Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator Reviews

Very chill game, but falls off by the endgame. There's not much content, and endgame recipes are very tedious and not extremely engaging, overall balance is a bit off too. Still, pretty good for the first 10 or so hours of chill relaxing gameplay.

Potion Craft seems interesting at first but gets boring and unfulfilling quickly. - There is no main plot- only a list of goals that boils down to getting better and unlocking the next thing. I was hoping there would be some choices to be made and puzzles involving doing research and potion crafting. Unfortunately all we get are samey clients that tell a few lines about what potion they need and why. They never return creating a longer story line. There is never a choice in what you give them resulting in different outcomes. In theory there is a morality system but that is just window dressing. It only changes the reason a client wants a potion - not much else. - There is no fail state. Management elements are very minial. There is no upkeep. No taxes to be paid, no equipment that breaks down. Just water the garden, gather herbs, brew potions. You don't have to be efficient. Wasting resources only means that certain things will take longer to accomplish. - The main part of the game is a navigational puzzle. Depending on which ingredients you use you will travel a different path on an "alchemical map." There are walls you need to avoid because they break your potion. There are whirlpools that suck you in and teleport you somewhere nearby. There are experience points scattered around that you can collect. Lastly there are potion effects that you can put into your potion by "parking" your marker as close to the center of that effect's marker. The closer you are the stronger effect you will get (which basically means more money from the customer). You can make the paths more or less efficient by using different ingriedients and tools. Sometimes, some customers pay extra if you use a particular ingriedient or avoid a partricualr ingriedient. Other times they want more than one effect in a potion. Once you create a potion you can save that recipe to quickly brew it without playing this navigation game. You can also use that recipe to continue brewing from where that particular recipe ended. This is useful when there are several paths on the map to explore. Very quickly this part of the game becomes cumbersome. I wish this whole brewing part was in form of a mathematical or logical mini-game instead of this long and tiresome travelling on a map. Some ingriedients create some crazy paths for you to travel, while other ones teleport you to the end of their path. You can use tools to manipulate your path in certain ways (like make it longer with mortar and pestle, or heat the pot to use the whirpools). Unfortunately this is not enough. - There are no difficult choices. You will always get what you chose on the alchemical map. There is no way to gain adverse effects by using risky ingredients. For example there could be ingredients that would allow you to travel through walls but that would raise toxicity of a potion. There could be special rules that raise toxicity of a potion or add a bad effect when you use a certain ingredient twice in a row. Unfortunately it doesn't matter which ingredients in what order and combination you use. What matters is what path on the map you create. I see a missed opportunity here. I wish there was more to this game. I like the graphical style and the general idea. Unfortunately there isn't much of a game here. It wouldn't be a problem if there was some interesting story but there is none either.

Not a bad game in its core, but after certain point it gets really tedious and boring, crafting some advanced stuff is more of a chore than fun. My biggest gripe is the pixel hunting on the map. Some game mechanics are not explained properly and I absolutely hate to google it, it just breaks the immersion. Can't sell stuff in batches. When buyin seeds from merchants I can't see which seeds are planted already, only by going back to the garden, which is just another chore. In mid and late game the inventory is cluttered with ingredients and other stuff. The game is fun for first few hours and that's not enough for 20€, the asking price is somewhat justified by the complexity of the game, but I simply don't enjoy it, that's it.

I *really* wanted to like this game. I like the premise and the music, and found the customer dialogue entertaining. But the actual gameplay is one-note and tedious.

What can I say, its the best of its class (and I might be in love with the herb elf)

Good game, but not without its flaws. All achievements took me 27 hours, may be less or more for you. Good Points: -Can play one handed; accessible -References to other games of similar setting -Fun take on alchemy that other games can't begin to compare to -Gameplay rewards patience and creativity -No one solution to a problem, make you own -Thematic music that helps you get into the role you play -Recipes can be saved to make your mid-late game simpler -Lots of optimization and fine tuning to be had -Some customers have exceptions for how to make a potion, some are fun -No time limit on customer interactions, go at your own pace -Craftable ingredients with game-changing effects Bad Points: -Gameplay & music can get repetitive -Progression is on a bell curve. Lots to start and end, not a lot in the middle. -Doesn't reward players who don't want to revisit/optimize recipes -Some customer exceptions are unreasonably difficult to comply with; sorta like irl service -Late game ingredients are ridiculously involved ----- Overall it's a good, cozy, game whose audience is definitely intended to be the super casual type. Literally the perfect game for a nerdy parent, mom or dad. If you're shooting for all achievements like I did, then prepare yourself for a gnarly end game, Maybe I just suck at video games, but it literally took me over an hour just to make a single potion for the final craftable ingredient. One of those things where the challenge and reward is too little too late in the games progression to make sense.

This is a well made "short" game that you can finish within a week with some very casual playing after work before bed. This game is also very much a game that you can 100% content & achievement wise. No grindy or painful achievements. I highly recommend this game if you only got a few hours a week and you wanna spend it in front of a relaxing game with very comfy theme, music and art style. You only really use the mouse so if you can only use one hand this game works fine for that too. I finished this game in about 20 hours over 2 weeks. 20€ Price is to be honest a bit steep for a game that doesn't really have super much re-playability so if you find it on sale for even 15€ or less I'd recommend buying this game, it is very evident the developer put much effort into this game and you can feel the love that went into it. Thank you Niceplay games, I thoroughly enjoyed this product.

Eh. It starts okay. Fun for an hour or two. It gets repetitive fast and the game feels like busy work rather than having fun. For some reason, I thought I would be mixing ingredients into potions in a more typical sense, combining herbs and whatnot to make unique potions. What I didn't know buying this, but I do now, is the "alchemy" (if you can call it that) is a glorified minimap minigame where you move around a map to collect powerups. Ingredients have different movement methods, but you can quite literally make any potion using any ingredients - the efficiency of your movement is the only thing the ingredient choice changes, and what determines if something is good or less good - but it's all super subjective. Your potions don't really matter, your ingredients don't really matter, and the alchemy is just moving around a map. Know what game actually has good alchemy? Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. The alchemy minigame is actually alchemy. Maybe that's a crazy stance to have thinking a game called "Potion Crafter" where the entire game is alchemy would actually have you do alchemy.

It's an amazing game that is fun to explore, and the art style just adds to the vibe. However, with how repetitive this game can be, I do think it is over priced. If you want it, get it on sale. That is my only real gripe though!

I opened this game and then proceded to play it for 10 hours straight before heading to bed. I then dreamed about this game, and when I woke up... I 100%ed it. It's an ok game