I admit that I don't remember much about how Florence ended up in my library. Whether it was an impulsive purchase of the moment, having bought it with other games or whether it was part of my wishlist and I fished it out, as I sometimes do, when I decide to spend a certain amount based on the discounts that are around.

Whether I bought it on impulse or pulled it from my huge wishlist, the only thing I know for sure is that the soundtrack in the trailer really captivated my ears. The graphics, so simple and indie comic, obviously had their weight in turn, but the music and the general presentation is what convinced me.

Sometimes it is like that, you just have to dive in even with the risk of finishing the game and not having found it to be in our strings. But you know, if we never try anything new we risk missing small and large pearls that then leave their mark!

Florence Yeoh is a 25-year-old girl, already stuck in the daily routine of a completely average life: a not-so-stimulating job, a mother who is a little too present (not to say a little intrusive, also due to her Asian heritage), a few friends, no hobbies.

He goes to work checking social media, spends his working hours doing his accounting duties, comes home, eats something ready while watching TV, then goes to bed.

Rinse and repeat.

But her life changes when she stumbles upon Krish, a street musician who plays the cello nearby, filling the air with fascinating notes. She'll end up knowing him closely because of a simple but decidedly unexpected event that arrives as a blessing in disguise into her life and ambitions.

The whole art is absolutely adorable and well-structured. The game presents itself as a vertically scrolling silent narration, very similar to a webtoon but interactive.

The "hand-drawn" style, typical of graphic novels, is extremely simple but effective and compensates very well for the complete lack of dialogues: these in fact don't exist in either audio or written form and each situation passes through the sole visual story of what the characters think, desire or feel.
It can also be said that it's rather minimalist and rarely shows complicated backgrounds which, on the contrary, often remain white and empty without any fear, thus concentrating the totality and complexity of the narration on the two protagonists and the story they're living together.

And in the extremely limited palette that is offered, colors play a fundamental role starting from the initial extreme grayscale, which will slowly evolve. However, YELLOW will be the common thread between them: whether it is that of the lemons fallen on the ground, the stripes painted on the road or the stickers on Krish's cello case, yellow will be everything that represents and concerns him.

With the addition of animations and a beautiful soundtrack (see below), the end result is a beautiful visual novel.

In Florence there's a wide range of different interactions, simple but fun: from rearranging objects and household goods in a visually pleasing way to putting together pieces of balloons (but without dialogue!) to allow the discussion to continue, from recovering old memories to answering Mom's calls.

The puzzles are game-driven as part of the narrative itself and not key to obtaining clues needed to progress as you would typically see in other puzzle games.
Interactions aren't in fact the focal point of Florence, but are necessary to punctuate the love story between the protagonists, to get closer to their emotions and feelings, to follow the escalation of their happiness and the roller coaster of ups and downs in their story, up to the epilogue.

The game is divided into acts and in turn into short chapters, where we'll be called to immerse ourselves in her daily routine by helping her brush her teeth or choosing which piece of sushi or maki to eat while watching TV, by digging up old memories where as a child she enjoyed creating drawings with tissue paper or by meeting Krish in increasingly frequent and significant appointments.

The soundtrack is truly delightful and I personally enjoyed all the tracks, especially the main theme, to the point that I listened to the soundtrack alone countless times (it can be purchased as DLC, find the link in the info above), even in the weeks following having finished the game.

The author is Kevin Penkin and there are 20 tracks in total.
Much of the music is either lively and uplifting or calm and thoughtful, a perfect match and consistent with the scenes they're linked to, also because they carry the title of what happens (for example "First Dates", "Groceries", "Moving In", etc.). Obviously not only that, considering that the game explores various aspects of couple life and personal ambitions.

In a visual novel where not only there are no audio dialogues, but not even written dialogues, the entire narration necessarily ends up being the responsibility of the graphic and, if present, sound and musical sector.
Florence, in this sense, really does an excellent job in focusing everything on colors - as I already described in the "Graphics" section at the beginning - and on music. After all, Krish is a musician who aspires to become a professional and music thus acquires a double value: one obviously as an accompaniment, which will guide the player through the emotions and events of the protagonists, perfectly setting the mood and vibe of each chapter and the events it describes; and one within their world, since Florence pursues the world of art while Krish pursues that of music and both will be heavily influenced by that, for better or for worse.

The melodies are mostly carried by piano and strings, cello (I think) and violin, as far as my very untrained ear can discern, with the occasional wind instrument, like clarinet. Which makes them even more immersive, considering that Krish actually plays the cello.

Personally, I find it almost difficult to label Florence as a "video game", not only because of the short duration but also and above all because of how it tells its story and how this integrates with the part played.
In a puzzle game, the puzzles would have been nothing more and nothing less than the focus of the game, an integral part of the gameplay, the main mechanic and the main obstacle to progress at the same time.
In Florence, however, the puzzles are little more than interactions slightly more complex than moving the mouse/joystick to brush Florence's teeth or the few seconds needed to understand how the balloon pieces fit together when talking to Krish.

And, mind you, I'm not saying this critically, on the contrary, quite the opposite.

~Spoilers to follow~
(Story)

Because Florence is not meant to be a puzzle game, it is obvious. Florence is an interactive story, a slice-of-life that focuses on the dawn and dusk of a love story, involving themes and situations that many have faced at least once in their lives and of which they still bear the scars, probably.

Florence pushes us on a small but intense emotional roller coaster, making us smile at the beginning and cry at the end, taking us up with her in the moments of butterflies in the stomach and in the embarrassments of first dates, in the sharing of interests and personal ambitions, in the discovery of the other's culture of origin and then down, into the abyss of the first disagreements and the first arguments of the separation, of the crisis and the doubts about what is happening and where the sudden waves are pushing their story and their feelings.

What is the right thing to do?
Continuare ad inghiottire amari bocconi da ambo le parti, attendendo potenzialmente invano che le crepe decidano di ripararsi da sole e tutto torni come prima, perché tanto s'è costruito e tanto s'è investito soprattutto a livello emotivo?
Oppure accettare quella che potrebbe essere la spietata realtà dei fatti, ovvero il non essere una storia "e vissero per sempre felici e contenti", ma solo una temporanea comparsa nella vita dell'altro, ormai all'uscita di scena?

It should also be kept in mind that, as a visual novel with minimal interaction, Florence is short: between half an hour and an hour of gameplay at best.
However, nothing can take away the interesting food for thought that can be drawn from it, starting from completely everyday events and arriving at a more than worthy epilogue, a breath of fresh air without fireworks or too obvious good feelings.