Potion Craft is a enjoyable shop management game with a daily schedule of gathering potion ingredients and crafting solutions to the town's issues. Whether morally good or bad, people come to you for all forms of potions from healing and mana, to explosive and protective. While there is no major story, you get to learn about the people that enter your shop and build a reputation as the best alchemist in the town while exploring various maps using the gathered ingredients you harvest or purchase to make new potions.
The game controls better on PC with a mouse, than the joystick on controller. I had multiple issues where my selection of what I was currently holding would move elsewhere on the screen and adjust settings of my current actions which became frustrating overtime.
The game is also super challenging towards the later portion of the game where patrons ask for extremely specific potions. While selling you also get to make new salts and crystals to make fine adjustments to your options which came be destroyed with the slightest movement across the map which erases minutes of progress.
It's a fun game and worth checking out but the achievements can be very difficult without a guide.
The game controls better on PC with a mouse, than the joystick on controller. I had multiple issues where my selection of what I was currently holding would move elsewhere on the screen and adjust settings of my current actions which became frustrating overtime.
The game is also super challenging towards the later portion of the game where patrons ask for extremely specific potions. While selling you also get to make new salts and crystals to make fine adjustments to your options which came be destroyed with the slightest movement across the map which erases minutes of progress.
It's a fun game and worth checking out but the achievements can be very difficult without a guide.
You are the new alchemist in the village. You're cleaning up the shop, building reputation, and creating new potions.
Visuals
Potion Craft is designed to look like it's drawn on aged parchment. I actually really like this simple look. There are five locations, which are just more hand-drawn single screen areas. The garden actually looks really nice and cozy. Your customers and the traveling merchants are nicely drawn as well, although there isn't too much variety among them.
Sound Effects + Music
Potion Craft has exactly one background track. It's the typical chill medieval music. It's fine, but repetitive.
Gameplay + Controls
Potion Craft is an alchemy simulation which uses simple screens for different parts of the process. The main screen is where you brew your potions. Clicking to the left is the shop where you'll sell to customers and interact with merchants. The right-most screen is the garden, where you'll harvest ingredients. The attic holds your bedroom where you sleep to save the day. Finally, the basement has more alchemy equipment that first must be repaired.
You're free to move between all of the screens at any time depending on what you need to get done. Harvesting ingredients is a daily chore, so just do that first thing when you start the day. Most of your time will be spent on the central screen brewing potions. Customers will come in with problems that require a specific potion, so you can either talk to them, then make it as there is no time limit, or you can make a bunch of potions ahead of time and sell those.
You do have to discover recipes on your own though. There's a map that shows where your ingredients will go, and each ingredient has its own direction and length. The goal is to land on an effect, as your potions do nothing if they have no effects. For instance, you'll need to use ingredients that make a path toward the heart symbol if you want a healing potion. It's a simple mechanic, but it's not always easy to get the right ingredients to line up.
There are tasks to complete in order to level up. You'll find those in your alchemists journal. It has ten chapters, and you can check off items in future chapters if you happen to complete them early. The tasks will earn you experience, as will hitting certain points on your map, which increases your alchemy level. This will also earn you points you can spend on character upgrades, like more experience points on the map or better merchant prices.
Potion Craft is surprisingly involved. You have to harvest or purchase ingredients, place ingredients in the mortal and grind them down, place them into the cauldron, stir the potion, press the billows to bring it to a boil, and then finish it off before bringing it to the customers. You can even customize the bottles and give your brew a name. It's not tedious though. I found it quite relaxing and comforting once I got into a rhythm.
I did find that making money was quite hard. It doesn't seem like anyone wants to pay much for the potions, and haggling doesn't really help much. Haggling does work quite well on merchants, but that just means I was spending more on ingredients and not getting much in return. It's a slow build, but that was probably the intention. I just wish the base prices were more in line with the cost of ingredients (even though you can get a lot for free from your garden).
Replayability
While I enjoyed my time with Potion Craft, it's not a game I'd consider replaying. The gameplay is extremely repetitive and linear, and the sense of discovery would be gone after finishing it the first time. It's definitely a game that I could continue playing in short bursts though.
Overall
While I usually prefer games with a story, I really enjoyed the meditative gameplay of Potion Craft. There was something relaxing about mixing ingredients, discovering new effects, and creating new combinations. This is a game you can definitely play frequently for small increments and still have fun.
