Strange Horticulture Review (IFIYGD)
Quite a dark and strange tale, full of mysteries that you must solve.
I really enjoyed the horticulture aspect, and the very creepy weird vibe of the plot.
First playthrough done at 7.6 hours.
I still have plants to find and identify, and the Epilogue seems to allow for more exploration and plant identification.
There seems to be 3 different endings, though I am not sure how differently the story goes if you make different choices early on. I'll play through again to see what happens.
The puzzles in the game are a mix of easy to quite confounding- be prepared to fail at solving some of them and then having to do fairly easy puzzles to restore your broken mind.
Quite enjoyable if you enjoy the macabre a bit- it has that vibe.
The puzzles require thinking, but none are too mind-bending, though some may tempt you into trying to brute force through them or just suffer insanity by trial-and-error solving.
The game autosaves on exit, so you can quit at any time if IRL gets busy, or your frustration levels rise too high.
The art style is really good- each character has a very distinctive look and personality, and checking their bios lets you scroll through for forgotten clues in the chat logs.
The music is appropriately somber, but not depressing, and not overwhelming. No huge "blasts" of dramatic song- just a low, rhythmic set of musical tones that play in the background as you go about hunting for plants and trying to serve the correct ones to customers.
You can play at your own pace- if you want to keep over-watering your plants to get more "will to explore" before ending a day, so you can search every grid on the map- go ahead! If you want to rush through and only deal with solving Clue Card puzzles, reading letters and notes and solving their puzzles- go ahead!
Pet the cat.
Pet the cat often.
Love the cat, the cat obviously loves you and does not want to eat your face off while you sleep. ;)
If you are looking for high action- this isn't the game for you.
If you enjoy a good story and unusual puzzle-solving- it may what you are looking for during the Samhain season.
Did I mention witches, and a horrific monster, and towns full of interesting, sometimes hostile people?
Yeah. Halloween fun, for sure. :)
(10/03/2022- just a quick edit to fix some typos and grammatical errors. Going for the last achievement (I Am The Dendrew) right now- don't delete any saves! You'll need to go back about halfway or a little before to make the choice that allows you to get different endings, rather than having to do a full replay like I did because I deleted saves along the way. 2 play-throughs to get all achievements for me.)