Game Review: Alchemist: The Potion Monger

By JT

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC (Steam)

Alchemist: The Potion Monger is a first-person adventure-like game with some RPG elements. You get to explore a world with monsters and town folk alike, sprinkled with items and alchemical brews just the same. As a young alchemist, each potion you make can either be used to better or worsen yourself, and those around you, or be sold for a premium. There are a multitude of potions to be brewed, so you'll be hard pressed to test them all. Even having the ability to brew most items is tough enough, but try to brew some of the more advanced potions and you will be surprised how difficult that can be. Is there enough here for the game to be worth your while? Or will you be brewing yourself an escape potion after just a short while? Let’s dip our toes into the world of alchemy and find out!

In Alchemist: The Potion Monger, you begin your new life in a new home specifically used for making potions. You’re moving in, setting up your cauldron, your bedding, and your chest which will be used for storage. With your pet dog by your side, you’re sure to become the best and most profitable alchemist in all the land. With your dog’s sense of smell, he’s able to sniff out certain types of aspects from various ingredients. With each new aspect found, new opportunities open for a wider range of spells. The spells you produce can have both positive and negative effects on both you and fellow NPCs, with both good and bad NPCs being able to feel the effects. By drinking a potion, it concentrates the effects, giving only your character its attributes. Some examples of the effects applied are the ability to jump much higher, regenerate HP over time, or the ability to float upward into the sky. Some spells are utilized more often than others, especially when it comes to cheaply made potions, or potions that are designed to give you the ability to go over objects. In many circumstances, I was able to completely Skyrim my way over mountains and currently inaccessible areas. Besides attempting to break the game, the potion system can be a bit janky when it comes to using potions to open pathways. Sometimes I found myself stuck because there was a specific way to throw a potion that allowed access to an area. A cave for instance had me throwing a potion at the lettering while I was standing close, so it exploded on both me and the sign. It took me hours of re-exploring the rest of the world, and even circumventing the entrance entirely, for me to figure it out.

The story itself is very basic. As an amateur alchemist, you’re there to help the townspeople with their random and odd tasks, which often amounts to simply creating potions for them. As the main story progresses, you make some choices that cause minor deviations, but they don't really amount to much. As the main protagonist you must find the source of evil, which are just villager NPCs with red eyes. Once killed, those NPCs will drop red eyes, which can be used in several different potions. I found myself often turning to red eyes to make one-off potions. Potions that are only there for 100% completion. However, some potions that red eyes make can also progress the story quite a bit. Eventually, everything comes down to the king. From the common enemies defeated to the final boss. Once the final boss is defeated, the world turns back to normal. So, it’s a very basic story to say the least. Nothing grand in scale, nothing to write home about, nothing all that special. Although, the story does a better job than many other indie titles that look as basic as this game does. The game has a certain look and feel to it that reminds me of classic MMOs developed by just one or two people. If the developers here were to expand the game, I wouldn’t say no. Perhaps with more development tools, a larger team, and more ambition, the game could perhaps thrive as an MMO-like fantasy game, whether it actually includes multiplayer or not. I see it one of three ways. They’ve already created something special, they simply had massive potential, or they’ve just thrown something together without much thought. I choose to believe the middle option. They’ve got something here, and by that I mean a really good foundation. They just need more vision, more resources, and time.

The look of Alchemist: The Potion Monger is that of a beginner-made game. All the NPCs look just short of a constant T-pose, with each townspeople either not moving when stopping to look at another vendor until the night or moving in only one way whenever they take an action. Their pathing often seems to be very disjointed, and they'll randomly get stuck on objects, or even themselves. The graphics are basic and very low-poly, as if they had come out of a PS1 or PS2 game. When any creature throws an attack, it is both very stilted and has a hit range of about one space, which means you basically must stand right in front of the enemy for them to land a hit. Ranged enemies are similar, and they will often stand still while attacking. This allows for mostly easy victories. While there are also some cut scenes, they’re mostly all just characters talking back and forth. It’s as if the developers took what they knew from older retro consoles and attempted to apply it here. It's not completely great in execution, but with more polish and further development, I see a second or updated version becoming much grander in terms of aesthetics.

The audio in the PC version, at least from my experience, had this weird glitch that sounded like constant screeching from the moment I started up the application, to the point where I saved and exited. It’s bad. It ran all throughout the entirety of my gameplay experience. While my experience wasn’t particularly ruined, it was a constant immersion breaker. Every so often I stopped the game and listened for a while or attempted to troubleshoot the issue myself. Still, the game kept screaming. I don’t believe it was my computer or speakers, because this was the first I’ve ever come across and haven’t had any problems with other games or programs since. It's worth mentioning that this bug isn't present in the new console releases.

Alchemist: The Potion Monger is a fun game despite some flaws I have already mentioned, and I had a blast trying to break the game with my consistent use of floating and jump potions. There are even a few secret items in the mountains and across smaller islands that show you they were expecting people to play around with all the potions available. The element I possibly enjoyed the most, even though it was one of the most limited, was brewing a potion and being able to sell it. While extremely limited, it was a nice touch, one I would love to see further expanded upon. Buying and selling in certain types of games just add a whole other layer of immersion. Since Ragnarök Online, I’ve always found selling items could be just as important as discovering them. Sadly, you’re limited to only three items on display, but I would have loved the ability to upgrade either the current venue or move to another. Also, as mentioned before, NPCs tend to get stuck on one vendor without any further movement, even when the day turns to night. The only way I found to debug this is by sleeping at home from day to night, then back to morning again. This means that a feature of leaving your shop to tend to itself can be hit or miss. Most times just walking through town would yield no results, only for me to attempt to fix a bug myself by sleeping and traversing through portals. Then suddenly it would work again, and I would see myself earning money while away from the town, which only happened towards the end of the main story though, once I slaughtered all the evil night townspeople.

