This is one of those games that remind me why indie games are so cool and why we need more of them. In no AAA or even AA game could I imagine the basic gameplay being to collect plants, identify them correctly and then sell them to various quirky characters in a gritty English town. That's basically what Strange Horticulture is all about. You take over a plant store full of strange plant varieties whose significance is only revealed as the game progresses. Day after day you are visited by the inhabitants of Undermere, the town in which the store is located, and have to deal with their personal problems by helping them with the right plant (and later elixirs). This may mean finding and offering a cure for a headache. But it can also mean that you are given the task of brewing a remedy to defend against demonic influences. Because, and this becomes clear rather quickly, there is an underlying mystical darkness that terrifies the inhabitants of Undermere. There are rumors of a shadow roaming the woods and wreaking havoc. A murder case, signs of a bloody ritual and a whole series of inexplicable incidents. The story remains quite linear. However, at certain key points in the game, you have an influence on the course of the story and the fate of individual characters. After all, as a horticulturist you have access to one or two poisons and the rude capitalist who wants to close down the store is rather unpleasant ;)

In terms of gameplay, there is hardly anything more to say. When you are not attending to the needs of your customers, you have to solve more puzzles in the vicinity of Undermere. To do this, you are given a new puzzle every day, which you must solve to identify a specific location on the world map. There you will then find more puzzles, more plants or new entries for the herbarium. I should mention here that the game's protagonist never actually leaves the store. The game only shows you the new locations as 2D drawings. However, the entire action of the game takes place exclusively in the plant store. This makes it clear that this is a small indie game with a tight budget. I have to say though that this didn't bother me in any way. The drawings of the scenes are very well done and are absolutely sufficient to give me the feeling of actually visiting those places. Otherwise, as I said, it's all about finding, labeling and watering plants and occasionally stroking the store's cat :)

Overall, I had a very relaxed and good time with this game. The story was quite exciting and sometimes even spooky, but it didn't blow me away. It remains too traditional for that and doesn't really offer anything that I haven't already experienced countless times in other games, films or books. What also bothered me a little was the fact that the basic game loop becomes quite monotonous. Looking up plants based on the descriptions in the herbarium, selecting them and then labeling them accordingly is not necessarily exciting. But it's not supposed to be. It's more of a game to sit back and relax. It's not quite my kind of game, but I can definitely see the appeal.

A neat mystery puzzle game wrapped up in a spooky plant lady vibe that sadly doesn’t always execute on some of the cool ideas it attempts and is burdened by poorly-designed UI/UX.

Strange Horticulture is, at its core, a deductive reasoning puzzle game that has you solving clues to identify plants and seeking out new plants to expand your collection. Most times, that loop of looking for a plant based on a vague description and trying to narrow it down using context clues or sketches can deliver a familiar satisfying rush that comes from puzzle games like this. Other times, “solving” a puzzle is just reading through 60 plant descriptions until you find one key word like “stranger” or “smokey” buried in the text. That’s not a puzzle, it's just tedious. The story, told through the visits of customers, is neat and the choices along the way (that set up multiple endings) made me feel invested in the twisty tale that was being told. After finishing the game, I enjoyed going back and seeing how some of the other endings played out.

Later in the game, once you’ve identified most of the plants, occasionally a customer will ask for one specific plant of the 77 unorganized plants on your shelf. So you’ll slowly scroll left to right looking for the one plant you need, but if you scroll too quickly, the label open/close animation won’t react in time and you’ll miss the name. Some method of auto-sorting your plants would have been a welcome addition to the game.

When not identifying plants to help customers, you’re following clues and solving riddles to visit specific locations on a map and find new plants to add to your collection. It’s a pretty fun idea in theory, but the map is quite large and the writing on it is often difficult to read, requiring constant use of the game’s dedicated magnifying glass button - a baffling game decision.

