I surely never thought I would be reviewing a puzzle game about flowers but upon seeing the game on game pass, the bright and warming colour palette of the cover art lured me in and made me install it. And I can say I wasn't disappointed by that decision.

Overall the game is fun, chill, calming and serene. What this game lacks in complexity it makes up for with atmosphere. This is a puzzle game but the puzzles themselves weren't my favourite part of the game. The puzzles were never particularly difficult but I did very much enjoy the interconnected design of the manor and exploring it was fun until the end. This game also just feels really cosy when you're playing it. Their is great attention to detail in every aspect of the manor and the surrounding grounds that make the manor really feel lived in.

The story itself although not really the focus of the game was quite intriguing, seeing the struggles the main character has went through trying to break into the academic field of botany as a women was compelling and enlightening. Seeing her book not get published at the end was quite heart-breaking but made senses within what would have been historically accurate during that time.

This game also made me quite interested in botany, the backstories of all the flowers you attempt to bloom were well written and made sense with the clues you seek. There was a great feeling of satisfaction whenever I cracked the mystery of one of the flowers. The game itself is also quite short and could be played in one evening. So I recommend you do, I enjoyed immersing myself into this world and imagine you will too.

Cocoon is a puzzle game that manages to make use of one input button (apart from moving) for the entire game and continually iterate on the structure of the puzzles it presents you. This in itself is where the game shines the most at least for the first 75% of the game. I did find however in the last quarter of the game that the puzzles became extremely tedious, with lots of backtracking and constantly having to move the little orbs back and forth. The game itself is very pretty in the beginning and becomes more corrupted as you progress through the game. Overall the art design is brilliant and there is great attention given in every minute detail in the game. The story it tries to tell however, I found very convoluted and didn't particularly understand what was going on. In short my interpretation came out as robot bug thing saves his world from the corruption consuming it and becomes a god. Also the music fits perfectly and is really atmospheric and ethereal, it definitely enhanced the gameplay experience greatly. The boss fights were also quite fun although very simple. All in all, I very much enjoyed this game but it became a bit of a chore near the end. I look forward to see what the game studio has in store for the future.