Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Oct 18, 2022

  This game took 6 years to make because the artists & animators went SO HARD on EVERYTHING. Each character has so much charm and their personalities set them apart. The gameplay elements are all fun. With shop managing like Recettear, the potion making of Atelier, and card negotiations in Slay the Spire what's not to like? You can even romance some characters too. Also this last part is not a criticism, but you should know there aren't any voices for the characters, so it's all left up to the imagination.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 18, 2022

  they better encrypt their 3D models
• gamedeal user

  Oct 18, 2022

  In a word: delightful. Potionomics strikes a balance between self-aware storytelling and comfortable gameplay with a pleasant, fun tempo. Every element feels curated to put a smile on your face as you chuckle at lines of dialogue and meta-gaming-humor. If you liked Battle Chef Brigade for its mix of culinary affection, platforming and match-3 mechanics, you'll probably enjoy this. In no particular order, here are things you might want to know about the game: The music is lovely, spirited and energetic. Not too much, not too little. The character animations are fun, if a bit over the top. If the TikTok personalities known for their Pixar character impressions starred in a video game, it might look something like this. The deckbuilding/card battler gameplay is simple yet rewarding. You don't have to be a genius to get something out of it, but clever plays turn into valuable resources for other aspects of the game. The potion-making is more about resource management and maximizing your outcomes. While it doesn't pose a huge challenge, it's not "dumbed down," either. The story, while somewhat familiar, will give you motivation to keep building up your deck through NPC relationships and brewing best-in-class potions to win competitions. I struggle to call this game purely "casual" because it has such refined elements. Perhaps "fun without stress" is a better way of putting it. There's just enough challenge to command your interest, but not so much that there's a discernible learning curve. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a light, humorous and well-animated romp through a magical narrative that gives you plenty of cute characters to romance, befriend and sell overpriced potions to.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 18, 2022

  Capitalism, Ho! Featuring; - paying your debt + sending heroes on adventures for ingredients while trying not to destroy local flora and fauna +++ an enjoyable haggling game with cards and deckbuilding + preparing for a potion competition - "min/max"ing ingredient numbers to get the better potions ++ flirting and dating with quirky NPCs Potionomics is an easy recommendation with its engaging mechanics and wholehearted world. Now let me get back to the game; I got a fierce rival and a passionate lover waiting for me.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 18, 2022

  Potion seller, I am going into battle, and I want only your strongest potions.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 18, 2022

  This game could be excellent, in fact it SHOULD be. The animation is Pixar quality and I would love to have the time to get to know the NPCs better because the writing is above what I expected. But the biggest problem is that the time limit is WAY too short to relax and appreciate the game. It is seriously maybe half of what a relaxed pace would feel like. Firstly, there aren't enough time units in the game to fully appreciate each NPC. When playing, I felt that pressure eating into my time, but after quitting in frustration, I broke it down mathematically and you can't do it under the best of circumstances. So hey, at least I'm not just awful at time management. Secondly, "victory" (which if you lose its just... game over) is nearly entirely RNG reliant with a really short time limit to get the proper RNG to trigger, leaving absolutely no margin for error, making it a stressful experience instead of a charming one. I know other reviewers have harped on the bad RNG making the time crunch feel stressful, or conversely like you have all the time in the world if Baptiste is generous with drops, but that's not even my biggest complaint. It is mathematically impossible to experience all this game has to offer in one playthrough. And the mechanics aren't engaging enough to warrant multiple RNG slogs. Math incoming. In this game, leaving the shop costs one of your 6 units of time per day, and each hang out costs at least 1 further unit of time. To talk to each NPC I have currently unlocked- Muktuk, Baptiste, Mint, Saffron, and Quinn- I would be using up my entire day! So clearly you aren't meant to socialize with each character every day. But even doing the bare minimum socializing and using gifts to otherwise rank up affection, there aren't enough time units in the game to do it all. To "rank up" all 10 characters to rank 10, assuming I never did the "hang out" options and relied solely on gifting to raise their affection, that would be 100 units of time, plus the daily unit spent traveling from your shop, which works out to roughly two and a half cycles out of only 5 total (six units per day minus one unit spent traveling is five units a day, times nine playable days between competitions, is 45 "socializable units" per competition cycle). That means dedicating half your time units solely to socializing, which leaves you with precious little time to run your shop to afford the ingredients you need to pass the competitions in time. But that means entirely ignoring their cutscenes, several of which are really cute. To experience each of 10 character's unique cutscenes at least once, (which requires seeing their 1 time unit, 2 time unit, 3 time unit, and 4 time unit scenes, so a total of 10 time units) (plus the time unit spent just to leave the shop each day, as noted above) you are looking at using up the entire other half of your time units. Which means you literally will not get to open your shop once if you want to experience all the NPC dialogue in one playthrough. You will never be able to unlock all the haggling cards in one run through, either, because of this, even if you don't care about actually experiencing the cutscenes. This game cannot be finished to 100% without spreading it across multiple playthroughs. Math over. And to echo other complaints... If you get bad RNG, you literally cannot win the first competition. And the game is structured as 5 repetitions of the first competition, with more activities eating into your limited time in between each competition, giving you less wiggle room to grind for RNG. I won the first competition barely by the skin of my teeth and it came at the cost of not ranking up relationships with NPCs, which should be a large part of the game's charm, because I had to spend all my in-game time making basic health and mana potions and sending Mint out again and again hoping for decent drops so I could make the required potions for competition day. Baptiste can only be sent out once per day, with limited days between "game over" competitions, so if your drops from him aren't what you need, you cannot progress, and you're stuck sending Mint out again... and again... and again... I also experienced several graphical glitches which while not game breaking were disappointing for a non-early access game. When I alt-tabbed to Google gift guides upon return my entire screen was shrunk. A few times character models bent in awkward ways. Quinn's collar regularly clipped into their neck. For a game that is so heavily reliant on gorgeous animation for the charm, when that animation breaks, it is way more noticeable. I am overall disappointed in how this game offers very little improvement upon a saturated potion/shop/life sim genre and actually does a lot of things slightly worse. I know XSEED also was responsible for Rune Factory 5, where the post game was heavily RNG reliant. It could take up to 3 in game years of daily grinding to get some items without luck buffs! So I came into this preparing for some RNG and some grind... But, that was all post game and didn't have a 10 (well, 9, competition day itself doesn't count) day time limit staring you down for each "boss" battle with game over as a result of failure. If this game didn't have a time limit, or even if it had a more generous time limit, I could see it being a really lovely game. Rather than saving the RNG for post-game completionist content, it is a requirement to even graduate the tutorial. The modern Atelier games did away with the time limit because it took away from the fun and the charm of the games, and are still the gold standard of potion making games. There are no longer time limits stopping you from really getting to know their characters, and that was widely regarded as a positive step for the franchise. The magicimins in Potionomics require a decent amount of math to get right, but that means there will always be an optimal way to create a given potion, instead of dozens of ways that give different but potentially equally awesome results found in Atelier games. Recettear, which this game also draws the "debt collection" inspiration from, didn't require you to give up shop time to level up NPC friendships separately from adventures which gave your shop stock. That game had a much smoother feedback loop and it didn't ever feel like you were sacrificing in one area to progress in another. Potion Permit is still brand new, and that offered significantly more time to engage with NPCs. You could feasibly talk to every NPC every day. It offered way more opportunities to acquire potion ingredients and many more ways to combine them, going so far as to let you save multiple recipes for each potion, because there was no "perfect" answer. Potionomics does have "perfect" answers. That means there's less experimenting and more slogging, and even less margin for error, so even more reliance on "perfect" RNG to proceed, and even more frustration when the RNG doesn't proc within the small time limit. Potionomics could have been so much more. The time limit seriously puts a damper on literally every other enjoyable aspect of the game. Making a "relaxed" or "casual" mode would change my review to a mostly positive one and leaving this strict time limit challenge as more of an "iron man" or "death march" challenge mode, that is supposed to be tense and stressful and have a real risk of failure and completely disregard the relaxed and cozy atmosphere I gravitate to these games for, would make the experience far more enjoyable.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 18, 2022

