Fran Bow (2015)
Released in 2015, the psychological horror adventure Fran Bow tells the story of a ten-year-old girl who has lost her parents. Traumatised and mentally unwell, she is committed to a children’s asylum. The story is set in the 1940s. The game’s special feature is a mechanic built around shifting between two realities. Fran alternates between a recognisably realistic world and a nightmarish, fantastical one. According to the writer, working on the game was therapeutic, and autobiographical elements were included. Fran’s story is thrilling, surprising and deeply confusing.
Fran Bow is created by the Swedish studio Killmonday Games. Natalia Figueroa was responsible for writing, art and animation, while Isak Martinsson handled programming and music. The credits show that they shared design and sound work. For a game made by such a small team, Fran Bow is remarkably polished. It remains Killmonday’s largest and, so far, only commercial title. More is expected in 2019: Little Misfortune — described as an interactive story starring another young girl — looks promising.
A horrifying tale
Fran Bow’s parents have been brutally murdered. In shock, Fran fled into the woods with her cat, Mr Midnight. When the game begins, she wakes up inside the asylum with locked doors all around her. The main goal is to escape, find the cat and return to Aunt Grace. Fran’s peculiar ability — or illness — makes this escape unpredictable.
Fran exists more in a hallucinated nightmare than in recognisable reality. A sinister presence pursues her, and even helpful beings in the fantasy realm remain unsettling. There is also a long-unidentified guide whose motives are difficult to trust.
Interpreting Fran Bow is challenging. The escape may be literal or internal. I believe it is both. Does the escape ultimately lead to death? The game does not answer plainly. When Fran reaches Aunt Grace near the end, safety does not return. Instead, the ground is pulled away again.
Overall, the story can feel distressing. Yet it is imaginative, with moments of beauty. Fran is not mentally well, and as a player I felt unable to save her. My task was simply to follow her hallucinations wherever they led.
Fantastic art direction
The visuals are the most memorable element. The art looks hand-drawn and hand-painted — very different from the smoothed digital style common in mainstream titles, and even from retro pixel adventures. The style shifts during the game. Some segments play like minigames, others like cutscenes with a distinct aesthetic. I would call Fran Bow artistically ambitious.
Music and sound design are more modest. Sound effects take precedence at times, yet the music rarely stands out. I found myself wishing for voice acting, but with a budget raised through Indiegogo — just over $28,000 — it was likely out of reach.
Adventure across two realities
Fran Bow is a point-and-click adventure built around inventory use. While surreal, the puzzle logic remains sound. I found the difficulty low, though late-game puzzles required a walkthrough. The inventory itself offers no large revelations.
Switching between two realities keeps the game engaging. Fran uses a bottle of psychotropic pills to enter the horror world, then another dose (somewhat illogically) returns her to ordinary reality. The hallucination trips are triggered at will, which reduces shock over time — you learn to expect them.
In the second half, Fran loses the pills but gains a season wheel. She wakes in a sky-realm that strongly suggests death, and travel between seasons alters the environment and puzzle logic. The same location appears different in winter, spring, summer or autumn, and this is used cleverly.
The mechanic reminded me of The Silent Age (2013), which grants the player a handheld time device. In both games, objects and story layers pass between worlds, and progression spans multiple realities.
Final thoughts
Fran Bow contains a great deal of dialogue — perhaps too much. Choice-based responses rarely matter mechanically. The game also feels long. My playthrough took just over eight hours. A tighter edit could have produced a more balanced whole.
Fran’s escape is winding, multifaceted and open to interpretation. The art shines, the audio less so. Average puzzles are lifted by the drastic two-world structure. My final score is 71 out of 100.
Availability
Fran Bow is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.