Approximate amount of time to 100%: My guess would be around 35 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 7/10 (Especially the "Perfect!" achievement)
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1 full playthrough and creative mode, but I would recommend 2 playthroughs (one on easy/medium, and a second one on hard)
Is there a good guide available: Not yet, but I'm sure there will be in the future. Check the steam guide section.
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: Yes, Perfect! is missable because no item may get ruined and no animal is allowed to die, gladly the game only saves when it is a new day, so you could quit the game when something like that happens
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: Yes, there is an achievement for playing through the story on the hardest difficulty
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No
Horticular is such a cute game, but don't get fooled by its cuteness as it doesn't have to be easy! Especially not if you want to hunt down all the achievements, but I'll come back to that later on in this review.
The developer shared a post on Twitter, a few weeks before the release, that Horticular is a bit of a cross between Rollercoaster Tycoon and Viva Pinata, and I can see that. It starts with the music on the startup screen, it isn't from RCT but you can totally hear the influence of it. Managing your garden and generating income while also reforming your garden reminds me of the managing aspects of RCT. The viva Pinata part is even more clear: create the right environment for an animal and it will visit your garden. If you have the right spot for it you can let them join your garden and they will live there from now on.
In the beginning, it is unknown what are the requirements for an animal to join your garden, however, the more animals of the same type you added, the more info you already get, but if you have enough of that type it will just show you what the requirements are. I expect that there will pop up many guides on the internet on the requirements, so if you can't figure one out, you have a high chance of finding it on the Steam forum or the guide section on Steam. The Discord channel is also a good place to get information on specific animals.
In Horticular there are enemies, who visit on some nights. They are quite evil and will do their best to destroy your garden. Gladly you have a spell which you can cast on them to hurt them, just be careful where to cast it, as that spell will also hurt your animals. Later on, you can also let your helpers learn that spell so they can help out defeating those horrible creatures. This attack spell isn't the only spell you will learn, there are many spells. A few examples from early on are healing plants, but also healing and curing animals.
You earn money in Horticular for placing items in your garden, however the more of that item you place down, the less money that specific item generates. So it is a bit of a balancing act as well as
I give Horticular 4 out of 5 stars.
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