From trees to ferns, flowers to fruits, and vines to grasses, the flora in video games can flesh out fantasy worlds, be the prettiest part of a feast, and connect you to nature while playing indoors.
This week, let’s talk about our favorite plants in video games - whether you love them for their looks, their lore, their flavor, or their personality (as so many video game plants are sentient).
“Sprouting” in Grim Fandango is my favorite video game plant.
“We may have years, we may have hours, but sooner or later, we push up flowers.”
The big 'ole tree in Grow Home is a really good one, I think. That’s a cool game and the way you could shape the tree yourself was something I particularly enjoyed.
The berries in Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald are also one of my favorite Pokémon activities. Felt cool to stumble across them when you were out in the wild, and the berry farm was a quaint, isolated spot.
My immediate thought was Li’l Cactus from the Mana games, who I’m not 100% sure I’d classify as a plant but is probably close enough to count:
.png)
Then, I thought of some of my favorite Grass type Pokémon, most of which are also cacti:
(Cacnea)
(Maractus)
(Carnivine)
(Trevenant)
And finally, the unforgettable mascot of the Wright Anything Agency: Charley!
The inspiration for this thread was the Shire, in Lord of the Rings Online. It’s an old game, but the diversity of flowers in Bag End makes it feel like a real, cozy garden.
Also, my fave plant Pokémon is inexplicably not Grass-type, but IDC, Florges has a fantastic design.
One of my favorite plants is Asphodel, Earl of Omonporch, a sentient plant in Caves of Qud who berates you if you try to fight xem.
Possessed of the enterprising spirit that stirred in Hegelrut ages ago, Asphodel (called the Lovely) recently flitted toward the Spindle with xyr asphodelytes in tow and crowned xemself Earl of Omonporch. There xe reposes in the musa grove, under the Great Shade, unfurling xyr petals into perfect contours and holding court.
Let’s go 001!!
Does that make it a houseplant?
Plant 42 in the Resident Evil series looks monstrously large plant with tentacle-like vines.
In Bulletstorm you could kick enemies into man eating plants. The plant boss dripped all this liquid around the arena, which basically allowed you to knee slide indefinitely. That was cool.
I have always been deeply fond of the meat plants of Digimon World.
The idea of it growing from the ground, bone and all, really tickles me.
Slightly more conventionally, while hellish to fight, the malboro family of enemies across the Final Fantasy series always look great and have a wonderful sense of character. A mobile, predatory plant that debilitates its victims with its unbelievably foul breath - presumably a mix of its own secretions and the rotting remains of its previous victims - is a very cool idea for a monster. And in World of Final Fantasy, they’re downright adorable.
The Maguuma Jungle in Guild Wars: Prophecies has all kinds of cool stuff. These vine (?) houses are pretty good:
Then, in the ‘capital’ city Henge of Denravi there’s this cool lookin’ plant fountain. It’s got a lot of interesting little bits to it, it’s unfortunate that the city never really was the hub of activity it was intended to be so people barely ever saw it.
And in the Guild Wars: Factions expansion there was the Echovald Forest which was a forest of gigantic trees that, due to some Wild Magic Nonsense, were turned to solid stone and now a bunch of Asian/German goths live there.
Also I want to shoutout Seymour the talking plant from Fallout 2. You encounter a scientist who has fed a bunch of mentats to a radscorpion to try and make it super-intelligent but you find out that his original experiment was to use the drugs on a plant instead but when the plant grew it didn’t seem any different so he just put it outside in his garden. Well, it turns out the plant realized that if he showed the scientist how smart he was then he’d have to do a bunch of tests and get dissected so he pretends to be a regular plant instead! And if you ask, he teaches you how to play chess.
I was just reminded that Warhammer orks are essentially mushrooms. They reproduce via spores that the drop over their lifespan.
The Dark Bramble from Outer Wilds is a special kinda space-plant, imo. Coming upon the floating remains of the crew that followed the wrong beacon, some locked in embraces as they await their final breaths, is probably one of my all-time favourite video game moments. Just thinking about it brings back all the feels.
Also, is it cheating to say basically everything in both Subnautica games?? But standouts are usually the kelp forests and the floating-lilies/lily roots:
The Creepvine forests rule. I think my favourite Subnautica plant is probably the Giant Cove Tree, though.
My favourite plant overall is really hard, though! I’ve been trying to think of one since the thread went up, but while I can think of a lot of cool plants I can’t think of a favourite.
The Giant Cove Tree with all the ghost rays that circle it was truly one of greatest awe-inspiring moments in a game full of exactly that. Truly marvelous. Great shout.
the terrarium in fallen order comes to mind. love the variety
