Diving back into the casual puzzle adventure subgenre, I’ll admit that at a few points in the past they’ve been a pretty relaxing way to burn some time and stimulate some brain cells. One issue has been the fact that most of the ones I’ve played on the Switch feel like they’re really just conversions from quite a few years ago, so the video segments pushing their story tend to look pretty awful. If you can get over that hump, you may still get some mileage out of them.

Flower of Hope absolutely leans more into the fantasy side of things, featuring a world of magical creatures, some garish costumery, and a fair amount of fancy flowing hair. But all is not right, and you’ve been summoned to this magical place to see if you’ll be able to save their familiars who have taken ill. To the game’s credit, this story and format at least feel a little different from the norm in the space.

Similarly, I’d say the array of puzzles included here are a bit more robust and distinctive than usual. Yes, for the most part they’re still some variations of puzzles you’ve likely seen before, but it feels like the developers at least took on the responsibility to try to keep things a little more interesting than usual. There also seemed to be a little more inventory item usage than normal, and I think that also helped add to the feeling of it being more distinct than is typical. If you don’t mind the theming, this may be one of the better recent choices for the casual puzzle adventure game enthusiasts out there.