English review here[www.tumblr.com]

6,5/10 - Flowers est une série de jeux visual novel nous plongeant dans le quotidien de jeunes étudiantes dans une école catholique où l'amitié et l'amour se côtoient. Nous suivons la timide Suoh, fraîchement arrivée dans ce nouvel établissement, qui a pour objectif de se faire des amies et d'essayer de se détacher de son enfance traumatique. Ces prémices printanières sont remplies de douceur et de poésie, mais j'ai malgré tout trouvé que certains aspects restaient encore un peu à l'état de bourgeon.

❤ L'esthétique du jeu est vraiment bien travaillée, que ce soit au niveau du menu, des illustrations, des sprites et même de la fenêtre de texte. C'est fleuri, c'est tout doux et mignon et donc totalement en accord avec l'atmosphère calme et romantique que dégage l'histoire.
❤ Sous ses airs d'innocence et de pureté, le jeu aborde des sujets assez sensibles, comme l'abus psychologique, les troubles du stress post-traumatique, la négligence...mais tout en restant très pudique dans son approche. Aussi, du point de vue de son thème autour du girl's love, j'ai apprécié que le personnage se pose des questions sur sa sexualité et que ce ne soit pas quelque chose de forcément acquis. Ses réflexions sur la fine ligne pouvant exister entre l'amour entre amies ou un amour plus profond étaient selon moi des sujets très identifiables, surtout pour un personnage de cet âge là.
❤ Le développement du personnage principal est très bien amené selon moi. Elle s'ouvre petit à petit au monde autour d'elle, ses dialogues deviennent moins indécis et on la sent au fur et à mesure plus détendue dans ses rapports avec les autres. On n'élimine pas pour autant sa timidité, faisant partie pleine de sa personnalité, mais on voit malgré tout Suoh gagner en confiance et en assurance. J'ai connu beaucoup trop de médias où on avait tendance à bien vite rayer le trait timide d'un personnage qu'on veut faire évoluer, comme si c'était quelque chose à "corriger" donc j'ai été rassurée que cela ne soit pas le cas ici.
❤ Les personnages secondaires sont tous très attachants (plus que les love interests, c'est un peu dommage) et ajoutent beaucoup de dynamisme dans la vie de cette école. Mention spéciale pour Erika (qui aura à priori un volet centré autour d'elle, *bless*) qui a le mérite d'avoir la meilleure affinité avec l'héroïne, et qui aurait clairement dû être un love interest (ou au moins gagner le statut de meilleure amie parce que franchement, c'est la goat).

+/- Les musiques interprétées par les cordes frottées et le piano sont parfaites pour accompagner les scènes mais elles ne sont pas très nombreuses. Une musique en particulier occupe l'espace sonore à 80% et bien qu'elle soit longue et belle à l'oreille, la redondance musicale se fait parfois ressentir. Il y a également selon moi un problème de balance sonore car il m'a fallu baisser le volume de la BO au maximum pour pouvoir faire ressortir au mieux les voix des actrices de doublage, qui interprètent très bien leur rôle, ça aurait été dommage de ne pas en profiter.
+/- L'histoire est agréable à suivre et se joue comme un slice of life avec des petites histoires de la vie quotidienne de ces adolescences. Personnellement, j'ai bien aimé cette approche, mais certains pourraient reprocher le manque de moments plus intimes avec les LI. En revanche, je trouve les 2 derniers chapitres presque inconsistants ; les relations se précipitent soudainement, et l'attitude d'un des personnages principaux changent drastiquement au point de devenir toxique, sans aucune réelle transition et sans conséquence à la fin. C'est assez déroutant et j'ai même été rebutée de jouer la route de ce personnage après coup (car en plus sa route ne se débloque qu'après avoir fini la "true end", chose qui a aucun moment n'est précisée d'ailleurs). Il faut également prendre en compte que la "true end" finit plutôt tragiquement ce qui laisse un goût assez amer après avoir fini le jeu dans son entièreté. C'est un parti pris osé mais auquel j'ai moyennement adhéré.

