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AG Community Playthrough #42: Fran Bow
I’m a bit behind but hope to get caught up in the next couple of days.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
Is this game as good as the Cat Lady? Really enjoyed that game.
I liked Fran Bow better in fact, I am replaying the game a 2nd time for this CPT and it is holding up just fine.
I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.
Is this game as good as the Cat Lady? Really enjoyed that game.
Still not played the final chapter but so far I would say no. This one is probably bigger and has more puzzles but Cat Lady had a better story and characters in my opinion.
I am going to go off on a limb here and say if you liked The Cat lady you should like Fran Bow also.
Both are indie horror adventure games that are more than a little strange.
I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.
I managed to get a little further in Chapter 1 but got stuck and didn’t have time to try everything yet. One of the things I like about the game, despite the gruesomeness, is the use of the alternate reality caused by the pills.
I have a question that may have been answered already, but I’m avoiding reading comments here until I get further into the game. I’m wondering if Fran’s dialogue choices will affect the other characters’ responses or the course of the game. I usually pick the more dynamic response but am not sure that’s always wise.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
I have a question that may have been answered already, but I’m avoiding reading comments here until I get further into the game. I’m wondering if Fran’s dialogue choices will affect the other characters’ responses or the course of the game. I usually pick the more dynamic response but am not sure that’s always wise.
I don’t think it matters. (unless some of the choices in first chapter affect the last chapter) In fact I think in most of the dialogues after chapter 1 one option continues the dialogue and the other stops it.
Thanks, Wilco. I was hoping that was the case.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
I am on schedule: just finished Chapter 4. For what it’s worth, here’re a few impressions:
-This chapter had the first couple of jump scares that got me. This was probably the chapter that most justifies the ‘horror’ label of the game.
-The second part had a few ghoulish moments to boot, what with Fran digging up her dead parents and cat. Her surreal ability to maintain her polite cheer through all that was well used there.
-Towards the end of the chapter, I started getting a feel for a way to explain Fran’s magical adventures up to that point. But then, with Dr. Deern’s death and with what I glimpsed from the beginning of chapter 5 (and what did Aunt Grace say about Mr Midnight killing the Bows?!), all of my theories will have to go out the window.
-I am glad that my theory about the twins was proven correct, though!
I will probably continue with Chapter 5 now and might wrap up the game later today. GOG Galaxy says I’ve played a shade under 4 hours so far. It is not a long game, that’s for sure
-This chapter had the first couple of jump scares that got me. This was probably the chapter that most justifies the ‘horror’ label of the game.
-The second part had a few ghoulish moments to boot, what with Fran digging up her dead parents and cat. Her surreal ability to maintain her polite cheer through all that was well used there.
That was pretty spine-chiling, a she didn’t even hesitate. Also makes that doctor also a psychopath…
I finished the game a 2nd time. Took me around 10 hours to do it. I actually liked the ending, although calling chapter 5 surprising is an understatement.
Hope Kill Monday does another adventure game, this one was pretty fun in a very twisted way.
I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.
So, I finished it now, not really the ending I was expecting… Kind of a “good ending” in a twisted way. ]Who killed the parents after all? Aunt Grace or a manipulated Fran?
I’ve been exploring in Chapter 3 but haven’t solved much yet. It’s nice not having so much horror and blood for a change. The part about Fran being a tree and unable to move could be her being tied down in the hospital or having a worse drug reaction, and the fluffy flying doctor who fixed her could be the psychologist..
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
“Who killed the parents after all? Aunt Grace or a manipulated Fran?” My money is on Aunt Grace in my opinion.
The ending is very strange, but it does leave the game on a positive note however.
I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.
Chapter 3 - Vegetative State
Finished Chapter 2.
