Stream: Flowers
Dive into Flowers through my perspective. This page serves as a living journal, updated daily with bite-sized reviews, exclusive video highlights, and curated screenshot galleries from my adventure.
Dahlia with Chidori and Erika
I finished Mayuri end (which is sort of a bad end) and good end (which explains basically everything about the mystery of Mayuri. Now it remains just Rikka (need to do another full playthrough skipping through the already read scene) and Grand Finale ending. I will get them ongoing now and then prepare a full article for tomorrow.
I won't talk too much about the content of the ending as I want to keep it for tomorrow's post, but wanted to still share this extremely cute image of Dahlia with Chidori and Erika. A lot of things happened, but the second game remains the one that left me the biggest impression between the four and yes the reason is because of Erika. She's been consistently the best heroine of the franchise for me and she didn't disappoint me even for a second.
This category of the stream section ends here and I doubt I'll ever write on it again (unless they somehow announce something new on this franchise, but I doubt), hopefully you liked these moments as much as I did.
I plan to announce the next visual novel I'll read in the post I'll make on the final article about this series, it'll be something less emotional heavy this time around to balance things. I'm still trying to recover from this.
Cinderella play with Erika and Suou
I think I'm pretty close to the completion of the first ending of this last Flowers game and the mystery will be revealed. They reached the hidden room, but they haven't yet told us what exactly they found in there that caused Rikka to go aghast. Suou is sure that's enough to warrant Mayuri's freedom.
But before exploring that for the last spurt of the story they're doing a Cinderella play at school and the art /acting is just way too stunning that it completely exceeded my already high expectations.
The casting has Suou as Cinderella, Erika as the witch (seen here in this screenshot), Ringo and Ichigo as the siblings (they can do the spoiled behavior perfectly) and Chidori as the prince (honestly quite charming).
And no, it's not just a small scene to present the activity and then fadeout to skip, they're going ahead doing most of the important scenes. Starting from Cinderella getting bullied, then the meeting with the prince, running away before the time runs out, etc...
And then Chidori leaves the stage to make Mayuri appear and I'm like "how?! why?!". They better be explain all in detail about how was she able to free from her captivity already!
I'm quite excited to see how the whole thing ends, but at the same time I'm battled because I know I will feel sad that I won't be able to listen to their voice and story anymore. It's harsh when you like a series this much.
Shion Basquiat's truth!
And we finally got the bombshell and, while it didn't resolve the final mystery, it at least closes one of the story threads that has been bugging me for a few days now.
Shion Basquiat was a girl that died long ago that looked almost identical to Mayuri, the screenshot below is a portrait of this girl. Suou and the others investigated in a series of letters they found written by her and turns out she had a relationship with another girl named Kifune Sayuri that was really similar to the Suou/Mayuri dynamics.
The event sequence narrated in the letters was basically identical to the first game of the series except what happened at the end during the festival. In Suou case everything went fine, but in her case the two fought and ended up separated. Kifune regretted her actions (in a final letter that they found together with the others) because then Shion died (unknown reasons as of now) and they never managed to make up.
We don't know precisely how many years ago this happened which makes it hard to understand what kind of relationship she may have had with Mayuri. Was she a grandmother or aunt of Mayuri? There has to be some blood connection as the visual similarity is way too precise for pure coincidence.
I remember Mayuri said that she was raised mostly by a house helper (and she fell in love with her), but I can't remember precisely about the rest of her family structure. How is Dalia connected to all this because she technically share the same surname?
Yaegaki Erika is back safe! Chidori's anger!
It is a relief that Erika is back safe and sound after her day at the hospital. Honestly, I felt quite annoyed with Suou in the aftermath of the event. While Erika was still in the hospital and her condition was unknown, Suou kept hiding the identity of the attackers to protect Nerine and Yatsushiro. This caused even more grief among the other students, especially Takasaki Chidori, who was absolutely enraged and ready to fight everyone, including Suou. Suou has a habit of simply stopping mid-conversation at times. While it might look cute to us as the audience, it must be incredibly irritating for the people standing right in front of her.
