{{Short description|2015 video game}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox video game | title = FranBow | image = FranBow Logo.png | image_size = | engine = [[GameMaker Studio]]<ref name="pm">{{Cite web |url=https://killmonday.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/fran-bow-and-the-mortem-post |title=Fran Bow and the Mortem-Post |date=2 October 2015 |website=Killmonday Games |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160928004915/https://killmonday.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/fran-bow-and-the-mortem-post/ |archive-date=28 September 2016}}</ref> | platforms = [[Microsoft Windows]], [[OS X]], [[Linux]], [[Android (operating system)|Android]], [[iOS]], [[Xbox Series X/S]], [[Xbox One]], [[Nintendo Switch]], [[PlayStation 4]] | released = '''Windows, OS X, Linux'''<br />27 August 2015<br />'''Android'''<br /> 16 February 2016<br />'''iOS'''<br /> 5 March 2016<br /> '''Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PS4'''<br />28 April 2023 | genre = [[Adventure game#Point-and-click adventure games|Point-and-click adventure]] | modes = [[Single-player video game|Single-player]] | developer = Killmonday Games | publisher = Killmonday Games | designer = Natalia Martinsson | composer = Isak Martinsson }}
'''''Fran Bow''''' is a 2015 [[graphic adventure game]] with [[Psychological horror game|psychological horror]] elements developed and produced by Killmonday Games, a Swedish [[indie game]] studio. The game was released in 2015 for PC and in 2016 for mobile. In 2023, it was ported to the [[Xbox Series X/S]], [[Xbox One]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Fran Bow |url=https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/fran-bow/9n3ncmm6nk7s |website=[[Microsoft Store]] |access-date=29 April 2023}}</ref> [[Nintendo Switch]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Fran Bow |url=https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/fran-bow-switch/ |website=[[Nintendo of America]] |access-date=29 April 2023}}</ref> and [[PlayStation 4]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Fran Bow |url=https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10007382 |website=[[PlayStation Store]] |access-date=29 April 2023}}</ref>
==Gameplay== Similar to other adventure games, the gameplay involves seeking various objects in the game world in order to combine and use them to solve puzzles, and speaking with [[non-player characters]] to learn more about the world and how to progress. In one scene, the player controls the protagonist's cat. Additionally, a small portion of ''Fran Bow'' consists of [[minigame]]s situated within the broader narrative that present more complex logical challenges.
==Plot== [[File:Fran_Bow_gameplay.png|thumb|Gameplay screenshot]] Set in December 1944, the game tells the story of Fran, a ten-year-old girl struggling with mental illness after witnessing the brutal murder of her parents. She is then found alone in the woods and admitted to Oswald Asylum, separating Fran from her [[black cat]] and only friend, Mr. Midnight.
Under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Marcel Deern, Fran is administered pills. The pills cause vivid hallucinations of a [[phantasmagoric]] [[Parallel universes in fiction|parallel universe]], filling Oswald Asylum with smears of blood, mysterious messages, grisly torture, [[human subject research]] in [[psychiatry]] and [[neurology]], and otherworldly shadow beings, along with the culprit behind her misery, an evil creature named Remor, who supposedly killed her parents.
Driven to escape her imprisonment, find her cat, and return home, Fran escapes and flees into a nocturnal forest in which she encounters ghostly nature spirits. Fran then finds herself and Mr. Midnight trapped together in a haunted house that belongs to [[conjoined twins]] named Clara and Mia Buhalmet, who claim to have kidnapped the pair to force Fran to complete a ritual that would separate them. Fran eventually tricks the two, taking her cat and escaping. When the girl attempts to cross a bridge of roots, it frays and collapses. She awakens to discover that she has been transformed into a tree in a brighter world called Ithersta, a land where vegetables, insects, pine cones, and roots live in harmony. There she meets Palontras who helps her return home. After departing Ithersta, Fran meets Itward, a giant skeletal creature. She discovers that it was Itward who had helped her in her search for Mr. Midnight. Itward tries to take Fran back home in his flying machine. While in the flying machine, Itward throws a surprise party for Fran's eleventh birthday.
However, the flying machine is sabotaged into crashing by evil spirits, and Fran Bow and Itward are separated. Fran awakens near her home where she is taken away by Dr. Deern. After visiting Fran's parents' grave, Remor appears and captures them. She is trapped in a hell-like dimension, ruled by Remor's mother, Mabuka. It is revealed Fran's aunt, Grace, and Dr. Oswald, who experimented on Grace and Fran's mother, had Remor possess Fran to murder her parents believing Fran's suffering is key to his experiment. After Oswald shoots her, Itward and Palontras come to save Fran, killing Grace and Oswald. After being revived, Fran, Mr. Midnight, Itward, and Palontras fly away with Fran resolving to be happy.
Throughout the game, Fran and other characters grapple with psychological trauma, survive the abuse of parents and doctors, and learn what it means to live amongst many types of beings and spirits.