Wondering if Fran is always at the hospital the whole time imagining stuff. Also if the Chapter 3 name Vegetative state is meant to be taken literally and Fran is in a coma
I did wonder the same. This was a lovely ‘light’ interlude where my thought was that on perceiving in the previous chapter that Fran had probably fallen down a well that she had knocked herself out into a coma & broken some bones that have paralysed her. Fran is told that “your human body was destroyed” ??? but also that “you are not supposed to be here” so perhaps a near-death experience? Not sure yet whether she is still in the hospital though
I loved the puzzling in this part particularly the reliance on changing the seasons to progress!
Chapter 4 - An Imaginary Friend
Personally I found Itward quite a scary -looking creature & when you get the pills back & use them you see in place of Itward & the flying-machine Fran being devoured so is that her interpretation of being operated on I wonder? You also see her (at least I think it’s her) inside the flying-machine in the pill reality connected up to lots of tubes.[/spoiler] There’s also a references to the twins? being trapped in the world of disconnections & the well’s door being unlocked when a black cat goes missing. Also there’s some indication that Itward has another head? All crazy stuff!!!
Chapter 5 – The House of Madness
Fran is told that “You were selected to suffer, to cry and hate” & thought that’s maybe why aunt Grace thought Mr Midnight was a traitor as he inspired caring/love? I can’t help also thinking that Fran had a twin which is why her mother tried to hide Fran from aunt Grace?
You learn in this chapter that to get into the ultra-reality .....the eyes, the ears & the physical limitations have to be broken (which indicates some kind of ‘dismemberment’) & that the keeper of (the key? - someone with the enhanced 3rd eye possibly?) will be hunted by the son of darkness after feeding from the red seed which I’m guessing is the illegal drug Ektoplomatin
There’s also some hint to more than one reality existing at the same time for Fran & death just being a different reality
Re Chapter 3
After an exposition-heavy beginning of the chapter (The Big Black, the five realities, kamalas/valokas, paired with Leon’s sad diary, connecting the fantastical elements with the game’s themes of mental suffering, despair and suicide)
I gleaned that possibly throughout the story that there was some deliberateness to provoke these feelings for scientific research within the asylum & that Fran’s parents were deliberately mutilated for her to see to enhance her suffering & I doubt whether a 10 year old even in a frenzy could have carried out that act
Sorry I’m all over the place with my thoughts…..
In an earlier chapter there’s some reference to now ‘expanding the triggered gland’ which I’m guessing is the Pineal part of the brain (also referred to, in the real world, as the third eye by a lot of philosophers but actually with no real scientific basis!) & hence the appearance of pinecones? In the game in order to enhance what I guess is this gland [spoiler]Fran is given Ektoplomatin which I gleaned was illegal as it was disguised in a container to look like a variant of Duotine.
On conclusion my thought is that the game is trying to include too much but my theory is that the scene you see at the end when Fran is shot is nearer the beginning of the game, she’s been kept alive possibly with her body ‘dismantled’ & along with her mind (there’s lots of images of beheadings etc ) being experimented on with her re-living experiences in a drug-induced state where with the enhanced part of her brain she can experience ‘all’! She manages to stay alive until she’s beaten her mental demons before she dies in order to get to Ithersta (heaven?) .....it’s just another state of consciousness ... or something like that!
A question though: Fran had her 11th birthday in Itward’s flying machine but is that the age she perceives herself or is she a lot older as we saw the other Fran dressed in over-sized clothes giving her the key to unlock the shackles in chapter 5
EDIT: What keeps going through my head is that Fran has been existing as as no more than a brain connected to some life support system
Is this game as good as the Cat Lady? Really enjoyed that game.
Still not played the final chapter but so far I would say no. This one is probably bigger and has more puzzles but Cat Lady had a better story and characters in my opinion.
Fran Bow is very good & interesting but I would agree that The Cat Lady is the better game!
Apologies for not taking any further part in the playthrough after installing and going through the introduction… But I was too busy finishing my Mass Effect 3 playthrough and then Thimbleweed Park ‘happened’. I do intend to continue with Fran Bow and then post my thoughts on the game. At least it will be interesting to follow your comments per section as a I get throught the game myself.
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