"content dictates form. less is more. god is in the details.
all in the service of clarity, without which, nothing else matters."

- stephen sondheim

above is a quote from one of my lifelong heroes who passed away a few months ago. mr. sondheim's work defined a great deal of my teenage and transitional years and upon hearing the news of his tragic passing, i took the opportunity to reflect on the ways with which he'd influenced my art, my views, and my conduct. i'm by no means a theatre type - while i spent a few years in high school co-directing and acting as a dramaturge for a local company, by no means do i enjoy the theatre as it exists to the common eye and ear. i left that world to escape the despotism of what 'must be' and what 'sells' by the overseeing eye of the major companies and self-satisfied bigwigs because, as any artist knows, when you climb a few rungs of the ladder no art is political, but all art is politics.

yet i find myself, years removed from theatre, years removed from pushing my own envelope of personal expression to a public eye, many nights in front of a google doc, or a blank notepad, or staring at my shelf, wondering when the spark is going to hit and i'll write the next pieces of my screenplay, or my next chorus to a song, or my next analysis of some 20-year-old adventure game made by a small passionate team from the literal opposite of the world. sometimes i wonder if my minimalism, my expression of big feelings in small boxes, through white and black forms with bright technicolor lights, if it's a crutch, if i'm an imitator of the conglomerate great ideas of people before me... if i shoot half this short film adaptation of a novel as a silent work, am i up my own ass for it? if i push myself creatively as a musician to a one-man audience by design, am i selling myself short? have i missed my shot at truly expressing MYself?

of course, if you've got your head screwed on halfway right, you'll realize this self-talk is a complete load of bullshit. just put the pen to the paper. put the fingers to the keys. don't worry about who sees it, don't worry about why you do it, but if you believe in it - content dictating form - and if your style is simple short strokes with deep, cutting lines - less is more - and if your heart hurts to watch it play back - god is in the details. if you are an artist, if you are a person who needs to be able to say something for the sake of saying it, you must throw away preconceptions, you must disregard what people have said of you and your work, you must take that future into your hands and seize it. all in the service of clarity, without which, nothing else matters.

live your daily rut. get up, go to work.
push hard to make those days count.
let your work be your work, and let your work be your work.
to find happiness is to be honest with oneself.
recognize the monotony but don't let it overtake you.
your career isn't your person.
every person on this site, every person reading this
i think each one of us has art inside of us waiting to blossom.
you need to be willing to find love in your heart for that, for yourself, and the willingness to seize that potential regardless of the cost and regardless of how you've hurt before.
you need to seize the future.
you need to kill the past.

flower, sun & rain was me all along, wasn't it?

Reviewed on Jul 25, 2022


7 Comments


1 year ago

Besides you great review: Do you know how I can run that game on my laptop? After all those interesting reviews I saw here, I really got interested into playing this but I don't know how or where I can run/download this game. I would really appreciate an answer!

1 year ago

Oh yh and I don't how the privacy policy of this site look like so if you aren't allowed to talk about that here on this app then just hmu on ig (@averagefilmenthusiast) (:

1 year ago

This comment was deleted

1 year ago

worth noting btw, this game is actually a direct sequel to the silver case, and is immediately followed up by the 25th ward. both of these are on steam and i believe ps4.

1 year ago

Bro I just set up the game and it works fine but still ty for your response! Also does that mean I have to play the other games first?

1 year ago

I would super strongly recommend you play Silver Case -> FS&R -> 25th Ward -> Killer7.
While it might seem unrelated at first, FS&R is in fact a direct sequel to Silver Case and you won't understand the significance of a good few events at the end of the game in particular without it.

1 year ago

How is Killer7 connected to them? I wasn't going to play that when I played the Silver Case series for review but now I'm interested

1 year ago

Roughly 30% of Killer7's intended story - as documented in the book Hand In Killer7 - was actually translated into the game. As the game exists a lot of it is implicatory connections and deliberately contradictory to the timeline of the Silver Case trilogy section of the Kill The Past series - for example, planes and the Internet have been banned, which are integral to the stories of The Silver Case and Flower, Sun & Rain to be able to happen.

In Hand In Killer7, though, there are much more definitive links between Killer7 with the previous Kill The Past games. Beta material reveals returning cast members from Flower, Sun & Rain, and there's a major character in Flower, Sun & Rain pretty deliberately implied to go under a different name as a primary character in Killer7.

If you're not aware, The Silver Case trilogy is not standalone, but part of a grander narrative called Kill The Past, which has been growing and evolving through Suda51's work all the back to his last game prior to Grasshopper, Moonlight Syndrome. Travis Strikes Again and No More Heroes III deliberately return to the core Kill The Past narrative (largely dormant post-Killer7) in ways I can't really discuss here without spoilers. But it's all one massive overarching saga. Also... just fucking play Killer7. It's a masterpiece.