==Development== ''Fran Bow'' was developed by Swedish studio Killmonday Games, composed of Natalia Martinsson (''née'' Figueroa) and Isak Martinsson. The plot of the game includes autobiographical elements from Natalia's life, and she described the process of creating the game as therapeutic.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Co-founder |first=John Walker |last2=Walker |first2=John |date=2013-08-22 |title=Interview: Killmonday On Fran Bow, Mental Health, Beauty |language=en |work=Rock, Paper, Shotgun |url=https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/interview-killmonday-on-fran-bow-mental-health-beauty |access-date=2023-12-30}}</ref> The game was part-funded through an [[Indiegogo]] [[crowdfunding]] campaign, raising $28,295 in August 2013. The game was released for desktop platforms in 2015, and mobile versions followed in 2016.<ref name=RPSInt /><ref name=IG />
==Reception== {{Video game reviews | MC = 70/100<ref name=MCPC>{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/game/fran-bow/critic-reviews/?platform=pc |title=Fran Bow for PC Reviews |website=[[Metacritic]] |accessdate=4 September 2022}}</ref> | OC = 61/100<ref>{{cite web |title=Fran Bow Reviews |url=https://opencritic.com/game/1652/fran-bow |website=[[OpenCritic]]}}</ref>
| rev1 = Adventure Gamers | rev1Score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Smith |first=Katie |url=https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/29299 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006210214/http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/29299 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=6 October 2015 |title=Review for Fran Bow |date=5 October 2015 |publisher=[[Adventure Gamers]] |accessdate=4 September 2022}}</ref> | GR = 70%<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/767590-fran-bow/index.html|title=Fran Bow on GameRankings |access-date=4 September 2022 |archive-date=2016-05-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505021755/http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/767590-fran-bow/index.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> | rev2 = RiotPixels | rev2Score = 53/100<ref>{{cite web |last=Bambi |url=https://riotpixels.com/fran-bow-review/ |title=Рецензия на Fran Bow |date=4 December 2015 |publisher=[[Riot Pixels]] |accessdate=4 September 2022}}</ref> }} ''Fran Bow'' sold 10,000 copies in its first month.<ref name="pm" /> The game received a score of 70/100 on reviews aggregation website [[Metacritic]], indicating a mixed response.<ref name=Meta /> Adam Smith, writing at ''[[Rock, Paper, Shotgun]]'', gave the game a positive review, describing it as a game that "sits alongside [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland|Wonderland]] and [[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|Oz]] – imaginative, strange, unsettling, intelligent and charged with a rare and beautiful sense of hope". Smith felt however, that some plot threads were not satisfactorily concluded.<ref name=RPSRev /> Joel Couture, in an article for ''[[Gamasutra]]'', used ''Fran Bow'' to discuss the merits of an ambiguous ending; Figueroa responded that she preferred to "give the answers in a metaphorical way", allowing players to interpret those signals through their own experiences.<ref name=Gama />
==''The Sorrowvirus: A Faceless Short Story''== ''Fran Bow'' also appears in ''The Sorrowvirus: A Faceless Short Story'' as an animate doll, used with the permission of Killmonday Games. ''Fran Bow'' in ''The Sorrowvirus: A Faceless Short Story'' holds no canonical connection to its parent title and is instead a guest-star in a separate video game universe.<ref name=FLTS />
==Future== On September 3rd 2025, during Killmonday’s 10th anniversary ''Afterlive'' stream, an untitled follow-up game was officially announced. It will serve as a crossover between ''Fran Bow'' and Killmonday’s other game ''[[Little Misfortune]]'', which is set in the same universe.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}
==References== <references>
<ref name=IG>{{cite web| url=http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fran-bow-a-very-creepy-point-click-adventure-game| title=FRAN BOW : A Very Creepy Point & Click Adventure Game| first=Natalia|last= Figueroa | publisher=[[Indiegogo]]| date=1 July 2013| accessdate=22 April 2016}}</ref> <ref name=RPSInt>{{cite web| url=http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/22/interview-killmonday-on-fran-bow-mental-health-beauty/| title=Interview: Killmonday On Fran Bow, Mental Health, Beauty| first=John|last= Walker| work=[[Rock, Paper, Shotgun]]| date=22 August 2013| accessdate=22 April 2016}}</ref> <ref name=Meta>{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/game/fran-bow/critic-reviews/?platform=pc|title=Fran Bow|work=[[Metacritic]]| accessdate=22 April 2016}}</ref> <ref name=RPSRev>{{cite web| url=https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/09/04/fran-bow-review/| title=Fran Bow Is A Worthy Heir To Wonderland| first=Adam |last=Smith| work=[[Rock, Paper, Shotgun]]| date=4 September 2015| accessdate=22 April 2016}}</ref> <ref name=Gama>{{cite web| url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/-i-fran-bow-i-and-the-appeal-of-the-ambiguous-ending| title=Fran Bow and the appeal of the ambiguous ending| first=Joel |last=Couture| work=[[Gamasutra]]| date=4 September 2015| access-date=22 April 2016}}</ref> <ref name=FLTS>{{cite web| url=https://www.indiedb.com/games/faceless/images/welcome-to-wakeland-fran| title=Fran Bow in Faceless| first=Adam |last=Sklar| work=[[IndieDB]]| date=23 February 2017| accessdate=11 July 2020}}</ref>
</references>
==External links== *[http://franbow.com/ Official website]
[[Category:2010s horror video games]] [[Category:2015 video games]] [[Category:Android (operating system) games]] [[Category:GameMaker games]] [[Category:Gothic video games]] [[Category:Indie games]] [[Category:Indiegogo projects]] [[Category:IOS games]] [[Category:Linux games]] [[Category:MacOS games]] [[Category:Nintendo Switch games]] [[Category:PlayStation 4 games]] [[Category:Point-and-click adventure games]] [[Category:Psychological horror games]] [[Category:Single-player video games]] [[Category:Video games about children]] [[Category:Video games about twins]] [[Category:Video games developed in Sweden]] [[Category:Video games featuring female protagonists]] [[Category:Video games set in 1944]] [[Category:Video games set in psychiatric hospitals]] [[Category:Windows games]] [[Category:Xbox One games]] [[Category:Xbox Series X and Series S games]]