NOTE: this is an overview of the game, and was written for those that haven’t played it; there are no plot spoilers as a result of that.

Edo MacAlister

“I shall be waiting with a smile at the Front Desk.”

So creepy, yet so funny. …and that felt like the only proper way to start an overview of Flower, Sun, and Rain (FSR from here on out). This little re-released gem from Goichi Suda [Suda 51] is definitely worth experiencing…but not if you expect fun from your video games. No, FSR has entertaining characters, brilliant music [the soundtrack is modern remixes of classical music], and an interesting narrative, yet most people that enjoy playing video games will hate FSR. That’s definitely reflected in its metacritic score of around 5.5. This negativity really comes down to one very significant thing: FSR explicitly tries to be tedious, and literally mocks you while doing it.

Running Past Power Diner on Power Beach

Problematic or otherwise, FSR is a stronger experience because of this; it reinforces the narrative, and the experience feels closer to reality. I don’t think video games have to be fun; generally speaking I’m looking for an interesting, meaningful experience from the ones that I play. FSR definitely provided that.

So, what is FSR about? What narrative justifies the kind of tedium that FSR celebrates?

Sumio Mondo is a “searcher,” someone who helps people find things they’ve lost; the entire game is built around this premise, and searching for truths is the primary gameplay. He is summoned to Lospass island by the Flower, Sun, and Rain Hotel’s manager, Edo Macalister, to find a bomb that has been put on an airplane by terrorists…the game was first released in Japan in the first half of 2001.

Upon arriving on the island, it quickly becomes apparent that Lospass (which Edo explains does in fact mean “Lost Past”) is not just another tropical resort island. There is a very strong suspicious feel to the place, despite it being quite bright and sunny; the voice acting is distorted like the ghost characters in killer7, and this really cements the feeling that something is wrong here. What you do quickly learn is that time on Lospass has began looping, with the same day replaying itself over and over.

Using Catherine to Dial a Telephone

Upon reaching the hotel and first meeting Edo, he hands you the other strange aspect of Lospass: its illustrious guidebook. This guidebook, combined with Sumio’s partner Catherine, talking to other people, and walking around the hotel and island, comprise FSR’s gameplay. Catherine isn’t a person, she’s a silver suitcase with a code cracking machine inside; all of the games puzzles result in pluging Catherine into an object, then inputting numbers into Catherine. Even when dialing a telephone, Sumio feels compelled to use Catherine. Why “Catherine?” According to Sumio, “it’s better to work with a ‘Catherine’ than with a ‘Bob.’”

Each day Sumio tries to get to the airport, but is stopped by someone needing him to help them find something they’ve lost; Sumio is a very nice guy, and always concedes to helping them…the terrorists can wait, apparently. And the Lospass guidebook always seems to contain the answer Sumio is looking for, not matter how outlandish the question. So thus, the game is a repetitious cycle of waking up, trying to get to the airport, getting pulled away from that goal, walking around talking to people, reading the nearly 50 page guidebook, and entering a code with Catherine. Upon the completion of each sub-narrative, the plane flies overhead and explodes…you have failed, and the day starts again once more. There are some curveballs, so the entire game isn’t that formulaic, but still, that cycle does define the game.*

FSR’s real innovation is its information-centric gameplay, and how that contrasts with more traditional adventure games. I grew up playing a lot of classic adventure games (eg. Space Quest series/Monkey Island series), and am very used to the mechanics in those games: players explore places, talk to other characters, and find and use items. The vast majority of those games’ puzzles come back to finding and using items; these puzzles propel the narrative forward, but many of them are comically arbitrary and don’t really contribute to the narrative. In contrast, FSR is about finding and using information; discovering the truth of the narrative and sub-plots. This is amazing because it allows total synchronization between the puzzles and the narrative; the puzzle of finding lost information is the game’s narrative.

A Page from the Guidebook with the Super- Imposed English Text Turned Off

There is also a second dimension to that, and it’s one that is far more meaningful if one is interested in architecture. The guidebook ends up creating a very strong sense of place for Lospass island. Details that you simply can’t get from walking around are provided in huge quantity in the guidebook, and in the end the island is infinitely more interesting and meaningful as a result of that. Lospass itself definitely ends up functioning as a character in the narrative.

As mentioned earlier, FSR is a very tedious game, which strongly goes against one of the core expectations of video games. So, why did Suda create a game that was intentionally tedious? For one, I found that it really helps you enter the mindset of Sumio, who becomes increasingly frustrated and angry throughout the course of the game as that tedium gets worse. The game tests your patience just as Sumio’s experience tests his. The other significant reason is that it adds a surprising level of realism to the game. Real life is full of stupid little things that waste time, and the game feels more true to reality by forcing the player through the kind of annoying crap they put up with on a daily basis.

To sum up, I think anyone interested in experimental games and unique experiences has to play FSR. Its unique, sophisticated experience could only have been conveyed through the medium of video games, and for that alone it is a significant work.

*Just as a side note, I found the imagery of an exploding airplane to be incredibly powerful. Every day, finishing a task, then watching a plane fly overhead and explode… Suda can’t have foreseen why that plot point would be as meaningful as it is now, but really, seeing it happen in the game again and again and again really takes a toll; by the later parts of the game I was cringing whenever I saw it.