Strange Horticulture – Solving Mysteries with Plants

This is not like most games I’ve played. It reminded me of that potion-crafting game I saw once. But what can I say? I’m drawn to any game that involves a cat.

I also have some interest in plants and nature so hence I picked this one up.

I feel like this game has a gothic theme to it. There are cults I can join aside from running my little shop and I can explore the world once I have the motivation, like my plants are all watered and the cute kitty Hellabore feels right at home.

There’s a lot of mystery solving so many times whenever I get a daily card that will lead me to some new plants, I would sometimes spend twenty minutes trying to figure it out so I would just give up and Google it! The same goes for what some customers wanted, but sometimes I would get it if I looked really closely at each plant and dragged one over to the description and would sometimes get something where it says it has a really strong smell or its leaves are sharp based on what was written in the book.

I don’t have much to say on the story but it’s still a fun game. Some customers had easier requests than others, like one lady needed a plant that could reverse the effects of an amulet that was making her age rapidly and someone in a jade mask wanted some Hopheart.

My advice to you if you ever play this game is to make whatever choice you want, I still haven’t got all the endings in this game, but one thing I do strongly suggest is to give that bastard Burbrige what he deserves. Nobody complains about the cat in the shop, threatens to sue me, and gets away with it. That’s one thing I regret not doing the first time I finished the game so I started over and gave him a plant that made his allergies worse and later one that drove him insane and killed him. Totally worth it.

I played this game on my Steam Deck as well and found myself using the magnifying glass, so it could have looked better on the desktop. It’s a fun game full of mystery that I will have to come back to at some point to see what else I can unravel.