Potionomics review

Pity the shopkeeper with the deep debt, who spends her days scrambling for resources instead of enjoying the delights of romance.

It’s not uncommon for role-playing characters to guzzle entire inventories of elixirs during their expedition. Potionomics reveals how these tonics end up in item shops. Here, you’ll play as Sylvia, who just inherited a store along with a massive amount of debt from her late uncle. To pull yourself out of this deep financial chasm, you’ll have to perfect your craft of potion making, besting other local brewers. Success involves mastering each specific step of potioneering.

First, you’ll outfit heroes with healing remedies as they set out on treks to gather raw materials. Once these ingredients are acquired, you’ll cautiously follow recipes, brewing blends for extended periods. Finally, after the potions have been bottled, they’ll need to be attractively shelved for a procession of bargain-happy customers. But your patrons won’t just hand over their money frivolously. Instead, you’ll haggle with them over the price. Who knew that the supply chains in role-playing games were so complex?

As the inaugural effort from Seattle-based developer Voracious Games, Potionomics components blend as impeccably as the constituents of any tasty concoction.  Initially, the title lets you experience the most rewarding part of Potionomics, as you barter with frugal shoppers. Here, the game visualizes the nuances of negotiation as a Slay the Spire-style card brawler.

Your hand of cards inflates the selling price in different ways from influencing a buyer’s interest level to applying a cash bonus at the end of the transaction. But you’ll also have to contend with the patience of shoppers as well as worrying about Sylvia’s stress level. Just like real life, sales can be unsettling work, so you’ll need to anticipate the verbal assaults which function like attacks.

Fortunately, Sylvia has a growing collection of defense mechanisms in her deck, which counteract any uncouth comments. While I initially thought the stress mechanic might be corny, I grew to like the way Potionomics’ used deck building as a metaphor for verbal jousting. One example: as you converse with other characters, relationships will nurture and they will give you new cards. These represent the advice, motivation, and retorts we learn from others in the real world. Each effectively strengthens Sylvia, increasing her persuasive abilities and removing the sting associated with insults. Unsurprisingly, some of the best drops come from characters that you’ve forged a relationship with. Somehow Voracious Games managed to shoehorn romance into its shopkeeping sim.

While affections are plentiful, time is Potionomics’ scarcest resource. Many actions, from venturing out to buy raw materials or running the store will consume portions of the game’s segmented days. Since competitions occur at consistent intervals, there’s often a sense of dread that accompanies the page-flip of Potionomics’ in-game calendar. If you didn’t like the uncompromising timetables of the early Atelier games, the competitions here might dampen the game’s otherwise audacious spirit.

Each contest forces you to make three different potions concocted from increasingly exotic raw materials. Often these ingredients can be difficult to acquire when you’re hampered by the daily duties of running your shop. If your brews don’t meet the minimum qualities, you’ll fail, leading to an unceremonious end of game and being forced to pick up things from a previous save file. The competitions contribute a sense of urgency to Potionomics. But without any kind of difficulty settings, these segments might produce frustration with those interested in a more leisurely, Animal Crossing-style pursuit. Occasionally, I just wanted to decorate my shop and not worry about a showdown every ten days. On the upside, the developers are aware of this imperfection and have pledged to patch in some leniency.

If you can overlook this design decision, Potionomics provides plenty of dividends. Visually, the isometric view of your shop is absolutely adorable while conversations with NPC are filled with lively animations and impressive facial expressions. Although the absence of voice acting is noticeable, silence is often better than amateurish performances that might undermine the vibrant cast.

Potionomics is at its best when it provides players with agency. From courting different NPCs to making resource-gathering decisions that affect the ecology, it’s fulfilling to see how the game’s components fit together, helping to craft an interesting atmosphere. Although there’s not too much autonomy, there’s even room for experimentation when potion-making. But the intermittent contests tend to dampen the spirit, with challenges that are incongruent with the rest of the game. It’s no accident that Sylvia spends time with friends to lower her stress levels. She probably knows that video games can occasionally increase them.

Potionomics was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.