Visuals
Potion Craft is designed to look like it's drawn on aged parchment. I actually really like this simple look. There are five locations, which are just more hand-drawn single screen areas. The garden actually looks really nice and cozy. Your customers and the traveling merchants are nicely drawn as well, although there isn't too much variety among them.
Sound Effects + Music
Potion Craft has exactly one background track. It's the typical chill medieval music. It's fine, but repetitive.
Gameplay + Controls
Potion Craft is an alchemy simulation which uses simple screens for different parts of the process. The main screen is where you brew your potions. Clicking to the left is the shop where you'll sell to customers and interact with merchants. The right-most screen is the garden, where you'll harvest ingredients. The attic holds your bedroom where you sleep to save the day. Finally, the basement has more alchemy equipment that first must be repaired.
You're free to move between all of the screens at any time depending on what you need to get done. Harvesting ingredients is a daily chore, so just do that first thing when you start the day. Most of your time will be spent on the central screen brewing potions. Customers will come in with problems that require a specific potion, so you can either talk to them, then make it as there is no time limit, or you can make a bunch of potions ahead of time and sell those.
You do have to discover recipes on your own though. There's a map that shows where your ingredients will go, and each ingredient has its own direction and length. The goal is to land on an effect, as your potions do nothing if they have no effects. For instance, you'll need to use ingredients that make a path toward the heart symbol if you want a healing potion. It's a simple mechanic, but it's not always easy to get the right ingredients to line up.
There are tasks to complete in order to level up. You'll find those in your alchemists journal. It has ten chapters, and you can check off items in future chapters if you happen to complete them early. The tasks will earn you experience, as will hitting certain points on your map, which increases your alchemy level. This will also earn you points you can spend on character upgrades, like more experience points on the map or better merchant prices.
Potion Craft is surprisingly involved. You have to harvest or purchase ingredients, place ingredients in the mortal and grind them down, place them into the cauldron, stir the potion, press the billows to bring it to a boil, and then finish it off before bringing it to the customers. You can even customize the bottles and give your brew a name. It's not tedious though. I found it quite relaxing and comforting once I got into a rhythm.
I did find that making money was quite hard. It doesn't seem like anyone wants to pay much for the potions, and haggling doesn't really help much. Haggling does work quite well on merchants, but that just means I was spending more on ingredients and not getting much in return. It's a slow build, but that was probably the intention. I just wish the base prices were more in line with the cost of ingredients (even though you can get a lot for free from your garden).
Replayability
While I enjoyed my time with Potion Craft, it's not a game I'd consider replaying. The gameplay is extremely repetitive and linear, and the sense of discovery would be gone after finishing it the first time. It's definitely a game that I could continue playing in short bursts though.
Overall
While I usually prefer games with a story, I really enjoyed the meditative gameplay of Potion Craft. There was something relaxing about mixing ingredients, discovering new effects, and creating new combinations. This is a game you can definitely play frequently for small increments and still have fun.
The gameplay is very simple - every morning some grass-ants grow in our secret garden, and visitors come to our shop with different needs and requests. Our task is to listen to everyone, figure out how to help their troubles and mix such a concoction by rubbing the necessary herbs in a mortar. It is advisable not to confuse a love potion with a sleep potion, although sometimes you really want to. For this simple trade we get a little gold, with it we buy improvements to the shop, more and more fancy herbs and mushrooms from the herbalist or mushroom picker, all this stuff goes further into potions, for which we get more and more gold and so on until we get tired of it.
the art and world are so charming. the gameplay is minimal and gets to be very repetitive. buy it and plan to enjoy it for like . . . 4-5 hours, then it becomes, in my opinion, really tedious and not rewarding. the more and more and more added mechanics are so far away and hard to get to, and they don't feel good or fun.
Let me cook
amei amei amei
Entretenido, pero el ritmo del juego termina siendo tedioso
Very entertaining but it's lacking objectives.
Misturei Libido 3 com Explosão 2 pra criar uma poção de orgia espontânea e ninguém quis mas tirando isso muito gostosinho de jogar
played while it was on game pass and enjoyed it when it was on there, not enough to repurchase it however, but fun none the less
nane limon simulator. allahım hayallerim gerçek oldu
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.
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.
fun, relaxing game with a fun crafting system. would be nice if they had more than one track on the soundtrack so i didn't have to hear the same mediaeval song over and over but maybe that's part of the immersion.
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.
