Flutter Away is an Adventure game by Runaway Play. And, as you may or may not guess, it’s about butterflies.
Well, that’s actually a horsefly, but whatev.
I’d be lying if I said Flutter Away was my type of game. But it just so happened to fall into my queue at the right time; I’d just finished a pretty long game, and it’s the sort I look for a game to use as a palette cleanser after finishing. And in that case, Flutter Away worked just fine.
The first thing I need to mention is that Flutter Away is a very short game. I hit the end credits in less than an hour, and according to the final screen, I completed 80% of the game. It’s meant to be played through several times, so there are definitely some secrets to be found.
The game flow is to check your journal for what you need to do during an in-game day, solve a few mostly soft-pitch puzzles to make it happen, go to sleep; lather, rinse, repeat. That said, your actual goal is to document butterflies, and you need to get pictures of them to do that. You also need to get them on the little handheld perch for a complete journal entry.
You also, over the course of the story, build rapport with a capybara. These, as well as a few other things you need to capture on camera, count as secret journal entries each day, and I’m guessing they’re most of the 20% I missed full completion by. Feathers, animal tracks, other odds and ends; pictures of these add little images to the back of the journal.
The graphics are bright and tropical, as befits the setting.The models aren’t super high res, which is fine, this is an indie game. Sorry, Fextralife’s “Armored Core 6 has bad graphics” guy.
The sound follows suit. The ambiance of the rainforest is well represented. The music is soothing.
Overall, Flutter Away is a pretty relaxing playthrough. As to whether it’s quite up your alley or not, however, is up to you. Personally, it really works as a relief cut; something to play in-between larger games. And in that regard, I can really recommend it.
/block
Flutter Away gives you a brief lepidopterist’s holiday in the rainforest.
Final Score:
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