Searching for plants in your massive collection, reading too many descriptions, navigating around a map, and just interacting with your inventory are all things that shouldn’t be annoying but are due to the game’s poorly designed interface that is only made worse on consoles. I can only assume that this game was designed to be played with a mouse and keyboard on a 40 inch computer monitor that your face is 4 inches from at all times, because nothing else really makes sense. The script-like font is small, requiring frequent use of the magnifying glass just to be able to read literally any of the text in the game. There is an “easier to read font” option, that makes all the text more legible, but the interface does not adapt to the new text size, so conversations with NPCs constantly fall off the screen as you’re trying to read them which results in battling the scrolling dialogue. Additionally, while the “legible text” option does improve most of the menus, the map does not benefit from the cleaner text, so that continues to be difficult to read without the magnifying glass. Even with the magnification, the rivers are actively impossible to read due to the weird font choice. Controlling the game on console is a nightmare as the cursor is mapped to the left analog stick with a set cursor speed of “excruciatingly slow”. There are labels in the game so you can make notes of all the items you’re finding, but that feature is predictably a pain without a dedicated keyboard to use.

The thing that makes these pain points more frustrating is that I actually really enjoyed most of my time with Strange Horticulture, but it constantly felt as though I was fighting against the game to find the fun. Underneath the poorly-designed UI and weird design decisions is a pretty great game! Finding that game, however, takes some work. And maybe a lot of work if you’re playing on console.

+ Satisfying deductive puzzle solving
+ Great spooky vibes
+ Fun, creative plants with interesting descriptions
+ Great story choices throughout the game that set up multiple endings

- Terrible UI that often feels anti-player for the sake of “theme”
- Console/controller support is all around terrible from UI adaptation to controller use
- Some puzzles are more tedious reading than actual puzzle-solving

Missed potential. Great vibes and a good spin on Papers, Please with a cool adventure game worked in - one that is not unlike a hidden object or room escape game. And downstream from that is some player-driven exploration and branching pathways.

But because it straddles this line between puzzle, adventure, and cozy, the pressure to balance tasks and adventuring with managing your post isn't there like in Papers, Please. Some of the point-and-click-esque puzzles can be a little moon logic. The plant art is great but the character is very amateur-ish, which for a game that culminates in this four-way mental battle of conspiracies clashing really does the storytelling a disservice. And those branching narratives are underserved by the inconsistent puzzle difficulty and limited opportunities for choice.

It could use some QoL changes but not enough to hold it against the game. Nothing is outright bad, but massive missed opportunities at every corner.

I had a great time with Strange Horticulture. Solving all the puzzles was satisfying and It was just the right length to not overstay its welcome. I loved finding all the new weird plants and organizing them on my shelves. I do think it had some misteps though. Some of the puzzles felt a little bit too vague and making me wait to refill my exploration meter was a bit tedious. I see how it was done to help the pace of the game but also sometimes the only thing i had left in a day was to solve a map puzzle and waiting was tedious. The elixir mechanic also felt underutilized.

Game Highlight: the mood was absolutely on point. I loved the cozy greenhouse and dark color palate they chose. Also it was very funny when being bad at my retail job caused my mind to shatter.

Do you ever find yourself thinking "What if Obra Dinn and Papers, Please had a child that was really into botany?" No? Well, me neither, to be honest, but maybe we should have, as there's something good in that idea.

In an isolated corner of the town of Undermere stands a small plant shop named the Strange Horticulture. Players take on the role of the owner of that shop, a botanist who spends their days tending to their rare plants and fulfilling clients' requests -- and of course, looking out for the opportunity to acquire new plants. The twist is that no plant that comes into the shopkeeper's hands is labeled: armed with an almanac that loosely describes a variety of plants, as well as a map of the region and their own sharp observational skills, the player must cross-reference information from different sources to deduce the names of each plant.

It's like nothing I've ever seen before, and I can only describe as an inventive subversion of the detective game genre: at the shopkeeper's desk, the player will shuffle plants and papers back and forth in an attempt to adequately label each one, meeting each customer's demand. Multiple tricks are employed along the way, such as plants that have multiple names or deceitful appearances, or clients that aren't explicit about what they want, and each successful identification in face of all those hurdles feels rewarding.

There's more to Strange Horticulture than that, though: the shop will periodically receive cryptic letters and notes, and some of the clients will drop off texts that present challenging puzzles to be deciphered. Furthermore, over the course of the days in which the game takes place, a story will be revealed through the shop's customers, one that begins with a grizzly murder taking place to the north of Undermere and evolves into something ever more sinister.

During some of the in-game days, the player is invited to decide between a couple of possible solutions to the problems they are met with, which ultimately affects the conclusion of an NPC's story or the ending to the game. There's a bit of replayability in exploring those branching paths, even if one happens to get into labeling their plant collection incredibly hard and can name them by heart on a second playthrough, like some people (it's me, I'm people).

As a bonus, despite being designed around a mouse-based interface, it has well-thought out controller support and plays very well on the Steam Deck. Bottom line: Strange Horticulture was a very pleasant surprise, one that delivered from beginning to end. Maybe it won't click for everyone as it did for me, but it definitely warrants a try.

Sights & Sounds
- The game's visual aesthetic is a pleasing and cozy storybook style. I found the simplistic human designs to be a nice counterpoint to the interesting and diverse plants that eventually populate your shop
- There isn't much notable here by way of sound design. The music kinda forgettable, and there isn't any voice acting

Story & Vibes
- The story is the real draw in a game like this, and I'm happy to report that the plot here (and the way the player-character factors into it) is pretty good
- As a quick and spoiler-free synopsis: you inherit a horticulturalist's shop from your uncle in a fairly large town. As you build your business, you start to catch wind of unusual happenings in the surrounding lands. You quickly become a pivotal part of the story and how it plays out
- Being a game with multiple endings, the specifics of the story will be different depending on the choices you make over the narrative's 16 days


Playability & Replayability
- In terms of genre, it's a puzzle/adventure game with a sim-game façade. There aren't any actual sim elements, though. Managing your business mostly involves trying to give people the correct plant
- The game mostly takes place at either your desk or the map. While at your desk, you can tend to customers, read your mail, inspect/label/identify your plants, peruse your plant guide, solve your daily card puzzle, solve one of many other puzzles, or pet your cat. The map is usually just for traveling to find resources
- And you'll be doing quite a lot of traveling! Not in a meaningful sense, though. You just click on a square on the map's grid (usually guided by a puzzle solution or directed by a piece of mail) and read the result. This process is how you get all your fancy plants and the plant guide pages necessary to identify them
- The puzzles are almost entirely deduction and observation based, so read things carefully, pay close attention to what you see, and remember details from what characters tell you
- Given that the game is short and choices matter, I'll probably revisit this one in the future

Overall Impressions & Performance
- I was initially interested in the visual style of the game, but wound up being pretty very impressed by the story and pleased by the fact that you play a real part in it
- Although I played the whole thing on the Steam Deck, I think I'll do any future playthroughs on PC. Despite the game's always available magnifying glass, the text was still a bit small

Final Verdict
- 8/10. If you like cozy games with a narrative focus and moderately strenuous puzzle-solving, it's certainly worth a look

An engaging little plant identification puzzle game with a interesting departure from the normality you would this accompanies that.

Some choice and consequences mostly surrounding what ending you get, but ultimately and largely not present.

It's perhaps lacking on replayability, but is a good low-energy experience with pretty immaculate vibes.

Strange Horticulture was a serene experience, its gameplay revolving around identifying plants and solving mysteries that were embedded in the occult. It took place almost entirely behind the counter of a shop, with customers coming in with various requests, the idea to find the appropriate plant for their ailments. Any adventures outside the shop were text based, but that didn't detract from how engaging it was, quite the opposite. Within the first few minutes I knew exactly what I was going to get with the rest of the game: an atmospheric point and click indie about a strange town. Simple, yet effective.

There were even some decisions to make that involved a coven and a cult, both parties at odds with each other. It was well done in its subtle way, but I honestly had a blast just sorting my plants.

- Started playing in September 2023, forgot about it, decided to finish today
- Ending II: Elderphinium
- Plants Identified: 56/77

I enjoyed this, but there's lots of room for improvement.

The depictions of the moon phases are inaccurate (the moon's illumination should grow from right to left, not left to right), and the writing wasn't great. I spent a lot of time mentally revising the choice of words used in the letters and dialogue. More commas would be appreciated.

Overall a fun game with a neat story. I took a break from it and couldn't remember the plot or mechanics well enough to continue on, I may pick it up again in a bit but I'm not sure that leaving it unfinished will keep me up.

The plant ID system is fun, though I wish I'd checked the settings to see the autolabeller in advance.

If you're playing on the steam deck or with a controller it's a little clunky. It's probably much more easily playable on a PC but as it stands the controls just don't translate well to controller play.

The characters and plot are interesting and figuring out the puzzles is pretty satisfying. The limited choice you get in the game is also fun, and maybe if I'd finished it there would be more fun choices.

Overall I'm sure it's a game some people absolutely adore, but it wasn't so much my thing. I had a good time with it though.

A fun, and surprisingly dark, game about Plants. Loved the multiple endings, and how choices matter on which plants you give to which people. The gameplay was nothing special, but the puzzles were fun and the right amount of difficult.

- Artwork: 4/5
- Music: 3/5
- Characters: 4/5
- Story: 4/5
- Gameplay: 3/5
- Overall: 3.5/5

Strange Horticulture is a pleasant game with a very special place in my heart. The player runs a plant store with magical flora that can cure ailments of every kind or otherwise have magical effects. The problem is that you’re not very good at your job and don’t know any of the plants’ names. All you have is a book of hints and incomplete illustrations to determine which is which. Customers come in with a vague idea of what they’re looking for, and it's your job to get them the plant they need. As one might imagine, very eccentric characters visit magical plant shops, so inevitably the player finds themselves navigating an occult mystery of the revival of an ancient evil. Gameplay consists of solving the puzzles given by the customers and piecing together the mystery at hand.

An interesting blend of non traditional storytelling, deduction puzzles & shelf organisation.

Strange Horticulture is captivating enough that a completed it in just 2 sittings, but can admit the rather “still” gameplay and visuals may not impress all

Playing on Switch also felt a little cumbersome, a mouse and keyboard is probably ideal (and a larger screen for the font!)

There's few games I actually dropped out of complete disinterest and this game has the dishonour of being one of them :) Congrats also on being one of the games I genuinely dislike!

The stuff that is interesting to me (exploring the fascinating map and all the landmarks) is shallow as hell (most grids don't have anything of note and finding plans isn't all that engaging outside of the puzzles which WERE engaging).

The core gameplay loop of giving clients plants is also as deep as my piss stain on the fucking wall bro, most of the plants are just there to serve as busywork and unlike Valhalla, the music and characters aren't strong enough to carry the game.

Part of the tedium also comes from how nightmarish the interface is to navigate — I get it's supposed to have an analogue feeling of fiddling with shit and using a magnifying glass but when I'm already bored to tears, this stuff just becomes an obstacle.

I'm usually lenient on games with engaging stories + lacklustre gameplay and vice versa, but this one has neither!

Basically a logic puzzle game in the form of using limited information to make judgements about which plant should be used in a variety of scenarios.
Your choices throughout the game impact the ending in pretty significant ways. It's pretty short so you could definitely go back and explore additional routes if you wanted to.
The plants were well designed and unique from one another but I didn't care for the art style of the characters.
The only real downside is that by the end of the game it does begin to feel like you're just doing the same thing over and over again.

This is a game about collecting plants and giving them away. The writing was decent when I played through it, but I'm not going to remember it a year from now.
Finding and giving the plants usually requires solving a riddle to determine the properties of each plant. These properties are revealed over time, allowing you to determine the more obscure plants by a process of elimination.

I'm glad I played the game. While I like puzzle games and atmospheric games, I don't think this game was made for me. I also like cozy games, but this is not the kind of cozy for me. I think it was a little too slow paced for me. That is definitely many people's cup of tea, I think I just like tea with some different herbs.