Flowers Over Boys: A Hanako's Flower Shop Review

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: PC (Steam)

Referring to a game as "cozy" is all the rage these days, with many taking on that title despite never having earned it. It's also not a term one typically hears when discussing a visual novel. The game we're going to talk about today not only embodies the term 'cozy", but it also falls into the visual novel genre. Hanako's Flower Shop is part farming game, part shop simulator, and mostly visual novel. It's out now on Steam by way of FantaJi Games, and it has quite the shoes to fill after that bit of hyping up I just gave it. There's a lot to cover in this one, so let's dive right in!

Hanako's Flower Shop places you into the role of the titular Hanako Asaoka, a recent high school graduate who is ready to fulfill her dream of working in her grandfather's flower shop. Her parents have big, "real" careers in the city, but Hanako yearns for a far simpler life. She simply wants to run the family flower shop, and help people in the same way her grandfather does. Though somewhat reluctant to the idea of Hanako not aspiring to something beyond living and working in a small town, her grandfather does teach her everything he knows regarding the flower business, and even takes a step back so she can find her own footing. His day to day job isn't anything too difficult, but a large part of it is something Hanako will have to figure out for herself. Hanako is young and shy, but she's ready to break out of her shell and prove to everyone that she has what it takes to run the flower shop for herself. She has big shoes to fill, but her headstrong attitude is bound to see her carve out her own path before long.

There actually is a bit more to the plot of the game that I could get into, but I really don't want to reveal too much within the context of a review. Visual novels live and die by their stories, and Hanako's Flower Shop has a few important plot details that go into spoiler territory quite quickly. Suffice it to say that I was more than satisfied with the focus on Hanako's growth as a character, as well as the coming-of-age storyline the plot presented. Hanako doesn't just come into her own via interactions with her grandfather, though there is that too of course, but she learns about the wider world by way of interacting with the flower shop's customers. This cast of characters can sometimes be far more interesting than Hanako herself, and they are all just as important to the narrative as the main shopkeeping pair. Hanako's connection to her customers is a nice parallel to her connection to the players themselves, and this feedback loop really drives the game forward. Games like this don't always work out if the characters and plot aren't charming and endearing on their own, and that's something that Hanako's Flower Shop offers up in spades. It may not offer an epic plot that rivals the best the genre has to offer, but it's sure to keep you invested from start to finish if you let it. I'll circle back around to plot a bit more later on in the review, but let's tackle gameplay a bit next.

It may be a bit off topic, but I think I have to explain something before I go on with the review. When I first saw Hanako's Flower Shop on a list of upcoming games I assumed that it was some sort of a shop simulator that somehow hadn't landed on my radar until then. I'm usually a sucker for anime-styled shop sims like this, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I actually held onto that incorrect assumption right up until I started playing it, and then I of course realized that I was totally mistaken. I already mentioned this at the top of the review, but Hanako's Flower Shop is far more of a visual novel than anything else. It tells a rather linear narrative from start to finish, but does allow for a lot of player input along the way. There are minor shop and farming simulator gameplay elements, but you can actually ignore most of them and still progress in the game. As far as I can tell, there isn't a way to "fail" in the game, and doing a bad job in the sim parts of the game only serves to alter some of the dialogue that comes later. I still found this to be a very fulfilling experience, but I thought that it was best to get that out of the way as early as possible, on the off chance that someone got this far into the review and was still thinking that this is a full-on shop sim or farming game.

I'll get to the shop bits in a second, but let's tackle the visual novel part of the equation first. Most story sections occur automatically, but it's usually up to the player when they want to initiate the next scene. Far more than anything else, Hanako's Flower Shop takes the term "cozy" seriously, and doesn't rush you along in any way. Whether it be letters or conversations, most text just goes by, filling out the story as it goes. There are some choices to be made here and there, but only a few of them seem to have any lasting effect on the story. Most simply change the flow of the bits of dialogue that directly follow that specific choice, and aren't all that important in the grand scheme of things. Interestingly enough, even though you're essentially playing through the game as Hanako herself, some of the dialogue options come from other characters. This can be a bit jarring at first, but it's something that you'll probably get used to after a while. I don't want to make it sound like this is purely a kinetic novel though, as the choices that do seem to alter the course of the game are rather big, but I also don't want to make it seem like there are huge deviations in the plot that come about through in-game choices that might lead to a "Bad End" or something similar. I don't think that this is that sort of game, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's far from a simple visual novel, but some of the simpler aspects of the genre one expects to find are present here.

