Alchemy Emporium Reviews

Alchemy emporium was a nice surprise. I was expecting a very simple game but I found myself in an extremely complex game, which takes a few hours to fully understand. The notes system helps a lot to improve the gaming experience. The easter eggs are so many and very well done, which is cool. I recommend that you find your favorite blends and push a bit with sales using those, it works well as a strategy. Once the initial obstacle has been overcome (the game is very complex), especially for those expecting a casual game, it becomes very deep and intriguing. Interesting art style, very nice music.

I really like the game concept of planning your day and by trial and error make money from the potions you are creating. However i have run into a lot of bugs which didn't allow me to continue with my game. I think if we give the developers some more time, then the game can become very good maybe great even. But I would recommend to wait a bit until some patches come out.

First, the game seems at least decent given the selling price, but... it's bugged and unfinished! I am from Italy, and I really would like to support companies from my country, but this game wasn't tested enough to justify the release! I will refund it, for now, and see if they will solve the various problems and do a better job with the translation... A pity, as the game can be, as I said, quite funny.

Dang. Good thing I'm still within the refund window. Thought the game looked good, but soon it was very clear that this game is unfinished. Sometimes stuff is randomly in Italian. I can understand it well enough, but why is this a thing? I love how my character was an apprentice alchemist for years yet seems to have opened shop with no business plan, no knowledge, and no skills. Determining potion effects is super unsatisfying. After playing for an hour I don't think I learned anything except where the tutorial button is for each page. Determining ingredient effects is super unsatisfying. After playing for an hour I don't think I have the faintest idea how it works. I'm pretty good with puzzles and logic, but it seems the ingredients do nothing except for when they randomly do something. Sometimes my week was gone with no explanation. I don't understand why suddenly I can't play out the rest of my week. I literally had to schedule selling in the shop for the first thing of the first day of the week because my week was randomly ending. I was really hoping this would be a sim/management game with a bit of puzzle where the procedural effects would come into play, but it really turned into redhead agenda simulator where I get to plan a week out but not play it.

i wish i could recomend this product i relly do iv wanted an alcamy game like this for so long but it continusly crashis by intracting with the basic ui i have what should relly be overkill for this game becuse i can run cyberpunk on the highest settings but i cant play this game in its curent state

My overall impression of this game is positive despite the shortcomings as mentioned in other reviews. Yes, there is a learning curve and some of the mechanics are not explained well, or at all. However, those types of things can easily be patched and addressed with a tutorial and if you're someone like me who enjoyed potion making in Skyrim, this game has lots to offer. Since the other negative reviews sum up the shortcomings pretty well I'll add my own views on different aspects. Adding flavor text or short, fun descriptions to the ingredients would add a fun lore element to the game. Also, adding more details when selling potions would be helpful. There were many times where a potion was well within a buyer's budget but they still thought it was too expensive so clarifying what specifically the buyer did not like about the potion would be helpful. To sum up, adding some more guides for mechanics and some lore elements would make this game much, much more fun.

As it stand it needs work but as the potential to be a great game. When you start up the game, there is some selections that come with perks. As of right now you have no way of telling what the perk does besides judging the name of the perk. As a new player, it can be even harder as you don’t know the game mechanics so it's even harder to choose. How you view the formulas needs changing. There are only two columns that you can view, but you can easily see five columns on the screen. You should also be able to filter the view for game play reasons. For instance, I noticed that a lot of my customers are asking for potions for being an actor, I should be able to narrow the formulas to see what I have already created. Ingrediencies need to be updated to be more user friendly. You can select them in the formulas screen to buy them the next time you are out buying new products. It's more of a broad buy, meaning that you select them and you can easily forget which formula that you need to make. My suggestion would be to have a formula select it for the ingrediencies, then when you go hover over the item in the buy production part of the day you should see which formula/s you need them for and how many of each you already have. I noticed that there is ingrediencies that can buy from the merchant but are unable to use until you buy the right equipment. This should be address as it ruins a player's budget, there should be a red icon on the icon and when you hover over it, it should read something as “Requires ____ to use”. This will lead to less useless purchases. Also, the helper/s are being a tad glitchy, currently I can have two helpers and when I try to put them down for certain tasks, it would glitch up and replace all icons to one helper even though when I go about my work week that is not the case. Just a suggestion to help players, from my understanding there is only a limited amount that a helper can be used in one work week, put in a tally next to the helper to indicate how many more times he can be used. Example, 4/6 next to the main icon on the tope with two of the helper icons on the schedule. If there is no such limitation then its glitching up even more for me. I did not figure out how to use helpers until I was able to use two at once. Please go over the grammar of the perks, I noticed a few errors, for instance the perk “Bookworm”. Also please give more detail to what the perk does. Like “Enhance the Store’s Appeal.” how does this actually impacts me as a gamer, like does it increased the number of customers by 5 or by 10%. Also, when you click on the brain to look at perks, why do the start at level 0, but when you choose them in the per selection it shows Roman number for 1, 2, ext. You should make a change to have them all start as 1 in the perk screen for more consistency. From what I have read, when tasting a potion there is a chance that you get the wrong label. There should be either one of two things that need to happen, either you give no notice that there could be a mistake but give us a percentage gage of the accuracy with it increasing with each time you retaste it. You could even add a new few sub-stat for taste, accuracy, toxify, and sensitivity. Sensitivity being able to replace a white label to something else. That or please just give us an indicator that the label is not correct and needs a retaste to either confirm its correct or wrong. The first option will take time but I believe that it will give the game more substance. Next is the work week, quite a few changes need to be made. Firstly, you should be able to drag each task not just from the task list to the time slot on the schedule, but should be able to take the task from one time slot and put in on another time slot. Instead of tediously double clicking it to delete it and then dragging it down from the task list each time you want to make any changes. Secondly, to be more user friendly especially for new players, you should change the look of the schedule graph. Make it indents in each time slop for both the shape of the duty and helper. It would help new plays connect the dots as to how to use helpers. Lastly, next to both the days and time zones should be a stress meter showing how it would burden you stress budget. I don’t think it has to be elaborate, it can even be a green, yellow, red metric. This will allow us as a player to better understand what we can get away with each week.

