back again for more amazing gay content with the second installment in the flowers series
It took 2+ years, but the translation is finally here,,,
My hours aren't totally accurate because I've played the japanese version somewhat, but man
I love this so much
I'm still so so gay and these girls are so so gay
Everything about this game is so so GAY
Let's go lesbians LETS GO

This game is one of the most beautiful and enjoyable games I have ever played the music, the art, the story, coupled with great voice acting and wonderful characters it all comes together creating something that honestly is a work of pure art! I've never had a game that has swept me up and took my heart in the way that this charming love story has. I simply could not put it down once I started and now I'm finishing it with my heart just so full of happiness that I feel like crying.

If you are a fan of yuri and of the first game I would absolutely recommend this one to you. (If you havent read the first one do so its equally as good!) The -FLOWERS- games have to be imo the BEST yuri games I have ever had the joy of playing! I can only hope the next two come swiftly.

"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off"

I read this sentence with an acidic smirk, wondering if the game is become self aware. I can't help but feel deep down the irony of such statement when the previous game enigmas could have rather been summarized as guessing that under the rifle mikado there was a knife and you could only see the handle. If you didn't read my review on previous Flowers episode, well, I hated its enigmas. Quite badly.

Still, I rather appreciated Flowers spring episode (sorry as a Frenchie I can't read the title, it makes no sense), and as I learnt that my favorite character was the main character of this one, I didn't hesitate much. So here we go again.

The cake glazing (Visuals, Musics) : You take previous episode, you add more of the same beautiful and pleasant stuff, and you get a most charming cake. There is some moments when you feel the lack of budget, as some empty rooms testify (The ballet was a bit sad in that regard). But I'm being picky, because most of the times Flowers summer episode throw you in a myriad of colors, tones and precisely chiseled figures. I even surprised myself at being totally absorbed in the game at a particular moment, the Rapunzel retical, a part which features careful narrating, unreeling, and a heart shaking finale. As a visual person, this is definitely something I'm not forgetting any time soon.

The cake taste (Story, Characters) : Spring episode featured a story which fitted its main character : Timid, clunky at time, naive but most importantly charming and thoughtful. I am amazed of how summer episode story switched to something very different and also very accurate for its narrator. If Spring episode has a "romantic maiden" story, this episode is romantically down to earth. It sobered itself, realised it had no time for your ♥♥♥♥, and constructed itself in something much more incisive (poor lil' rabbits), but still sweet at heart. I had high hope for Erika as the narrator, and I must say I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. The story, as spring one, is still quite centered around its main character, but even that doesn't feel the same. A lot of stuff is about Erika, but she equally provides a lot of thoughts and emotions for her environment, making us appreciate not only her perception of it, but her crippled student life as a whole. Chidori is also a hit. The mistake could have been easy, with her cursed bird background. But Flowers smoothly and naturally introduce her and make her evolve from the unreachable crystalline figure to the lovely concerned friend she becomes. I also appreciated that most returning characters have a subtle, but noticeable evolution in their behavior, making this episode even more authentic (Suoh becoming more confident, the twins become more teasing, ...). Rikka even do us the favor to be less important and evil, thank you Rikka, your sacrifice won't be forgotten !

