Hidden Memories of the Gardens Between is a game that doesn’t strive to be anything but its own game. In a gaming ecosystem where most new releases are remakes, new versions of old titles, sometimes a game like this comes along and invites you to sit back and remember when life was simpler.
The premise has 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. Lost in a mysterious realm where cause and effect are malleable, the friends find that time flows in all directions.
It is a tranquil single-player adventure game about time, memory and friendship. You don’t directly control the characters, but instead you interact with their environment and wind time back and forth to clear paths and solve puzzles.
It would be unfair of me to speak more about the plot in any detail. The enjoyment of this experience is to find out what is happening in real time, without any foreknowledge.
Thanks for the memories
The presentation is beautiful with a wonderful dreamlike and unique cartoonish graphical style. This is only further enhanced when played in PSVR. It really immerses you, and you genuinely feel like you are with them in their ethereal world, overlooking everything that is happening.
The puzzles are clever without straying into the frustrating realm. You can get stumped, but eventually there will be an “Eureka” moment and everything will fall into place. In VR, though, everything seems much more real. The ability to twist your neck and lean forward to notice details you would have missed playing on the television sucks you deeper into the experience.
A game like this is light on thrills but heavy on atmosphere. The soundtrack just feels right. It’s sad, it’s happy, it’s light, and it’s dark. It is just perfect for the game’s tone. There is no dialogue or text, and that enhances the impact of every part of the story unfolding.
Emotional Rollercoaster
Subjects like the innocence of youth, the confusion of becoming a teen, all the way to growing up, are all explored in silence except for the soundtrack, which tells more than words ever could. In VR, though, you aren’t just watching these memories; you are standing inside them. It’s a strange but intoxicating experience.
This is a relatively short experience, though and can be done in under 6 hours, but it’s better for it. The last thing this game would benefit from would be padding. It is a game I would recommend playing in short bursts rather than in one sitting. It can become repetitive, and the pace is slow as it is, but that is by design.
Simple but effective
Performance on PSVR2 is exceptional. Tracking is spot on, load times are practically non-existent, and the haptics in the Sense controllers give subtle feedback when you shift time or interact with objects. Nothing flashy, but it adds texture. It’s one of those cases where the hardware doesn’t get pushed to its limits, but it does exactly what it needs to for the experience.
So who’s this for? If you are expecting explosions and excitement, you’d best stay away from this. This is a game to sit down, with the lights down low and let yourself escape.
It’s not going to blow you away, but it might just leave you staring off into the middle distance afterwards, thinking about your own gardens of memory. And really, that’s worth something.
A beautifully crafted, quietly affecting puzzler. It won’t be for everyone. For the right player, though, it’s a delicate little gem.
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