✖ Suoh se prête par moment à des jeux de déductions où l'on devra être attentif aux petits détails pour résoudre des situations énigmatiques (autrement, c'est game over). Le problème, c'est que ces "enquêtes" sont extrêmement difficiles car elles touchent soit à des jeux de mot autour de kanjis qui ne sont pas traduits ou alors demandent des connaissances ultra pointues qui ne sont à aucun moment évoquées dans l'histoire. Se munir d'un guide devient alors quasi obligatoire...
✖ D'habitude, je ne prête pas trop attention au cliché de la féminité dans les jeux japonais (ça ne me dérange pas forcément) mais cela a beaucoup trop été appuyé par moments avec des remarques assez gênantes; des filles hors de la norme de douceur/politesse se font appeler garçon manqué, on met bien souvent l'accent sur la poitrine plus développée de l'héroïne ce qui la rend plus "femme" que les autres, et l'on met beaucoup trop de cases sur ce qu'est d'être "une vraie fille". Le jeu n'est pourtant pas si vieux (2014) mais il le paraît :/
✖ Pas mal de typo dans la traduction anglaise, avec des lettres mélangées ou des lignes de dialogue qui se répètent. J'ai même eu le droit à du texte blanc sur un fond blanc, du génie !

C'est donc un premier volet plutôt réussi à mes yeux bien qu'assez frustrant au niveau de sa conclusion, qui je pense veut nous pousser à entamer la suite. J'ai d'ailleurs entendu dire que les jeux suivants étaient bien mieux et se focalisaient davantage sur les personnages secondaires, ce qui m'intrigue d'autant plus. En tout cas si vous aimez les romances florissantes sous fond de tranches de vie, votre printemps en sera sûrement plus verdoyant.

This game is gay, all of thegirls are gay, I'm gay.
And I'm crying.
I've been waiting three years for a beautiful yuri visual novel, and THIS is it, right here.
There are literal tears in my eyes. They're all so cute and I'm so gay.
Please help me.

Bought the game I love it and the art and the seiyuus, the decision making was nerve wracking but I loved it never the less and if STEAM decides to bring the other games:
FLOWERS - Le volume sur été -
FLOWERS - Le volume sur automne -
FLOWERS - Le volume sur hiver - (japanese realese 2017)

I'll definitely buy them

100% Pure Uncut Yuri. This VN will turn you into a lesbian, regardless of your gender or sexual preference. 10/10 would be a schoolgirl again.

Flowers is probably my favorite VN released on steam. At first glance, the story is expected to be full of yuri elements, but the game actually requires some thoughts that you have to gather evidence making the right and reasonable choice to push the plot further. I would say most of the acclaimed Japanese VNs kind of ruin your enjoyment by the Japanese-style English, however, the translation quality of Flowers is far beyond my expectation, tho some minor changes would make the lines even more lucid. With all the wonderful cast and fitting soundtrack, I definitely recommend this game, especially to the fans of Innocent Grey.

J'ai aimé les personnages attachants, l'ambiance, les graphismes, les voix et la musique. Vraiment passé un tres bon moment.

The ending killed what little remained of my soul

Flowers -Le volume sur printemps- is the first game in a 4-part series of VNs (the final entry is just now having its Japanese release, the second one already have an English one planned). It’s a pretty expansive (circa 15 hours for a full playthrough) Shoujo Ai, that is a female/female romance without explicit sexual content (it never goes further than a kiss). It tells a story of a shy, insecure girl who enters an all-female boarding school to find friends and change her previously solitary life, but also comes to terms with her attraction to women and finds love.

To address the most obvious thing first, the game is visually stunning, with beautiful sprites, backgrounds and CGs. From this point of view, it was definitely the most pleasing VN I’ve read to date. The music, while maybe lacks variety appropriate for such a long story, is very good and voice acting is most of the time phenomenal (and while protagonist’s VA maybe overdid the “shy girl” thing a bit, it’s really a somewhat minor complaint). Even the menus and user interface are very aesthetic and thematically fitting.

The story is a bit more complicated issue, but still very much comes out as a positive. The characters are really good, being (apart maybe from the protagonist) hard to easily identify with typical amine clichés and having a lot of depth and backstory underneath their obvious characteristics. Most of them can’t really be criticised as one-dimensional or boring, they show both positive and negative traits and can surprise you, especially when strong emotion and romance is involved, while also never feeling inconsistent.

