The Flower Collectors

A likeable indie with cracking source material and a special setting, The Flower Collectors is just missing the magic of detail.

Despite the grim context, the game is suitable for older kids (perhaps aged 10 and above?) and doesn’t go into that brutality much. Playing Flower Collectors might generate interest in learning about Spanish history or about political systems. While the game doesn’t go into the history and politics much, it creates emotional interest in the characters affected by that setting. Would I recommend The Flower Collectors? Yes, if you’re looking for something very story-focused and don’t mind waiting for things to happen. Even if you mind waiting, it might be a good exercise in quiet observation and putting yourself in the shoes of a man like Jorge.

Post-Franco Spain serves as the setting for this narrative game where a murder will be the engine of all events. The brilliant setting and its claustrophobic gameplay are undoubtedly its most attractive elements, but against it play the linearity of the plot and the irrelevance of the decisions we can make.

The Flower Collectors is a narrative-driven murder mystery set in 1977 Barcelona, just days before Spain’s first democratic elections after Franco’s dictatorship. The story follows Jorge, a wheelchair-bound ex-cop, who witnesses a murder and investigates it with the help of young journalist Melinda. Inspired by Hitchcock’s Rear Window, the game explores political transformation, guilt, and changing societal norms, as the two protagonists from opposing ideological backgrounds form a bond. Though technically simple and short in gameplay, its historical depth, emotional storytelling, and anthropomorphic art style create a compelling reflection on justice, memory, and reconciliation in post-fascist Spain.

The Flower Collectors has a very interesting concept, that feels exciting. But it feels so rough, with some outdated animations and bland models, not to mention gameplay sequences that fail to transmit the intentions, that it mostly feels like a big disappointment from Mi'pu'mi after the surprising The Lion's Song.

Its rough design ends up hurting its good intentions, and wasting its unique and very interesting setting.

The story falls absolutely flat, as it can’t be carried by core characters that receive little development and secondaries that I couldn’t bring myself to care about. The gameplay is exceedingly dull, somehow finding itself in a horrifying fusion of too vague and too specific. The visuals, despite the entire game taking place in a singular environment, are underbaked and unattractive.