The Abbess Garden

[b][i]Запись из травника аббатства Пор-Рояль:[/i][/b] [i]Растение медлительное, неповоротливое, сухое. Произрастает в болотистой почве на святой земле, датируется XVII веком, нуждается в компании янсенистов, мушкетёров, ассасинов и шпионов, криптозоологических шифров; предпочитает людей, ведущих исключительно богословские диспуты и через слово душнящих.[/i] [i]Также принятие эликсиров из растения не рекомендовано ожидающим активного геймплея: его здесь нет.[/i] В действительности мы имеем визуальную новеллу с элементами садоводства, замаскированную под монастырский травник. Большую часть времени вы будете читать, переводить, слушать как вокруг говорят о благодати, шпионаже, желудочных болях и политическом разложении Европы (в перерывах проверять состояние высаженных роз). Но только в перерывах. Английский язык в игре сложный. С кучей архивных терминов, церковных верооборотов, архаизмов, французских вставок и, конечно, ботанической латынью. Политический сленг вперемешку с реальной историей, порой нужно гуглить если не проходили углублённый курс периода позднего правления Людовика XIII в университете. Фразы красиво переплетаются друг с другом, и во многом потому игра (новелла) и работает. Если убрать из неё тяжёлый, вычурный, почти театральный язык — исчезнет половина атмосферы. Нарратив, классно выстроенный через словесность, неплохо демонстрирует способ мышления эпохи, периодически забавно разбавляя всё современными вог-вставками. Проект сделан малым количеством людей, но с любовью. Тут много телесности (грязь, сырость, боль в суставах, шалфей, перегной, пальцы в чернилах) и история движется медленно, не медитативно и не уютно, а прям меееееееедленно. Как хорошая монастырская жизнь, где политический кризис не так важен как посадка валерианы. Аббатство у авторов получилось живым, в нём не только молятся, но и прячутся, шифруются, влюбляются, предают. Вероятно, единственная в своём роде игра, где в качестве напряжённой сцены криптоанализа центральная роль отведена совпадающим с серединой слогов лепесткам. Для прохождения потребуется терпение, а не реакция. [i]Берём на собственный страх и риск, ворожеи в живых не оставляем.[/i]

I tried, I wanted to love it. But the implementation of Unity was simply awful. While I understand wanting a 3D setting for the garden, the incomplete animations, static foreground, and poor UI left me a little unhappy. If you're going to use an engine that enables all kinds of complex pathing and elements, it is poor form not to. The fact that I discovered a flower, not the iris, first but then continued getting the "new flower!" notification and then having to retrace my steps because the game was unable to recognize completed tasks after finding the iris was also a problem with initial implementation. There may be a great story here, but 2D or even 2.5D might have been a viable environment, since there wasn't any need for 3D rendering after all. I will come back after patches, but at the moment I do not recommend this game.

This game has a lot of charm and potential. If you love indie games and would like to spend a cozy evening snooping on other people's secrets and snipping flowers, give this one a shot! Let's start with the highlights: History: 5/5 stars. The team did their homework, and you can tell. The circumstances that are referenced, the clothes, the selection of plants: everything matches the period and setting and creates a cohesive experience. Gameplay loop: It is relaxing to tend to the many plants in the garden, to replant and rearrange and watch it blossom. I like the seasonal changes and the wild plants that pop up, too. It's also fun to see that there are consequences for overwatering the plants: as there should be! Music: Relaxing and immersive Writing: Well-chosen amount of dialogue, spaced out so the exchange feels rewarding UI: Neat and intuitive Tutorial: pretty self-explanatory (except for the fact that you can almost plant everywhere, which confused me at first, because I was getting ready to shovel pits for every seed I planted) As with every indie game, there are little bumps and edges (as can be expected), but it is fun to play, and as for me, I'm off to play some more. If we want the industry to change, it starts here... by planting a little seed of hope. Be proud of what you have done! A fellow dev

I really wanted to like The Abbess Garden, I don’t usually volunteer or request to review games unless I think I’ll enjoy them, so I went into this one fairly optimistic. Unfortunately, it just didn’t click for me. I found the overall experience fairly boring, and both the gameplay and visuals felt overly simplistic at times. While the idea behind the game has potential, I struggled to stay engaged with what it was offering. After a while, I found it harder and harder to keep playing. The slower pacing, dialogue-heavy sections, and basic gameplay loop made it difficult for the game to hold my attention. That said, I can still see how this game might appeal to some players. If you enjoy slower narrative-driven experiences with light gardening mechanics, it may still be worth checking out. For me though, it just never managed to fully grab my attention, and I ultimately ended up putting it down because it simply wasn’t doing much for me. Check out the full review here The Abbess Garden Review - Not Quite As Expected - Screen Hype https://share.google/0MmGUGkcUT5FTy6Zo

I really wanted to like this but it has awful controls and animations.

