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| Cover used courtesy of 'Rewind' |
In a departure from my usual entries, major plot points for the game follow. I'd advise you to avoid this piece, if you haven't played it yet.
Do not mistake this game by its title or the 'point-and-click adventure' genre that it falls under for being anything other than downright dark, disturbing and uplifting at times. Puzzled? Welcome to Fran Bow.
Never one to shy away from depicting horrifying visions of death and despair that the 10 y/o protagonist is prone to, the game is the first such I have played in the point-and-click adventure genre. Admittedly, it's one of those niches that I am yet to fully explore, and have only managed to play a handful of, the biggest title being The Longest Journey. And surprisingly, many of the quests that Fran comes across in the game did remind me of some classic TLJ quests. However, this differs from the aforementioned classic in its portrayal of brutal death - simply put, there's a ton of blood and gore here.
However, one of the more interesting questions that the game left me with was, as is the case with many movies and games dealing with a protagonist suffering from some form of mental illness: just how much of this is real?
Experiencing trauma at a very young age, Fran has landed in a psychiatric hospital. Her mission, it seems, is to reunite with her talking cat - and her best friend - Mr. Midnight, and together escape to a new life with her caring Aunt Grace; away from the asylum, the nurses and the pills that make her see these disturbing visions. What follows is a captivating journey - from searching for her animal companion to heading back home. Fran's child-like innocence and reactions to even the most bloody specters around her are extremely touching at times, if you take the time to look at every single interactable object in the scene.
The game isn't disinclined from embracing these 'visions' - until it has you believing that yes, this is indeed happening. As for me, the jury's still out on the nature of reality presented in the game - I believe it's open to interpretation, as is the ending. The pessimist in me says that there is no hope, the ending was but a dying vision that Fran saw, gripped in the clutches of her psychosis even as the life ebbed out of her through a mortal wound. However, somewhere deep down, there's a tiny voice - almost an inaudible whisper:
The game isn't disinclined from embracing these 'visions' - until it has you believing that yes, this is indeed happening. As for me, the jury's still out on the nature of reality presented in the game - I believe it's open to interpretation, as is the ending. The pessimist in me says that there is no hope, the ending was but a dying vision that Fran saw, gripped in the clutches of her psychosis even as the life ebbed out of her through a mortal wound. However, somewhere deep down, there's a tiny voice - almost an inaudible whisper:
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