I'm a fan of Amy Kim Ganter who has been drawing the Reman Mythology for the past few years. When I found out that she illustrated for another game (her first was Diner Dash), I quickly went to download Plantasia and have a go at it. I must say that Plantasia looks deceptively easy with the cute smiley flowers all around. Believe me, though, when I say that it's not that simple.
In Plantasia, you play as Holly, a garden fairy. Her goal is to restore the gardens in a run-down estate. There are 2 game modes: Holly's Story and Garden Challenge. For both game modes, there are 5 gardens to restore, each garden having 10 levels each. Within each level, there are different flowers as well as pests and weeds that will challenge you.
In Holly's Story mode, Holly the Fairy has gone to a run-down estate owned by Jack. He has neglected it for a long time so the gardens are in a bad state. Flowers have died, weeds are everywhere, and the pests are annoyingly plentiful. The goal is to restore the garden by growing flowers and harvesting mana to recover the garden statues. There are two types of statues. One is the normal goal where all the statues need building to proceed to the next level. The other statue is the expert goal where more mana is needed than with normal goal statues. There is a time limit too when you have to build all the normal goal statues so spend your mana and plan your time wisely.
In the Garden Challenge, harvest flowers for mana that you'll need to extend the clock's timer. This isn’t that easy as you progress through the higher levels. Also, as you progress up, you will be unlocking flowers that are not found in Holly's Story mode. In the Forest Challenge, I got to the highest score of the day! Well, then again, I earned rank 42 of all time. It was a lot of watering and minding the sneaky worms that creep up and start eating the flowers. It unlocked the budling pansy. With other Garden Challenges, you will unlock other types of flowers.
In the Greenhouse, you get to display all the flowers that you found in both game modes, including the ones that need to be unlocked in the Garden Challenge. There are 6 different types of flowers. Pansies remind me of baby children because of their cheery faces. Perennials are like teenagers in that they look hesitant and unsure of themselves and yet, are still plucky and daring. Berries are rougher and tougher and yet ever ready for any challenge. Cacti look very serious and bogged down by the ages and tough surroundings. Vegetables are like the old folks, behind a secretive smile they look out at you from crinkly faces. Roses are the aloof ones and stand proud and beautiful, but are the most vulnerable to weeds and pests out of all the flower groups.
In each flower group, the flowers are further divided along 6 different colors. The color type will define the growth speed, resistance to weeds, ability to retain water for less watering, resistance to pests, and the amount of mana obtained from the flower. Some are a combination of 2 or 3 traits but you don't have much of a choice because you buy random seeds.
You'll start off each game with a basic set of tools, i.e. flower seeds, a spade, a water can, insect spray. You can buy more stuff as you earn more mana throughout the game. Also, there's a nifty wheelbarrow spell that you can buy and use it to move flowers around. Oh, and there are rocks that you'll need to clear before you can plant in that particular spot. Clearing rocks is a fast way to earn mana as it can take awhile for a flower to grow. If you see some colored rings on the ground, grow flowers there to earn more mana during harvesting. You can also grow vegetables. Harvest them and they will leave behind colored rings for your flowers.
In between planting, growing, and harvesting flower mana, you also have to keep an eye out for insect pests as well as weeds. Insects will come in many different forms and your insect spray can be upgraded in quantity as well as the strength of the chemical. Depending on how far you've upgraded your insect spray, you can zap them all at once or zap them a few times. The most difficult pests to get rid of are the beetles although the fast moving spiders are also a pain. As for weeds, you'll need a weed fork to do it. The bigger the weed, the more times you'll need to rake the weed. Weeds are nasty because they can deprive a flower out of its water.
Once you've reached certain levels, you start having the option to buy mass-spells that will spray your entire garden with insecticide and weed killers, as well as provide rain showers or stone-breakers. They're not cheap though so I usually go buy more weed rakes or insect spray and just spray all the pests.
It's fun having a go at gardening without actually going into the garden. Plantasia is a nice game for young kids and easy to play as well. It's simple to play yet challenging enough to keep you mesmerized.
Happy Gardening!
