OK, the public orgy in the ending was fun, although everyone kept multiplying throughout the game anyway.

Machinarium had fewer characters, but they were memorable. Here a wild assortment of doodles (some bugged) have minor or even optional roles, while the main cast can be described as a nut, a mushroom, an acorn, a twig and a moth. Which one's your favourite?
I like the bad guys, it's a simple ink design but they have very fluid movement.

Gameplay was hit and miss. Some areas were just lovely, with clear goals and solutions. Yet puzzles relying not on thinking, but rather on player guessing which click will not screw you and force you to start the sequence over... they're not fun.
Neither is "collect this much crap to progress". I can understand the wish to make the game more casual-friendly and playable in tiny doses (1 chicken, 1 seed...) or to return to the days of the late 70s interactive fiction, but it gets monotonous.

Another thing are the party-based puzzles. I was quite excited the first time the option to use party members showed up. Then it turned out that in this rather large game each has one solo performance and that's it. No notable puzzles relying on cooperation either - I'm not asking for a 5 character Commandos-style section, but at least 2 or 3 guys.

Machinarium was great! One of the best point and click i have ever played! But this.. this game is noting like that... Botanicula does not even have puzzles - you just click everything on screen and then move on to another screen. It may be good as an "Interactive Art" but this is not a game! Where is the challenge? Not going to even finish it as i am not interested in it anymore... (i am at end of level 3)

I definitely agree that there never seemed to be any good reason to have 5 protagonists; for all intents and purposes, you may as well have just been controlling one.

Also, there was almost no characterisation; I suppose it may seem like a silly thing to say about this kind of game, but Josef from Machinarium felt like an actual character with a personality, even though he never spoke either.

I suppose I was also disappointed by the abundance of guesswork required in some parts.

Anyway, overall, I still really enjoyed it - mainly due to the sheer creativity/quirkiness. To me, the game felt like a wonderful sensory experience, rather than something requiring a lot of cognitive effort.

Favourite main character: Mr. Feather
Favourite NPC: The fat penguin >_>