Discover Hour - Fleeting Blossoms
A bittersweet story about finding yourself through romance
On a rainy Saturday afternoon in tropical Singapore, I decided to venture back into the fluffy-cosy realm of romance viz novels. With the weird but wonderful Hatoful Boyfriend being my last game played pre-pandemic (binge-playing Persona doesn’t count… right?), I tried Fleeting Blossoms.
Fleeting Blossoms is an indie game in-progress led by the awesome Hailey Rojas, and a product of a month of hard work at the Blossom VN 2024 Jam. Since I follow Hailey, I was excited to try their team’s game the moment they posted a link.
Note: this is a game-in-progress so there are missing sections!
Introduction
The first thing that strikes the player is the amount of pink throughout the game’s UI. Faithful to the Blossom theme, the pastel blossom trees that make up most of the outside backgrounds and dialog boxes use pink. One might think that it’s too girly and too much, but I found the various shades of colour calming and fitting with the game.
Next, I found the game settings included accessibility options and pages of saves. As a player that saves every chance I get because of choice FOMO, being able to save so freely gave me a much-needed sense of relief. In addition, all light-coloured text is outlined in black, making them easily readable against the UI.
Sound Design
From the second the main menu pops up, the music sweeps in like a Ghibli track. Somehow nostalgic, yearning yet hopeful, Sacha Feldman nailed the game’s motif of discovering oneself through love??
As the game progresses, the music transitions seamlessly. It switches from funny, crazy moments with the resident eccentric, Amari, to serious when the player asks about their love interest’s amnesia.Â
Following the required JRPG practice, each character has theme music too. Mikael’s – in particular, swaps orchestral strings for an aggressive guitar riff that signals his fiery personality.
Story
Although this game isn’t finished, I enjoyed the 40 minutes so much that I often forgot to save! The story successfully uses interesting characters for a perfect-blend of comedy and drama, using love as a way for the player character to ultimately learn about themself. That, and the urge to find a concert partner.
The writing is snappy, and each character’s dialog is distinct enough that I can tell them apart without looking at their names. In addition, some moments are laugh-out-loud funny – such as when Amari is first introduced by saving the player and their companion by riding in on a stallion (Cowboy Carter, anyone?).
However, without being told each of the character’s pronouns in the UI, it can get a little confusing to tell who’s who within the conversation context.
The story accelerates quickly towards the middle half, and at points I became confused on what to do next and who to speak to. Thankfully, this didn’t last long, as smart dialog checks reminded me of what I missed, encouraging me to try every piece of dialog before continuing.
Towards the end, the chaos culminates into a sweet and tragic moment with my love interest. Honestly, these scenes blindsided me with the sudden tonal shift, and I finished my first playthrough with an urge to find a better way to help them.
Closing Thoughts
In the short span of a month, the Fleeting Blossom team has created a polished visual novel that I believe both beginners like me and seasoned otome players will enjoy. It’ll also be interesting to add female-identifying characters so my female character can date another woman and unlock different scenes.
I can’t wait to see this finished. In the meantime, I have my second playthrough waiting.