Alchemist: The Potion Monger is a simulation game available on Steam, Switch and PlayStation. It combines elements of simulation, adventure and other genres to create a colorful experience of the life of a potion maker.
Like many similar games, Alchemist: The Potion Monger begins by moving to a new town, with very modest initial resources. You got a house, but it’s mostly empty, except for a few things you brought with you.
There’s also your pet dog that can help identify items you can use in potions. To play, you need to make potions, interact with NPCs, collect and grow plants and other materials, solve quests and even fight slime creatures and wolves. A town is a place where you can talk to people, buy items, and explore.
Alchemist: The Potion Monger is among simulations that push the boundaries of the genre, introducing new mechanics and exploring large worlds. So let’s see how successful the developers were in this ambitious project.
There is a lot going for this game. Making potions is really interesting – you need to add ingredients and draw symbols to get better versions of potions. You can use the ingredients or chop them up to make different types of potions from the same ingredients.
There are also a variety of pets that help determine what you can use in potions and what effects different ingredients have. There is a complex system of elements such as earth, water, fire and air, which focuses on different aspects of potion creation. You have to research the ingredients to find out how best to combine them.
The game offers a large number of NPCs, a spacious world, a city full of activities and many enemies. It’s a colorful game with lots of space to explore and interact with, with unique plants, enemies and NPCs in each new area.
However, the main activity – making potions – is not very well explained.
You have to buy all the recipes, which is not a problem, but finding the ingredients and preparing them is often confusing. Philosopher’s Stone can help you find the right symbols, but even then potions sometimes fail for no apparent reason. One example: I received a recipe that included wood avano, Calendula flower and manure. I thought I should grind both ingredients in a mortar and put them in the cauldron.
That potion didn’t work. I tried just one ingredient in the avan and again it didn’t work. I chopped the flower, added whole ingredients, but nothing worked. When you finally find the right combination, it’s easy to make a mistake in the next step. Also, Philosopher’s Stone often taunts you as a “fool” or “idiot” if you forget to pin a recipe, which bothered me.
The combat in the game is terrible at first. You don’t really seem to need to get into hand-to-hand combat, as the mechanics are clunky and you easily run through enemies instead of attacking them.
I have to admit that I didn’t manage to finish Alchemist: The Potion Monger. The game world is huge, with tons of quests, NPCs, and potion recipes. I spent about 10 hours wandering around the village, talking to people, exploring the area and trying to learn how to properly brew potions. The dog was very helpful, sniffing the various things I brought home to find out what they could be used for.
The game world is huge, but a bit empty. It takes a long time to discover all the points for fast travel, which can become tedious. Fortunately, once you unlock the fast transitions, the gameplay becomes more enjoyable.
One of the nicest aspects of the game is that everything seems serious and believable. Although you are not saving the world or solving major disasters, you feel that all the characters are real and have their own concerns and needs. While making potions, you can come across little jokes and funny moments that refresh the atmosphere.
Alchemist: The Potion Monger is a great game with an innovative potion crafting system, although sometimes all the mechanics are hard to grasp. It’s colorful, with solid sound design, plenty of NPCs and quests, but the combat system is the weakest part of the game.
Overall, the game is pretty fun. The world is huge, but at times it feels empty. There are many good things, but also elements that will not suit everyone. Still, I think Alchemist: The Potion Monger is worth a try. The game is cute, colorful, fun and enjoyable, but it requires some effort to fully understand it. If you like expansive games with lots of content and relaxed quests, this is a solid choice.
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