Hidden In My Paradise, Relaxing and Charming

 *Note: I received the game for free for my honest review. Thank you to Ogre Pixel and Stride PR for the Nintendo Switch game key! 

I've liked all the Ogre Pixel games I've played so far. Lonesome Village and Tiny Sticker Tale were a lot of fun for me, so I was excited to check out their next game, Hidden In My Paradise. One thing I will point out is that in the settings for all of their games the music and sound is very loud for some reason. Luckily, it's easy to adjust it to a comfortable volume which I did quickly. Hidden In My Paradise is a hidden object game with little missions within each level. There's a quick easy to follow tutorial at the start with a fairy helper explaining what to do. 

Learning how to find hidden objects. 

The toolbar has pictures of the objects you're supposed to find. I thought it was pretty cool that you can move the items in the picture around when searching for objects. The game encourages it in fact because some things are hidden behind other objects like trees. You can also change the time of day, another thing the game encourages because certain items show up better at sunset or evening. This is where the mini missions come in. In each level, you have two photos called snaps. You have to examine the photo closely, then find the objects in the picture, and then place them to match the photo so you can take your own photo. If done correctly, you get a little green checkmark and some bonus coins. There are also chests hidden within each scene that also give you coins. 

Learning about snaps. 

There is a shop with a gacha capsule machine. Sometimes you find gacha tickets which you can use on the machine to get different decorations. You can also use your bonus coins to buy various decorations. These can all be used in the sandbox mode to create your own scenes and hidden object puzzles if you like in sandbox mode. 

Getting things from the gacha machine. 

Sandbox mode is another feature of the game I found to be a lot of fun. Not only can you decorate your own scene and choose objects to be hidden, you can share them online with others. You can also check out their scenes and play them finding all the hidden objects. I had a lot of fun checking this out and it was great seeing all the different types of scenes other players came up with. 

Checking out sandbox mode. 

Needless to say, the art for Hidden In My Paradise is adorable and true to Ogre Pixel form, full of whimsy and tons of lovely things to find including hidden fairies in each scene. It's a lot of outdoor scenes, but no two are alike. Ranging from camping in a pretty forest to a nighttime garden full of animal friends there were so many wonderful things to see in each hidden object puzzle. If I had to critique anything, it's the controls. Picking things up and moving the camera are the same button and sometimes when I was trying to pick an item up, it would drift and I would accidentally click the camera. It's not a big deal, but it's noticeable. I'm hoping in a future update they adjust that so it plays a little better. Hidden In My Paradise isn't very long; with doing everything in the main puzzle area I finished in about five hours. The nice thing is you can play as much or as little as you want, playing a few puzzles at a time or playing them all. There's no pressure and no rush making it a great relaxing and charming game. Ogre Pixel gave us another terrific indie gem. 

One of my favorite scenes, nighttime garden. 

*Hidden In My Paradise is available to play on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Mobile

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Mothergamer Plays Wylde Flowers

 A lot of friends recommended Wylde Flowers to me because of my love of cute farm sims and relaxing games. Right from start Wyld Flowers had me hooked. You play as Tara, who has left the city life to come try out farm life. Her grandma Hazel is a great guide for the start of the game explaining how to plant crops, how to fish, the importance of getting to know her neighbors, and how to make magic potions and spells. That's right. The small town of Fairhaven is home to witches and that includes Tara's grandma. 

Tara ready to learn farming from Hazel. 

The fact that there's magic and a coven of witches adds an interesting layer to Wylde Flowers. I loved being able to gather wild herbs and flowers for crafting potions in my cauldron. You can unlock more spells and recipes as you go. There's also cooking in the game and as you improve friendships and work on a romance, sometimes they'll give you their favorite recipe to try. Speaking of romance, I felt so seen as a queer Asian person seeing the diversity of all the characters and the queer romance options. I appreciated the understanding that there are all kinds of people in the world and Wylde Flowers showcased this in such a beautiful way. 

Crafting some magic things! 

I did like that you could adjust the settings for how fast time goes. In the normal setting, it goes by pretty quickly, but in the relaxed setting you can take your time getting your daily tasks done and talking to everyone. You can adjust it at any time so if you need to speed time up to get certain events to happen you can. 

Having a walk in the town square. 

One issue I feel the game has is a bit of slow pacing and a bit of unbalance when it comes to upgrading your farm. It takes a long time to even get some of the materials and money needed to rebuild things on the farm such as a chicken coop and a bigger garden. There's a lot of logging and mining involved which is fine. However, I found I ran out of energy really quickly and would have to either replenish it with food or just call it quits for the day. You can sell a lot of the cooked dishes you make for a nice chunk of money or you can do some odd jobs on the community bulletin board which will give you money or items you need for things. Sometimes I would have no idea what was needed for things so I would have to look it up and at times that could feel a little frustrating, but the game's story and ambience is so charming I didn't mind that much. 

Chopping some trees to build some things on the farm. 

There are of course all sorts of cute animals in Wylde Flowers including an adorable cat and yes you can pet them and all the animals. The cat is the first animal that shows up and you can feed and cuddle them. The chickens are the easiest animal to get after that once you have the chicken coop built. The story itself is interesting with a bit of a mystery to solve thrown in. Wylde Flowers had me invested to the point I kept telling myself let's play one more in game day. With all the things to do, the story, the characters, and the relaxing vibes Wylde Flowers is an indie gem that is delightful to play. 

Yes, you can pet the adorable kitty. 

*Wylde Flowers is available to play on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Apple Arcade

Join our community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer