Botany Manor (2024)

Botany Manor is a lovely game about getting exotic flowers to bloom. Each flower is a puzzle to solve - some require heat to bloom, others bloom in dark environments, and some others need specific environmental conditions. The clues about the nature of each flower are spread all around the environment in the form of letters, research notes, articles and other things. You find them, put them together and figure out how to get each flower to bloom.

There's a narrative that's explored through letters and articles. Our protagonist is Lady Arabella Greene, a woman in her 50s who's fiercely passionate about botany, but unfortunately neglected due to the prevailing gender conventions at her time (the game is set in 1890). The exploration of the flowers in the game is her effort to compile a herbarium for publication. It's a bittersweet narrative that adds a certain sadness to the game, but we, the players, like Arabella, find the inspiration to push forward.

There's a very real sense of reward in getting each flower to bloom. The flower grows into its full, magnificent form, music plays, and the entry in the herbarium updates with a drawing and research notes about the flower. It's an absolute joy, figuring out the clues and then watching the result of it right before your eyes.

The game can be completed in a few hours, but the handcrafted nature of the game means that each flower is a completely unique puzzle. No puzzle elements or solutions are reused, which lends the game an incredible amount of diversity. I would happily welcome a sequel to this game where I can get lost for hours exploring more forgotten flora.

P.S. - There was a crippling technical issue I encountered early on with the movement in the game. Movement seemed to stretch like a rubber band, slowing down and speeding up so that it looked like I was teleporting across the map. The only reliable fix I could find for this is to set the V-Sync setting during each session. I'm not sure it matters what the value is (I set mine to 'Every second V-blank'), but I would load up the game, change the setting, apply it, then change it back. This seemed to stabilize the current session, and I had to repeat it during every session.

We accidentally started a new tradition with my girlfriend. I buy her a puzzle game that I think she might like. She eventually boots it up while I do something else, but I get distracted looking at her play and helping her work out the puzzles and eventually we end up playing it together.

This one was pretty neat. Art style is cute and the puzzles are engaging enough without being overly complex. The one mystifying design decision was having a list on your jornal of the clues you've found, but it's just a list of names; if you want to re-read a clue you need to physically (and rather slowly) walk around the mansion to pick it up again. Very strange.

I liked the women in science angle, though. Not subtle at all, but pretty realistic nonetheless.

This is a cozy game with puzzle elements, not a challenging puzzle romp (and that's not an insult). This game is just as much about the cozy vibes, environmental storytelling, and taking your time as it is about the simple puzzle mechanics. There is a story underneath it, told through various letters, articles, etc, which leads to a rather sweet, surprise ending.

It is short - I think I clocked about 5 hours, taking my time and chewing on things. Though at least some of that time was spent back-tracking to clues to re-read something, check a chart, etc. That was really my only complaint was that clues aren't able to be reviewed there in your journal. So, if you need a reminder, that means going all the way back to the clue itself, which is an unnecessary pain in an otherwise chill game.

Overall, though, I'd rec this one on sale. I had a nice time with it.

Despite initial appearances, The Witness, this is not. The puzzles are neat, if simple, but that means the exploration and environmental storytelling isn't hampered, which feels like the game's true focus.

There's a surprisingly touching arc considering how spare the narrative elements are. The focus on women's exclusion from scientific institutions, while, as a player, being isolated in a domestic space is effective. There's also some lovely character work, such that despite how stylised the game is, and how limited the space is, its world feels coherent beyond the boundaries of its garden wall.

I had an amazing time with this one. Ok, it was just 4 hours, but it was a very fun and chill 4 hours. The puzles aren't difficult, but are a lot of fun to solve and the colorful scenarios are beautiful. The plot about a woman botanist having a hard time to be taken serious by the misoginist academia of the XIX century was very well done and none intrusive.

Read my full review in spanish here.