**INFORMATIONAL REVIEW** 2nd / 06 / 2021 Before the 'recommended' label is read, first of all I do not recommend buying this in this state, I do recommend looking out for its future potential with a wishlist. Steam doesn't allow account reviews to show as 'Informational' so I've done this as to not confuse people completely. Lets be honest. This game is unfinished. It isn't bad for what it is; but it isn't outstanding in any regard. Intro to the game: You can select anything from what person you play as, to the location you stay at and which person gives you funds and everything. It seems like a lot of customisation but also comes with no tooltips to explain what those things are. The game lists 'unique perks' without any reference for a new player to know what that perk does. It lists stats and lets you choose which you start with; while giving minimal understanding or tutorials to them before you have attempted the task during the gameplay. Getting into the game: The intro doesn't really throw much at you in terms of demands, the game only holds your hand to make sure you know what some of the buttons do the first time you get to a screen. There is no mention as afar as my memory goes that warns you about only being able to trade with one trader, or the after-effects of doing things like overworking or toxicity from potions. You are completely left to your own devices; which would be good if the character wasn't meant to have a background in alchemy. Lack of a definitive 'tutorial' or 'beginners mode' is a major issue. The game might do well to let you move cities; and have one of the cities be a tutorial location where you are tasked with achieving a specific goal; like selling a handful of healing potions while being given a small group of ingredients to start with. A sandbox mode would also be a good concept for this game; as I'm sure many would love to just spend all their time testing potions and learning that way; instead of running a shop like the game presents. Overall: The game lacks a solid tutorial or explanation for tasks making it nearly impossible for people to figure out some of the things I'll be listing in the next segment. It makes it quite challenging to just enjoy the game with so many hidden or poorly shown mechanics. What I've learned: (A segment about tips the game should probably have given) Toxicity knocks you out for most of the week and sometimes the next week if you go too far late in the week, I recommend only tasting twice a week, with a few days apart to maximise time. Scheduling tasks is weird. Without any modifiers, you will always take an extra penalty to working during the evening. This is poorly explained by having an indicator bar go up based on where tasks are scheduled. The game does try to convey this information but I feel it is done poorly because it took till I gained skills to reduce the 'burden of working in the evening' that I realised that was causing the character to 'stress out' and give up for a week or more at a time. The game seems slightly glitchy when assigning multiple helpers to an overall number of tasks greater than their top. I experienced a few bugs trying to replace one helper on a task with another leading to the whole scheduling list bugging out and having ghost tasks and otherwise. Ignoring the gameplay, the graphics and music hold merit, they aren't all just basic assets but actually well made images and sound to a degree. However this is a video game and it can't buy too many merits from me for looking or sounding nice. I enjoy text based adventures, graphics isn't everything. FOR THE DEVS: I accept that whatever I say can be skipped over, that nothing I suggest matters, but this game has enough promise to warrant a bit of feedback in this regard. Tutorial: Some beginner level, some sandbox method, some way to learn and push the game mechanics, maybe giving the player a 'final test' tutorial where they use a select group of materials to create a potion to give people confidence in their abilities Interface: Potion making as is, is extremely trial and error. The only feedback people end up getting is 'you have already tried this combination' which while helpful, doesn't benefit the player because they had to click on that item. Maybe fading out/darkening the item when changing the related category to it; provides a result the player already knows would be a simple step forward. That means if I chose ingredients 1A 1B and 1C, if I input 1A and 1B again, 1C would fade/darken letting me know from a glance I don't need to check it. Introduction: Examples and stability. The character the player plays as, didn't invent potions. There should be basic recipes some books give for 'established' recipes, as well as basic potions players should start with. Without some sort of stability or way to earn income, the whole game becomes related to chance. Give people the ability from the start of the game to run their store at the most basic level, working later on to improve the effectiveness, reduce the toxicity and many other aspects. It should not be hard to let a book randomly reveal an aspect about a potion or ingredient given a bit of time developing this area. Customers: Customers might be 'king', but they aren't 'smart' a customer isn't going to walk into a store asking for a potion with 2 established aspects, a specific toxicity level and have a specific amount of money on hand for it. A customer should present a 'problem' and based on the words they use, being key words relating to multiple 'effect' tags on potions, will pay a negotiable amount to the player for the different potions. This allows people to use more creative methods to solve some of the basic problems. Helpers: Are a weird thing in this game. They are closer to 'part time workers' when the setting of this game reminds me of the times in history where apprentices were expected to work to the bone, but these guys get 2 hours of work only on weekdays, and get paid fully for it. Why are we unable to leave a part of the shop to a helper and we must supervise it constantly? If I wanted to leave selling and stock to one helper, why can't I? Or if I wanted a helper to test potions for me; why do I have to unlock something specifically for that? They serve no visible mechanical purpose even if they grant you minor benefits towards a specific task. There is no indicator where their 'help' actually 'helped' because all the dice rolls are invisible and you only see the result of succeeding or failing. Self-improvement/Books: Lets be honest. Reading is a very debatable topic in video games, can you 'rest' while studying hard and many other things. I would recommend making some tasks like reading reduce the penalties for specific times of day, as well as not causing the same amount of stress. The amount of actions you have before your character is too stressed seems extremely limited. Studying for the entire week, your character will give up after tuesday. Something we know in real life; is possible to do for multiple weeks on end 8 hours a day. Shopping: Currently for merchants, you have to visit them 3 times to buy from all 3 merchants. Due to a lack of a bartering system, I see minimal to no reason for this. There is no way to request specific ingredients and your warehouse is extremely small compared to what you might want to stockpile. I'd have no real issue if some items were given a 'perish' timer, that they have to be used in 2-3 weeks or they become useless and thrown out. But I see no reason to limit the merchants, other than to waste the players time currently having to revisit them 3 times to buy enough of the few ingredients they might need. -- I will repeat my opening lines for people who want it: TL:DR The game currently is better on a wishlist and looked out for in the future than its current state. It has merits, but with the learning curve, isn't accessible to everyone immediately. TextLimit1234567

