Flower
PS3
Released 2009
Developed by thatgamecompany
Designed by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark
Starting with one of my favorite things in all of forever. That most forever number one favorite is That Game Company's Flower.
(pay no attention to the song they picked...)
An independent and small game design studio, TGC (that game company) has some kind of spooky zen hoodu that weaves intense visual stimulation with a dichotomous sparse-but-lush take on music, gameplay and storytelling. And not only are these elements of their releases at a very high level of execution, they have somehow managed to mash all these disparate and usually disconnected elements into an incredibly intense and holistic emotional experience.
And-by-gee-golly-hot-spankin-griddle-meat, the music is incredible. Vincent Diamante, a composer and all-around artsy person composed the game's music and sound effects, and aside from just loving the hell out of it, the way that the two work together is something unparalleled and something truly novel.
In flower, you control the wind, blowing a single flower petal through a landscape. You explore that world, touching other flowers and causing them to bloom, eventually bringing color and life back to a grey world. As you touch the other flowers, a single instrument voice plays a note, the instrument depending on the color and type of flower you bloom. As you restore color and life to that landscape, the music grows from a thinly composed part into a full and lushly orchestrated piece, all seamlessly. At any rate, I'm not really doing it any justice by describing it, even with my most bestest mouthwords.
Well, that gameplay video doesn't really do it any justice either.
My personal taste for video games, well, for just about everything, is how immersive the experience is, and I am completely immersed in Flower whenever I pick it up.
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