short-ish review of strange horticulture (no spoilers just in case you want to play the game yourself)
i liked it but also i didn't. after finishing the case of the golden idol i really wanted to play another game with some internal narrative logic that you must unravel to progress the story and the game. strange horticulture does have that! but also i found it unsatisfying.
it is a laid back experience about uncovering locations on your map and identifying plants but it did feel like i was solving the puzzles too quickly and it left me with too little to do most of the in-game days. like there's usually only 3-5 major tasks for the day that i solved pretty quickly. i only used the hint button once because i had gotten a gameover just due to my own haste in trying to get an in-game day over with.
it is a really neat little game with good themes and an interesting narrative but even getting just one ending feels enough of the game experience to me. the "branching" pathways are quite obvious when you're presented with them.
i almost wish the game told me less or told me more in other areas. like you can pull in a plant to examine it, i wish it would let me examine different parts of the plant. i wish the book you use to look over plants was a little more vague or presented analogous but different information than what you could examine. i wish my critical thinking and logic skills were pushed a little bit more. the itch was scratched a few times but i didn't feel like i was rewarded enough for arriving at the solution. i also wish the map was easier to read.
anyway, i still do recommend this game if you want a weird logic puzzley game about plants, strange european(?) customs and rituals, witches and psychics and hunters, etc. if you want something with a deeper of puzzle design, go play case of the golden idol.
all the presentation of the game is very good though, my biggest gripe with the game is just that i turned on the easier to read font for accessibility purposes, but that didn't extend to the map labels.