Strange Horticulture

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 77: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ (8/10) [i] Strange Horticulture [/i] is a slow, meticulous, and utterly spellbinding occult mystery. You’re not a hero, you’re not a chosen one: you’re a quiet shopkeeper identifying plants, uncovering eldritch secrets, and maybe deciding the fate of the world from behind your apothecary desk. You’ve inherited a plant shop in the gloomy, rain-soaked town of Undermere. Locals come in seeking help—some polite, some desperate, some clearly hiding something. You identify strange flora, match their properties to ailments (or curses), and slowly begin unraveling a creeping cosmic mystery involving cults, witches, and forgotten powers buried beneath the soil. Just beware—some flowers bite back. [b] 🌱 Pros: [/b] [list] [*] Wonderfully tactile detective work. Each plant is a tiny mystery. You’ll pore over your botany book, compare sketches, and second-guess your identifications with growing paranoia. It feels like work—in the most satisfying way. [*] Unique blend of occult mystery and cozy shop sim. Equal parts spooky and soothing. You’re flipping through pages while thunder crashes outside, deciding whether a strange weed will heal ... or kill. [*] Rich, atmospheric worldbuilding. Without ever leaving your shop (aside from occasional field expeditions), you piece together an entire world of secret histories, town gossip, ancient powers, and hidden alliances. [*] Branching story paths. Multiple endings depending on which factions you support, who you help, and what you plant (or poison). Your moral compass is the only guide. [*] Smart puzzle design. Whether it’s decoding a strange cipher, aligning map coordinates, or noticing a subtle pattern in a leaf, the game rewards careful observation and patience. [*] Visually distinct and elegant interface. Everything—your shop desk, map, plant labels, and journal—looks handcrafted. It’s a pleasure just to interact with. [/list] [b] 🌧️ Cons: [/b] [list] [*] Slow pace may not suit everyone. There’s no action here, just deep attention and quiet observation. Perfect for relaxing; not ideal if you’re seeking thrills. [*] Can get repetitive. The core loop—identify plant, give plant, update book—doesn’t evolve dramatically. By the final chapters, you may find yourself going through the motions. [*] Vague clues occasionally frustrate. Some customers are maddeningly cryptic, and without the right combination of plants or notes, progress can stall. A built-in hint system might have helped. [/list]

Strange Horticulture is indeed... strange. Basically, you solve puzzles, find plants, help (??) people, solve mysteries, and even try to give plants to someone [spoiler]in an attempt to take them out (??).[/spoiler] It’s a nice game if you enjoy plants and problem-solving together.

Perfect rainy day game to pass the time. Simple and cozy. Puzzles keep you engaged but not to hard to stress you out. The game has its own unique charm. Would definitely recommend this game if you're looking for something new. It's short and sweet, love the multiple endings.

Such a great game! It's very engaging but also slow paced. You can solve everything at your own pace. I didn't even notice more than 4hrs have passed. It's something I have been looking for in detective/mystery games. Can't wait for the sequel !!

Great exploration game. Lots of observation skills required. I just enjoy the lore and narration. It is a beautiful and sad and delicious game. Enjoy!

I like this game. It's very simple and straightforward.

Great creative puzzle game with dark and mysterious undertones. Very relaxing with good ambience. Well worth a play!

Fun game! Took about 10 hours to complete one playthrough and identify all plants. The investigative aspect is pretty neat, but bounces a bit between very easy to identify and giving too few clues to determine between two possibilities. I enjoyed the narrative as well, and found the character motivations a fun part of running the shop. Overall, recommended.

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☑ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☑ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☑ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☑ Old Fashioned ☐ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☑ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☑ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☑ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ 6 / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☑ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10

The sorting of known plants is hideous and exhausting, as I have to make a quick scan every time I need something. Also, the cooldown when you finish visiting a place (regardless of right or wrong guess) make going to places loses its interest.

Very interesting I love puzzle games with a bit of investigation, perfect to excercise my mind!

