Review: Florence - A Beautiful Short Game About Love, Heartbreak and Starting Again
A short interactive story about falling in love, growing apart and finding some hope on the other side of a breakup
Available on: PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch
Genre: Narrative, Emotional
Developer: Mountains
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
How Cozy? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Game Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Florence is a short narrative game following 25 year old Florence Yeoh through the beginning, middle and end of a relationship, told almost entirely through illustrations, music and small interactive moments.
I had heard people talk about Florence for years, but somehow never got around to playing it. And as someone who loves a short cozy game that I can sit down with, experience in full and finish in one evening, I really should have played it sooner.
There is something quite lovely about giving a game your complete attention for an hour or so, rather than beginning another 30 hour adventure that you know will be sitting unfinished in your library six months later. Florence is exactly that kind of experience. You can make yourself a drink, get comfortable and see the entire story through from beginning to end in one sitting.
And it is a very simple story. Florence meets Krish. They fall in love. They build a life together. Things change. Yet Florence manages to make those ordinary experiences feel remarkably recognisable.
It has been a long time since I personally went through a breakup, but there were moments here that brought back feelings I had almost forgotten. Not because Florence relies on huge dramatic scenes or devastating twists, but because it focuses on the much smaller parts of a relationship: becoming comfortable with another person, making space for them in your life, arguing, compromising and eventually having to work out who you are when they are no longer there.
For such a small game, it has a lot to say.
Story
Florence begins with a young woman who feels as though she is going through the motions.
She works, travels home, looks at her phone, eats and sleeps. Her days are repetitive and there is a sense that somewhere along the way, parts of herself have been pushed to one side. Then she meets Krish, a cellist, and her routine begins to change.
What follows is essentially the story of their relationship, from those exciting early stages through to the realities of actually building a life together. There is very little dialogue. Instead, Florence lets the illustrations, music and your interactions communicate what is happening between them.
I actually think this is part of why I found it so effective. The game is not constantly explaining how Florence feels. It gives you enough space to recognise those emotions yourself, and if you have been through a serious relationship or breakup, quite a few of them are likely to feel familiar.
There are the lovely parts, of course, but Florence is equally interested in what happens when two people begin moving in different directions. And importantly, the story does not end by suggesting that losing a relationship means losing your chance at happiness. The breakup hurts. Florence has to experience that hurt. But gradually, life continues.
I can imagine this being a genuinely helpful game for someone currently going through the end of a relationship. Not because it gives you advice or tries to convince you that everything is secretly wonderful, but because it allows you to sit with those feelings for a while and then shows that there can still be a life waiting beyond them.
Related: Looking for a new farming sim to get hooked on?
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Gameplay
Florence is primarily a narrative experience, so you should not go into it expecting traditional puzzles, exploration or much freedom over how the story develops. You are largely being guided through Florence's life. However, your hands are rarely completely idle.
Almost every part of the story has some form of interaction attached to it. You might move objects around, complete a simple puzzle, brush Florence's teeth, organise belongings or perform another tiny task that pushes the scene forward.
None of these activities are difficult, and that is very much the point. The clever part is how those mechanics change depending on what is happening emotionally.
One of my favourite examples involves conversations between Florence and Krish. You physically piece together speech bubbles like tiny jigsaw puzzles, but as they become more comfortable together, the pieces become easier to fit.
During an argument, that same interaction suddenly feels very different.
It is a simple game design, but it communicates something about their relationship without needing a paragraph of dialogue to explain it.
There is no failing, no complicated control scheme and very little standing between you and the story. Florence simply gives you enough to do that you feel involved rather than watching everything happen from a distance.
If you need a game with deep mechanics, it probably won’t be enough.
But if you enjoy interactive stories where the gameplay exists mainly to help tell them, Florence uses its limited mechanics extremely well.
Graphics and Visuals
Florence has a lovely hand-drawn cartoon style inspired by graphic novels and webcomics. Everything feels soft and expressive without needing huge amounts of detail.
The game regularly moves between small comic-like panels and larger scenes, and colour is used particularly well to communicate Florence's mood and the changes happening in her life. It is a beautiful game, but not in an overly polished or elaborate way.
Instead, it almost feels like flicking through someone's illustrated diary. That style fits the intimacy of the story perfectly.
The music is equally important. There is so little spoken dialogue that the soundtrack ends up carrying a lot of the emotion, shifting alongside Florence without overpowering what is happening on screen.
Together, the artwork, animation and music make the whole thing feel remarkably cohesive.
Nothing seems to be there simply because a game is expected to have it.
Longevity
Florence is a short experience, around 2 hours in total. You can comfortably play the entire game in one sitting, and there is little reason to replay it unless you simply want to experience the story again.
Florence knows exactly what story it wants to tell and stops when that story is finished. There are no unnecessary collectibles, side quests or additional chapters stretching a small idea into something several times its natural length.
I love having games like this alongside the enormous farming sims, RPGs and management games that can consume weeks of my life.
Sometimes I don’t want another ongoing project, I just want the gaming equivalent of putting a film on for the evening: something I can experience completely, think about afterwards and then move on from.
Florence fits that space perfectly.
Conclusion
I completely understand now why Florence has continued to be recommended so many years after its original release. It is a very small game about an incredibly ordinary experience, and that is exactly what makes it work.
Falling in love is exciting. Relationships become comfortable. People change. Sometimes things fall apart. And eventually, however impossible it might feel while you are in the middle of it, your life begins moving again.
Florence tells that story without turning it into something melodramatic.
There is barely any dialogue, very little traditional gameplay and no enormous twist waiting at the end. Instead, it uses simple interactions, beautiful illustrations and music to make you participate in all of those tiny moments between two people.
I found it deeply resonant even though my own experiences of heartbreak are thankfully quite a long way behind me now (I hope!).
For someone currently experiencing a breakup, I think Florence could be particularly worth playing. It does not pretend that losing someone does not hurt, but neither does it leave Florence defined by that loss. And there is hope afterwards, which I think sometimes is all you need from a story.
For everyone else, I would still happily recommend Florence as a beautiful little evening game that is engaging and heartfelt. Put aside an hour, get comfortable and play it instead of watching a film.
Find Your Next Cozy Game
Whether you want a relaxing farming sim, a gentle puzzle game, a cozy adventure, an emotional story or something easy to play on the sofa, my Cozy Games Directory is full of ideas to help you choose what to play next.
And for the days when you’re choosing a game based less on genre and more on how you feel, my Cozy Games for Mental Health collection brings together comfort games for anxiety, burnout, loneliness, sleep, stress and low days.
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