Quite Contrary (How Does Your Garden Grow)

A relaxing experience for a trying time, though I suspect I would have enjoyed it whenever I discovered it: Who can resist the combination of gardening, cute visitors and random items? The art style is colorful and whimsical and the gameplay is simple; it's reminiscent of Neko Atsume but without the need to buy the food and toys, letting the player focus on enjoying the game and collecting all the visitors, seeds and items. It was sometimes difficult to move items when they were piled up or layered with the visiting cats/birds/fairies and I would have liked a save function to continue from session to session, but the streamlined mechanics and quick flower-growing cycle means that starting over each time isn't a big problem. All of the visitors were cute (and a lot of the collectable items were too!) and many of them made me chuckle; trying different combinations of foods and items is entertaining, with the only real "drawback" being that the garden is too small for all the flowerpots and items I want to put out!

I find this game thoroughly charming, the perfect thing to de-stress with when all you want to do is arrange some flowers and see some cute cats and birds (and fairies). Being able to see your notes as they appear in the journal gives it a sense of accomplishment and they're frequently funny as well; thanks for a great game!