I got this as part of the puzzle Humble Bundle, and honestly this game by itself makes that bundle worth it. It's a bit reminiscent of the witness, except much better designed and in 2D.
It's generally quite clear when a puzzle you encounter requires kowledge gained from a different area of the map, and these more advanced puzzles are almost never the first one you encounter when entering an area (the only exception I've found to this is the lone tree on the lake in the west of the map, which didn't strike me as particularly complicated on first approach and which is basically incomprehensible without visiting the orchard area, an area that is particularly poorly connected so you are unlikely to stumble upon. This is made worse by the lake tree being extremely present on the map, giving the impression that it is an area in its own right).
It achieves this by approaching the layout more like a metroidvania than an open world - puzzles that require knowledge from different zones are placed and sometimes locked behind puzzles that don't, regardless from which direction you enter an area - shortcuts between more advanced corners of each area are generally only unlocked after completing puzzles in both areas.
The slight downside to this is that the map can be frustrating to navigate sometimes, since adjacent areas might not be connected at all or require you to essentially zigzag up/down stairs or around fences and the like. [spoiler]This is mitigated somewhat by the fast travel system, though, which I only realized wasn't just a map on the third day of playing lol[/spoiler].
The introductory puzzles of each area do a great job of explaining the mechanics without directly telling you them - they typically start off with a puzzle which is so small that random guessing can give you the right solution, while visually giving you some idea about what the mechanic is about. They then continue giving puzzles that progressively rely on a more specific understanding of the rules, allowing you to start with a vague idea of how the mechanic sort of works and end up with knowing the exact rules. [spoiler]for example the number mechanic starts you off with just dots that have to be seperated - you might interpret these as being specific tetris shapes you have to make, or as tiles that need to be seperate in general, etc. it then presents you with puzzles where it is impossible to seperate them all to teach you that they can be connected, etc.[/spoiler]
Basically each time it presents you with a puzzle where a misinterpretation of the rules leads to a contradiction, whilst being a relatively simple puzzle to make it not too difficult to figure out what the correct interpretation is.
The mechanics are different enough to warrant different methods of solving them, with some mechanics simply being about perception, some being more geared towards geometric intuition, and some being solveable in a similar fashion as minesweeper. In general the larger puzzles can be approached systematically, although some intuition and insight will help expedite the process.
The marker tool helps with this, although having more colours available would be nice, especially on the walking puzzles (since I want to be able to mark "must be on" and "must be off" while being able to try things on the board. Normally I use the marker to mean "I know this tile must be what I set it to" and then just turn the tile on/off, allowing me to play around with the remaining tiles. Walking puzzles make this impossible since I can't toggle arbitrary tiles, so I only end up being able to mark either what tiles I know need to be on or which tiles I know need to be off, not both). I was also inclined to pull out pen and paper for the puzzles in the black area, though with those it ended up being the case that [spoiler]at least one of the partial puzzles was very restrictive, so marking another partial puzzle on top of the last one was sufficient. [/spoiler]
Oh lastly the more hidden puzzles were kinda fun, but it would be nice to have some sort of indication of when a hidden section is done, both so you don't waste time looking and also for a bit of that victorious feeling.