Ichigo and Ringo acted as mediators to calm the group, which was necessary since even Rikka was starting to get agitated. I was worried the situation would explode into a real fight at any moment. Chidori and Erika are my favorite couple in this franchise, and this segment showed exactly why they work so well together. The imbalance between their personalities actually makes them more interesting when they are paired up. Chidori worrying that Erika might be in love with Suou was also incredibly endearing.
I am not sure if Erika will reveal what actually happened to the others, but I certainly hope the culprits get their comeuppance later in the visual novel. What they did was completely inexcusable.
On a side note, I found an interesting fact. Chidori’s voice actress is Suzaki Aya, who also voices Ningyohime in Mary Skelter 2. Ironically, that is a game I am playing right now in another category on this stream. I swear it wasn’t on purpose; I only just noticed the connection. Their voices in these roles are not very similar, so it didn't click until now.
Yatsushiro Yuzuriha and Komikado Nerine are the enemy?!
Shocking revelation just happened with Suou properly deducing that Yatsushiro is the source of the letter that was sent to discredit and damage her that I talked about in the previous post. She initially thought there was some secondary reason for this, some key or information to be given, but according to Yatsushiro herself in this scene, it was purely to stop her from trying to get closer to the "goddess of truth". What is this goddess of truth is unknown, but I guess it's related to why Mayuri is basically hidden somewhere...
Both her and Nerine acted almost like different persons. Nerine especially was acting like the typical annoying and irritating guard dog of Yatsushiro with spiteful voice acting (really good job on the voice artist here). And well, they did something that is basically nonredeemable in my eyes. They shoved Erika to the ground for no reason whatsoever. I mean I'm sure nothing bad will happen to her, but the very act of doing it knowing the possible consequences is just a big nono regardless of whatever thought they may have had.
Seems like they are on the villain side this time around and I'm stoked now to know exactly what they're hiding. It's the first time in the series that there is a clear cut villain instead of just misunderstanding and similar things.
What does Dahlia knows about this is the question. She clearly knew that Yatsushiro was the source and stopped Suou from saying her name when she confronted her. And yet she does nothing, just watch the things unfold...
Hookman mystery
As usual, Suou arrived at the building to try to speak with Mayuri. She managed to find her again, though they only spoke through the walls without actually seeing each other (even though there was a CG showing Mayuri's full body). Mayuri insistently repeated that Suou shouldn't be there. When Mayuri's voice eventually faded, Suou caught a glimpse of the mysterious figure shown in the screenshot, which is apparently what everyone at school has been talking about.
In urban legends, the Hookman is a dangerous wraith, but he didn't seem to do any damage here aside from looking intimidating. I am leaning toward the usual "there must be a more reasonable explanation" routine that we have grown used to. I hope the upcoming deduction section clarifies things as Suou thinks it over, because honestly, I am completely confused at this point.
I don’t see anyone having a motive to fake being a wraith except perhaps Mayuri herself, who might want to scare Suou off. Suou ruled this out, however, because they were speaking just a moment before the appearance, leaving Mayuri no time to switch roles (she wasn't wearing that costume when the CG was shown). Hopefully this would also link to the Basquiat mystery that we are still searching an answer for.
Suou and Rikka Valentine Day Scene
I'm at the fourth chapter of the main story (out of six) in my first playthrough and this scene came and I was completely frozen watching it in awe. Rikka and Suou both prepared chocolate cookies for each other for Valentine Day without knowing if the other would and they're now helping each other eat in a friendly non-romantic manner. I know that they passed quite a bit of time together already (it's nearly a year since the beginning of the story of the first game), but these scenes bring their closeness out even more and it makes the "Amitie" system feel more "real".
There have not been much developments on the main story side (Mayuri and the mystery of Basquiat) for these last few hours of gameplay, but we got plenty of nice scenes all along.
Chidori's birthday party was amazing, Erika preparing the cake for her was the cherry on top. The two moved past their initial hesitations and are now completely open about their feelings and it feels like watching an old couple just having fun together at this point. They even have that chemistry that allows them to plot things together like when Chidori acted to get Suou to do the staged reading instead of them.
Oh and the ballet scene with Ringo and Ichigo wearing a cat costume was also ultra cute. I have a picture saved I may use for the final review of this visual novel.
I read that there are four main endings in this game with the grand finale being in the fourth iteration. Really curious to see how the entire franchise will close down the story. Will we be able to see a small epilogue for all the couples I wonder...
