The Gardens Between
The Gardens Between is a single-player adventure-puzzle game about time, memory and friendship. Best friends Arina and Frendt fall into a series of vibrant, dreamlike island gardens peppered with everyday objects from their childhood. Together they embark on an emotional journey that examines the significance of their friendship. Manipulate time to solve puzzles and reach the apex of each isle. Follow the duo as they unpack and explore their precious moments spent together, lighting up constellations and illuminating threads of a bittersweet narrative. Features Vibrant, storybook-inspired art style Dreamy tale of adventure, friendship and growing-up Gorgeous single player experience with a meaningful personal story Bespoke ingenious puzzles require the manipulation of time to solve Accessible design; simple controls, and no text, speech, time pressure or complex UI Relaxing, ambient soundtrack by feature-artist Tim Shiel Play in full detail on your gorgeous 4k screen
Game Discussion
Chief 0
Got it for Nintendo Switch. Enjoyed the level design and general atmosphere.
Gameplay itself is slow-paced, though puzzles are challenging enough and have some fresh ideas, so it doesn't feel like you were solving them already.
A great family-friendly game overall.
Steam User 11
2+ hours to complete, The Gardens Between is a memorable puzzle adventure game about Arina and Frendt; two childhood friends. Explore about 20 islands created by their childhood memories together, from when they first met to some rather fantastic adventures. The goal is to carry a lantern to the end of the islands, with Arina having the ability to carry and use the lantern to dispel fog, and Frendt being able to clear the way of obstacles by moving them forwards or backwards in time.
A very charming experience and well deserving of its reviews, The Gardens Between is an easy game to love and an even easier game to recommend.
Steam User 6
What a beautiful game !
Wonderful puzzles and such a wonderful story behind our wandering ....
Highly recommended !
Steam User 6
very cute puzzle game with creative gameplay mechanics. definitely worth your time!
Steam User 4
Great game all in all and interesting potential. Lots of pros, but 2 major cons:
1. It's super easy. Almost no challenge.
2. It's super short... with almost no replay value.
Still very worth trying for a novel concept done right. Next game might be deeper and longer.
Steam User 4
The Gardens Between is an interesting and cute-looking puzzle game, with a pretty neat time-loop mechanic! The developers is an Australian studio, who previously only has made mobile games.
Storywise there isn't much told, besides that you play as two kids who has been friends for a long time. One of them is moving away, so you get to play through their memories from the years of their friendship. What it does bring rather is your own feelings of nostalgia for perhaps a better and easier time, reminding you of how you as a kid played around and explored the world (well, your nearby neighborhood).
The gameplay is what is interesting in this game, it uses a time loop where if you move forward time moves forward and if you move backwards... yeah you get it. This makes it a bit tricky solving certain puzzles, but that's what I liked about this game. Sometimes you had to time specific things, sometimes you just had to figure out which steps to take. I haven't seen anything like it before, at least not in this context.
I can definitely recommend this game to any puzzle game fans! I do hope the developers release more games, as I would love to see what they will do next.
Steam User 5
Story: Mostly unappealing, although the ending is somewhat better. The story is presented with pure "Show, don't tell" where you interpret it based on environment and Arina/Frendt action.
Gameplay: Overall the gameplay is great and has tons of unique modification for 1.5-3 hours of gameplay. However, there are few puzzles (such as puzzle which involve moon) which can't be solved without thinking out of the box and few puzzle contain element which isn't needed to solve the puzzle.
Graphic: Amazing eye catching visual which emphasize the world/story. Although the animation could be better.
Sound: Mediocre/nothing special.
Technical issue: None. In addition, the native Linux version works without any problem.
The Gardens Between offer superb visual and gameplay. But considering weak story/soundtrack and short gameplay duration, fan of puzzle game should wait for sale/discount. Those who're looking for emotional/story-rich game should seek different game.
Steam User 6
The Gardens Between is a beautiful game about friends and memories with them. A slight flashback and a hit of nostalgia with a simple visual, a wholesome experience and a small tear remembering old days is what you can expect from this small but sweet game called The Gardens Within. :)