I got the game for the plants and potions and stayed for the storyline. I played it through in one sitting and want to replay it already to see the different endings!

Was a fun game! I wish it was a bit longer because I was having such a great time.

This game is really good for people that like plants but also those who love a good walk through of things. A lot of it is identifying weird plants but there are some websites to help and the story does change a bit depending on a few of the choices you have to make in game.

A fun game with interesting puzzles and an intriguing story. It’s pretty straightforward but still really satisfying. I just wish there was more to do or some deeper, more complex puzzles.

Short game but neat. Good story. identifying the plants from vague descriptions can be frustrating, but the challenge is the point.

Neat game, I tried out the demo first (recommend you do the same, it gives a good overview!). I wasn't sure about it in the first few minutes but then it just really clicked with me. It's largely a text-based puzzle game but the existing visuals are great and the atmosphere is immersive.

Fun game to casually play while you watch a show or listen to a book.

Enjoyable, short game. You can finish it in one seat if you have around 6 hours of free time. According to your actions, you can unlock one of many finales, and the game allows you to go back in time afterwards to explore the rest of them.

perfect blend of cozy yet dark and mysterious, Strange Horticulture has some really cool lore

Super fun game, very cute, perfect blend of spooky and cozy

its cozy and it takes alot of writing things down and alot of puzzles. Its very fun if you are into that. There is a wiki if you get lost.

I decide to play this game after playing the demo for the next one and had a great time. The puzzles are good and some require more thinking than others which I liked. Very fun and very relaxing, would definitely recommend and am looking forward for the full game of strange antiquities to come out!

This game is relatively quick to play, and very cozy. Some of the puzzles made me think a little. I wish there were more things that you could do with the plants. Like, more options for what they can do. It's so neat that there are a few that can do very straightforward things like unlock doors, but I feel there could have been potentially more depth added if you could make a few more branching choices. My feelings on that are only after coming back for a second playthrough. I did enjoy both plays and will play another. The art style is a bit moody and kind of 'goth' esque. I really enjoy the vibes and the sounds.

At it's core the game is a customer-service puzzle game with occult flavouring. This doesn't sound like a lot of fun, but it's pretty clever and the game does a good job of rewarding you for using the information you're provided to solve the puzzles.

Wonderful game. Really looking forward to the next one. The game loop for the player is mostly picking the right flowers. Some descriptions are dead on and hard to mistake... while others, good luck. There's more game here than that though... Some things you have to explore town for. The game is a true exercise in perception and I absolutely loved it.

This game was very soothing and fun, identifying, labeling, and sorting plants; figuring out what customers needed; connecting dots as the mystery unravels outside the shop... it was all very satisfying. I think I played it through enough times to get all the endings. I'd love if the developers came out with a screensaver that's just the shop full of plants, when it's raining outside, with the sound and music and all. I could sit and watch that for ages.

one of my absolute favorites. it's so atmospheric and I loved figuring out the story.

Very relaxing, but also addicting. Very fun, lots of mysteries to uncover in the world for the player, while also allowing a relaxing management of the plant shop.

Puzzles are challenging yet easy solvable. Love the cute plants. All objects easy moveable and user friendly. Storylines short and sweet. Just as you think you have done all there is some yet surprising elements popping up. Thank you I enjoyed the game.

really beautiful and creative game, for sure my favorite game and I could not be more excited for strange antiques! The story, characters, and visuals of this game are just really intentional and stunning -- I am yet to play another game like this and if I could, would only play games like this!

I loved every second of it so much that i got frustrated that it ended so quick. This a really well made game that respects the player's intelligence in a way many similar styled games fail. Definitely a recommend from me.

