The Secrets of Sylvan Gardens

This was a refreshing game to play. In a time where a lot of games are using AI art or text that is bland and often nonsensical, this game stood out to me for its distinct art style (I think a combination of watercolors and something else?) and its well-planned, symmetric plot and characters.

This is one of only two games marked 'over two hours' on the website, and I spent about 4 hours from start to finish, but it would probably be about 2.5 hours if I locked in.

It's a wholesome game, the same way Eikas by by Lauren O'Donoghue is (for those who remember it from last IFComp). Both focus on relationships and nature in a nature setting and take place over a long period of time.

This game has its own unique elements, though. You are a newcomer to a town with a magical villa, with beautiful gardens, a mysterious library, and four characters, each having a tragic element in their lives as well as an interest in you. You yourself are afflicted by sleepwalking fits that take you into the garden at night.

All four characters have friendship paths and romance paths on top of that. I ended up romancing Penny the botanist and befriending the others.

Design-wise, some of the game does suffer from from having large, complex option and dialogue trees but requiring you to plow through almost all of them, which can feel like a chore at times, although the writing is charming. There are also options where you choose how to react, but these often boil down to "Be nice, be indifferent, be mean," with little use for the mean option (that I found). On the other hand, the ending choice was very well done, and I had to sit and contemplate for a while on what I'd pick, and there were both good and bad consequences to my choice. It's one of the best ethical dilemmas I've had in a game for a while. Similarly, there are some puzzle elements which are pretty fun, most of them relatively light but requiring at least some notetaking (one puzzle in particular feels like an Ocarina of Time reference to me).

Overall, I think that it would have been better to slow down and take the game in at a relaxed pace rather than rushing for the competition, as this is a pretty mellow and chill game to settle down with; a good game to play while drinking warm cider, snuggled up on the couch when it rains or snows outside.

There are two other games by this author in the competition; I definitely am looking forward to them now!