Review: Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery is gorgeous, but frustratingly short

Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery

Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery’s review is going to be structured a bit differently simply because there isn’t enough meat on this game to really go into vast detail. The game opens with an unknown woman painting in her studio apartment. You go about your day making coffee and breakfast before putting on music and sitting at your easel to paint. 

Since you’re set up at a window, you can look across the way and see an older gentleman who is also a painter and has a cat. Despite the fact that you say good morning when he opens his window every day, he never says it back. 

Here is where you start painting on your own canvas, except you only have one color. This is a recurring theme where the painting requires more colors that you just don’t have. By looking around the apartment, you’ll notice items like a box with sunflowers on it or paintings that aren’t quite finished. You’ll use the color you do have to fill in the gaps, thereby “unlocking” a hidden compartment and usually acquiring a new color. But, sometimes you only get a clue to something else later. 

With each new color, you unlock more puzzles and with each new day, you learn more about the man by observing him. You notice that some of the paintings in his home look like paintings in yours. Or that, one day, he’s got a hanging IV drip next to him suggesting that he’s sick. 

This could use some yellow…

I’ll be honest, I got the idea that we were an amnesiac at this point. The paintings we were restoring around the room depicted a young man who was curiously dressed like the old man. Alongside the young man, we see what was clearly ourselves represented despite the face of the woman always being covered. 

I won’t ruin how the story ends. However, I couldn’t give you a solid answer if I tried. Nothing is ever said concretely, you just have to make your best guesses. Either way, it’s an emotional story that doesn’t appear to have the happiest of endings if you’re a fan of love stories. 

While the game does have some basic puzzle elements, it tells most of its story through little cutscenes. If I’m honest, it feels like far more effort was put into creating the animation for this game than the actual plot or puzzles in the game. The cut scenes are smooth and gorgeously done. It’s definitely the crowning achievement of Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery. 

Personally, I enjoyed my time playing the game, but the thing that really drags this game down is the length. It’s only an hour-long game and that’s just entirely too short, especially for how much the game is. I felt like more time could have been spent saying things concretely. But, I can appreciate that people may want the more ambiguous ending where you draw your own conclusions. 

The game led you to water but forgot to fill the trough. 

I just want to know the cat’s name.

Overall, I do recommend this game, but I wouldn’t suggest paying the $12.99 price. It’s definitely not worth that. 

I’ll leave it by saying that the graphics were beautiful and I loved the atmospheric sounds. Hell, I even enjoyed the music, which is rare for me. However, I hated that I had to go back to the main menu if I wanted to change settings. That should have been an option inside of gameplay. 

If you’re interested in trying out Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery, you can get it on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 for $12.99. However, we highly recommend playing the game through a subscription service. We played it on Utomik, but it’s also available as a mobile game with the Crunchyroll Game Vault you can access with a Crunchyroll Premium membership.