Fiona Finch and the
Finest Flowers
Platform: Mac, Windows
There's been quite a spate of agriculturally related time management games coming out lately, so what would make one stand out in a crowded field (sorry for the pun)? How about going in a more relaxed, simulation direction? Take the frenzy down a notch, as it were, and create a game that is much more easy-going without losing the excitement inherent in the genre. 1morebee has done this with Fiona Finch and the Finest Flowers.
You begin as Fiona Finch, relaxed and happy with her new boyfriend (and gardening championship), explains the events of the past several months. Poor Fiona, she was drifting a bit, devastated by the loss of her father and unsure of what to do with her life. She returns from a trip to the Far East to visit dear Granny and gets involved in a local gardening competition, with the first prize not only a good deal of cash but a beautiful farm as well. Luckily Fiona is a dab hand with flowers, and is also quite the little genius at cross-breeding.
The basic premise of the game is simple: there are seven locations in which Fiona needs to create a smashing garden in order to win the prize. Between each location are cut-scenes moving along the story as Fiona finds enjoyment, peace, and a new love straight out of a cheesy paperback romance. Each area has its own unique features which can help or hinder the player when designing a garden layout. You begin with seeds from a few types of flowers, and it is up to you to dig out a patch, plant them, and watch them grow. Each level also has certain goals, such as planting a certain number of flowers, planting a certain variety of flowers, and earning enough money for the admission fee for that leg of the contest.
You earn money by cutting flowers and putting them in a nearby shed, where random passers-by can purchase them, giving you the money needed to get supplies. Because, of course, flowers need to be watered, fed, and rid of those pesky insects that will destroy them if allowed to go unchecked. As the game goes on you can add other things to the garden as well: beehives which pollinate the flowers and produce honey, blackberry bushes, grape vines, and apricot trees which add to the beauty of the garden and also add a variety of products that can be sold alongside the flowers. Even more upgrades allow you to sell wrapped flowers, perfumes made from the flowers, and a wide variety of products made from the honey and fruits such as juices, jams, and several different types of baked goods.
There are a couple of things that make Fiona Finch and the Finest Flowers different from other games of this type. For one thing, there are no timers in the main game, a level is finished when you reach all of the stated goals. The only hint of a timer the player will see is when special orders come in. Rather than just randomly gathering flowers or other goods for sale, a special order is for specific types of goods, and must be filled within a set time, or the customer goes away unhappy. These special orders are what really boost the income, giving the player necessary resources to purchase more upgrades to make the garden more efficient.
The best feature of this little gem is the player's ability to cross-breed certain types of flowers to create even more varieties, making the game feel a bit like the classic Plant Tycoon. In the sale shed is a machine that Fiona created which allows her to instantaneously cross-breed plants to see if they will create something new, which doesn't always happen. You begin with flowers provided by the judges, these are the only ones that can be crossed, and during all the watering, feeding, pruning, selling madness you can create beautiful new colors and varieties to add to your garden.
The learning curve is smooth and easy, beginning with the basics of space, a shovel, a few types of flowers, and a very helpful tutorial. Other gardening tools and extras are added slowly, allowing the player to incorporate them into the garden gradually rather than dumping everything on you at once. In the later levels where the area that Fiona has to work with is greater, movement around the space is accomplished by moving the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen to scroll around. Everything is accomplished with the click of a mouse, from placing objects to sending Fiona to water, cut, or deliver.
Analysis: Fiona Finch and the Finest Flowers is almost a cross between the Farm Frenzy games and Plant Tycoon. It lacks the, well, frenzy, of the farming sims while still being more action-oriented than Plant Tycoon, where waiting for flowers to grow could be like watching paint dry. A curious mix of relaxed and frantic, and it works beautifully.
Adding to the experience are the stunning visuals, from the backgrounds to the flowers, which look startlingly real and sway gently in the breeze. The cut-scenes have a much more hand-painted feel, and are as bright and vivid as the gardens. Special attention has been paid to the cute animations, whether it's the bees going about their daily business; the plant destroying insects descending; or Fiona herself, who, if you leave her standing around for too long, will wave at you to remind you that she's there to work. Calm music and realistic incidental sounds round out the experience.
