Potionomics Review: cash to burn and cauldron bubble
Whooo boy, Sylvia. You’re really in for it now. Your wacky potion-making Uncle Oswald — you know, the guy who sent you like 2 whole postcards? Yeah well, he died. And since he has no direct heirs, everything he owns (and owes) falls to you. Too bad there’s less of the former and more of the latter — a LOT more. And since his debt is now soul-bound to yours, it’s time to pony up the dough or face dire consequences.
Good thing you’re something of a potioneer yourself, and with the help of Oswald’s owl, uhh… Owl, you’ll be able to win a serendipitously placed series of competitions, the cash prizes more than enough to free your soul of sudden generational debt. Will you be able to make a mean potion while making a quick buck?
That’s Sylvia’s goal in Potionomics, a deck-building potion shop simulator developed by Voracious Games and published by XSEED / Marvelous. Available for PC on Steam, Potionomics invites players to “customize your store, hire heroes to gather ingredients, befriend (or romance) fellow vendors to learn new haggling strategies, and go head-to-head with competitors in this narrative-driven, deck-building shop simulator.” And for a very friendly introductory price of $22.49 (regularly $24.99), Potionomics won’t break the bank (even though you’ll be making bank playing it).
As previously mentioned, Potionomics has players taking on the role of Sylvia, a fledging potioneer who has very suddenly found herself with a shop and mountain of debt thanks to her dearly departed uncle. With his debt now soul-bound to her… well, soul, Sylvia has no choice but to take on the debt and the challenge of running a potions shop. It’s dangerous to go alone, however, so her uncle’s owl, Owl, and a whole slew of friends are here to help her with ingredients, tactics, and anything else she might need. Shout out to the Brew Crew for the assist!
Potionomics is many things — a narrative game, an alchemy sim, a deck builder, a management sim — but it is all those things in turns. At the beginning of the day, you’ll need to brew potions with the ingredients on hand, sourced from the various friends you’ll make along the way. Some potions are going to sell more than others, depending upon any current events that you’re alerted to that morning, so making those potions over any others would be a good bet. By plopping specific ingredients into your cauldron and adding fuel to the fire, you can whip up a batch of beautiful brews in no time… well, maybe one or two “time” (more on that later).
After the potions are ready to go, it’s time to stock the shelves. At first, the shabby shelves don’t draw the eye, but after a few shop upgrades you won’t be able to keep your concoctions on them for very long. Patrons like a flashy potion, but what they really want is to fall in love with it. With your deck of cards full of sales tactics up your sleeve, you’ll set them up, reel them in, and close the deal before long. Don’t get too cocky, though — play too many cards and your patrons will lose their patience, taking their interest (and their coin) elsewhere.
Although this is the crux of the game, there’s so much more to Potionomics than just making, buying, and selling potions. Those friends I mentioned earlier? It’s clear early on that they’re definitely romance options, and interesting ones at that. Of course, there’s also those competitions I mentioned earlier, which play somewhat similarly to the daily grind with some surprising twists I’ll let players discover on their own. And the narrative? Again, I don’t want to spoil anything, but the sheer amount of charm that oozes off the Pixar-level characters really make for a scintillating story!
I really only have two qualms with Potionomics, but they’re somewhat sizeable and play into each other: time and UI. I love that time doesn’t pass unless movement is made — awesome for those who, like me, love min-maxing and strategizing. Unfortunately, it’s not all that awesome when certain information is locked in certain menus. You’ll move onto a friend and think you have everything you need, but do you? Or you’ll have the option to rank up with that friend, but you can’t actually see what rank you’re currently at, so… should you? It’d be a quick skip back to the shop to check, but alas, that costs precious time. Time you can’t afford to waste, as the day is broken up into 3 parts with 2 segments each (so 6 “time” total). I know we always joke about how there’s not enough time in the day, and adding the time factor provides the desperately needed challenge, but without those UI tweaks time is worth more than its weight in gold here.
Potionomics is bubbling over with personality — in fact, this may just be the most charming game I’ve played all year. It has so many elements blended beautifully together that would make many different types of gamers happy. With some UI tweaks to highlight critical information to players when its desperately needed, Potionomics will undoubtedly receive even more positive attention than it’s already getting (which is saying something). If you think you have what it takes to be the very best potioneer that ever was, Potionomics is ready to soul-bound itself to you.
Final Verdict: 3.5/5
Available on: PC (Reviewed); Publisher: XSEED Games, Marvelous USA, Inc.; Developer: Voracious Games; Players: 1; Released: October 17, 2022; MSRP: $24.99
Full disclosure: This review is based on a copy of Potionomics provided by the publisher.
