Soulflowers is an interesting game: I started it expecting a classical jrpg and I was surprised: this is partially a classical jrpg, the mechanics are the same you probably saw jn other game, but this is a heavily story driven game. Soulflowers is a story divided into five chapters of more or less one hour each (well the game is about 4/5 hours long, ok? Of course the first chapter is quite short and others are longer, anyway it's a medium length jrpg).

In many parts it felt more like an adventure game due to particular choices. For example the main character, avatar of the player and nameless hero (called Protag, or protagonist) in the beginning is a weak pushover with no class, but later (in Chapter 2, after the first that is a sort of prologue and introduces a couple of main characters) he has the choice to study and learn one of the available classes. For example speaking with the captain will let him become a knight, with the traveller he csn become a renegade, with the help of the mage he will be a...uhm... mage of course!
But wait this happens only if he completes the quest that the teacher will give him, and then he will change permanently both his appearance and abilities (learning also new skills after levelling up of course).



Then there are puzzles, riddles and enigmas, ok clearly the game includes combat (and how!) but the possibility to save everywhere and to avoid enemies (no random encounters, all are visible, skippable or unavoidable like the bosses!) makes the player more focused on the story.
Ok I do not want to say that you have to avoid fights at all costs, on the contrary you need them (to earn experience levels and unlock abilities) and thankfully it seems that you can level up quite rapidly, anyway the loot is scarce so you have to focus on using abilities and consumables, and restock them of course! Characters are rather tough (and also the opponents are damage sponges, anyway in the end it's balanced, I guess) anyway do not underestimate the enemies, especially the unavoidable bosses. For this reason it's suggested to level up a bit fighting, also making trips to the village to restock and heal. Oh yes, and to heal go to the healer, not to the inn, please!
Visually the combat setup uses the classic rpg sideview battles animated with Yanfly’s Action Sequence with battlers and nice big detailed enemies. I liked those visuals and the bestiary of the game, is perfectly adequate to the game setting and style.



So the game mechanics are ok, combat is ok but the best part of the game is surely the story, in my opinion. Characters are well made, you're a bit thrust into action, but things get better and better as you progress the adventure untile the exciting finale. There is a lot of hidden content like optional quests and bonuses that can be earned if you do some extra tasks.
The exploration is rewarded, anyway it's suggested to save often for two reasons: the first is that there are permanent choice that you may want to change (for example I did not like playing using a Mage protagonist, the Renegade was far better, but I guess it's a matter of playstyle taste), the second is that if you do not follow the indications you can sometimes find yourself against an opponent that is too strong: this happened in the first chapter during the herbs collection quest, if you go in the wrong direction you trigger a boss(es) encounter that you should do with the party of three characters, so you may find yourself in deep trouble!
Same thing may happen later if you rush things, anyway for most of the game the difficulty is adequate if you plan well! My advice is enjoy the story and take your time.

Graphically the game is ok, there are not many custom sprites, anyway the Rtp are put to good use and the facesets match the charsets, the maps are ok, not too special or memorable but not too bad either (some are too large and without many details anyway not excessively, mapping is adequate). Music in my opinion is very good and I liked it a lot, not that we speak about anything special, still atmospheric and well selected.

The puzzles are also well implemented and not always foregone, anyway if you need halp or are stuck, remember that on this page there is a link to the game site that has a useful guide to all the five chapters of the game! Very good!



The Final Verdict
Soulflowers is a classical medium lenght jrpg that do not focuses too much on combat but givs a rather varied series of challenges and while not being extremely original or innovative it's still a highly polished and enjoyable adventure.
Well written dialogues, puzzles and choices is what you can expect from this game, and this is not what every game offers. Even if the game starts rather bland (I mean you start playing with an almost useless and nameless guy" with almost no backstory) and apparently not very interesting, as the story developes it becomes better and better with the involvement of interesting npcs and the of development of the plot. Also it seems that there are more endings (incoming SPOILER)



In the end I found the combat a bit lacking, but it's more instrumental to a good story so I did not complain too much (it's not bad in any way!). My final rating is 4/5 because 4 is good and this is a good game. Will we ever play a sequel? Who knows! In the meantime enjoy this one!