If there is any downside to Fiona Finch and the Finest Flower, it is in the cross-breeding dynamic. Not every attempt will produce a new flower; and in the upper levels when you have a lot of varieties to breed from it can get a bit tedious trying to find the ones that will work. Fortunately there are also bonuses for filling out special orders in a timely manner that gift you with "recipes" for cross-breeds that will work. And, as stated previously, the story can get a bit... dramatic as it moves along.
Minor quibbles aside, there's a lot of fantastic casual gameplay here. Although there are only seven levels in story mode, each level takes progressively longer to complete, until a player might spend a couple of hours trying to complete all the goals. There's also a "free garden" mode, a more relaxed mode that allows you to have fun with any of the levels, creating imaginative plantings and just playing around with the pretty flowers.
Absorbing, engrossing, and hours and hours of fun await those who play Fiona Finch and the Finest Flower. Play as little or as much as you like, plan for efficiency or go nuts and create patterned, formal gardens. Enjoy the feeling of satisfaction from creating a lovely garden without the sunburn, dirt under your nails, or stinging insects. Just watch out for the weeds.
Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version
Mac OS X:
Download the demo
Get the full version
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
Fiona Finch and the Finest Garden ~ Tips&Tricks
General
There is no time limit for a garden, but for customer orders.
Also the times for watering, pruning, nurturing or giving pesticide are limited.
Each of the gardens of the contest contains 4 goals - you can see your goals top left on the screen.
1. (Blue bar- left side the requested, right side your actual amount) Having a requested amount of blooming flowers in your garden.
2. (Pink bar - left side the requested, right side your actual amount) Having a requested amount of crossbreed flowers
3. (Yellow bar - left side the requested, right side your actual amount) Having a requested amount of money
4. Not more than 2-3 weeds in your garden (not in Boot Camp, garden 1)(A red button with weed on top left indicates that you have more than the allowed amount of weed in your garden)
As soon as you reach all four of this goal the level will end.
You can go back to this garden anytime and go on playing.
On the map you can see, if you did all possible crossbreeding in this garden. If not you may go back, but when the level goal did not requested you to find all, you do not need to to end the game.
Moving soils, tools or machines will stop any other action as time running down for customer or plant demands, but does not affect the speed bonus. Same for shopping and crossbreeding.
While crossbreeding in the shed there is no progress in the garden.
Playing Fiona's Story will give you in each new garden at the beginning one of the machines/fruit plants/bee hives/kits you already purchased in the gardens before.
When you purchased for example 2 bee hives and 2 apricot trees in garden 5 you will start only with 1 bee hive and 1 apricot tree in garden 6.
You will always start with 3-5 basic seeds. During the level the jury will provide you 1-3 additional seeds.
It is completely up to you, where you place what.
Starting with garden 2 the scenes are scrollable, most time downwards and sideward.
A click with the right mouse button cancels the last action. As this you can cancel any action till the one, Fiona is already working at.
A flower will demand water, plant food and pesticide or pruning
You will see a circle timer above the plant - click it to serve the plant.
When you do not provide water, pesticide or plant food in time, the flower will disappear and you have to plant again.
When you do not prune a flower in time, it just will do not grow more.
Top soil always has to be given before planting.
Fiona
To make Fiona walk, simply click on the place, where you want to have her, the flower, the machine or the shed.
You will not need to click a kit for, for example, nurturing a flower in need. Simply click the flower and Fiona will get the needed ingredient and take care about the plant.
You can change different seeds or working steps by right clicking on the ground or click again the button for the object you used last.
Unlike most of the time management games, you will not be able to purchase an update for Fiona to permanently speeding up. But chaining will do the trick- as longer Fiona is moving, working, having a task, she will speed up. The speed bonus will stop as soon as you give Fiona a moment of rest. For this speed bonus it does not matter in which order Fiona is doing things - mixing all the different tasks will give you the speed bonus as well as doing the same a view times in a row.
Fiona will earn different skills during the game - there is no way for you to get a special skill sooner or later.
After using a skill, the button will need 1 minute to reload - after this you can use another skill or the same again.
1. Flyermarkting - Customers come and buy more goods - use this, when your warehouse is full, it is a much better solution then selling goods for half prize.
2. Amazing efficiency - for a minute topsoil, plant food, water and pesticide do not have to be refilled - that gives you the chance to do a lot more working without running forth and back.
3. Patient customer - the timer does not run down - use it, when you need more time for a product to still receive the bonus money. Specially when having orders with cake, which needs a step more than others, this skill is very helpful.
4. Way ahead - waiting customers are more patient - very helpful to have a chance making deliveries for up to three customers.
5. Gift of nature - For a minute flowers grow faster without needing water or plant food - but the need to be pruned, so take care, that you have the time to do so.
6. Busy Bee - Fiona does not loose her speed bonus.
Customers/Orders
Customer orders are random.
When having customers you will see little envelopes low left of the scene.
You may click each envelope to see, what the customer wants und click the button "Wait", when you do not want to serve him directly.
You can see a white bar below the envelope - when time runs out, the customer will leave.
Click the button "Accept" to accept an order.
As soon as you accepted the order a new time limit will start. Even if you accepted the order in the last second you will get the fully amount of time to fulfill the order.
You will see the order's details top right - hovering over the pictures will give you the name of the product.
For accepting an order you will have to pay a deposit.
After fulfilling the order you will get the deposit back. When you are not fast enough you will loose the money.
You will not loose money, when a customer leaves, before you clicked the "Accept" button.
You can only serve one customer at time.
For fulfilling an order very fast or fast a customer will pay you a bonus.
For fulfilling the order in time, you will get the value of the flowers and goods.
Some customers will give you secret crossbreeding. recipes for a very fast delivery.
Crossbreeding/Shed
Press the button low right corner to enter the shed for crossbreeding. or buying additional shelves.
While crossbreeding, time stops in the garden - coming back you will find the same situation as the in the moment you entered the shed.
As long as Fiona is inside the sheds no goods will be sold.
Crossbreeding does only work with the basic seed given by the jury.
For crossbreeding. collect all blooming flowers, grown from basic seeds and bring them into the shed.
In some levels you will not have to fill all slots in your seed bar at the bottom of the screen .
Don't forget to do crossbreeding. with flowers the jury provided the seeds later in the level.
Beside buying new shelves, you can also enter the shed and press the 50% - button. As long as you do not change it, all goods will be sold for half the prize, what will sure let a lot of customers come along
Garden care
The tab "Garden care" provides you 3 buttons.
With the shovel you dig your beets.
You can place it back with right click or click the shovel button again.
With the cross you can move everything to any place you like. Seeing a green shadow around the item you want to move means you can place it right there where you are. When you see a part of the shadow in red, you will not be able to place the item
You will not be able to place anything on weed. When weed is the reason you cannot place an item leave the move modus and click it - Fiona will take care of it and you can place the item afterwards.
The seed button will show you in the lower row the from the jury provided seeds and in the top row your crossbreeding result.
In the lower row you will also see the secret recipes you received from customers for very fast delivering. Hovering over the recipe with the mouse will show you the needed flowers for this crossbreeding process.
Shopping
The blue shopping cart gives you the possibility to buy additional kits, machines, plants..
Most of it is locked at the beginning - you will be notified when you are reaching a point of the games where items are free to use for you.
You do not have to buy new plants or machines at once, you may choose to purchase them later. Customers will not demand for example cake as long as you did not purchase the oven.
For some of the items you will have an amount restriction as plant food kit or basket, other items you may choose as much as you want (or find place for) as fruit plants or bee hives.
The green arrow will allow you buying updates - you will be notified about it.
You do not have to buy the updates at once, you may choose, that you need your money right now for more important things. Updates will make machines, plants and bees work faster. The sprinkler update will first sprinkle additional to the water plant food, later also pesticide.
The basket update allows you to carry more goodies.
The money allows you to remove every item in the scene except the basket.
You will receive money for things you bought, but not the full amount you paid for.
You will receive not money for flowers or flowerbed as you did not pay for it but it will remove these things as well.
The flower nurturing shows you how many you have left of pesticide, water or plant food till Fiona will have to refill.
You may chain all actions at once, Fiona will automatically go and refill if needed.
Strategy-Tips
As there is no time limit have a good look at the area first. Scroll to the end of the sides to see how much place you have.
Dig the flower beds first - best tip:
Count the amount of seeds you will have at the end (already available seeds and empty/not activated slots) and dig all needed beds in the beginning - digging will not stop the time and so you will not have to dig later while loosing time for other important things.
Try to stick with a pattern. You will always need pruned and unpruned flowers of one kind. Without a pattern you will quickly have kind of chaos in your garden.
Be aware that you will not be able to see the flower kind before it is blooming - having a pattern will help you to remind which flower belongs where.
Level 4 finally will provide you with a sprinkler. A sprinkler needs to be placed on the grass and will serve 8 flower beds. You should arrange your beds around the sprinkler.
Bed - bed -bed
bed - sprinkler- bed
bed - bed - bed
Even though you will not have enough money for all needed sprinklers the same time, arrange your beds as this from the begin.
Make sure, you have enough room for planets, kits, machines. Best way to do seems to have a row in the middle for these things - that will help you to not loose to much time for running around.
After digging place top soil on all flower beds - it will not dry out, even if it takes a while till you need the beds.
Do not chain more then 15 seeds - doing more will give you no time to prune the plants in time.
Goodies in the basket a machine can use will automatically be placed next to the machine when you click it. So make sure, never to click a machine, when you don't want the products.
There is no penalty for a leaving customer, except loosing the deposit when you already accepted the order.
When having three customers in the row, use the way ahead skill and start then with the customer you can serve most easily.
Most often the skill button will be reloaded for the the last customer to use the "Patient Customer" skill.
As this you will be able to serve more customers.
Another way is, to use the "Patient Customer" skill with a customer you could serve in a descent time. Using the skill button will provide you the bonus for very fast delivery and maybe also a secret recipe for crossbreeding.
Crossbreed flowers will bring you more money than the basic flowers.
Pruned flowers will bring you more money than the basic flowers.
Bees, blackberries, grapes and apricots do not need any of your attention - you just have to collect the products.. They do bring more money than flowers so use them to make a lot of money.
Cake brings you ap lot of money but it is also the only product with 3 steps - fruit, jam (or raisins), cake. Exception: You can make gingerbread directly from honey.
Perfume is also very valuable, but till the last update in the last level it will also need the longest time to proceed.
Trophies
You can win 16 trophies.
For some of them you will have to play the "Free Gardening" mode as well.
You can see your trophies with the "Trophy" button in the menu while you are in a garden.
Hovering over an empty trophy spot will tell you, what you need to do to get the trophy.
It will also tell you where you stand right now (for example: Bake 50 cakes, you have 34 right now)
You will receive a trophy for:
First successfully crossbreeding
You bought each of the 6 machines (you will need to have them all in the garden at the same time).
Fiona reached her highest speed (when I did count well, you will have to chain 30 actions with no stop for Fiona - it will NOT work out with the "Busy Bee" skill, as she is not going faster as more you chain - she is faster then normal but not racing ;).
You have used all of Fiona's 6 skills.
Bake 50 apricot cakes.
You have completed two orders that arrived together.
You have completed three orders that arrived together.
Reach at least $300.000 income in total (you can play Story- and Free Gardening Mode to reach this).
You have at least sold 500 goods.
You completed the goals of three gardens in the "Free Gardening" Mode.
You have found every flower in the "Fiona's Story" Mode.
You completed 100 orders with bonus.
You won the garden beauty contest.
You completed all goals in the "Free Gardening" Mode.
You won all other trophies.
Posted by: Kayleigh
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February 1, 2010 3:00 PM