The Secrets of Sylvan Gardens

As far as production values go, the Secrets of Sylvan Gardens probably has the best I’ve seen in IFcomp so far, although I’ve yet to finish the other two entries by the developer, as of this review. With beautifully drawn art, nice sound and aesthetically well-designed interface, this is one game which could pass for a professional product.

The writing and story is pretty strong, as you find yourself suffering from a strange condition, and being drawn to the place. There, you run into four other characters, each with their own secrets and also suffering from their own conditions. These characters have interesting backstories, and I also enjoyed learning more about them over time.

Gameplay largely consists of exploring the gardens and clearing every activity/conversation you can find. Once you’ve cleared a prerequisite set of activities for the day, the story allows you to move on to the next day. The puzzles, from what I’ve seen, are pretty straightforward for the most part. That said, the harder part comes from exploring every nook and cranny of the garden, trying to find some conversation or activity you haven’t cleared yet, so that you can advance to the next day. This part can get tedious, and the fact that there are multiple days also multiplies this frustration.

I was unable to finish this title under IFcomp’s mandatory two hour limit as I got stuck on day five. That wasn’t fun. I spent probably about a dozen attempts combing the entire map, turning over every single stone to find the one thing (maybe more?) which was keeping me from advancing to the next day. I could have continued playing beyond two hours for the purposes of this review, but I was simply tired and gave up. I’m not sure if I was really missing something, or ran into a showstopper bug. Either way, I think it would be helpful if a player could request a direct hint from the game on where to go next if they are hopelessly stuck. (I tried looking at the walkthrough, but the instructions were vague, and I couldn’t pin down what exactly I was missing, if it was even in the walkthrough at all.)

(Update: I communicated with the writer privately and they described what I was missing to advance the story. It seems that I missed something, rather than it being a bug. Still, the rating and my playthrough stands as I had already spent the max two hours on the game when I first wrote the review. Nevertheless, I appreciate the active communication.)

All in all, I still had fun with it. The production values were good, the story and writing was solid, puzzles were pretty fun even when they’re easy and the game has a lot of cozy and charming feelings in it. However, combing the gardens for everything you need to advance the story can feel tedious at times. Maybe I’ll come back and finish this one day. Anyway, I’m off to see the other games by this developer.