The cake structure (Routes, Enigmas) : "She's holding a painting done in what I think is the Cubist style, like one of Picasso's". Are you mocking me, game? Geez. Well I did happens to compare spring episode structure to Picasso work (which I both hate and don't understand), guess we're in for some more ♥♥♥♥ enig... wait, actually...
If there is room for improvement, this episode has outdone itself in the form of enigmas. Or I start to understand Picasso, I don't know. Still, while previous episode one filled me with a sense of infinite sorrow, the ones from this episode filled me with a sense of infinite bliss. At first enigma, I realise that I'm starting to have a solid hypothesis on its solution. And when it unveils, what a rollercoaster. The bunnies were mixed with the hay, I was totally at sea with my illness hypo... wait a minute. Wow actually I'm not totally ♥♥♥♥ at guessing and investigating ? Rejoice ! The enigma is still not perfect because at absolutely no moment (or I missed it) do you get any hint about Chidori mistake, but the real event is very possible to guess. Oh, that's a second enigma. Lucky draw or... Well the second enigma solution is fairly easy to find by elimination, but the real event is virtually impossible to guess completely. You can style approach it tho (my hypothesis was that someone found the scripts, signaled it to someone else with a codename for the lulz, and the message wasn't transmitted properly). Oh, here's the third enigma. The third enigma is very, very, VERY dense in informations. When I reached the choices and knew that I would prolly have to rewind a couple of time over a mere half an hour of text, I was a bit taken aback. And I was twice more when, once I wrote, I ♥♥♥♥ you not, a ♥♥♥♥♥♥' wall of notes and hypothesis, some being so extrapolated I was a bit shameful to even have created them, I make my choices... and it's correct. All along. On virtually everything even on what really happened. I even thought about Dalia ♥♥♥♥♥♥ her unfortunate experience but I kinda dismissed it as nonsense, and even that was correct. I, at last and as someone not particularly talented in enigmas, felt rewarded for working hard on it..
I won't be as talkative about Route system, because it looks like much of the same, and I still dislike it, so, green, green, green, god I love this book. But I noticed that there is more available ends than previous episode, so it might hide a bit more, I'll make sure to modify this review if I find this bland Route system to have some nice twigs.

Note: It should be noted that I met several crash (more than 50 I'd say) with the save/load system. Since the game seems to save progressively the text you have already read, you'll not lose that much time resuming to where you were, but it exists. And I'm not the only player encountering this issue. Beware than this game seems fairly unstable at the moment I write that.

Conclusion: Flowers summer episode feels like a direct and noticeable improvement on its previous counterpart, on both what I considered good or bad. It learned from its mistakes, and sublimed what is now one of my favorite fictional character, Erika. I would have loved to conclude with a sarcasm, but I can't find any. I heavily recommend Flowers summer episode, even if it implies starting with a rather less tasty spring episode.

I finally got around to finishing this VN, and I'm glad I did. While the first entry in the Flowers series definitely showed a high level of competence in the writing and pacing, this one has managed to top it in a few big ways and become one of my favorite romance stories in any genre.

I'm not usually into this kind of thing. Fluffy romance like this doesn't inherently appeal to me, I'd still never imagine myself spending 15 hours reading a VN of this sort. But there's something about this series that's really special and difficult to put into words. The pacing of the story and relationship-growth is fascinating. If you've ever tried to write a story before, you really have to applaud the patience of the writers on these ones; it's clear that someone spent hours and hours just framing out the flow of each scene to make the love story believable and potent, and it pays off. Watching the girls grow as individuals, friends, and of course lovers, is at some times sad, at other times pleasant, and still at others fulfilling and relatable.

Speaking to the technical quality of the game, I would say this: the game itself is top-notch. Really crisp and professional art, AMAZING music (like really good, the motifs are so perfect for the setting), clear transitions that aren't confusing, professional voice-acting... the only minor draw-backs seem to fall on JAST USA, and to be very clear, I don't mean to say anything bad about them on the whole. I REALLY appreciate these being translated, it's a lot of work, and from my N4-ish level of Japanese understanding, I think they give the characters English personalities that match the Japanese pretty well. However, occasional issues with text-wrapping during some deep soliloquys, a few typos, and a few instances of missing text translation could be easily caught by a simple playthrough, so I would like to see this improved in the next release.

Finally, I should mention there's no question that one should read Printemps before Ete; it adds a lot of context to about half of the scenes as well as Erika's (the main protagonist) whole character. I don't think the first installment was quite as strong (it was still really good), but the 2nd installment also has the added benefits of being narrated by a more lively character (I'm sorry Suoh, we all still love you) and having the events of the first installment to draw a certain level of nostalgia from while simultaneously deepening the story.

*TL;DR*
Great read; Erika best wheelchair.

If you've read and liked the first game, get this.
If you've read and didn't like the first game, get this.
If you like yuri, get the first game first, and then get this.

Spoiler warning: If you don't want any spoilers for this game, jump to the last paragraph
# (I will refer to Flowers -Le volume sur printemps- as Spring, this game as Summer, Flowers -Le volume sur Automne- as Autumn, and Flowers -Le volume sur hiver- as Winter.)