To preface, I'm a fellow game dev friend of the developer behind this & I've followed the journey over the years. Because of our relation, I got to play the game a little early to provide feedback. I've managed to play through the entire game and generally had a great time with it. There is an impressive amount of content for a humbly made game if you take your time and don't skip through the historically faithful dialogue. I admire how smartly scoped this game is. The developer had limited funds and time to make this game, and made sure to deliver despite big restrictions. Just releasing a game is a huge accomplishment, most never reach this stage. Because of the humble scoping, the game doesn't "squeeze juice" out of every interaction and is a fairly minimalistic experience. But I wouldn't say it suffers for it and it remains charmingly cozy. Almost meditative at times, especially with the gorgeous harpe-tinged soundtrack. For me, it brings back nostalgia for simpler gaming times and scratches the gardening itch that Viva Piñata once did. One recommendation I would make is to turn off animations after your first few seasons. It makes harvesting, watering and digging up soil types much less of a chore, which is pretty essential as your garden grows in ambition. This is a perfect little game for anyone who enjoys games with a slower pace and is open to a flare of historical narrative and textbook-accurate botany peppered in. It's clearly a labour of love and I am delighted to have had a part, however small, in helping the developer achieve their vision. Highly recommend this.

This game is absolutely charming! The music is really lovely, and I love the facts about medicinal plants. I hadn't expected an entire historical espionage B-plot, but I love how it's adjacent to the abbey and how it pulls the story along. I was absolutely THRILLED to find a canonical sapphic romance in this game too! As a queer woman who loves medieval history, I'm so excited and happy and grateful that this story exists. And I really love how much it talks about the relationship between England/Spain/France historically too. Big recommend!!

Pros: Settings help you make the character faster or slower and change whether or not you want to see the animations. This helps with making the game go faster. Teaches you a lot about not just the culture and politics of the time but the plants and what needs they require as well. Also teaches you about what the plants were used for, especially for herbal remedies. Interesting plot with a lot of political intrigue, lots of research went into it. The gardening aspect is really meditative and calming. Cons: Some of the plot went over my head because of how deep it was. I think you need to be somewhat knowledgeable regarding European history to understand it properly. The animations and art for the planting section is somewhat janky, I think the devs will probably improve on this with future games. The characters only have one profile drawn, so when they’re crying or angry they’re still smiling on the screen which puts you off the plot. Finished? Yes Steam Achievements? Had to go back to play again to get it all. Steam Deck? Yes, a little awkwardness. Rating? 7/10 My curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45865425-CozyAriGames/ Full videos on Youtube 

Alright, so I've been following this game since Edwige began posting on Reddit about it, getting the newsletters, the whole bit. It's great to see the full game released. First, it's a well-researched historical game (though the language can be anachronistic, with characters saying 'Ok'... but then they're French characters speaking English, without knowing English, at a time when English itself would've been quite different, so let's move on). Second, you get to garden! It's similar to some of the mechanics of other gardening/farming games, while also being a bit different. The plants indeed need different amounts of water, different types of soil, some need companion plants or more space... and getting it wrong results in dead plants. So there are consequences for over-watering, under-watering, or incorrect soil usage! Third, there's plot. You don't get to choose dialogue options, you're just along for the ride. There are queer romances, political intrigue, spy drama! Yes, the plot has been made up, but it's based on real life events from mid-17thC France. Overall, I really enjoyed the game. There were some typos, the language was, as I said earlier, anachronistic at times, and I completed it in less than the 6 hours predicted. But I could've spent more time cultivating the garden a bit better and getting the last two achievements, which I missed somehow. It was still a really cool game which felt different from what we usually get here, and I highly recommend it for history and botany nerds.

Relaxing game with a nice combo of gardening and an intriguing story! I enjoyed the freedom of the arranging my garden. The character illustrations are very charming as well!