As I mentioned a couple days ago, one of my unfinished titles I’m looking to play this year is Potionomics. Twelve in-game days later, it’s time to share my first thoughts. This will be a short post, since I’m low on time and need to publish something for today before a massive snowstorm takes out my internet connection, so I’ll just focus on why this game has me hooked.
Potionomics pulls together three disparate genres–a shop sim like Lemonade Stand, a dating sim like Dream Daddy, and a deckbuilder like Slay the Spire. As a fully fledged release available for only $25, it’s refreshingly free of the pay-not-to-play absurdity the shop sim genre is currently getting up to in my exasperated absence. The game hearkens back to the free flash games era, when you were expected to manage every grain of sugar and personally give every character a hot towel massage to maintain your standing in the community. There’s no expectation of infinite growth here–you’ll end some days poorer than you started, sometimes by a thousand or more gold coins. There’s also no “stay idle, earn money” philosophy either. The game is delightfully hands-on, giving you access to every step of the process in order to personalize your production process. About the only thing you don’t do is go adventuring for your own ingredients, but you’ll be commissioning adventurers, purchasing their loot drops, crafting potion-making equipment, choosing your own recipes, brewing, bottling, stocking, and haggling. And this is where the deckbuilding element comes in. When you haggle, you’ll draw cards from your deck that represent your tactics. Managing your patience costs, you’ll need to boost the customer’s interest and keep stress under control. This is probably the weakest element of the game, as evidenced by the fact that there are several viable infinite decks, with almost no reason not to simply assemble them. There’s no RNG involved in getting cards, since they’re unlocked through the dating sim elements, and none are permanently missable (unless you disregard them until the very end of the game).
The dating sim elements are what really have me hooked. They’re nothing particularly unique–spend time with someone, give them gifts, raise the affection or romance bar, rinse, repeat. But I’ve never played a dating sim whose characters have anywhere near as much heart, or appeal to as many demographics. Want a nervous, excitable, sweetheart of a butch hero? A suave, affluent, driven, man? A nonbinary witch who lives for schemes and weird bugs? A smoking (literally) demon who’s all cutthroat style and no substance? An older woman who’s settled down to focus on her mental health? A passionate Indigenous artist with the body type of a god and the self-confidence of a hero? There’s almost certainly even more I haven’t met yet. Every time I go back for another day, I’m excited to pursue my relationships with all of them, to learn more about them and help them grow. And all of that is bolstered by the beautiful models and their incredibly expressive movement. The art style of this game is nothing short of gorgeous.
I’ll save a deeper review for when I finish the game, but for now, I’ll leave it at this–Potionomics is more than worth the time and money. If you love dating sims, shop sims, or even deckbuilders, this could be your favorite game of the year.