E3 '08: Hands On With Fl0wer
I was never a huge fan of fl0w. While many people thought it the second coming, I found it just a little too slow and visually not really my style. However Jenova Chen's newest masterpiece, Fl0wer is truly a wonder to behold. A relaxing, absolutely gorgeous game that I saw as akin to a virtual massage.
The atmosphere in Sony's lounge was quite frenetic with games going in every corner of the room, sounds and images competing for each other attention. I sat down in front of flower and didn't really know what to expect. The guy doing the demo roughly explained the controls to me. The Sixxaxis controls your direction and pitch/roll while the one button controls your speed. Then he handed me a set of headphones and explained that the game was much more enjoyable with sound. And it was...
In Fl0wer you play the wind and in the level I played, your goal is to open as many flowers in the playing field as possible. Each flower color has a slightly different effect on the world around you. White flowers are more or less just pretty, yellow flowers create more flowers and red flowers create a beautiful Okami like effect that turns brown grass to green and changes the look of the environment. As you pass over and open each flower, a petal is added to your "breeze" so that by the end of the level you have transformed from invisible wind to a lovely wave of multicolored petals. Along with the action of the game is a wonderfully relaxing soundtrack of ambient, almost classical music that changes as you change the world around you.
I can't possibly explain in words how absolutely relaxing and gorgeous the Fl0wer experience really is. It is a game that must be played to truly understand it, but hopefully my description coupled with the video above will give you some idea. Of everything I've seen so far at E3, Flower was indeed an oasis in a world of chaos.
Fruit Brute
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Video Games, Videos on 17 July 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: e3, e3 08, fl0wer, hands on, jenova chen, psn, sony
So.
Excited.
For this game.
Looks awesome... I'm guessing this is for either the PS3 or 360?
Watching that relaxing and beatiful [in-game?] footage brought me back to the FFVIII intro. Good times... XD
[IX, VIII and VI are my fave FF games]
I will be leeching use of my friend's PS3 for this. It looks so stunning.