Your uncle has passed away and he has decided to give his potions shop to you … but he didn’t mention his huge debt. This is the beginning of the story of Potionomics that will lead the player to become one of the best alchemists in the city and to participate in a potion competition to raise the money necessary to repay the debt accumulated by the protagonist’s uncle.
Potionomics is a curious but successfully mix of genres, from a visual novel to a card game. During the day you have a certain number of actions to perform, for example going around the city to talk to the many extravagant NPCs, gather the necessary resources to make potions or sell your potions. This last part is perhaps the most fun of the game and is based on convincing the shoppers who will come to the store to buy a potion by trying to increase the selling price as much as possible. All is done through a card minigame in which in each turn you have to play one or more cards (which will be unlocked gradually during the game and managed by a simple deckbuilding menu) to try to increase the interest of the buyer without make him go away. Each card has a cost in “patience” that when played will be subtracted from the patience value of the buyer who in the meantime tries to apply penalties or decrease the number of total turns.
Even the phase of making potions is fun. Each potion will require a certain number of ingredients that can be bought in the city or collected by an adventurer (as long as you provide her with an adequate number of potions that she will use during her adventures). However the ingredients must be balanced in number and components to avoid the failure of the operation, so you have to experiment several times to create the perfect potion. The shop management part is also fun but simple, from here you can change the shop appearance buying for example new shelves for potions or new larger cauldrons.
At the end Potionomics is a fun game that perfectly mix multiple genres together which worth a try
Platform: PC
Length: 20-30 hours