Botany Manor Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fast Facts

Petals, Puzzles and Pollen

Sometimes, just sometimes, a little gem comes your way. A little gem you were completely oblivious to. And this gem, in the end, happily uplifts you with its mechanics and subject matter. Botany Manor is a puzzle game about flowers and, well, botany. It has unique, beautiful puzzles and subtly teaches you about the flora and the darker side of sexism in the science industry during 1890.

Even though I knew nothing about this quaint little title prior to playing it, it was just what I needed to play. Botany Manor is a first-person puzzle game set in a country manor. Throughout five chapters, you have to work out how to make each flower grow through clues, environmental cues, and using various objects. You must meet various conditions to support the growth of each flower, such as the correct temperature, certain light parameters or even music in order for it to sprout.

What I was not ready for, in this vivid collection of flower-based puzzles, were the subtle hints, notes and clues. These point towards our protagonist, Arabella Greene, being constantly shunned and looked down upon by the men of the botany world. These mentions are sprinkled in through notes and correspondence, but are tangible. It is quite telling of the game’s setting and era. Luckily, our plucky Arabella has other notions and comes out on top (well, sort of).

Pretty Puzzles

Botany Manor is a simple game. You must collect the clues from the area, piece them together, and make a flower grow. Underneath this, though, is a very well-designed puzzle game with multiple layers. Not only that, but its difficulty is pitched at a perfect level, even for non-puzzle game players. I had someone play with me, who to be honest, does not play many games but loves flowers. She loved the process of working out how each flower needed to be nurtured.

The game’s multi-layered puzzles need you to piece together several clues to get the solution. Each clue presents part of a jigsaw and hinges on other clues to decipher its true meaning. We enjoyed this system greatly and each puzzle was a joy to meander through. This system did have one flaw though which I will touch on later.

Bright, Bold and Full of Life

Graphically, Botany Manor – while not being visually unique – has a very bright, colourful and pleasant presentation. It has a quaint, cartoon-y look that makes all the flora pop out of the screen. Slight technical hitches aside, the whole presentation of Botany Manor is a joy. The music is whimsical, the environments are lush, and everything fits the theme and narrative of the game perfectly.

Although they were not game-breaking in any way, I did have a few pesky issues with Botany Manor. As mentioned above, on a technical level, there is a bit of environmental pop-in and the odd frame missed. On the whole, though, the game runs very well.

Irksome Clue Referral

My biggest issue with it is the way in which you view your clues. Whether it was a design decision or just overlooked, not being able to view your clues from your book is very strange in my view.

Picture this: you discover and walk around a new area, where four flowers need to be grown. Each of the flowers may have between four and eight clues each, and throughout the area, they are all jumbled up. If, like me, you are a completionist, you will spend time collecting all of these clues. Then – having collected them – you cannot remember what was involved with each clue.

Instead of being able to read them all again from your book, you have to work out where the clue was and walk back to it to remind yourself of what was written on it. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not far, and it’s not massively painful. However, it is inconvenient. A quick reference of the clues in your book would have made the whole experience smoother and more efficient.

A Botonical Romp Most Will Enjoy

Small annoyances aside, I really enjoyed Botany Manor. It’s cheap, it’s quite short, and it’s very enjoyable throughout. The puzzles are well-designed and the presentation is nice on the eye. If you are in the market for a small, very unique puzzle title, you could do a hell of a lot worse.

Right gamers, I am off to water some plants and take a few trimmings. See you next time, you green-fingered folk!

Rapid Reviews Rating

4 out of 5

4

You can purchase Botany Manor on the Nintendo Switch eShop here.