Plantabi: Little Garden is one of those simulation and management games that feels like it has an awkward start before blooming into something bigger. This means it might take a bit before it blossoms on the Switch, but it can be satisfying if you take the time to play with it. 

Things start in Plantabi: Little Garden with a brief tutorial teaching you how to buy and sell a simple aloe plant. There are no lavish backgrounds. You don’t even get a room. You only have a blue background and a number of UI elements that, on the Switch, note the hotkeys for faster Plantabi: Little Garden actions. Your goal is to take care of the plants (which costs coins) to ensure they flourish (which grants you coins). After an amount of time passes, a request will come in on your “phone” that explains one plant someone needs. You can then drag and drop it at the store to sell it. Continuing the process nets you more money and unlocks more plants and customization items in the store, which lets you start really building things up.

The thing about it is that your first hour of playing Plantabi: Little Garden on the Switch is probably going to be a bit boring. This is because given the costs of the plants you need to grow and customization items like tables, shelves, walls, windows, floors, and decorations mean you need to wait a while to even get enough money to splurge. Not to mention the time it takes to get them to the heart levels for requests. 

Said requests also seem to come in randomly, so you need to have a wealth of plants available at all times at various levels of development, to ensure you can quickly fill one to gain new unlocks and improve the area. Honestly, this was the most frustrating part of the process for me. Even though you can greatly speed up the passage of time in-game, it means that you’re then frantically clicking to keep up with criteria. 

I’d say Plantabi: Little Garden really clicked with me about three hours in, as that’s when I’d invested enough time into the Switch game to really make the experience worth it. I had a good amount of money by that point. I was able to really build up and decorate the room. I’d set the passage of time to 1x speed, so I could really appreciate my set-up and adjust things as needed. 

As long as you are willing to give Plantabi: Little Garden time to grow, I think it’s worth giving it a try on the Switch. Especially since this is a small project from a single indie developer. Considering it’s also a $6.99 budget game, it’s something to keep on the back burner, tend to maybe fifteen minutes a day, and appreciate as you see your little room and selection of plants grow. 

Plantabi: Little Garden is available on both the Nintendo Switch and PC. 

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