Hidden Memories Of The Gardens Between Is A Chilled Hands-Off Puzzler

The Gardens Between is one of those indie darlings that absolutely enraptured just about everyone who played it, and was apparently released nearly seven years ago in 2018. Ignoring the panic attack that timeline has caused for anyone who played the flat version, I never expected to see this gem pop up in virtual reality. There's a bit of a trend there, really, but that's a conversation for another day. Today is for Hidden Memories of The Gardens Between, a VR reimagining of it.

The Steam Next Fest demo is almost upsettingly short, but it offers a solid feel for what to expect. This is a game about Arina and Frendt, but not one in which you control them, not really. Instead, you mostly control time. You can make time go forward, and you can make it go backwards. Generally speaking, you'll always kick off with forwards, and you then have to watch as the two childhood friends make their way around the cute dioramas they find themselves on.

Your actual job is then to figure out what boils down to being one puzzle, but one that becomes increasingly complex as you go on. Your aim is to get a pink orb inside a lantern, and then have the pair carry it to a portal at the top of each island. This starts off incredibly simple, of course, but every level adds a new layer or wrinkle. One of the first of these is that while some flowers will have the orb you need, others will take it from you as the characters go past.

Thankfully, there are special chimes you can get the characters to interact with that can close or open these flowers, so strategic timing and planning can make sure you don't lose the orb you require. That is, as long as you don't mind scrubbing backwards and forwards through time, and that's initially simple. By the end of the demo, you're manipulating time to send a box that can carry the lantern into a video game, then rewinding time for just the video game to open a box within that video game. You then rewind again for everyone to get the box back out, pick up the lantern, and go on your merry way.

Items are also strewn throughout the levels that you can add to Arina's diary, which lets you not only watch as her creative talents bloom, but also find big moments in her life that help you better understand her. There are also some for you to just play about with because you're in VR, and if you don't decide to pick those up and muck around a bit, you'll actually feel like you're not doing much.

While the trailer shows additional motion control gestures like sawing wood, the demo's VR interactivity feels very stripped down and basic. To move time forwards or backwards, you just hold the analog stick right or left accordingly, and then to move the viewpoint. To get a character to interact with something, you just push the A button. If you're someone who sometimes struggles with VR controls, this won't be one of those moments.

Hidden Memories of The Gardens Between is an immensely charming game, one that has me quite excited to see it through fully when the time comes. While it's a lot more hands-off than many VR games, it could be a fantastic one to play with kids watching you cast it, a way to chill out before bed, or get your brain going in the morning. The vibes are truly immaculate, and as long as the puzzles can keep things fresh throughout the story itself, then this could be one of the next big VR puzzle games.