Developers drew artistic inspiration from animated films by Czech directors like Karel Zeman, Jan Švankmajer, Jiří Barta or Břetislav Pojar.
The player controls Gnome on his journey through space full of planets, equipped with an inventory and a flute.
The walkthrough is not in written or spoken form, but instead a series of sketches describing the puzzle at hand and its solution.
Not long ago, the monks were all at peace, until a giant orange space octopus arrived from a black wormhole and started consuming planets.
The monks saw the octopus coming and consulted an engineer (the same one from the Gnome's home planet) to build a three-headed watering spaceship controlled by the flutes on the back of which they can fly, and a mechanical knight powered by a black orb with which to fight the octopus and save the universe.
He then uses the dragon to consume good spirits which he finds on other planets and then seizes the black orb so that the knight cannot be awakened to stop him.
The Gnome celebrates by playing music with the remaining three monks, who reward him with the power to travel instantly across all the planets and returns the black orb to its guarded storage.
[11] The Washington Post called Samorost 3 "a strange and beautiful point-and-click adventure game."
The review likened Samorost 3 to Loom as both games "feature a hooded main character (gnome) who channels magic out of music."
"[19] PC Gamer reviewed the game positively and praised its surrealness, writing, "Samorost 3 is brilliant at times: Weird, wonderful, and a worthy next step in the evolution of Amanita Design."
Destructoid highly recommended the game, stating, "[Samorost 3] is jam-packed with delightful characters, stunning scenery, and clever puzzles, so while it may be brief, it’s certainly time well spent."
GameSpot praised the title's distinctive visual style, world, and soundtrack while criticizing its bland puzzles.