Strange Horticulture

My true rating for this game would be 3.5/5. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon and the atmosphere and sound design was excellent, but I keep thinking of how much more this game could have been, although some of that may be understandable since it looks like this is a new developer (and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next!) What I think would have made this game STELLAR: - More UI polish (hard to navigate the plants / inventory, clumsy controls, many images are quite blurry even at a reduced game window size) - More choices - rather than telling us immediately whether we made the right decision to give a certain plant to someone (and failing to let us proceed unless we make the right choice) give better clues and then let us look through our 'plant encyclopedia' ourselves and use the old noggin to figure out what might be good plants to help them with their problem! Let us fail and block off or open new pathways if we make poor decisions! - More length and plot (it's very short, I probably played through in < 4 hours?)

This is a quiet little game best played at night to take your mind off the events of the world and prepare you for a good night's sleep. The pace is slow and the "puzzles" (mostly finding and identifying mythical plants with mythical properties) are mundane and repetitive. The background notes (not really music) are deep and dark, like a nocturne. While there are a few human characters and a villainous monster to address, they don't create a whole lot of additional interest or excitement. On the plus side, the images of the plants are pretty.

If I was to sum this up in a minimal fashion it's "Papers Please With Plants" but that do the game a disservice. It's a particularly unique and neat title unable to be categories. It requires attention to detail and patience to play effectively. Totally zen. It's not a particuarly LONG game, but well worth the entrance fee.

I had a great time playing the game. My first playthrough reaching one of the main story endings took 10 hours, and I could continue to play to catalogue all plants, which I haven't yet. The puzzles are challenging at just the right level. Had to do a lot of reading to identify between the plants and the book, plus the clues on the map. A lot of chill fun, AND you can pet the cat, it PURRS.

What a nice game ! You own a shop specialized in plant. All the gameplay is about finding, identifying and sell those plants. Each one of them have a specific effect, a unique appearance, smell, etc.. You have a book, basically your bible with a list of plants to identify, by their description. You can label the one you found and you have a mapto explore the small world. The gameplay is well made, challenging, and if you're stuck you can ask for help. The story is good, but a little hard to follow.She is given throught interactions with people visiting the shop and needing your help . They will ask for a plant, or give you puzzles, enigmas, clues to follows leading to more plants or entry to your book. Therefore, you will have bits of story, and between lots of thinking to solve those riddles. So it's difficult to follow the plot. The music and sound design are perfect, chilly and mysterious. Some blackspot : there is only english, deutsh, russian or chinese. If your motherthong isn't one of them you may struggle to understood some parts and specific vocabulary. Took me 10 hours to finish, and i have only one ending. There are 8 possibles ending. I will gladly play it again some times later to found the others. Plus you can pet the cat.