Fran Bow is an indie Point'n Click well known for its dark, mysterious, sad, and gory atmosphere. Playing it could almost be taken as a psychedelic trip.
Fran Bow tells the story of a 10 years old young lady who lives a happy life with her parents, her aunt, and her black cat she calls mister Midnight.
One night, after seeing a mysterious goat like monster out of the window, she witnesses her parent's bodies that have been brutally murdered.
Fran Bow then runs out from her house and faints in the forest, fortunately (unfortunately ?) a bunch of mysterious hooded guys carry her to the Oswald asylum in which she is forced to take a medicine called "Duotine" with strong hallucinatory side effects.
Having been separated from her cat, she decides thanks to her creativity and cleverness, to escape the asylum finding him, and learning the truth.
It's a very creepy game but somewhat beautiful and poetic, its soundtrack fits well, its images are grotesque but charming from my point of view.
Natalia Figueroa the designer of Fran Bow told in an interview that most of the elements of the game have been inspired from her own life, especially when she was a teen suffering from mental illness and received bad treatment from the grown ups that were supposed to take care of her.
Here's the trailer:
Thanks for the review Kyradax. Despite the macabre setting of the game, the art style is good enough to convey a message beyond the pure graphic horror. Although it is not my usual area of video game interest, both in the genre and the setting, it looks like a very well-made game
Ah yes Fran Bow... I came across this title by watching a let's play by Lotus Prince which prompted me to buy the game on Steam. And after finishing it, prompted me to wrote its entry over the french Wikipédia.
For me, one of the most brilliant aspect of the game is its unique art direction which managed to combine whimsical and gory images. A formidable combination for an horror game. The story was also interesting; I didn't know regarding the incident that suffered its designer but it makes sense in the context of that game.
Unfortunately you can tell that the game was designed to tell the story first before the gameplay making it lacking secondary quests and very linear. But don't think the puzzles will go easy on you though
Spoiler (Sélectionnez le texte dans le cadre pointillé pour le faire apparaître)
Also the ending felt kind of abrupt and making me wanting more thus giving me the impression of a rather short game.
Still a good purchase nonetheless.
If you are interested in the game, the creators are having a 50% discount on Steam for little Fran's birthday.
Thanks for the notice!