The main reason Alchemist: The Potion Monger solely exists is what it was developed for, potions. With each potion doing something either slightly different or extremely different to the point of almost complete chaos. Some are needed to complete puzzles and side quests, like growing or killing crops, or using one to benefit a vendor so they can sell more product. Throw a potion that does damage and more than likely the enemy or friendly villager will be tossed hundreds of feet into the air. During my first use of an exploding potion, the wolf I was fighting got suddenly launched into the air and nearly over the mountain. I thought it was hilarious and should be kept in the game. Sometimes I would accidentally drink a potion when I wanted to switch over or place it on display to be sold, which would sometimes lead to an unnecessary death, but one that was almost always my own fault. There is no perma-death here thankfully, with each death only seeing you be transported back home. This means that the quickest way back home would almost always be death, since all world portals would be too far to walk to otherwise. Obviously, there is a potion for returning home too, but it’s more of an end game item, and takes up inventory space. The fighting elements in the game are not bad either, and all one must do is slash, step back, slash, step back, slash, step back, rinse and repeat. Meaning, there are no real tough battles. Even bosses aren’t difficult to defeat, although they might take some time with their overabundance of HP. Also, just throw a few potions and be done with it. The heavy emphasis on potion brewing is felt throughout the entirety of the game, from the NPCs collecting them from you to the enemies you defeat. With each boss, also comes a trophy for decorating your house.

Yes, house decoration is also a thing in Alchemist: The Potion Monger, but it feels somewhat as an afterthought. Chests and bookshelves can be purchased to store ingredients, ready-made three-star potions, or weaker two and one-star potions. Wall decorations, lighting, and tools can also be purchased, as well as carpets, tables, and chairs. It’s all very arbitrary and feels like one of the weaker elements to add to the game, especially with the size of your house. The house feels incredibly too small for what you’re given. There were very few places I felt I could even place my trophies or furniture where they wouldn’t get in the way at some point. While there was an attic, I wasn’t ever hardly using it. There was no point in going up there anyways, because everything could be placed downstairs with quick and easy access. Either the surface around the main part of the house should have been much wider or all storage, tools, and furniture should be purchased as upgrades rather than decorations. Meanwhile, the backyard was completely under-utilized. The backyard felt way too big for what it was, mostly dealing in cultivation. There should have been a much larger garden for planting seeds, the stable for the cattle should have been larger for the amount you’re able to purchase, and the sheep should have been placed on the other side of the house for less interference with the player. Every time I went to pick my crops the sheep would always be in the way some way or another. It could be quite frustrating at times.

Something Alchemist: The Potion Monger lacks more than anything is diversity, or a wider range of substance. There are additional pets besides your dog, but they’re only there to sniff out aspects from ingredients, so as to make sure you’re not blindly attempting new potions. For instance, there are only three types of monsters roaming the world, with the exception to evil villagers and bandits later. We have wolves, slimes, and skeletons, and that’s it. Slimes with different elemental properties, and wolves with different sizes. The rats you fight are already taken by villagers being those same rats, along with goats and pigs. With a far more diverse line of creatures in other games, such as dragons, horses, and even elephants, there could be a lot more to this game than what’s currently on the surface. I was expecting a dragon or other mystical creature of some kind, but what I was left with was an underwhelming climax.

Alchemist: The Potion Monger could be an epic adventure with a lot more going for it than what we got in the end. From my perspective, the game at the very least looks like it was developed with love. The game is fun and has a few fun elements that make it so, but it needs more to have it really stand out from the crowd of other games in the same genre. It has plenty of potential with strings of ideas that could come to fruition if the developers want to seek something more. There are already ideas that are implemented in small chunks that culminate in a decent game with everything lacking something in a big way. I look forward to the next game by the same developers in hopes we get their ideas better fitted to a larger project. Overall, I enjoyed my time with the game. There were more positive experiences than negative, and as much of an attempt to break the game by going out of bounds or something, there was little in the way of doing so. The only time was jumping and floating over a mountain, only to find out that opening that door between the two areas was what was necessary to advance. Still, it was a very enjoyable experience. I look forward to the next game!

Check Out Alchemist: The Potion Monger on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/alchemist-the-potion-monger-switch/

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Story: C
Gameplay: B
Graphics: C
Music/Sound: C
Value: C

Overall: C+

Pros:
+ A multitude of potions, all with their own individual uses, makes the game fun.
+ The puzzles can be tricky, but they’re still fun to tackle.
+ The game throws in shopkeeping that lets you sell the potions you brew.
+ Too many games nowadays are devoid of the love that goes into making them. This game feels like the opposite of that.

Cons:
- There are audio glitches throughout the entire PC version of the game, from the start menu to the end credits.
- Combat is janky.
- Lackluster thought towards decorations and placement.
- The story is rather mediocre.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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