We could say it has a alot of the same problems that other game that leave most of their narrative to letters and documents and that it ignores the big theme of economic classes, but I really enjoyed it anyway. Will play again eventually just to chill.

Botany Manor est un puzzle game en semi zone ouverte où vous jouez Arabella Greene, botaniste. Elle cherche à établir un herbier de plantes fantastiques aux propriétés hors du commun. Votre but sera de faire éclore ces graines en découvrant comment reproduire leur milieu, toujours très...Insolite.

La direction artistique est cool, j'aime bien la modélisation avec des grosses touches 3D, ça me rappelle un peu la peinture impressionniste, qui va bien avec l'époque du jeu, l'ère victorienne. Le jeu propose d'ailleurs pleins de sièges, partout, tout le temps, pour que vous puissiez vous asseoir et juste admirer le paysage.

Les puzzles sont simples, explicites, je n'ai pas ressenti de frustration particulière. Même les déplacements dans la zone semi-ouverte se font au final assez rapidement.

L'histoire est discrète en fond. Je ne me suis pas du tout sentie "agressée" par le lore. Et sans jamais parler, Arabella m'a charmée en étant cette super-woman à une époque où c'était pas facile.

Seul petit bémol sur la répétitivité des énigmes. Ca en devient un peu ridicule d'avoir un banc de rempotage dans chaque pièce de la maison...Est-il vraiment utile d'avoir à rempoter chaque plante avec une seule variation pour les hortensia ?

Le jeu est court mais en solde ou via le gamepass, je recommande à 100%

I found this game to have a really relaxing and enjoyable gameplay loop. Walking around the manor and interacting with items to piece together how to grow each plant was fun and just the right amount of puzzling. The only downside (which is more of a personal issue) is that I got motion-sick quite often from the way you and the camera moved around the environments. I played in shorter sessions to try to combat this effect and it did work, but I know that if I was able I would have played through this in one sitting. It was light on the story but still interesting enough to keep me wanting to learn about each new plant.

Overall, I had a really nice time tapping into my nonexistent green thumb and figuring out the solutions to growing the plants in this game.

I came into this just knowing it is not long. And after AC: Valhalla I was craving shorter experiences. Taking me about 4 hours to leisurely 100% it, I will say I really enjoyed this!

I was getting bored of the concept just as it was finishing so it feels pretty good pacing-wise. The last chapter stretched the concept just past enjoyable but on the whole it is a beautiful game with an engaging, if simple, story.

There is a throughline in the whole game that starts very subtly. I thought it was just going to be subtext but it keeps building until the final moment where you see it is just "The Text".

The narrative wriggled into my heart and by the end bloomed an honest emotional response. A pleasant little puzzler.

Botany Manor won't take you more than 3 hours to beat if you're exploring all of the achievements of the game but it's a charming experience - more so if you have the PC GamePass and you want to give it a whirl.

Definitely inspired by Strange Horticulture - though I have never had the pleasure to play the game myself - the aim is to explore flora you have gotten yourself or from your friends, all the while exploring a sprawling Victorian-era manor that holds most of the life of our titular character, Arabella Greene.

While the puzzles are easy going and don't offer too big a challenge in their complexity, the biggest difficulty will be memorizing the amount of clues since the book does not hold them within it and you will find yourself having to scramble back and forth to remember small details such as small details, specific numbers and all and if you do not take 'physical notes' (which is always something I thoroughly enjoy doing!) about the different plants you're trying to grow you're going to probably do an ungodly amount of backtracking - luckily, the journal holds a very detailed map and notes the location of all clues.

The story behind Arabella's will to write the book is a bit somber but dutifully reflects how women were seen in that time and age when it came to scientific endeavors and makes the outcome - while not fully satisfying due to the publisher's rejection - feel cheery and hopeful.

All in all, I'd recommend it for a full run on GamePass or at a heavy discount as the price tag (€24,99) does not reflect the meager 3hr long playthrough and the scant re-playability of the title.