The Secrets of Sylvan Gardens

The Secrets of Sylvan Gardens is a choice-based fantasy game featuring a PC who has been feeling a mysterious draw to the titular house and grounds. They resolve to learn more about Sylvan Gardens to figure out why they keep finding themself there in the middle of the night; in the course of their research they solve some puzzles and uncover some hidden pieces of the town’s history. The puzzles were pretty well constructed and I generally enjoyed them, although sometimes it strained credulity a little that no one else had ever figured out a particular riddle.

The PC also meets a variety of characters who have curses or other problems that can be solved only by particular magical plants; they can befriend all of these people and choose to romance one. I appreciated the range of ages that these characters spanned and the varied exploration of the impact that their magical difficulties had on their lives.

I did have some issues with the fuzziness of the worldbuilding. The game revolves around the historic home and gardens of a figure who’s positioned as a sort of early-Enlightenment proto-naturalist; she lived three hundred years ago. At any rate, attitudes to magic vs. science are definitely post-Enlightenment at this point. And yet in terms of tech levels, we seem to still be at the ren faire; you don’t so much as see a typewriter. When you go stargazing, the constellations are the same as the ones in the real world; it seems there’s Greek mythology, although it’s unclear if there’s a Greece. There are also multiple fantasy races here; there are some more unusual ones that get a lot of time and focus devoted to how they fit into this world, but some of the more “standard” fantasy races, like elves, just get some gestures in the direction of discrimination against them by humans possibly existing and not a lot of examination of what that means, even if you’re playing as an elf. But it’s pretty clear we’re not really meant to think about any of this that hard; I’m just a nitpicker.

Sylvan Gardens is created with Ink but with a good deal of customization, including a history function that was very helpful to me in some puzzles (I didn’t take notes and maybe should have). It has an appealing visual design and watercolor illustrations; along with the soundtrack, these create a gentle, pleasant ambience.

All in all, the game may not be quite to my personal tastes, but it’s substantial (it took me two hours and will probably take most people longer) and highly polished, and will likely appeal to fans of character-focused cozy fantasy.