What people might dislike about this VN is that the pacing is pretty slow and some sections of the story go on for much longer then you would expect. It’s hard to say it has any filler content or boring dialogues though, everything in there adds something meaningful to the game's world and details that seems unimportant at first may prove crucial later. The plot itself isn’t super-original, but also have enough twists and good ideas to keep you interested and emotionally engaged. More impatient people might get bored, but I was really enthralled for much of my playtime and didn’t mind the slower moments either. The romance itself is also pretty slow and timid, but feels deep and realistic enough to be satisfying. It also fits the characters, who are young and often unsure about their sexuality.

Two bigger complains I actually have are connected to the cryptic game mechanics and the game’s ending(s). While the game suggests that you have two separate romance options, only one of them is actually available from the start. Without a walkthrough, it’s really not that easy to understand what the game expects from you and what the UI is trying to communicate when reacting to your choices. There is also a few “puzzles” in the game, that asks you to deduce explanations of certain mysterious events at the school, but with some of them I’m not sure that the game gives you enough information to actually find the answers yourself – if I didn’t use a walkthrough, I would probably have to do it through trial-and-error.

Also, apart from a few “you screwed up” bad endings (from failing said “puzzle” sections), the game has a canon “true ending” and an alternative ending that requires a second playthrough. And while the alternative ending is very sweet and IMO fits the protagonist’s character best, the “official” one, that is continued in the sequels, is a depressing cliff-hanger with some dodgy writing added to the mix. It wasn’t off-putting for me mostly because I knew there was an alternative path to explore and there’s most likely a happy ending coming with the fourth, final game (although we’ll most likely wait a few years for English release, if it ever happens).

Other minor things I have to mention are some editing and grammar mistakes in the game’s text, probably connected to the localization. At one time a bit of Japanese text appearing on the screen even lacked any subtitles. For the most part, the translation seemed very solid though.

Still, while I had a few gripes with this game, I can’t recommend it strongly enough. If you’re into romance VNs, it should be an absolute blast to you, thanks to its (for the most part) very well thought out story, coupled with some memorable characters (those not always being the main ones though – supporting cast is pretty amazing, maybe even the best part here), gorgeous artstyle and unique atmosphere. Just don’t feel shy to use the walkthrough available on the Steam community pages, it doesn’t spoil much, but might save you from some disappointments and confusion.

This is a story of three young girls residing at a prestigious academy accommodating the cohabitating students to a particular system allowing to strengthen their bonds.

While on the road to the newly chosen academy, Suoh Shirahane suddenly comes upon two of the future fellow students, both making a different impact on her.

The first one presents herself as Rikka Hanabishi and happens to be straightforward about her feelings – in fact, she takes Suoh by surprise when notifying her of how beautiful she finds the girl in front of her, nonetheless having just bumped into each other.

The second one, is a beautiful girl Suoh faces while proceeding with her path. As the fascinating girl happens to be standing under a cherry blossom tree, the whole view along with her beauty mesmerizes Suoh. After realizing to have locked eyes with each other, Suoh gets invited to gaze at the cherry blossoms together. The girl’s name is Mayuri Kohsaka.

The next day during the entrance ceremony you meet both of the girls getting a chance to get closer to them.
Turns out, the three of you will cultivate an important bond during the following years…

Saint Angraecum Academy is an all-girls Christian academy demanding adherence to its rules.
An significant trait of the academy is the Amitié system created in order to allow the students to support each other while forming important bonds that will also come along to the inner growth experienced together. The system includes a certain number of students sharing a room where to reside for all 3 years of academy attendance, while also spending most of the free time together while helping each other with studies and so on.

Given the fact the academy does happen to be quite isolated, together with the rules applying to it, all in all does create a certain environment that will surely help the scholars’ experience to result as unique and savvy.

Being a Christian school, its customs start from early morning with the attendance of morning prayer, however not all students happen to share the same religion beliefs, in fact the school’s duty is also to instruct the girls properly about all the things they’d have to learn in order to be informed enough to not feel out of place.

A curious detail is the students get to attend ballet classes as equivalent of physical education subject. It is expected to refine this way scholars’ femininity and composure.

You get to play as Suoh Shirahane, the female main character of the story. She appears to be quite introverted and withdrawn given she did not have any positive experiences with previous classmates nor any real contact with youngsters of her age. Still this does not discourage her to aim high towards her goals with positive resolve as she really wants to find the real friendship she happened to examine so often in her favourite novels and movies. In order to achieve the dream of making precious memories with someone however, she would first have to overcome her own limits such as the habit of being quite silent in order to avoid being isolated, as well as insecurities coming to so stated correct ways of approaching other people…

The struggles coming to opening up to people in proper manner are real, in fact she can notice during her first days at the academy straight away, that her approach might result too oppressive or sudden.
Therefore, there seems to still be a wall between Suoh and the other girls. Yet again, that is the reason she decided to attend the academy in question; to learn how to overcome her fragilities and have a chance to start anew.

