Alchemist: The Potion Monger Review
Developer and Publisher - Art Games Studios S.A
First-person Alchemist Simulator with RPG elements. Explore the world, gather ingredients, and sell or use potions you craft to help others and fend off enemies.
Adopt pets to help you with your alchemy knowledge (and to pet them). Decorate your home however you like and brew your destiny!
Set foot on an island full of potential as an upcoming Alchemist.
Use the Cauldron to craft and concoct your mischievous inventions to either use for good or for evil. How you play is up to you.
Defeat bosses to gain new pets that will surely help you to create even better potions.
Alchemist: The Potion Monger sets you in a new place, that is ripe with slimes, wild ingredients and a ton of exploration with adventure, with a vast open world like this, you could easily be immersed.
Gameplay
First up, before you think about entering the game, you are greeted with the Character selection. 6 different species, 12 characters male and female, and 6 different attributes that species has.
I chose the mouse because I liked the ability to increase the effectiveness of potions.
There is not much of a tutorial, but new hints and tricks appear as you interact with the environment, the first 5 minutes are simply unpacking your house and teaching you the basics of mixing and brewing with the Mortar and Pestle and the Cauldron.
It is informative, which is always a bonus in RPG games like this, it can also be mind-boggling as it all comes crashing at you full speed.
You are the newcomer to town, so the main idea behind the game is to build up a reputation with the town folk, by crafting potions for quests as well as completing contracts, doing this unlocks the ability to trade and sell for better prices, and you will also be able to buy a bigger selection of stock.
You may also find your ingredients in barren green grassy areas. I noticed that the spawns are incredibly low, I also did not progress much into the game, so I can't be sure if you could build a farm or something equivalent.
After only sinking 5 hours of game time into Alchemist: The Potion Monger, I can say for absolute certain that it is a real grind to find recipes and ingredients.
There is a lot of back and forwards between various towns folk, and you need to be quick when dealing with whatever you are doing because they do leave at sunset.
Thankfully, there are teleporters that allow instant transport between your home and the town, amongst other places around the map.
The game offers a combat system where you can fight Slimes with a stick, or use potions for advantage, sometimes these slimes will drop ingredients but don't hold your breath.
You may come across skill books, these books give you a slight boost in their respective category, as long as you complete the mission that goes with it of course.
One of the better things about the game is the addition of pets, these furry creatures can help you discover new elements within newfound ingredients, or they can alert you of nearby threats or collectables in the field.
4 different elementals can be discovered, Fire, Earth, Wind and Water, each of these has its tree of branches that you must discover.
I like them most when I can pet them, I mean who wouldn't? One cat can be found when you beat the King Slime early into the game.
Let us talk about the juicy parts and the actual mechanics of crafting potions.
First of all, you need to know what you want to make, to do this, select the recipe and pin it, this will show what elements are needed for the potion to work, or unless you haven't been following the quests, you can use the Philosophers Stone and it will show you what exactly is needed.
Next, you use the Mortar and Pestle, there are 2, be careful in choosing as it may ruin the potion.
Afterwards, you must mix your potion into the cauldron, and after doing some QTEs (Quick Time events) You will have successfully crafted a potion.
I can't say much about the sound, since I was mostly jamming to the sound of a baby crying, and YouTube, but I can honestly say that the graphical quality is pretty immersive.
The scenery itself is beautiful.
I can tell that a lot of work went into the physics of the potions, as there is a ton to use, each with its proportions. Like the strength potion increases physical attack, or you can throw potions to cause town folks to puke poison breath, it's kinda funny.
Final Thoughts
The game isn't at all as I was expecting, It's much more than that.
I think the only problem that I have with the game is these;
• The saving of the game... It's done by sleeping in your bed, which caused me to lose progress on a good run I had,
• The lack of ingredients that can be found,
• The running speed which I think is pretty slow,
• Finally, remember the massive collection of potions that you can make.
Sure there are such things as Enchanted paper to help auto-create these potions, but who has time for that?
Rating
I would rate this a 3
I like it, but I don't like it. There's so much you can do, but at the same time, there is so little that can be done.
It's a very slow start, but surely and slowly it begins to pick up again.
(5 being the absolute best)
Links
If you'd like to know more about the team behind this game, you can visit: HERE
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