Truth behind the Bloody Mary incident
The mystery is solved by Suou! We all knew from a few games about the Bloody Mary ritual incident that caused various students to leave the school for "personal reasons". Suou thought it is connected with the Basquiat secret and it can lead to know more about why Mayuri is confined in the school therefore she investigate.
It's interesting to see Suou fighting with her own mind when she keep hearing the voice of her mother mocking her in every action with sentences like "she left you" "what's the point?" etc... It definitely doesn't paint her as mentally stable right now.
Turns out it all started when a teacher named Karasumori Midori wanted to help her cousin Akitsu to get in a romantic relationship with Yatsushiro. To do so she started spewing false info about the other students around Yatsushiro and even ended up writing a letter faking the writing. This, however, backfired when the difference in writing got discovered and ended up leaving the school right after. Akitsu also left on her own because she understood what happened. Suou also deduced that the teacher was probably in love with her own cousin too due to the pair items (like the scrunchie).
Dalia knew everything and kept silent because of the "seal of confession". Of course that's assuming we can believe her because her reaction to us mentioning that name made her do a very different face than the usual Dalia we know.
Full on soap opera material here, but I honestly still don't see how this connects to the mystery around Shion Basquiat. Suou thinks that Midori knew something connected to it, but her leaving made the secret go away with her. Now the hope is that she left some hints around that could help Suou solve the puzzle.
Suou is oblivious to the yuri around her
This was an interesting scene that really shows how particular Suou's character is. Despite her intelligence in deduction and reasoning, she was completely oblivious to the fact that there were other classmates, who like her, love girls in her class. In this case there was Tsuwabuki that was irritated because Suou was hogging all the attention from Rikka with her mistakes in the student council and warned her. Ringo and Erika had to literally spell it out to her before she even considered that to be a possibility...
By the way, I really liked how Erika (before realizing it was just a love quarrel and backing down) was like "tell me who said something to you and I'll strike them down" with a very angry and serious voice. She really got attached to Suou during these months. I remember back in the first game when she was more of a trickster trying to avoid getting connected with other people and man, she sure changed a lot for the better.
Suou and Erika yuri scene?!
Whoa, yuri scene between two main heroines Suou and Erika? I mean, I know it's just some small skinship between friends, but the scene is so surprising that it made me jump from my seat when the CG appeared.
Erika helped Suou with her search (related to the main plot) and was like, with her usual mocking joking tone, "if you really want to thank me, let me use those thighs". Suou answered confused "what?" and Erika doubled down with a "Lap pillow! Let me!" leading to a surprising Suou saying "Sure, here you go".
That left Erika completely speechless as she wasn't expecting Suou to actually agree to give a lap pillow.
Plus now they're basically flirting with Suou going "you're so beautiful" to Erika. I know that I wear my yuri-tinted glasses often, but this is so blatant that it must not be just me!
Apparently it's the first time Suou gave a lap pillow to anyone (she didn't do it to Mayuri), but she got it multiple times done from her grandfather.
Yaegaki Erika's deep voice is so damn good
Yaegaki Erika's deep voice really is a boon to this world. There's something about that defined husky-like voice that simply puts me at ease whenever I hear it. You had to imagine my surprise when I read that Ayane Sakura (the seiyuu voicing her) also did a role as Mika in Psycho Pass. It does make sense when you focus on the two voices, but still it was surprising...
I had to upload this small comedy scene with Erika and the other girls complimenting Suou for her winter uniform looks because I don't have enough recorded clips of Erika (my favorite character of the entire franchise). I need sometime to go back and record some scene between Erika and Takasaki Chidori from the second visual novel.
Story now seems to be entering the winter period, the last season and the title of this fourth game of the franchise ("Le volume sur hiver" translate roughly to "Winter volume"). The goal is set (recovery Mayuri), but the road is still uphill as we don't know why is she confined in that room.
Mayuri is WITHIN the school building?!
Mayuri is WITHIN the school building and just talked to Suou through the wall! What the...between all the possibilities this wasn't even something I was considering possible. The voice was muffled by the wall so it could've technically been someone impersonating her, but Suou recognized her so I'm going to trust the gut instinct of Suou here.
