Botany Manor is a first person puzzle game developed by Balloon Studios and published by Whitethorn Games. It was released on April 9, 2024 on Windows, Xbox Series S/X and Nintendo Switch. The game was released for Playstation 4 and PS5 on January 28, 2025.
The game takes place in 1890 and you play as Arabella Greene. She has recently inherited her family’s manor in Somerset. Arabella is a botanist who’s researching plants for her book. In order to grow the plants, you must solve puzzles involving the plants. You will find clues in numerous places, including letters, posters, postcards, etc. Some of the puzzles involve modifying air temperature, doing morse code, among other things. The year of the game plays big into the story as you discover letters and notes saying that Arabella is just doing a hobby and that she should just stay home.
The game isn’t long and can be beaten in a few hours, but the scenery of the manor is something you should take in and fully enjoy. While not important to the game, there are many places to sit and just enjoy the world. The art style is unique and it reminds me of the Witness, but the puzzles were no where near as hard.
I found that the puzzles were more along the same difficulty of Myst than the Witness. I did solve some of the puzzles with trial and error. Having your phone to take photos of some of the clues definitely helped to solve some of them. It was just easier than trying to remember the locations of the clues as well as what the possible result could ultimately be. If there was one thing the game could have done better, was being able to see the clue from the notebook instead of just saying what it was and the location so you had to go back and find it.
Achievements
- Windmill Wort - Grow the Windmill Wort.
- Fulguria - Grow the Fulguria.
- Phoenix Of The Forest - Grow the Phoenix Of The Forest.
- Pixie Tears - Grow the Pixie Tears.
- Wolfglove - Grow the Wolfglove.
- Sapphire Gloom - Grow the Sapphire Gloom.
- Nightfall - Grow the Nightfall.
- Brook Chalice - Grow the Brook Chalice.
- Cradle Fern - Grow the Cradle Fern.
- Springdance Shrub - Grow the Springdance Shrub.
- Oscilette - Grow the Oscilette.
- Fool’s Emerald - Grow the Fool’s Emerald.
- Clean And Tidy - Flush the toilet.
- Who Needs A Plumber? - Connect all the pipes.
- Boom - Create a faulty mix of chemicals.
- History Sleuth - Find the secret priest hideout.
- Grandmother’s Vault - Open Grandmother’s secret vault.
- Lockpicker - Open the letter lock.
- Fixer Upper - Fix the orangery staircase.
- In The Bin - Throw a flower in the compost.
- Mountaineer - Go to the top of the tower.
- Frogger - Find a way across the pond.
- Crack - Germinate the Ash Plume seed.
- Quack Quack - Inspect a duck.
- Take A Break - Sit down on a seat.
- Piano Woman - Play the harpsichord.
- Let Me In! - Shake a locked door.
- The End - Reach the end of the game.
- Quack Quack Quack Quack! - Inspect all the ducks.
- Botanical Researcher - Complete every page in the Herbarium.
- Help? - Signal S.O.S. on the telegraph.
- Flower Arranging - Place a plant on every saucer in the Flower Room.
- Taking A Nap - Sit on a seat for one minute or more.
- Photographer - Take a picture of a flower that’s not the Fulguria.
- Green Thumbs - Grow the same plant three times or more.
- Art Lover - Inspect Arabella’s paintings.