Okay, I guess now is the time to tackle those farming and shop sim gameplay elements. Hanako's Flower Shop is separated into days that essentially are chapters to the story. Each day begins with Hanako waking up, and then taking care of a customer in the morning, and another one in the evening. She then goes to sleep and the process begins again. There's of course quite a bit of variation to this routine throughout the game, but that's the basic gameplay loop in a nutshell. As I said earlier, you can pretty much refuse to interact with the other gameplay mechanics and still mostly get by. You will need to gather some flowers of course, but a lot of that can be done without much effort if you know what you're doing. I'd of course not suggest going for the lazy route, but is an option. If you're willing to play along, you'll find that there's some cute systems in place that will probably make you wish the game was a full-on shop simulator. Each day you can tend to your garden, go on a flower-picking walk, and even recruit your neighbor friends to find flowers for you. You can also place orders for more flowers and seeds that will be delivered to you after an in-game day, and also place orders for food and candy that are fulfilled immediately. Food and candy are used to keep your happiness up, though I'm not totally sure what happens if this meter gets too low. (It's really hard to let it drop significantly in my experience.) You can also listen to the radio, and this has similar effects to eating food and candy. All of these activities can be performed either in the morning or night, though some can only be done once a day. That's just the basics though, as there's one other gameplay element that deserves a more in-depth look.

Whether or not you choose to fully experience all the game has to offer or not, your main task will still be putting together bouquets for customers. Each of your customers will come in wanting a bouquet, and they have a unique way of putting in their orders. Rather than tell you what flowers they want, they'll instead tell you a story regarding the bouquet. For example, the bouquet could be meant for a loved one, to commemorate a special occasion, or even as a simple decoration. Each customer will discuss the emotions they want the bouquet to elicit or represent, and it's your job to assemble flowers to match those requests. This may sound complicated, but each flower comes with emotions like "Honor", "Love", "Loss", "Regret", "Beauty", "Hope", and others that hopefully will match what the client wants. Flowers do sometimes have overlapping keywords, and you can also double up on the same flowers if you want. This doesn't really give you a bonus as far as I can tell, but it is kind of neat that you can stack emotions and get things like "Dream (IV)", "Nostalgia (III)", "Youth (II)", and so on. You can go back through the conversation log in case you missed something, or you can also take notes once you know what key words you're looking for. These interactions do have a make-or-break feel to them, but you don't really have to worry about them. If your flower choices are off in any significant way, the game will let you know what flowers might work better. You can of course choose to ignore that advice, and there is no real penalty for doing so. I of course suggest you go for as perfect a bouquet you can, because that just feels like the right thing to do.

I personally found that I had the most fun playing Hanako's Flower Shop once I stopped caring about messing up or doing things "incorrectly". I think that's the vibe the game is going for after all, as there really is no reason to go for things like attaining a lot of money, or min/maxing the store's stock of flowers. The chill vibes took over by the second hour, and I just went with the flow. Though there is a central throughline regarding Hanako and her grandfather that runs throughout the game, the customers are what truly make the game unique and interesting. Each are rich and developed in their own way, and there isn't one bit of filler when it comes to the bouquet making tasks. Helping them out not only is rewarding in and of itself, but I liked the fact the characters would write letters that followed up on the situations that they needed the flowers for in the first place. Besides the great pacing and excellent writing, there's also no denying that the mix of gameplay elements found here goes completely against what one normally expects to find in a visual novel. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that this game is ground-breaking or revolutionary, but I do think that I'll have a hard time going back to standard visual novels after this. It's not just that the external gameplay elements are included either, it's that they're perfectly integrated into the game itself. I may be overthinking it just a bit, but this could very well be the start of a whole new genre.

Even though I have mostly positive things to say about Hanako's Flower Shop, there are some minor things that I feel keep this game from being truly great. First of all I have to say that I'm not really a fan of the game's visual style. It obviously is going for an anime aesthetic, but it's the most "How to Draw Anime" version of the look that I think I've ever seen. Far be it for me to criticize any artists work, but there were a couple illustrations that I felt looked pretty bad. I get that this is an indie game from a very small team, and that it clearly was a labor of love, but I found myself cringing and wincing more than once. Having said that, there's also an endearing quality to the look and feel of the game that's undeniable, so the visual style did grow on me after a while. My advice is to just stick with it if you're not a fan how the game looks. It'll probably win you over in other ways eventually.

