“When I was your age, I’d already decided to become an artist. I loved to paint so much. I’d paint all day until I fell asleep right at my easel. And then one day, for some reason, I just couldn’t paint anymore. I tried and tried, but nothing I did seemed any good. They were copies of paintings I’d seen somewhere before … and not very good copies either. I just felt like I’d lost my ability.”
That’s a quote from free-spirited artist Ursula in classic anime movie Kiki’s Delivery Service. It’s an appropriate way to open a review for new indie game Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery for a couple of reasons.
Behind the Frame is an art-centric piece of interactive fiction, about an aspiring painter working on the final piece for her gallery exhibition. Meanwhile, the indie game’s developers, Taiwan-based Silver Lining Studio, cite Studio Ghibli, the makers of Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbour Totoro and many other beloved animated films, as their primary inspiration for this project.
Mimicking Miyazaki
You really can’t miss the Ghibli influence that has seeped into Behind the Frame, like water colours into paper. The aesthetic is the most obvious tribute, with the game featuring intricate, hand-animated visuals that call to mind the works of Ghibli’s most iconic filmmaker, Miyazaki Hayao.
Behind the Frame is Ghibli-esque in other ways as well. The game is mellow, heartfelt and unrushed. Characters are unruffled by unnerving events – maintaining a cheerful disposition when people in reality would suffer a meltdown – and players are encouraged to find both beauty and pleasure in ordinary everyday moments, like making a cup of filter coffee, or listening to the rain beating down outside. Combined with a soothing, easy-listening score, and pitch-perfect ambient sound, Behind the Frame is practically ASMR at times.
Play it PC or mobile?
Behind the Frame is already a multi-award winner as a mobile game, thanks largely to its striking visual style. You can play the game now on iOS, Android and PC. Having experienced it on PC (via Steam), it seems like going mobile may be the more enjoyable option.
The PC version of the game has keyboard and mouse controls only, with no controller support. It’s absolutely fine in terms of responsiveness, but at the same time it feels like the game may be better experienced with touchscreen tactility that more closely replicates the acts of painting, sketching, typing, and meal preparation that the game’s heroine performs.
Dabbling in puzzle adventure
Behind the Frame is immersive, wholesome and relaxing, but at the same time it sadly falls short of being truly fulfilling. Probably because it doesn’t lean into its strengths. The game would probably have worked simply as an ultra-lightweight artist simulator, with the protagonist creating a string of paintings as she draws inspiration from her environment, and tries to connect with her brusque neighbour – another talented artist – and his cat. Nobody was expecting more from the game, and it would still feel Ghibli-like.
Instead, Behind the Frame chooses to dabble, surprisingly and superficially, in the puzzle adventure genre. To complete your final painting you need your missing paint tubes, and that means figuring out the strange connection between yourself and your neighbour. Clearly you’re forgetting something… but what?
Perhaps if your character reacted with anything more than mild bewilderment to the escalating weirdness around her, then the player would become more invested in the story. As it is, the mystery often feels like a distraction, and connecting the narrative dots means overcoming stretches of logic disconnect.
Ultimately, Behind the Frame has a bittersweet, and genuinely touching, emotional payoff – one that encourages a few replays. It’s just that reaching the end point is clunky. Mostly you complete memory challenges, replicating images and symbols you’ve seen elsewhere in your apartment. This portion of the game only kicks off, though, after a leisurely introduction structured around your daily routine as an artist on a deadline. Spoiler: That means eating toast and eggs a lot!
Evidently, Behind the Frame’s charm, and heady mix of aural and aesthetic pleasures, are supposed to carry you over the rather disjointed transitions between different gameplay elements. And, in turn, motivate you to reach the game’s ending, which arrives all too rapidly, in barely an hour.
That brings us back to Kiki’s Delivery Service and artist Ursula. “They were copies of paintings I’d seen somewhere before …” she says about the dissatisfaction she felt with her previous work. Behind the Frame is sweet, gorgeous, and the definition of cozy gaming. Look closer, though, and you’ll realise that much of its pleasure comes from the way its mimics something already well loved. Despite having multiple colours at its disposal, Behind the Frame doesn’t do much with them in its approximately 70 minutes of play time.
If you’re a fan of games like Florence, you’ll likely love Behind the Frame. Everyone else, you may not feel so fulfilled.
| Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery review | |
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery is the definition of a casual cozy game. It’s unrushed, mellow and heartfelt, immersing you in its soothing world with its mix of Ghibli-style visual and aural delights. The game doesn’t play to its sensorial strengths, though, structuring its gameplay around a clunky and distracting puzzle adventure aspect instead. Probably better enjoyed on mobile, although at barely 70 minutes it still feels very short regardless of your chosen platform. |
7 |
| Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery was reviewed on PC | |