Potionomics: Masterwork Edition review

It’s not uncommon for role-playing characters to guzzle entire inventories of elixirs during their expedition. Potionomics: Masterwork Edition 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, in a revision that can reduce many of the stressors of the original PC release.

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?

Dodge Those Spoken Attacks

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 the game, as you barter with frugal shoppers. Here, Potionomics visualizes the nuances of negotiation as a Slay the Spire-style card brawler.

Your hand of cards can inflate 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 that function like attacks.

Parrying with a Clever Response

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, providing access to 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 close relationship with. Yes, Voracious Games managed to shoehorn romance into its shopkeeping sim, and the combination largely works.

Getting Cozy with Difficulty Options

While affections are plentiful, time can be a scarce resource in Potionomics. Venturing out to buy raw materials or running the store can consume portions of the game’s segmented days. Since competitions occur at consistent intervals, there is often a sense of dread that accompanies the page-flip of Potionomics’ in-game calendar. But now there’s the option for a ‘cozy’ difficulty mode that relaxes the time requirements, making travelling and leveling up much less stressful. There’s still a sense of urgency that surrounds the competitions, but the late-game has been mercifully moderated.

But even on Cozy, Potionomics is no pushover. Each contest obliges 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. But for expert elixir artisans, a new Endless mode and a tougher Capitalism offers additional ways to enjoy Sylvia’s exploits.

No More Unspoken Feelings

Visually, the isometric view of your shop is absolutely adorable while conversations with NPC are filled with lively animations and impressive facial expressions. Agreeably, Masterwork Edition adds voice acting which helps bring the game’s colorful cast to life with solid performances. Nicely, these improvements have been added to the PC version as well.

Potionomics is at its best when it provides players with agency. From courting different NPCs to making resource-gathering decisions that affect ecology, it’s fulfilling to see how the game’s components fit together, helping to craft an interesting atmosphere. Although the amount of autonomy is limited, there’s some room for experimentation when potion-making.

A Better Blend of Ideas

Appropriately, Sylvia spends time with friends to lower her stress levels. With the modifications made to Masterwork Edition, you won’t be forced to do the same. Developer Voracious Games has prudently paid attention to player feedback, fixing many of the issues that prohibited Potionomics from concocting a pleasing blend of mixing and mingling.

Potionomics was played on PlayStation 5 with review code provided by the publisher.