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Botany Manor review: peaceful and beautiful best-in-show plant puzzlesCome away, O human child! To the waters and the wild
Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Whitethorn Games
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Whitethorn Games
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Whitethorn Games
No, you have to make those connections, and take all those steps, for yourself, and many of them are surprising, specific, and lovely. You find a note about roasting chestnuts in the fire, and look at the pot you’re holding with a seed that refused to germinate with water; you cross reference the train ticket you found with the type of wood that grows in that area to create the required type of smoke. Many of the plants are heightened, fantastical versions of the sort of plants that evolve in real life, and showcase the delicate balance of ecosystems. Urbanising a stretch of river decreases the number of local birds, whose singing is necessary for a very rare fern to grow (because the birds nest in it). A lot of the clues are based on children’s stories and folk tales - like the plant that traps sleeping fairies at night, which ends with you staring at illustrations of moths.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Whitethorn Games
The result as a whole is that Botany Manor is extremely peaceful and focused puzzle game, even as the puzzles increase in complexity. It is an oasis of calm. You know that everything you need is around you somewhere, and that you have all the time you need, and this makes it immensely satisfying when you do figure the puzzles out - because nobody helped you at all. You can take your time cataloguing apples. You can look for the different duck models that are hanging around. You can carefully examine the cards on the board game to discover which animal’s heartbeat will stimulate this meadow plant. I only wish Botany Manor was longer - I would buy any DLC you care to name, be it a Succulents Pack or a Winter Plants Special, or what have you - except I have a suspicion it is perfectly balanced as it is.
