Edit: Spoilers are now open!

Prior Message:

Welcome to the Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club Year 3! Our 13th game of 2024 is Botany Manor. The target completion date is July 1, 2024.

We ask that until that date you use the forum software to mark any spoilers, either story based or mechanical, in the discussion below. Ideally the bulk of the discussion will occur after July 1, but if you want to comment before then you are welcome to so long as the spoilers are marked. We ask that if you leave a comment before that date you also come back to the thread after it to read other people’s comments and respond to them, though of course we cannot force you to do so.

All are welcome to participate regardless of whether you have stated a preference to or not and there is absolutely no commitment. You do not have to finish the game to participate but please let us know if you have not.

You are also free to come back any time after the completion date and share your thoughts! This club is meant to be open to all whenever you want to join in the fun!

You can find out more about the Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club or suggest future games for it here.

What is Botany Manor?

An adventure/puzzle game where you explore a manor, find clues, and grow plants.

How long is Botany Manor?

How long to beat lists it as 3.5 hours long.

I played this back in April. I enjoyed it as a pretty chill puzzle game with a nice aesthetic. I wouldn't say the puzzles were overly challenging, but they weren't excessively easy either. I liked that the puzzles used a combination of environmental detective work and just basic logical deduction.

I had a really good time with this game. I did get really really stuck for awhile on the priest hole puzzle but that was because I missed the clue that told you to put in the year the manor was built, so kind of my fault. I didn't look it up though, which shows how much I enjoyed it.

Not the greatest adventure game but there are few actual problems with it, and everything from the look to the puzzles is extremely enjoyable and works well to create a real sense of cozy place. High on my list of cozy games. The puzzles could have been a bit harder but at least they were genuine puzzles, which a lot of adventure games don't have anymore. so I appreciated that.

One thing that I didn't love was the sheer amount of repetition in the feminist message. I have no issue with the underlying message, of course, other than the standard critique that focusing on a woman's ability to study botany in an academic setting is pretty class blind. But there were so many materials that just repeated this theme in uninteresting ways. It was especially a little frustrating because I'd pick up what I hoped was a clue only to see the same story beat repeated again in basically the same way. I'm not saying it should have been removed, I just wish it had less repetition or maybe just some more interesting writing around it. It did have a nice payoff in the end though.

But that's a tiny flaw in an overall really solid experience. My favorite puzzle was the one where you had to put the pig in the water to create rust. I thought the hints to that were kind of subtle. My least favorite was the priest hole, for obvious reasons.