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.
A bit confusing because I skipped the tutorial
A fun experience, but it does get repetitive after a while
What you need to master it:
☐ Collectibles
☐ Ability
☐ Play online
☒ Complete the main story
I loved the mechanics to make the potions in the map with the ingredients, but it is repetitive.
Advices:
- You don't need to do the potions exaclty how the recipe says, while it has the same effects that's all right.
- If you haggle you'll obtain lower quantity of Popularity Points. Use this options always with the merchants in the most difficult option that you have.
- Buy all the ingredients with the normal price or on sale from merchants, always buy rocks.
- There are exquisite clients that will ask for potions with specifics things, I recommend sell them potions when they want an extra effect in the potions, use the options 'continue brewing from here' and add the closest effect, usually they'll be happy. If they ask for something so specific end the dialog and sell to the next client.
- If you didn't get the plants in your garden don't worry, they will be there on the next day. Collect them is important in the earlygame, at some point of the game you won't need them.
☐ Collectibles
☐ Ability
☐ Play online
☒ Complete the main story
I loved the mechanics to make the potions in the map with the ingredients, but it is repetitive.
Advices:
- You don't need to do the potions exaclty how the recipe says, while it has the same effects that's all right.
- If you haggle you'll obtain lower quantity of Popularity Points. Use this options always with the merchants in the most difficult option that you have.
- Buy all the ingredients with the normal price or on sale from merchants, always buy rocks.
- There are exquisite clients that will ask for potions with specifics things, I recommend sell them potions when they want an extra effect in the potions, use the options 'continue brewing from here' and add the closest effect, usually they'll be happy. If they ask for something so specific end the dialog and sell to the next client.
- If you didn't get the plants in your garden don't worry, they will be there on the next day. Collect them is important in the earlygame, at some point of the game you won't need them.
The start is nice but it gets super grindy midway, in several ways. I'm tired of grinding and stirring, physically............
fun in the beginning, gets a bit repepetive, especially if you're out of a certain ingredient and it just ruins your rep to not be able to brew certain potions
o melhor ponto do jogo é a arte. achei bem bonita mesmo.
já a ideia de gameplay em si é maneira no início, mas vai ficando cansativa conforme o jogo progride e você tem que fazer cada vez mais malabarismos pra fazer o tubo chegar lá no cu do mapa e ainda se frustrar quando você esbarra nas caveiras e acaba quebrando o bagulho e perdendo uma caralhada de ingredientes.
demorei um bocado pra descobrir que eu já podia usar os portais desde o início (e só descobri porque estava conversando com uma amiga sobre o jogo), mas não sei se foi bobeira minha ou se faltou instrução do jogo em relação a essa mecânica. de qualquer forma, senti que eles ajudam bem pouco.
nem cheguei na parte em que você usa outras bases além da água mas me parece ser a exata mesma dinâmica só que com outro mapa. se for isso mesmo, acho que isso bate o martelo na questão da repetitividade.
eu ia comentar a parte da máquina com o nigredo, albedo etc mas só de pensar me deu preguiça
resumindo, jogo parece interessante no início mas se revela um tanto repetitivo.
já a ideia de gameplay em si é maneira no início, mas vai ficando cansativa conforme o jogo progride e você tem que fazer cada vez mais malabarismos pra fazer o tubo chegar lá no cu do mapa e ainda se frustrar quando você esbarra nas caveiras e acaba quebrando o bagulho e perdendo uma caralhada de ingredientes.
demorei um bocado pra descobrir que eu já podia usar os portais desde o início (e só descobri porque estava conversando com uma amiga sobre o jogo), mas não sei se foi bobeira minha ou se faltou instrução do jogo em relação a essa mecânica. de qualquer forma, senti que eles ajudam bem pouco.
nem cheguei na parte em que você usa outras bases além da água mas me parece ser a exata mesma dinâmica só que com outro mapa. se for isso mesmo, acho que isso bate o martelo na questão da repetitividade.
eu ia comentar a parte da máquina com o nigredo, albedo etc mas só de pensar me deu preguiça
resumindo, jogo parece interessante no início mas se revela um tanto repetitivo.
I got through the first chapter of this when it was release on Game Pass and I never returned to it. The game has an interesting art style but the gameplay just didn't grab me. I think the exploration of making new potions was a bit laborious and turned me off of it. I only played like an hour of it though, so I'm not going to leave it a rating.
tres cute mais devient repetitif et absolument impossible a terminer a un moment donné cest bien dommage
''The dead don't talk too much... The dead don't get jealous... The dead don't betray...
