#48 - Potionomics - PC
I finished this game 5 days ago, been waiting for this for a while, and god, it was beautiful. I like some time management elements in my games, is part of why I like Majora's Mask, why I prefer Pikmin 1 and 3 to 2, and why I used to love Atelier back when it was mechanically interesting and a unique RPG instead of what that is now, but that is not a rant for this thread, so I was pretty excited for this game, time management where you manage a potion shop, with the potion crafting itself reminding me a bit of Atelier, just that this is more pure math to balance the ingredients, and also managing time to hang out with other characters and build relationships with them.
Time management can elevate a pretty simple game, which is the case for Potionomics, you have potion crafting, haggling with a simple deck building game to maximize the cost of the potions you make, and a lot of menu-ing for fairly simple gathering of materials by sending out adventurers with potions, pay other crafters to expand your shop and have better cauldrons for potion making, plus pay guilds to gather rarer materials, buy ramdomized treasure chests, or pay for marketing deals and spells to help you in the haggling, all of this is pretty simple but is elevated by how you manage your time, also spending time with the other characters will net you new cards to use for haggling, plus each of them having a small story arc to go through. Is not super overwhelming, and playing well enough means having more free time to use on whatever activity you want, for example I always made good enough potions to not need to use the marketing deals, and always had good materials where I didn't need to take a chance with ramdomized treasure, that balance combined with your competence as a player makes for a lot of the flow of the game, and again that time management, it makes one try to always do a good job, think well of what materials you'll use, which need replenishing, etc. it adds a great layer of strategy with that simple addition to the game loop.
Besides the gameplay being excellent, the charm is another great high of the game, fantastic animations, UI, the charming characters, a nice little heartwarming story, a surprisingly excellent soundtrack and dem boss battles make for a memorable setting on top of it. And dem boss battles, the game is 50 days long, and you have a competition against a rival every 10 days, you are tasked with making a type of potion with a recommended quality before each competition, another flexible element, you can make the best potion possible and get an auto win if is of higher value than the one from your opponent, or go with a not as powerful one and haggle your way to maximizing the value in the competition to get the win, another flexible element of the game.
Game was everything I was expecting and it managed to surprise me beyond that, something I'll look forward to replaying in the future.
