and like, the gameplay itself is fine? it's fine. the art is unremarkable, it's very much the sort of safe, samey art style you see in Gardenscapes or Literally Any Basic-Ass Mobile Game.
1. this game is SO FUCKING GREEDY. I don't play a LOT of this kind of game so like, I don't know what the standard is, but this game comes across as being absolutely terrified you won't give it money. you can barely play for five minutes without being interrupted by a sale popup.
2. the writing is like. look. on a baseline level, it's competent. I'm not sure English was the first language of everyone involved, but it's mostly fine with just the occasional "oh this is not the phrasing of a native speaker" hiccups, and that's frankly an editing problem more than anything else. and sometimes the writing is even quite charming!
who destroyed it and why is still a mystery as far as I've played, but the reason it was able to be destroyed is that ~pEoPlE dOn'T uSe ThEiR iMaGiNaTiOnS eNoUgH aNyMoRe~
that was bad enough on its own but I just now got to a scene further along in the story, after Ally has accepted that she's not dreaming and that Wonderland (and thus her family stories about it) is real, and is discussing how it got so messed up with Tweedledee and Tweedledum
you either gotta become a master of edging and teasing and pretending to have plot and never having plot (lol hi merge mansion) or you try to just go full "MERGE THINGS, THAT'S IT" plotless like the level-based ones
when you try to Have A Plot, when you try to Stand On The Gardenscapes Stage
since you mentioned Gardenscapes, I feel like that only works because 1. it's match-3 instead of merge, which is easier to separate from the game world, and 2. Gardenscapes' plot is the most blandly pleasant white bread shit
when you try to Have A Plot, when you try to Stand On The Gardenscapes Stage