Long ago, in a beautiful eastern kingdom, a queen and her people pleased their gods by building a mystical pagoda. The pagoda houses the four gods and towers over the beautiful kingdom. As time passed, the queen became ill and called on her people to compete for her crown. The crown would be passed to the person who could build the most pristine garden around the pagoda. The heir would be chosen by the four gods themselves.

The aim of Four Gardens is to collect the most points on the leaderboard by completing landscape cards and completing sets. Each finished set creates a panoramic view of a garden, and these sets are (no surprise) called "panoramas."

Players can complete panoramas by first laying groundwork cards, acquiring resources by rotating the 3D pagoda, and allocating those resources to meet the requirements of each groundwork card. Once satisfied, an earthwork map becomes a landscape map. Multiple landscape cards placed in the correct order create a panorama. Each God has his own satisfaction meter that expresses his good will towards the gardens and their builders. Players try to please the gods by completing landscape maps and panoramas.