  Good but...

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  Ok so: <*>The game is gorgeous <*>All the management mechanics are fun <*>The characters are *compelling* <*> The gambling haggling* minigame is pretty fun, although suffers from the same pacing issue as the rest of the game. By all and all, as someone who loves daily life X dating sim games, I should adore this game. But there is one quirk. The game is stressful. You have very few time slots in a day. There are very few days before the next tournament . And you constantly feel like you don't have enough resources. Not enough for the time limited contracts, not enough to upgrade your equipment or shop, not enough to take take of your hero, not enough for the weekly potions. And I say that as someone who hasn't failed so far. I came in here expecting relaxation and sweetness akin to stardew valley but instead got faced with stress akin to a real debt. At that point, I can't even afford to worry about romancing the characters. IMO this game would gain a lot from a much slower pace where every thing happens less often and slower (except making potions) I want to make more potions, I want to send my hero out more often but with less progress, I want to spend more time worrying about upgrading my shop and less worrying about making more than a 2% profit margin. Also, currently, making your entire life about supporting the guild is the only way to get past week one (and probably further, honestly I need a break) as far as I can tell. I just... shouldn't feel exhausted while having won the first tournament should I?
• gamedeal user

  Oct 19, 2022

  The time management is so good I busted out a pen and paper and planned out my week. ...I don't even do that IRL what is going on.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 19, 2022

  Truly, the Dark Souls of potion crafting sims
• gamedeal user

  Oct 21, 2022

  Disclaimer: I'm on the fence on recommending this game right now. It is extremely charming, cute, the art is amazing, and the game play loop and various features are so much fun if the player just had the time to actually explore them. The artwork and characters are all super well done and charming, but the game demands too much of you on too tight of a timeline. I was most looking forward to getting to know each character, building relationships with them and earning their cards, and gradually building up my potions shop into a thriving business. Unfortunately, it feels like there's hardly any time to even touch half of the mechanics in the game and I feel like I can maybe invest in one or two character's relationships; with only ten days between each competition, there's zero room to breathe. It feels constantly stressful. I would like to be able to take the time to explore the many wonderful features of the game and build character relationships, but instead I feel pressured into attempting to balance making mana and health potions for adventures to gather ingredients, but also brewing separate potions to sell to make money to buy ingredients and much-needed upgrades, and having a slew of custom orders that I'm having difficulty completing because I still need to make the potions for the competition in a few days that I'm barely up to par to be able to make. I think all of this is just exacerbated by how intensely stressful the limited amount of time to do anything is... I feel that 20-30 days would be much better than 10, or a week after each competition to breathe for a bit, gather ingredients, do hang outs, etc. I just want to interact with the cast of characters that drew me into this game in the first place, lol. I'm not at end game yet but I've heard that the game just kind of ... ends once you finish the third competition, which seems strange to me. There's so much potential for an endless mode where you can just make potions and grow your shop.