A select few have managed to learn secrets that ordinary people will never know. We can learn those secrets together, but first I need an elixir to get the process going...''
Based.
A select few have managed to learn secrets that ordinary people will never know. We can learn those secrets together, but first I need an elixir to get the process going...''
Based.
This review contains spoilers
I'm always excited to try more alchemy games- it's one of my favorite themes. This game was a special treat due to its incredibly unique core system. Ingredients corresponding to paths of movement on a map of potion effects- Wow that's fascinating!
The alchemy map traversal system shines due to the focus on a wide and goofy cast of ingredients. There's so many hilarious, strange, awkward, and interesting paths. Spending time with this game is an exercise in learning to appreciate these herbs,mushrooms and crystals. It's incredible how even the most wasteful loop-de-loops, spirals, and paths that turn back on themselves have their moments. I want to really empthasize how memorable the ingredients are here. It's quite satisfying both to become more familiar with them and discover new ones
The resource management aspect forces some occasional additionial creativity and decision making. Sometimes you'll be forced to adapt to what you have on hand, sometimes it's worth taking the scenic route to conserve scarce plants. What's even better at slightly shaking up your map decisions is the experience books. The experience trying to figure out how to fit in the ones that you judge to be conviently along the way synergizes with the odd arsenal of plants quite well.
I like how the threat of bleeding ingredients encourages creating efficient recipes. It's also neat how progress leads to some better ways to make things. I especially like the introduction of the oil map- it's definitely a severe case of missed potential that there's not more maps. If they wanted to get wild then an advanced mechanic that involves switching maps while a potion is in progress could be awesome. {Although i see why they wouldn't do this, it invites quite a few problems}
The mechanics of adding base to move towards the center for free and using the mortar and pestle to decide how much of an ingredient's path to manifest are quite solid. Although, as a physical action to perform the mortar and pestle SUCKS. I don't know if my thumb or joystick hates me more for playing this game. What a terrible repetitive motion. I can see how it fits the game, especially for constructing partial paths but at the very least they need a tool to automatically fully grind things.
Another way this map business works well is the effect strength mechanics. The level III effects encouraging precision is a good thing to ask of the player in this system.
I find myself thinking of all the pieces of this alchemy system and wow do they work together well. Now just a cool idea, but a good execution too!
The feature of being able to save recipes is essential . Without them the entire game would fall apart under the mind numbing repetition of potion brewing. The system works best when you're exploring the map or trying to make a specific potion for the first time. Even with recipes, depending on my mood it can feel like the game's just too tedious and wasting my time. I definitely can't play arbitrarily long sessions of this game the same way I can for so many other games
Having to remake substances again is only barely tolerable because of recipes- having to manually brew some of those potions again would actually be insane. Especially due to the baffling choice to make each tier of substances have 2 branches- each of which consume 1 of the previous tier crystal. It's quite annoying, and the salt in the wound is having to recraft alchemical salt if you run out. Auto Recipes for substances that recursively craft the potions and other substances you need is a feature that would improve this experience a lot. Better yet, just make the alchemist guy who occasionally visits sell substances you've made. It's a bit of a shame that recrafting substances feels like such a waste of my time, because on the first time they're quite a rewarding/suitably daunting task
I quite enjoy the discovery aspect of this game- uncovering fog on the map and being introduced to new stuff through progress. Unfortunately both of those things are finite- the alchemist path progression goals take you comfortably beyond content limits. Speaking of that, chapter X is actually insane. Reach 15 popularity level... are these devs out of their goddamn mind? I enjoyed my time with this game and was intending to see it through to the end, but I had to drop it after realizing that I'd be mindlessly grinding for hours to acheive that final sprint.
I'm curious what the dropoff rate on the alchemist's path completition is. Let's look at the steam achievement percentages
Complete Chapter I - 57%
Complete Chapter II- 42.6%
Complete Chapter III - 30.4%
Complete Chapter IV- 20.3%
Complete Chapter V- 13.1%
Complete Chapter VI- 9.3%
Complete Chapter VII- 6.9%
Complete Chapter VIII - 5.4%
Complete Chapter IX - 3.1%
Complete Chapter X- 1.1%
Let's put that into perspective. 20% of steam stardew valley players have completed the community center. 2.5% of steam Shenzhen I/O players have beat the game. 8.4% of steam terraria players have gotten the ankh shield, 7.7% the cellphone. 10% of steam celeste players have gotten all red strawberries. All of these are higher than the amount of people who have finished the last chapter of alchemist's path.
