Had a good time with this one but couldn't bring myself to finish it off due to the very long final stretch of gameplay that wasn't adding any new mechanics to a very short list that had already gotten a little stale.
Love the visuals and aesthetics. Loved how this is the first game on Playdate I feel like has taken full advantage of every single feature of the little handheld (I haven't had to tilt the console literally once for any other game woah) and I thought everything about it was pretty fun.
One major complaint I'd give is just variety. Potion making comes down to about 4 minigames, and you repeat those minigames a lot. One of the minigames in particular involved watching an unskippable 20-30 second cutscene that did not change every single time. A very nicely animated cutscene but one I really started getting impatient having to repeat.
I think this is still one of the better season games I've played so far.
Love the visuals and aesthetics. Loved how this is the first game on Playdate I feel like has taken full advantage of every single feature of the little handheld (I haven't had to tilt the console literally once for any other game woah) and I thought everything about it was pretty fun.
One major complaint I'd give is just variety. Potion making comes down to about 4 minigames, and you repeat those minigames a lot. One of the minigames in particular involved watching an unskippable 20-30 second cutscene that did not change every single time. A very nicely animated cutscene but one I really started getting impatient having to repeat.
I think this is still one of the better season games I've played so far.
Provavelmente um dos jogos mais bonitos do Playdate sem sombra de dúvidas, mas tem muita tentativa e erro pra ser uma experiência legal de puzzle. Eu gostaria de ver uma versão melhorada dele entretanto.
Soothing gameplay, if slightly monotonous after a while
Tuve dificultades para parar de jugar a este juego, porque además de contar con una atención al detalle y una belleza visual sin comparación en Playdate, es el juego que emplea la mayor cantidad de funciones de la consola al mismo tiempo. Cada nuevo ingrediente o poción a preparar es una sorpresa en sí misma, no tanto por la función que cumplen en la (completamente ignorable) historia como por la forma que tienen de interactuar contigo. De esta forma, el juego te incita a sentir curiosidad por lo que puedas hacer si empiezas a trastear un poco con el rígido orden establecido por la narración. Creo que, en manos de un sistema de juego más abierto, Spellcorked! podría convertirse fácilmente en uno de los títulos más originales de Playdate.
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I had a hard time when I tried to stop playing this, because in addition to its lavish visual style that is unmatched with anything that's on Playdate right now, it's the one game that employs most of its features. Each new ingredient or potion is a mystery to be solved, not so much for the function they serve in the (completely ignorable) story as for the way they interact with you. The game rapidly encourages you to be curious about tinkering with your components, and forget about the rigid progressión that the narrative wants you to follow. I think that, with a more open game space, Spellcorked! could easily become Playdate's most original title.
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I had a hard time when I tried to stop playing this, because in addition to its lavish visual style that is unmatched with anything that's on Playdate right now, it's the one game that employs most of its features. Each new ingredient or potion is a mystery to be solved, not so much for the function they serve in the (completely ignorable) story as for the way they interact with you. The game rapidly encourages you to be curious about tinkering with your components, and forget about the rigid progressión that the narrative wants you to follow. I think that, with a more open game space, Spellcorked! could easily become Playdate's most original title.
Beautiful graphics with fun, tactile gameplay. It's more vibes than anything, and while those are good, it's a bit more toy than game. It has progression, but it's got a lot of guessing more than any sort of puzzle solving, or simply reading the ingredients. It also does get repetitive as it has more ingredients than new mechanics, and it has a long tail to max out your orders and finish it, so I did bounce off. But it is a nice little well-made and satisfying game
Spellcorked! has beautiful artwork, really showing off the impressive resolution of the Playdate. I really enjoyed the general vibe of the game, with great music and sound effects and satisfying little mechanics for making potions.
I was so ready to enjoy this, thinking at first that it would be like VA-11 Hall-A, Coffee Talk and Bloom, where the simple minigame underpins a compelling narrative. Unfortunately, the e-mails completely dry up, your familiars stop talking to you almost immediately and the game rapidly descends into mindlessly brewing potions back to back. It just feels like work, boring work.
Working with the ingredients was mostly fine enough, but the way you have to figure out what they do through complete trial and error was very frustrating. Maybe I missed something, but it seems like if you brew an unwanted potion you just have to ship it anyway and get a bad review or whatever. Yet, the chances you'll brew what you want from a new ingredient, especially from an alembic, are slim to none. It's not satisfying at all.
So, in summary, beautiful game with a great vibe but overall lacking in substance and not fun to play after the first thirty minutes or so.
I was so ready to enjoy this, thinking at first that it would be like VA-11 Hall-A, Coffee Talk and Bloom, where the simple minigame underpins a compelling narrative. Unfortunately, the e-mails completely dry up, your familiars stop talking to you almost immediately and the game rapidly descends into mindlessly brewing potions back to back. It just feels like work, boring work.
Working with the ingredients was mostly fine enough, but the way you have to figure out what they do through complete trial and error was very frustrating. Maybe I missed something, but it seems like if you brew an unwanted potion you just have to ship it anyway and get a bad review or whatever. Yet, the chances you'll brew what you want from a new ingredient, especially from an alembic, are slim to none. It's not satisfying at all.
So, in summary, beautiful game with a great vibe but overall lacking in substance and not fun to play after the first thirty minutes or so.
Nice animations and design, but you quicky get tired of the few mini games Spellcorked has.
A cute little potion-making sim, but I think it was missing a little something that could really make it special as it became a chore after a while. Also, it looks nice but has by far the buggiest visual glitches I've seen from any of the Playdate Season One games thus far.