Mayuri seemingly wanted Suou to forget her and move on with her life, but things aren't going down that easily now that Suou that her beloved is within reach. The questions I have just exploded though now.
The school clearly said that she left the school, but that was a lie in which even the Dalia participated into. What else are they lying about? Because clearly things are a lot more troubling now. That explains why Yuzuriha was so reluctant to talk about this topic to Suou, she probably knew something and was instructed to keep silent...but by who? And for what reason?
Suou's deduction process is always nice to see
Suou is going through her usual deduction process and it's quite interesting to see how she's trying to piece together the mystery. Everything seems to go around the figure of Shion Basquiat that was buried near the school in an inconspicuous place.
Suou wondered if he was the adoptive father who took in Dalia at young age, but from the records of the school no other Basquiat was present at the school at anytime aside from Dalia herself.
So who was he? Why is he buried near the school? And why is there an angraecum flower right next to it? it's technically a special flower according to Suou in the school, the only one that is maintained by the teachers and not by the students and it means "prayer".
Also are we sure it's someone older than Dalia or maybe someone around her age? Suou didn't mention the dates present (if any) on the tomb.
I guess the next step is to try and ask Dalia in a roundabout way about it as she's the only one who may know something about it.
Rikka and Suou relationship improvements
Rikka and Suou relationship has developed so much since the first game. I remember how I was very near to hate her for all the blackmailing she tried to do to bind Suou to her permanently while distancing or even damaging Mayuri's life. After accepting the situation she smoothed out to be a much more nice girl (even though I still don't like her as much as the other heroines). Here they really look like Amitie, friends that share the current step in their life together.
On unrelated note, seems like the story still has the same "ghost story" element that we've seen prominent in the first game. Erika went through quite an interesting story about a "mysterious red rope" seen in an hospital (that turned out to be blood). It's quite a standard story told in these settings, but it was interesting to see Rikka frightened by it. I wonder if the actual mystery case around Mayuri has actually a "ghost story" element too.
FLOWERS -Le volume sur hiver- OP Movie impressions
The OP movie of the FLOWERS -Le volume sur hiver- just played and time just literally stopped on its track for me. The music, the singing voice, the art and animation were just a work of art, way better than the already amazing OPs from the previous visual novels.
The title of the song is "Fairy Wreath" sung by Shimotsuki Haruka (霜月はるか). I'll probably end up putting it on repeat for months to come considering how good it is.
I went a bit ahead after the OP too and so far it's been mostly a bit of fun together with the existing charactersas a way to realize where they are after the events of the previous visual novels. Think of it as a sort of recap of who is connected with whom and what type of relationship they have. It's so emotional to see them back though...
Ichigo and Ringo are cute as usual, but my favorite remains Erika. She stunned me with her personality in the second visual novel of the series and she's still the highlight of each scene where she appears.
Mystery of the tomb of Basquiat
Yes, that tomb that Suou found in the snow with the surname "Basquiat" which is the surname of the teacher. Just exactly who is buried there and how does this connect to Mayuri is what they need to reveal now. I don't recall any connection being even hinted between the teacher and Mayuri, but it's been a while so I may have forgotten simply.
So far the story is back at the normal dorm life with Suou having tea with Rikka and Erika. It's kind of relaxing seeing some familiar face again, I kind of procrastinated in starting this fourth game mainly because I didn't want to leave the characters.
By the way the art of this visual novel continues to be absolutely stunning, but I'll refrain from posting all the pictures here as I need to save up some for the review I'll write in the blog at the end of this stream session.
Flowers Fourth Game Start of a Journey
Just as I promised long ago, today I'll start reading the final visual novel of the Flowers series titled "FLOWERS -Le volume sur hiver-". This is the fourth visual novel in the series and we covered the previous three in a post you can find at https://blog.emptyblue.it/impression/flowers-onward-toward-the-fourth-and-final-game .
The focus is back finally to the relationship between Kousaka Mayuri and Shirahane Suou and I'm excited to see what mystery goes around her disappearance from the school. Suou nearly found out something at the end of the last game, but it was never detailed about exactly what it means.
That tomb bearing that name was revealing and I'm curious to see exactly how it'll all fix out to give us our happy yuri ending.
This section of the site WILL have spoilers so be aware of it. I'll make a final review in the blog side of the website once I complete reading.
