Potion Craft propose d'incarner un alchimiste : pour fabriquer des potions aux effets divers, il faut se déplacer grâce à des ingrédients sur une carte. La récompense suprême, qui clôt la campagne, étant bien sûr de réaliser la pierre philosophale grâce à des assemblages complexes.

Les plus :
- Une esthétique ravissante qui sied parfaitement au fond du jeu. Le sound design est lui aussi soigné, des musiques aux bruits d'écrasement des ingrédients dans le creuset. C'est le point fort du jeu, qui mérite le détour
- On peut enregistrer ses potions, pas besoin de les refaire du départ dès qu'on en a besoin. Mais il faut avoir les ingrédients nécessaires pour les reproduire.
- Un petit prix : les 20 euros d'origine ne le valent pas, mais les réductions régulières sur Steam le ramènent régulièrement sous les 10 euros.

Les moins :
- La quête principale, malgré les possibilités de déplacement plus agile sur la carte qui s'offrent au joueur à mesure qu'il progresse, est longue et fastidieuse : on comprend vite qu'il faudra réaliser des assemblages de plus en plus laborieux. Je sais comment finir le jeu, mais... flemme !
- Flemme car la fabrication des potions suppose de bouger la souris dans tous les sens pour écraser les ingrédients, remuer le chaudron pour se déplacer sur la carte et le chauffer pour incorporer des effets dans la potion. Mal au poignet, à force.
- La gestion du commerce est rudimentaire. La négociation des prix des potions vendues et des ingrédients achetés au marchands s'opère par un jeu de réflexes... bof.

Pretty torn on this one. I love its visual design, and how inventive and tactile the potion crafting feels. The overwhelming variety of ingredients and the traversal they allow on the alchemy map are wonderful, as are their cleverly color-coded designs. I enjoyed how the clients and the flavor of their demands changes depending on who you refuse service to (serve too many scoundrels and suddenly you’re only getting bandits and necromancers in the door). I don’t love the repetitive grind of the retail simulation, or the way it gates progression behind waiting on certain merchants to show up or certain ingredients to regrow in the garden. I also hated the way the alchemy formulas for the Salts and Stones depended on the same Stone from the previous stage, since I pretty much never wanted to make any of them a second time (it’s novel the first time, but tedious busywork after that).

Based on the dev’s roadmap, it seems like some of these complaints might be alleviated in the future; maybe I’ll pick it up again then, but for now I’m satisfied having created everything but the Philosopher’s Stone and a couple of higher level Salts.

i'm seconding all of the reviews that say potion craft simply just gets kind of tedious and unrewarding, although i think the actual gameplay loop is amazing and there's simply no other game like it. i greatly enjoyed the early parts of this game.

potion craft has a system for buying and selling materials: materials will be on sale at random points, so you're incentivized to only buy certain materials, especially in bulk, when they're on sale-- especially because the cost of repairing larger upgrades is quite steep. but that means that you're ALWAYS low on materials to make potions with, and when making potions in later chapters becomes EXTREMELY cost-heavy, it just becomes... more frustrating than fun.

potion craft could've been amazing but is held back by that one simple mechanic. it's really sad, because the art style and early gameplay loop is so unique and fun, but it's bogged down pretty early by what i described. :(

I had 100%ed this game back in its early access, and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to 100% it again in it's full 1.0 release. (I think my hours spent was about 22 in early access and 28 in 1.0). The game is extremely fun for those who enjoy puzzle games or even exploration. There's many outlets for creativity as well and using creative solutions to solve requests in ways you might not expect. The atmosphere is iconic and comforting. I'm definitely looking forward to any and all updates and will be more than happy to jump right back in.

The only gripe I might have is that I spent about the last 7 hours (read note at bottom) of my playthrough grinding out the one final achievement of getting the max popularity stat. If I could change anything, I'd maybe lower that achievement by one level, or maybe have each transaction earn you a few extra points of popularity than it did before once you reach chapter X of the alchemist's path. Because it felt a tad bit grindy. Everything leading up to that, however, was SUPER fun and not grindy at all. And since that achievement is not mandatory, I highly recommend this game!

NOTE about the 7 hours: I realize that if you take those 7 hours aside, I ended up playing 1.0 for about the same time as I did the early access version. I think it's important to notice however is that I spent 22 hours in early access when I didn't know how to play, whereas I spent 22 hours playing 1.0 that had much more content, while being able to speed through lots of it. It was significantly more content and I, again, highly recommend!

Played this back in January and completely forgot to log it. It's a really cool premise, and the first few hours are great fun. Representing potion brewing through a map you have to navigate with different ingredients is genius, and it's SO relaxing. Perfect chill game.

BUT, the back half drags a lot. The well of new mechanics starts to dry up very quickly and you're just left doing the same things in the same way with nothing to work towards. There's alchemy, I guess? But it's so undeveloped as a system I didn't see much point in engaging with it.

A story would have been nice. Or a few more gameplay systems. Maybe instead of having the garden randomly repopulate with new plants you get to plant them yourself? A wider variety of quests? Make alchemy more interesting instead of just a dull fetch quest? Something to spend money on, like furniture for your room? Feels like an unfinished early access game.