Strange Horticulture
Strange Horticulture is a puzzle game disguised as a shop game. The gameplay revolves around being given plant descriptions, clues and plants, and identifying all the plants in your shop. Aside from the day to day gameplay, a story slowly evolves as your customers tell you things, and the plants you give them affect the outcome of that story. Although it took me several attempts to get into it, I ended up really enjoying it.
Pros
- Each night, you are given a clue for somewhere else to look on the map, and a little more story
- Gameplay revolves around finding and identifying plants. Sometimes you're given plants and have to identify them, sometimes you have a note in your book and need to find which plant you have that matches it
- Sometimes you're given letters that give clues for where to find plants on the map
- Your plants all have special properties, which can be used to explore the map or affect outcomes of events. For example, you might come across a gate, and you can use one of your plants to open the lock... somehow.
- Every time you use a plant for a customer or exploring the map that is correct, the game confirms it, and unlocks more book entries
- Sometimes the customers know the first letter of a plant, or what it does, or what it looks like, or what it rhymes with, and it's your job to find the correct plant. Because of this, I recommend playing the game over a short period of time so you can remember the plants (although there is a book of all the entries you've found)
- Aside from the day to day identifying of plants, there is a story going on that you piece together from dialogue with all the customers. The plants you give them are choices for what happens
- There are at least 3 different endings
- You can label and organise your plants however you like, to make it easier to find them, track progress, or leave notes for yourself like where you found them
- After the main story is done, you're at about 55 identified plants. There are 77 in the game, and the epilogue quest is a friend writing a plant book, which is an opportunity for you to just identify all of the remaining 22 plants without side quests
Cons
- There's only one music track, and it's short and repetitive
- The main game screen, your shop desk, is rather claustrophobic. There's never enough room on the desk to access all the tools I want so I have to keep getting them out and putting them away, and you have to scroll left and right to see all the plants
- In theory, you're running a shop... but no money ever changes hands - customers just give you plants or ask for them. It's not a huge deal, but it's weird that it's set in a shop
- I had to google several unclear solutions