Fractured Blooms is an upcoming game by Serenity Forge, who’ve published a share of indie titles that often focus more on story and subversive aspects. It’s being pitched as a psychological “life sim”, which is to say it’s a psychological horror game masquerading as a life sim about gardening and home life. I got the chance to try out the demo for the game in advance of its public release and get a glimpse into this potentially intriguing little title.
Tomato, Tomato
The demo for Fractured Blooms is ultimately pretty limited in scope. Though you get some glimpses of the protagonist, Angie, it mostly plays out in first person as you (somewhat sluggishly) wander around your mysterious home. Angie at times talks about what seems to be a family, but you don’t really get to see much more than passive evidence of them.
You get a few stamina points to use to perform mundane actions while tending to a garden as Angie narrates to herself much of what she does and feels. You can check around your environment at some of the objects nearby. Afterward, you go inside, cook dinner, run some laundry (a timed event), and go to bed. Interactivity is rather low and very railroaded. You repeat the actions the next day, albeit things are different this time.
Of course, the game checks all the beats of a psychological horror game, especially on the second day. Lots of unsettling sound design and effects, added tension from sources you can’t really locate, things being moved around the house, and a constant sense of dread towards that which is unseen but definitely felt. Still, the activities are purposefully mundane and thus are hardly the selling point.
And the Void Would be Calling
In its need for a twist, the game is presented as a time loop horror game with details and outcomes that change depending on your actions. The demo itself, however, doesn’t really offer a ton of evidence of this. There’s a handful of things that offer room for deviation, but there’s little sense of meaningful difference in how the decisions made might affect the outcome. Furthermore, while it presents a sense of constant anxiety, there really isn’t any tangible danger to trying to go outside the lines. While the increased use of bleak colors, darkening narration, and stress-inducing sound effects would suggest that I was in more danger as time went on, no amount of going off the beaten path (e.g. ignoring the game rushing me to go inside the house after gardening) seemed to actually pose any real harm.
Fractured Blooms is in its pre-alpha stage, and the demo only covers two days, so there’s still room for expansion of concepts and content. Horror is often presented with some amount of metaphoric representation of an idea, and the connection that most resonated for me was the sense of this being something of an abusive household, though with room for interpretation. A lot of details go implied and unrevealed, but there’s a sense of the game wanting you to go about your days with the goal of just making it to the next day and making as few mistakes as possible to minimize the risk of harm. A somewhat standout trait of the game is the use of floral and plant-based imagery, which isn’t something I see used in this way all that often.
Still, beyond that, there isn’t much to go on yet. I don’t really feel much in the way of meaningful decisions to make in this game, as it feels rather deterministic and railroaded so far. The demo also claims to only be able to be played through once, but I don’t think quite enough of interest happened to provide any real itch to make me say “man, I wonder what would have happened if I had made that other choice instead of this one”. There’s tension, but not a truly palpable sense of consequences to anything to the demo.
Final Thoughts
I can’t say I’m particularly compelled to wait on the final product and add it to my wishlist just yet, based on this demo. While there are a handful of neat aspects about Fractured Blooms and a bit of a relatable and personable touch behind it in spots, little really stuck with me in my 40-ish minutes playing this little teaser. The mundane gameplay and lack of meaningful consequences to failure (or even much sense of failure at all) make the horror not really land all that effectively. It asks some questions and is unsettling, but it otherwise feels a bit too cookie-cutter in its direction so far. It also just lacks much in the way of fun qualities. The world of indie horror games is very dense, and Fractured Blooms feels like a sapling too far off from bearing fruit to make me all that hungry for it yet over the deluge of more promising titles on the market.
MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT FRACTURED BLOOMS
Try The Demo: Here
If you are looking for another horror game with anime styling, take a look at our review of Saeko: Giantess Dating Sim.
Many thanks go to Serenity Forge for early access to the demo build on PC.
Been playing games since my papa gave me an NES controller in the early 90’s. I play games of almost all genres, but especially focus role-playing, action, and puzzle-platform games. Also an enjoyer of many niche things ranging from speedrunning to obscure music from all over the world.
