems very interesting - and I’m looking forward even more so to Automne, where Yuzuriha will be the lead, and while eccentric personalities like her aren’t rare in anime, they’re certainly not often the protagonist.

So: I’d give Printemps a 7 or 8 out of 10, with the hopes that Ete might be able to get a solid 8 or even a 9 with better writing!

[fujinoshizuru]

秋篇 by チヨ

[hamki]

aki im disappointed that the english vers of FLOWER : summer didnt come out in 2017 like they promised it would :c

I KNOW RIGHT!??! WHAT THE FUCK JAST!??!

WHERE

ARE

MY

FLOWERS

LESBIANS!??!!?!

[beatoricheeeee]

Flowers: Le volume sur printemps

My gaze lands on my other classmates, who I've recently gotten closer to...

...and one of my Amitié partenrs getting changed.

I see the line from Rikka's neck to her collarbone exposed defenselessly...

And I see Ichigo's underdeveloped chest, making my entire face burn red.