Whole Flowers Series: 9/10
Spring: 7/10 (Review)
Summer: 10/10
Autumn: 9/10 (Review)
Winter: 8/10

This is the game that makes flowers my favorite game, after I going through all the sufferings in Spring including the ending. And this is also the game that makes Ayaneru (Ayane Sakura) my favorite VA.

First thing I love about Summer, is Erika being the protagonist. Erika is my favorite character since back in Spring. I was hoping for Erika route so much, as Erika was the only character that truely cares about Suoh, when Mayuri was struggling with her feelings to Rikka, and Rikka being obsessed with Suoh. Erika is so relatable to me in every sense, especially the self-deprecating jokes and the social awkardness (And the fact that she's katawa, as I finished katawa shoujo months before flowers). I still remember the excitement when I discovered she is the protagonist of the second game, and I genuinely feel happy for her to get a girlfriend that she could open her heart to.

Secondly, this is the only flowers game without suffering. You will only experience sweet lesbian scenes and tons of eating scenes. Following the theme of the entire series, it shows Erika and Chidori grow with the season - especially Chidori - in a very natural and smooth way: Chidori feels like an entire different character by the end, and the process of her changes does not feel abrupt. The lovey-dovey couple is a great balance to all the sufferings of the entire series, and used to be the reason I still wake up in the morning.

Besides, there are great improvements in puzzles. The mystery solving parts are much more doable, and it was fun to do the first playthrough myself. However, the alternate route is hard to get without a guide, but still not a big deal as there are three routes for Chidori. I also found the friend route really enjoyable.

Overall, I just couldn't find anything that I dislike in this game. I rate this as the best game in the series, and the best Yuri visual novel game I have ever played. If you just finish Spring, please play Summer.

i recommand to play the first 1 to understand the game better!!!


BUT THIS IS ANSWWER FROM MY HEART AND HAPPINESS

so far i got two good ending, cry alot and make me happy in many ways. is gonna be hard for me to watch other ending, just to see the extra ending and secret. !! BUT THE GAME ME LAUGH, SAD AND HAPPY. THIS IS DEFINELY GONNA BLOW YOU TOO OF HAPPINESS!!

i giving it 11/10 !!

This is probably not the appropriate place to be writing this but This series has become my favorite Visual novels out there due to the fact it keeps my gender dysphoria in check during my terrible episodes. In these moments I just let myself be swept off my feet and enter this beautiful world where I forget for a little bit of the suffering. Thank you for making such a beautiful therapeutic world for me to use as one of my tools to be able to cope the moment i turn off my computer.<3

This is why Ayaneru Erika is the best. Prove me wrong.
Jokes aside if you like the first installment you'll DEFINITELY enjoy this one. I've finished my first playthrough and if I were to sum up my past 20 hours or so with this game, it'd be...

Wholesome.

Erika imo is the best girl out of the casts from printemps. The other girls had their charms but Erika was my favorite. As she is the protagonist this time around, it only solidifies my liking for Erika. Not to mention Chidori, even though she's only been introduced in this game, already shot up in my ranking and is staying up there with her partner, Erika.

I just love these two too much yall
Looking forward to automne! which theoretically speaking might be in 2 years ;~;

Mandatory note: This game is gay, very, very gay, so much that they had to make 4 different games because they couldn't fit all the gay in one title.

I loved the game (mostly because Erika is the MC), after finishing -Le volume sur Printemps- I instantly thought: "♥♥♥♥, we are never going to see Erika again", and what do you know, the cheeky bastard is back with her own title, and of course, her own story.

I personally like Eté more than Printemps because the dynamic is different, without spoiling too much, it's because Erika's journey is about a sudden change in her everyday life and the arrival of a new roommate (which she does NOT like at first), while Suoh's journey is about experiencing the life she always wanted while living with her newfound friends (although I gotta say, I liked Chidori WAY more than Mayuri).

Unrelated, but the music is so good that I feel like playing piano again, also they mention a lot of references to movies, books and pop culture, most of them flew over my head tho, but its really cool to know some of them.

If you want to give this series a try, play Printemps first, otherwise you are going to feel very out-of-the-loop during the game since they reference a lot of the previous events that occurred in the first game.

TL:DR Chidori > Mayuri