Rikka Hanabishi is the typical composed girl refusing to break any academy rules, in fact she gets nominated as class rep. She took a liking to Suoh since their first encounter where she remained perplexed after Suoh’s sudden runaway which takes place due to embarrassment.

On the other side, Mayuri Kohsaka seems to be a tad less refined compared to other girls staying at the academy. For example, she tends to speak up her mind often with the usage of informal type of conversation. While she appears to be the kind of mysterious beauty, it is correct to assume that each of the students has something obscure to hide or overcome.

In this game you will find a variety of characters coming to classmates, upperclassmen and also some of the faculty members.

Each one is well portrayed and stands out with detailed personality traits as well as aesthetic particulars.

Flowers -Le volume sur printemps- is a yuri Visual Novel featuring many choices to take.
While it is enjoyable to have at hand many different paths to take, I happened to find the number of choices to be a tad excessive, hence some do not really take the player to different outcomes. For example, at some points the dialogue remains the same while the word usage might change a bit, still stating the same exact fact during both of the taken paths.

It is recommended to use a guide to have a proper route completion as the game features a certain number of dead endings to come upon.

As the main character we find a fascinating heroine motivated to overcome her struggles. Both sprites’ and CGs’ art is Miki Sugina’s beautiful artwork whose talent I personally got a chance to admire during my Kara no Shoujo gameplay. The traits are very delicate and feminine, fitting perfectly the story and creating a gorgeous experience while blending with refined storytelling of the game.

The voice acting is really soothing and accompanied by classy BGM. The game also features occasional sounds effects that do make the read pleasing and relaxing.
However, dramatic moments of tension will be featured as well as horror-ish story sessions taking place among students.

The only trait I found to be off was the usage of speech bubbles to state the heroine’s personal thoughts from time to time.

As Suoh happens to be passionated towards books and movies, there are some of the said references during gameplay, which is also interesting given she happens to spend her free time at the school library.

The whole gameplay covers 20h of time, which includes the reaching of all bad endings as well as true endings of the featured routes.

This game does portray delicately moments of tension and traumatic experiences, all in all creating a very interesting background.
The characters are mainly relatable and human I’d say, as in, opening up to themselves and having both precious moments of happiness and dark stages of brittleness.

The support offered among each other is very heart-warming and their personalities were interesting to study.

At first, I did not pay much thought to Suoh, however her astuteness managed to catch my attention.

Recommended for a pleasing Visual Novel experience featuring yuri romance and classy atmosphere.

Flowers - Le volume sur printemps- is a beautiful coming of age, yuri Visual Novel, the first part of four part series, with each one covering the span of a season. The target audience is, ideally, teenagers overall, or adults interested in teenagers, though the game occasionally employs epigraphs in the interludes between the chapters to give the occasional average older person an additional layer to reflect upon, the full meaning of which may be lost to the young. The story starts as the protagonist Souh Shirahane begins at her new all girls boarding school: Saint Angraecum Academy, a Christian isolated school located in the middle of a forest.

The fourteen year old protagonist suffers from rather severe social anxiety, in other words she is irrationally shy by the normal standard, as a result of, primarily, her mother dying when she was young. On the other hand she's a beautiful talented young girl--who is fond of reading books and watching movies--even if she has irrationally low self-esteem. She is maimed like Kierkegaard or Nietzsche to some extent. Regardless, new hope looms on the horizon as Souh begins at her new school determined to try and embrace life fully once more and hopefully find new friends and try to live a "normal" life.

The choices are overall well woven into the pacing of the narrative though on some occasions I thought there was insufficient information given to the reader to make the choice meaningful, either resulting in the feeling of being railroaded or that the two choices just was there for sake of having different paths in the game. Nor can I can say I was a fan of the investigation sequences, while it made sense that the protagonist would know the relevant information, the reader most likely won't know what she does, in other words having read what she has etc.. Regardless the lovely music, CGs, voice acting and story had me intrigued enough to have me look forward to the translation of the next installment.