I really enjoyed this game! I finished it pretty quickly; I thought the puzzles were pretty fun, and even though I did get stuck on a few it wasn't really enough to hinder my enjoyment. I loved all the flowers but I think the only part that was a bit annoying was the "will to explore" function. It was cute at first but as the puzzles became harder and more abundant I found the waiting to be a bit unbearable; if the waiting time was a bit shorter or maybe if watering plants went faster? Overall it's a fun game. I actually think the book was pretty helpful, it was just a bit annoying to sift through the pages. I also felt like after I identified a plant... it should automatically label it for me? I made sure to label each plant as i identified them but it was weird to me that the entry in the book didn't update with a little picture of the plant next to it. Those are all just small things though and I would say it was quite fun, the vibes were immaculate and I loved the feeling of mousing over each plant looking for the right one. Made me feel like I was actually an apothecary looking through my stores which I really loved; same with flipping through the reference book, it was immersive and fun.

Atmosphere is unbeatable. Super chill puzzle game, highly recommend if you're a puzzle game fan.

played twice. enjoyed it twice. probably will play even more. perfect game with a captivating story that makes you want to keep playing and good mechanics around identifying and selling flowers, everything is so fluid and it never feels like too much as the game reveals things at a great pace.

Lots of endings and achievements to unlock and mysteries so solve

A delightful adventure from a small shop that will keep you guessing. I love all of the riddles and different tasks needed to collect these plants while solving problems. It's nice to see that there are multiple endings depending on how you venture through the story which is a nice twist as some large name dev groups don't even do that. I am very very excited for their new game to come out. I like the style and mind of these devs and I hope theres more to come from them.

Would play it for sure. Will likely do some replays to get all of the story. Some minor complaints are that there isn't a NG+ so will have to identify the plants on your next run or use a guide. When doing some of the map puzzles it would be great if the items you needed to overlay were slightly see through. The puzzle logic can be a little inconsistent. Usually once you get a clue you can solve it except for the times when you can't. Hopefully these are done for the sequel.

I Loved this game, it has lived rent free in my mind since I played it. I don't really replay games but this might get a replay before strange antiquities comes out. I love a spooky cozy vibe, and this scratches that itch!

I love this game, it gave my brain the right tingles. I wish more games like this one existed, it has definitely become one of my comfort games :3

It's very well made with interesting visuals, story, and puzzles. However, it is a bit short for being a full priced game. Even with completing things to 100%, it's still only a few hours at most. I would recommend it when it goes on sale.

Loved this! Categorizing the different plans was very fun and felt rewarding, and the story was intruiging. Loved that there were multiple endings, but I didn't really feel like playing it again just for a different ending. A very calming game with a witchy, mysterious vibe.

Amazing and fun game! Soothing and yet interesting. I love the puzzles too!

Relaxing game, nice naming sense for places and species, happy to have a game focused on plants

Wonderful game! I was hooked! Plants, mysteries, moody weather, characters and stories. I think what I enjoyed the most was identifying and labelling plants.

Absolutely love this game, have played it multiple times now. You don't even realize you're making meaningful choices at first, at least I didn't. I loved how the story unfolded, I loved solving the puzzles and how the map worked, and I LOVED researching each plant and labeling it. The thrill of being right with my labels was awesome. Can't wait for their next game and I will definitely play this again.

This was a fun and entertaining game! While quick to finish, the story, characters, and unique plants kept me engaged the entire time. I loved the mystery with the story, as well as trying to piece together which plants were needed based on the information I had. Would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys puzzle type games, and who enjoy a little witchy feeling too!

Loved the overall vibe of the game. It was clever that our character really affected events by supplying plants... like they were on the periphery of the whole ordeal. The puzzles were fun. I need to do another play through so I can murder the asshole of a dude. The cat, Hellebore, is probably the best thing about this game and is 100% delightful.

Thoroughly enjoyed this game. Great atmosphere, great story, great art. I just wish it was longer. Thankfully, the next game is coming out! Can't wait, demo is GREAT

Super short game, great for scratching that puzzle itch. The story comes together from all different directions if you figure out where to look!