The Gardens Between

Since this is a short game, I’ll try to be more concise with my thoughts. Since this is such a short game, there’s bound to be spoilers and I think this game is better played blind as you can then piece together what’s happening yourself as you go along. The Gardens Between is a beautiful game about reliving and reframing your memories with a loved one that you’re going to miss due to some kind of life transition/change. Gameplay The gameplay is pretty simple. You solve puzzles to complete memory fragments that then combine to form a memory to add context to the relationship. Memory fragments are set up with a few different puzzle mechanics, and are set up as a hill to climb that has a shrine at the top. Lighting your lantern and moving the lantern to the shrine completes a fragment. Within these fragments, you can see glimpses of what the fragment might represent, some looser and easier to piece together than others. I enjoyed the simplicity of the mechanics, easy to get a grasp on but not so easy that you don’t need to pay attention. The mechanics are set up in a way that encourages players to assess their environment, leading to the player noticing more of the implicit story…

The core mechanic here is deceptively simple. Walk forward, walk backward, watch the world bend around your choices, and somehow that turns into some of the most satisfying puzzle solving I've done in ages. No combat, no fail state, no rat swarms trying to end my life for once. Just vibes, time manipulation, and a lantern that badly wants to go home. Every single island in this game looks like it was hand painted by someone who really understood that childhood memories are less about specific events and more about vague warm feelings and a slightly ominous soundtrack. The visual storytelling does so much heavy lifting that I don't think there's a single line of dialogue in the entire game, and somehow I still teared up more than once, which feels unfair and also deeply effective. Underneath the puzzles is a genuinely tender story about growing up, friendship, and letting go, which I did not expect to feel this much about a game where my primary skill is walking in circles around a floating rock while spinning a music box.

Imaginative & fun with a charming story behind it. Very simple controls, with inventive mechanics. Thoroughly enjoyed playing through this & may replay it to find more of the Easter eggs. It's not a particularly long game, but equally it doesn't outstay its welcome or start to feel grindy or repetitive. Recommended!

This kind of game is exactly why I keep trying out these smaller titles. Beauty.

A really inventive puzzle game - the mechanics are great, the music is lovely, and the story is really sweet.

No. I hated this game. Most uninteresting and annoying game ever. Such a waste of time, I didn't even continue to get the rest of the achievements.