Potionomics
Game Title: Potionomics
Released: October 17, 2022
Game Length: 44 Hours
Grade: B+
Visual Novel
Relationship: One of the biggest aspects of the game revolves around building relationships with the characters that become available as you progress through the story. This is very important as each milestone provides you a new card to use in your haggling tactics or a discount through their services. It becomes clear pretty quickly that this mechanic also has a problem with how much a certain activity contributes to your relationship. The only thing that displays on the screen is whether your relationship builds by one or two stars. However in my case, gifting a character something that they like that provides two stars everyday may not be enough to reach the final milestone before the 50th day. While there are a lot of theory-crafting available online, gifting them ingredients that are better quality dictated by the color behind their name (bronze, silver, gold, mana), their purchase value, or the amount of magamins can all give an additional hidden amount to your relationship. It's hard to know whether giving them something that they dislike subtracts or if any amount builds before participating in an event. What you say during an event and hanging out will also contribute a certain amount. Half the characters become available after 10 days with a few after 20 days when certain conditions are met.
Dating/Rivals: A choice is given to you at the beginning of the game whether you want to express "love" to a single person or to any characters. As you increase your relationship status, there will be blatant options to flirt with one of your friends. If you reach Rank 7 in your relationship and have chosen to flirt with a character, they will openly confess their feelings. Your option has no gameplay bearing. A potion-making competitor will make an appearance at your shop periodically before the main event every 10th day. During that period of time, a new negative condition will appear that reflects their personality. There will be some surprises, as well as some "villains" making amends to become your friend.
Quality: If there had to be one exceptional thing to say about this game, almost every aspect of the visual representation of characters is flawless. Each character shares their own personality, backstory, aspirations, and weaknesses. They are all expressive in their animations, gestures, and dialogue. The voice acting is incredible and evenly-paced in context. The only text without voice-work is a couple lines in each event that help describe what the characters are doing. There is a wide-range of appropriate music unique to each friend you visit, the shop, and events. Music is also different between day and night. The game also offers you the occasional multiple choice option in dialogue.
Card System
Deck: The game gives you a set of cards to start your adventure. Almost any card that you obtain from your companion or friends is going to be better than your initial set. A couple of cards can completely nullify any problems you might have within the first 10 days. Some cards attempt to use the more punishing aspects to your advantage. Others might be more beneficial during a competition. You can choose any 20 cards, with some that can be replicated up to 4 times in your deck. Each relationship is going to share a different strategy whether it is giving you an option on what the perk will be, initiating stances, or reducing stress.
Haggle: When a customer approaches the counter, they will have an amount of patience, hearts, and interest. Patience equals how many points are spent when playing cards and decreases each time you want to draw a new hand. If their patience reaches zero before gaining all their hearts, they will walk away without purchasing your potion. Maximizing a customer's interest fills a heart and increases the value of the potion. You can choose to close the deal at any time or draw more cards before using all of the current ones in your hand. Be vigilant on what is stated on each card. Shields that prevent stress may only last the current round before drawing a new set of cards while stances persist through every customer that walks through that door during a session. Abilities do not stack when it comes to value but can increase the number of turns if multiple cards are played during a single turn.
Stress: The game has a very unusual mechanic that replaces a number of cards you draw with negative black cards. As you haggle with a customer, they will attempt to "attack" you with insults to increase your stress level. This tactic is cumulative since you are more likely to draw more stress cards the higher your stress level. One of these cards might be drawn every round after you reach the 20% mark. You can "defend" yourself with a shield, try to reduce stress, or purposely build onto it depending on the type of cards you have available in your deck. Stress does not automatically reset to 0% after you sleep or before a competition. Although the game doesn't tell you the exact figure, a certain amount of stress can be lowered as you experiment hanging out with your friends (5%, 15%, 30%, 50%) and even choosing to end the day early (10% sleeping plus 10% per additional time slot).
Friend Services
Potion-Making: Each friend provides you with a different kind of service. Quinn allows you to buy specific ingredients just as long as you bring him one ahead of time. Baptiste will sponsor expeditions to the newest regions for ingredients just as long you bring him some currency. Muktuk builds you new cauldrons, shelves, showcases, and barrels. Saffron will help with construction in expanding your shop and sell fuel to shorten the length of time it takes to craft a potion. Other characters can modify the daily conditions and other fun activities.
