Having 100%'d this game:
This is a very strong recommendation in favor of this game with the caveat that you have to like these types of game. If is cozy and has some puzzle to it, but it's also quite grindy at the end. The 2.0 update significantly cut down some of the excessive sections, but it's still a commitment.

The 2.0 update in general was fantastic. Fleshed out some content and really helped you feel like a booming shopkeeper at the end game.

This is a really excellent game and worth at least trying

I won't lie, when I first played this after its initial release, while I enjoyed myself? I found myself getting distracted from it due to a slow slog of progression and a bit of being 'stuck'.

Thankfully, with the most recent Enchanted Garden Update, they've absolutely fixed that sensation and made it far more addictive to play. The talent tree system and expanded options for the garden let you progress and unlock avenues that fit your playstyle and preferences a bit more, and let you more easily match any challenges you find. If you were sitting on this game for awhile, now is very much the time to jump in; and if you've got an old save you've been neglecting like I was, don't flinch and just wipe it to start fresh. You'll enjoy yourself far more!

Potion Craft is one of those games where I wish Steam had a neutral rating. It's not an objectively terrible game by any means, but it's certainly not one I enjoy for a myriad of personal reasons. First, and most importantly, I was sold on the idea of an alchemist/crafting simulator. What I got in reality was a boring, tedious, and annoying sandbox exploration game that overshadowed the whole experience and left a terrible taste in my mouth. It's difficult to understand my criticisms without first comprehending how the gameplay works, so here's a brief explanation:

The gameplay consists of you adding ingredients to a cauldron to produce potions. How does it all work? Well, prepare to have your mind blown. Each ingredient has an inherent "direction" to it. In the middle of your crafting room, there's a map with a potion icon. Your goal is to add the necessary ingredients and guide this potion icon around the map to discover new recipes while avoiding dangers that would cause your potion to lose health and force you to start the mixing process all over. No, I'm not under the influence. That is actually how the game works. Now that you have a brief idea of how it works. Let's get into my criticisms.

1. Grinding/Mixing Ingredients Takes Too Long
By grinding up ingredients before tossing them into the cauldron, you can make your potion go farther on the map. Because of this highly beneficial mechanic, you almost always want to grind them up first with the mortar and pestle. Granted, it's a neat idea and very thematically appropriate. The problem began when the developers tried to express this mixing motion through gameplay. Imagine your wrist constantly having to do clockwork rotations dozens if not hundreds of times every play session -- spending a total of minutes just sitting there bored out of your mind doing the same action over and over and over again. You truly have no idea how quickly everything becomes repetitive, boring, and fatiguing because of this one flawed design choice. Worse yet, there's no option to upgrade this base speed. You get stinking rich the entire game, and there's not even a merchant to sell you better equipment! You know what? This ties perfectly into my next criticism.

2. You're A Dragon That Sits On A Pile Of Gold
By playing optimally and at the difficulty setting recommended by the developers, I became rich quickly and accumulated more gold than I knew what to do with. There's simply not enough meaningful upgrades and cool sh!t to buy to make the experience of a business owner worth it. Tools can't be upgraded, the furniture is lame and takes up space awkwardly because the game is in 2D, and spending your gold on seeds is simply not that exciting. Why aren't there more ways to spend our money? What about paying bills? Bribing the guards to look the other way? There are so many creative ways one can come up with to encourage players to spend their funds and make their purchases feel meaningful and fun. Unfortunately, Potion Craft falls flat at this. It falls doubly flat when it's a game about being a business owner and amassing wealth.

3. Interacting With Customers Is Boring
Interacting with the townsfolk should be the highlight of the experience, but it's forgettable like most of the game. The vast majority are generic NPCs, and what actual reoccurring characters there are have no real memorable or interesting personality to them at all. It's funny to admit, but I think Jorji Costava from Paper Please had a bigger impact on me emotionally than anything this game was able to do.

4. The Morality Mechanic Is Laughably Bad
One of the selling points of Potion Craft is the ability to increase or decrease your reputation depending on the people you choose to do business with. Sell to good folks, and your clientele will be normal well-intentioned individuals. The opposite is true if you choose to only sell to criminals and villains. It's a fantastic idea. It introduces a side of being a business owner that most games don't really bother to explore and in doing so provides an extra dimension to the gameplay and increases the emotional depth of the story. This wonderful idea collapses on itself when the developers decide to have each customer declare their intention on what to do with your potions with complete honesty. The word moral ambiguity and subtlety does not exist in this game. If a customer with bad intentions wants to use your potion to kill someone, they will straight up tell you that. I'm not even joking. A morality system is only as engaging and fun as the difficult decisions it forces you to make. The more the game makes you question your own moral values, the better. There is no such decision to make in Potion Craft. It's honestly and laughably straightforward.

5. The Act Of Discovering New Potions Is Boring
If you get to the heart of the problem, I think the gameplay is ultimately just downright boring. If it wasn't for me using a spoiler map that reveals the location of every potion recipe on the map, I would've quit this game a long time ago. I can't even imagine how much worse it is if a player decides to play without one, and the huge amount of time they would lose wandering aimlessly to nowhere. I'm sorry, but I don't think mindlessly exploring a boring map devoid of anything interesting and having to contend with dozens if not hundreds of ingredients is something I want to do for a prolonged amount of time. It gets super tedious super quickly.


Aside from its fantastic and endearing art style, I found Potion Craft to be a slow and horrendously repetitive experience that is devoid of any meaningful choices or decision-making. As much as I wanted to like the game, I couldn't. Unless it is your dream to roleplay as an alchemist, I strongly recommend giving this game a wide berth.