The other negative I want to discuss is a bit harder to pin down, but it was my single biggest issue with the game. Hanako's Flower Shop is the most sickeningly sweet game I've ever played. This is straight up non-stop pure saccharine right to your veins. Let me first say that I do in fact like Hanako as a character, but there were several times where it seemed like she was striving to win the Mary Sue Award. She's always cheerful and upbeat, and always speaks in a lilting, overly sweet way that made me occasionally want to scream. There are times when the game gets a bit more serious, but that just creates all sorts of tonal whiplash rather than bring about natural emotional shifts. It's probably the worst with Hanako, and there was even a time when I gasped out loud when she said the word "hell". Part of this has to do with the game's voice acting, which seems to suffer from bad direction. You can hear it in the trailers and gameplay videos shared officially, but everyone talks in an overly sappy way that doesn't feel natural. I actually first thought the game used AI voices, and I've noticed that there are several others saying that too in various places online. It doesn't take very long for one to realize that there is no AI here at all, but that doesn't change the fact that the voices sound fake as all get out. Part of me wonders if the game would've benefitted from no spoken dialogue at all, as most of it is the line delivery and inflections. I have to give credit to a game this small being 100% voiced, but it just feels so odd in this case. It's not that it's bad, it's just very, very off. Thankfully that too is something you can mostly get used to, or you can just go into the options and turn off the voices altogether.

Those minor issues aside, I have nothing but positives to say about Hanako's Flower Shop. I've played countless visual novels that don't have a fraction of the heart that this game does, and it punches far above its $14.99 price tag. I almost feel bad saying anything negative about it at all considering that it's priced so affordably, as the game really has no right to be as good as it is at that price point. I once again have to say that there were times where I wished that the farming and shop sim aspects were the main focus, but you can play the game that way too if you want. It admittedly may be something of a hollow experience if that's all you're looking to get out of the game, but it's a route you can go. Either way, the game does offer up a 6-10 hour experience depending on how one tackles the game, and it can be fairly replayable too if you want to see everything the game has to offer. That's more than enough content compared to its price and scope, and I don't think anyone will walk away from this one disappointed.

I may have a handful of small complaints with the game, but I think it's rather obvious that I give Hanako's Flower Shop the biggest of recommendations. It's one of the best visual novels I've played so far this year, and it's a must for fans of the genre, fans of farming or shop sims, or any "cozy game" enthusiasts out there. There's sure to be something for everyone here, and it's truly a game like no other. I had never heard of FantaJi Games before tackling this review, but now I can't wait to see what they have up their sleeves for their next project. I'll definitely check it out, but in the meantime I suggest everyone pick this game up so that they have the ability to continue on to whatever that next thing is. I guess I'll wrap up this review on that note. See you in the next one!

Check Out Hanako's Flower Shop on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1529640/Hanakos_Flower_Shop/

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Story: A+
Gameplay: A+
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: B
Value: A+

Overall: A

Pros:
+ A story-rich visual novel that also has farming and shop sim gameplay aspects.
+ The entire cast of characters, from Hanako to her customers, are all well-written and fleshed out. It won't take long for you to be fully drawn in to the game's world.
+ Has a cute and endearing art style, as well as some great music and voice acting.
+ Though not the main focus of the game, the shop management mechanics are fun and rewarding.
+ Has a level of quality that goes far and beyond its extremely low price tag.
+ Not only is this one of the most original visual novel concepts you're likely to play, but it also embodies every aspect of the "cozy game" genre.

Cons:
- There are times when the game felt far too overly sweet in terms of its writing and dialogue. This can also cause some tonal whiplash when things go down a darker route.
- The visual style is cute, but there are a few illustrations that I feel aren't up to the standards set by the rest of the game. Also, the entire visual aesthetic reminds me of what one would find in "How to Draw Anime" books.
- Even though I think it's amazing that an indie game like this is fully voiced, the overall direction seems to be off. There's bad voice acting, and then there's whatever this is.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Good night everyone!

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