Part of the problem with the later alchemist path chapters is they present daunting goals after the game has already ran out of steam. It seems like the devs are currently developing more content and features for this game, perhaps the latter part of alchemist's path is speculative for when these additions are done.
I played this game on Xbox. This is very obviously a pc game that's been ported- i groaned when i opened up the game and saw that i was controlling a cursor with my joystick. The UX actually wasn't as bad as i was expecting it to be- the quick radial menu and toggle between free/snapping movement do a lot of heavy lifting. Still unideal though. The flaws are most noticable once you're in endgame with pages of herbs and recipes. {Also why do the recipe bookmarks overlap each other like that, it's stupid that buying more recipes will at some point straight up obscure ones you have}.
This game has a remarkably long startup time
The slow-burn player driven pacing is nice. I generally prefer stressful games, but this works well here. It fits the platonic idea of a patient alchemist studying their craft and servicing customers as a supplementary routine.
There are only 2 music tracks in this game. Lol lmao. Yeah i muted it pretty fast and just listened my own music. The art style is unique and they did a fine job , but it doesn't feel particularly significant to my experience. There's a pleasant variety of character designs. The dialog is serviceable but not particularly interesting. There's a slight degree of intrepretation for what potion people want, but it's mostly them fairly directly telling you. I think it's better that way, but it's hard to tell. Maybe there's some potential in this component, although i did have a few slightly frustrating moments trying to decipher the few unintuitive ones already shrug.
I like the presentation of haggling- the way the conversation topics are presented from the perspective of someone searching for suitable small talk is pretty good. Other than that, haggling leans more towards a boring mechanic than an exciting one.
I adore the excited expression characters make when you offer them a potion
It annoys me that they left UI in the game for shop upgrades since there are none you can obtain. I guess it's either vestigial or speculative. Either way it breaks a promise to the player
The alchemy map traversal system shines due to the focus on a wide and goofy cast of ingredients. There's so many hilarious, strange, awkward, and interesting paths. Spending time with this game is an exercise in learning to appreciate these herbs,mushrooms and crystals. It's incredible how even the most wasteful loop-de-loops, spirals, and paths that turn back on themselves have their moments. I want to really empthasize how memorable the ingredients are here. It's quite satisfying both to become more familiar with them and discover new ones
The resource management aspect forces some occasional additionial creativity and decision making. Sometimes you'll be forced to adapt to what you have on hand, sometimes it's worth taking the scenic route to conserve scarce plants. What's even better at slightly shaking up your map decisions is the experience books. The experience trying to figure out how to fit in the ones that you judge to be conviently along the way synergizes with the odd arsenal of plants quite well.
I like how the threat of bleeding ingredients encourages creating efficient recipes. It's also neat how progress leads to some better ways to make things. I especially like the introduction of the oil map- it's definitely a severe case of missed potential that there's not more maps. If they wanted to get wild then an advanced mechanic that involves switching maps while a potion is in progress could be awesome. {Although i see why they wouldn't do this, it invites quite a few problems}
The mechanics of adding base to move towards the center for free and using the mortar and pestle to decide how much of an ingredient's path to manifest are quite solid. Although, as a physical action to perform the mortar and pestle SUCKS. I don't know if my thumb or joystick hates me more for playing this game. What a terrible repetitive motion. I can see how it fits the game, especially for constructing partial paths but at the very least they need a tool to automatically fully grind things.
Another way this map business works well is the effect strength mechanics. The level III effects encouraging precision is a good thing to ask of the player in this system.
I find myself thinking of all the pieces of this alchemy system and wow do they work together well. Now just a cool idea, but a good execution too!
