3.5/5 ★ – echocaustics's review of Fran Bow.

Fran Bow is an excellent example of a story writing itself into a corner. The concept of a story seen through the eyes of a drugged and traumatized child is compelling. It forces the viewer to make sense of the morbid and abstact events in the game, letting them draw the lines between fantasy and reality in their own heads. Unfortunately, after all is said and done, you are left with two options. That 95% of the game is nonsense, or that it's not a game about ambiguity at all, and you should take almost everything at face value. Both are far from giving me the intrigue and mystery I wanted to experience from it. It also doesn't help that a lot of the subtle story hints and symbolism are just explained later in the game. Trying to piece together a cohesive story yourself is pointless when it's fed to you after another hour of puzzle solving. Perhaps it's just my personal expectations that soured the story for me. The vast majority of the puzzles in the game are very simple. There is far more fetch questing than using items for clever and unexpected solutions. But it does make the game more approachable for people unfamiliar with the point and click genre, and I rarely was stuck or frustrated. The thing that I will probably remember most fondly about this game is Fran as a character. I expected her to be overly naive or secretly sadistic in a boring and overplayed manner. Instead, she comes across as a child who is used to being around death and disease. Her comments about her environment are more genuine than how most fictional children are written and it made me empathize with her. Ultimately, this is a game you will know if you will enjoy or not. It's aesthetics are bold, and if they don't appeal to you, you aren't missing out. If they do look appealing, you get what you pay for.