Adventure: The trickiest part of the game is understanding how characters collect resources out in the wild. Each "hero" is different from the number of potions they can tolerate to the amount of damage they can sustain. While they can increase their numbers, there isn't really a clear explanation on how this system works. I was trying to figure out if they earned more experience defeating a large number of enemies, if they defeat enemies, or if they can earn experience more than once in a single day. A green bar will be shown on their guild card for how much they earn in a single run. New regions unlock after each competition that increases the cost and time for each adventurer. Each enemy defeated will net you a random assortment of resources from that area for mixing potions, fuel that shortens the amount of time it takes to create a potion, and decorations for your shop. Every potion contributes to a run in some way whether it reduces elemental damage, surpasses some form of gate along the way, or modifies the type of loot you receive.
Potions
Elements: The most sophisticated part of the game has to be creating potions. No matter what ingredients you use, there has to be some form of stability between how much A, B, C, D, or E a potion requires. Perfect balance will always increase the final result by two stars. This slowly falls to one star and one chance of a star, only a chance of gaining one star, losing a star, or failing altogether. You can choose to improvise a mixture that will automatically show what type of magamins you need to make a potion you are gravitating towards or select a potion from a recipe book ahead of time.
Cauldron: You also have to pay attention to the cauldron itself. There are limits of how many ingredients you put in, the maximum amount of magamin you can throw in, and the number of cauldrons you can place in your shop. Every two ingredients you put into the pot increases the number of potions you get out. For example, place 8 ingredients in and get 4 potions out. What type of ingredients you put into the pot and the more advanced a potion it makes can determine how long it takes to cook. There are three slots to add fuel to lower the time.
Perks: In addition to how a potion can evolve after increasing its star value, there are a number of sensual aspects you have to be aware of when adding ingredients. Positive senses can increase the total value of a potion by 5% while negative senses can decrease the value by 5%. Daily activities can modify this amount even further. While ingredients with negative senses are cheaper, the game randomly decides if they override any positive ones you add to the pot. Custom Orders require the right perks to be assigned to the potion before you can ship them.
Slimes: After 20 days, one special friend will offer you a chance to buy five different slimes, one at a time for each element. The mechanic is simple - place an ingredient in their mouth and they will provide you another one for free. How long it takes depends on the ingredient. Good standing takes two days, average standing takes three days, and an ingredient that doesn't match their element takes four days. While you can feed them more ingredients to speed up the process, the number required generally outweighs the benefit.
Other
Competition: When I first started playing this game, there was this huge concern on paying off this criminally insane debt you receive with the shop. Don't panic. This is merely a story element that drives the plot through a series of competitions. Any profit you gain will not be taken out after each competition. In addition, you do not have to make all three recommended potions for each competition. In fact, you are better off waiting until the 7th or 8th day after certain things become available to even start worrying about making them. The game only checks on whether you have the right type and tier of potion. You can win a match by increasing the value of the potion higher than your opponent through the customer haggle system. You only need to win two out of the three potions. You can purposely add the wrong potion the second round to proceed to the third potion without drawing a single card. Your "customer" has a ton more patience and hearts than your average visitor at the shop to increase the value of your potion. The event starts immediately after sleeping on the 9th day and immediately starts the 11th day afterwards.
Decorations: Whenever you receive ingredients from a region, there is a small chance to obtain cosmetic items for your shop. These are aesthetic only. You can change the wallpaper and floor a different design depending on where you received your items. The decorations will then appear while visiting your shop. The wallpaper will be shown whenever you attend the counter.
Tiers: There are a number of changes that happen after each competition. You are able to craft new potions. New items to upgrade your shop will be made available. The cost of all services will increase. Expeditions and treasure chests will always be pulled from the latest regions. If by chance you are not able to complete all the events before the 50th day, you can continue building relationships and tending to the shop in Endless Mode (added to the game two years later) without any sort of debt hanging over your shoulder. In fact, some events will have dialogue that references what happens after the grand finale of the game.
Summary
Review: Potionomics has a lot of different systems to keep track of as you juggle around ingredients and customers through each passing day. While there is an easy mode that cuts out time for activities, events are still strictly tied to a preset of 50 days regardless of your actions. You need to keep track of what is tied to each ingredient as you use them to make potions, create relationships. and send out custom orders. The biggest problem of the game is perhaps how it sometimes hides the intrinsic value of what exactly changes after using a mechanic. The user interface isn't always forthcoming, even after they added filters. Despite all this, there are some excellent story-telling and characters to explore. It reminds me of The Owl House cartoon in many ways. I will recommend this game as long as you do some research before playing.