The game is not listed as being early access. It definitely should be though. The game has a bug infestation that competes with the large cities of the world. Nobody ever seemed to think about how odd the story is when an experienced apprentice ends up running a shop and has zero knowledge. Perhaps her apprenticeship was not in the area of alchemy but more in the line of personal services? The tutorial is total garbage. It gets silly randomly trying combinations of ingredients (it says you can make something like 12,000 or 18,000 potions) to see what you get and tasting them all to see if they are toxic. Try that as an apprentice in a potion shop and see if you can live a week. The logic of the game is horrible. I love alchemy games, but, this is a disaster right now. It should have been EA for a year or two to fix it all. Perhaps if come back in a year or two it will be a great game. Right now it is not good at all. Time to refund. I have far better alchemy games. Even Skyrim is far better if all you look at is the alchemy.

Can't really recommend the game as it stands. I bought the game due to having a weakness for shop / alchemy type games, but this one has too many issues to be worth your money. Lets start with the objective stuff: The game has no video options, no way to put it into window mode or change resolution. Some of the text is not translated and still shows up as what I think is italian. The actual translation is readable, if wonky at times. On the more "your mileage may vary" side, the game has little to no strategic depth. You slap three ingredients against each other until you get a potion via trial and error. Initially this is doable, having access to about 10 of them. But as early as reaching level 2, suddenly you have dozens upon dozens. The game does track for you if you already tried a combination, but there is simply no excitement into randomly mushing stuff together until it makes a viable potion. Potion effects are unknown until you "taste" them. They have to be successfully tasted twice before you can confirm an effect. The success rate here depends on your taste skill. Tasting can result into you getting sick and losing the rest of your week. I was unable to confirm a single effect in about an hour of play, which also means having no idea what ingredient does what, adding a further point to the "You are playing as an alchemist that has literally no idea what shes doing". All of this would be "okay", if not for the fact that you are not told what customers actually want. No, really. During sales, a customer walks up and the window shows potions applicable to their demand, but whether they reject it, buy it but dislike it, or buy and like it is not something you can viably track. I've had a full counter and shelves of about 8-10 different potion types. I was low on money and scheduled about 6 sales action in a row. I was able to sell exactly ONE potion out of the lot, with no idea what the other customers wanted. The game lets you "postpone" customers to come back next week, but if I have no idea what they want, how am I supposed to tell what to mix for them in the first place? This is AFTER a lot of the tutorials not explaining certain things. What does getting intoxicated do? No idea until it happens, and even then the effect seems vague. No explanation on you being able to "Overschedule", and what that does. Apparently it has a random chance to make you lose workdays? The stats are not sufficiently explained either, If they adressed some of this, the game can potentially pass as a very casual experience. Overall, I don't feel like you make meaningful decisions or satisfying choices.