The feature of being able to save recipes is essential . Without them the entire game would fall apart under the mind numbing repetition of potion brewing. The system works best when you're exploring the map or trying to make a specific potion for the first time. Even with recipes, depending on my mood it can feel like the game's just too tedious and wasting my time. I definitely can't play arbitrarily long sessions of this game the same way I can for so many other games
Having to remake substances again is only barely tolerable because of recipes- having to manually brew some of those potions again would actually be insane. Especially due to the baffling choice to make each tier of substances have 2 branches- each of which consume 1 of the previous tier crystal. It's quite annoying, and the salt in the wound is having to recraft alchemical salt if you run out. Auto Recipes for substances that recursively craft the potions and other substances you need is a feature that would improve this experience a lot. Better yet, just make the alchemist guy who occasionally visits sell substances you've made. It's a bit of a shame that recrafting substances feels like such a waste of my time, because on the first time they're quite a rewarding/suitably daunting task
I quite enjoy the discovery aspect of this game- uncovering fog on the map and being introduced to new stuff through progress. Unfortunately both of those things are finite- the alchemist path progression goals take you comfortably beyond content limits. Speaking of that, chapter X is actually insane. Reach 15 popularity level... are these devs out of their goddamn mind? I enjoyed my time with this game and was intending to see it through to the end, but I had to drop it after realizing that I'd be mindlessly grinding for hours to acheive that final sprint.
I'm curious what the dropoff rate on the alchemist's path completition is. Let's look at the steam achievement percentages
Complete Chapter I - 57%
Complete Chapter II- 42.6%
Complete Chapter III - 30.4%
Complete Chapter IV- 20.3%
Complete Chapter V- 13.1%
Complete Chapter VI- 9.3%
Complete Chapter VII- 6.9%
Complete Chapter VIII - 5.4%
Complete Chapter IX - 3.1%
Complete Chapter X- 1.1%
Let's put that into perspective. 20% of steam stardew valley players have completed the community center. 2.5% of steam Shenzhen I/O players have beat the game. 8.4% of steam terraria players have gotten the ankh shield, 7.7% the cellphone. 10% of steam celeste players have gotten all red strawberries. All of these are higher than the amount of people who have finished the last chapter of alchemist's path.
Part of the problem with the later alchemist path chapters is they present daunting goals after the game has already ran out of steam. It seems like the devs are currently developing more content and features for this game, perhaps the latter part of alchemist's path is speculative for when these additions are done.
I played this game on Xbox. This is very obviously a pc game that's been ported- i groaned when i opened up the game and saw that i was controlling a cursor with my joystick. The UX actually wasn't as bad as i was expecting it to be- the quick radial menu and toggle between free/snapping movement do a lot of heavy lifting. Still unideal though. The flaws are most noticable once you're in endgame with pages of herbs and recipes. {Also why do the recipe bookmarks overlap each other like that, it's stupid that buying more recipes will at some point straight up obscure ones you have}.
This game has a remarkably long startup time
The slow-burn player driven pacing is nice. I generally prefer stressful games, but this works well here. It fits the platonic idea of a patient alchemist studying their craft and servicing customers as a supplementary routine.
There are only 2 music tracks in this game. Lol lmao. Yeah i muted it pretty fast and just listened my own music. The art style is unique and they did a fine job , but it doesn't feel particularly significant to my experience. There's a pleasant variety of character designs. The dialog is serviceable but not particularly interesting. There's a slight degree of intrepretation for what potion people want, but it's mostly them fairly directly telling you. I think it's better that way, but it's hard to tell. Maybe there's some potential in this component, although i did have a few slightly frustrating moments trying to decipher the few unintuitive ones already shrug.
I like the presentation of haggling- the way the conversation topics are presented from the perspective of someone searching for suitable small talk is pretty good. Other than that, haggling leans more towards a boring mechanic than an exciting one.
I adore the excited expression characters make when you offer them a potion
It annoys me that they left UI in the game for shop upgrades since there are none you can obtain. I guess it's either vestigial or speculative. Either way it breaks a promise to the player
there are some absolute highlights to this game. the sound design is great, the story is charming, the gameplay is relaxing. however, I got about halfway though the overall progression of the game and just got board. once the charm of using ingredients to move around the map wore off, the game felt boring and stale to me.
i do think that customers straight up telling you they want to commit gruesome acts of murder and terrorism is pretty funny in a way. sir, this is a wendy's.
Neat, innovative idea and well crafted visuals.
Gets repetitive pretty fast though. After discovering most of the ingredients it gets very tedious.
Gets repetitive pretty fast though. After discovering most of the ingredients it gets very tedious.
passe le temps
fun game but gets very samey
Tried it on Game Pass. Yes! Looks like I could loose hours here making potions!
Will release on PS and Switch, I might get it for the Switch.
Will release on PS and Switch, I might get it for the Switch.