A very charming blend of a vendor-sim, deckbuilding, and persona-style time- and relationship-management.

Low difficulty if you know what you're doing, or prioritize the main objectives, and sadly barely any replay-value beyond maxing out the relationship with every character or 100% the achievements, as there is no NG+ or endless-mode.

Character animations during dialogue are super charming and high-quality, but sadly are somewhat bogged down by the choppy transitions between the poses (as in, they abruptly cut to the next pose), which has been a flaw since the intial demo of the game.

By all means, more of a 'one-and-done' game in terms of replay-value.

This game is much too long, but very very fun. It combines deckbuilding, store management, dating sim, potion crafting, and adventure managment as individual elements into one cohesive and addicting whole. Each element bleeds very easily into another, like buying ingredients will be your reason to visit the vendor but you might stay for the conversation, then be surprised when you teach you a bargaining technique to add to your deck. Wacky combination of mechanics that I'm impressed can be done so seemlessly

Very well made character-driven narrative that leads into one of the biggest faceplants at the end, but is still a good time to watch. And when I say character-driven, I mean you can choose to interact with the world more than the basic competition plot, and get more narrative back in return if you do. The dating sim elements aren't very intrusive which made me surprised to find out one major source of progression is tied to improving relationships, but I do like how if you're not fully comfortable with the whole relationship aspect of the game I guess you don't have to interact with that (but then why not play another shop-managment potion-making game?)

Really makes you feel like you skipped Potionomics 101

First of all. Petty grievance: This game does not have controller support so it's kinda ass to play on a Steamdeck, not helped by the fact that it, for some reason, also sets the device on fire.

Anyhow.

This is an allright shop simulator that builds on the Atelier/Recettear formula. I can't be too mean about it because, yeah, it's a small mechanically dense game that makes a good use of deadlines and scheduling mechanics to create stressful situations and force the player to use clever planning to overcome them. Like, on paper, this is great. The systems work well togheter and there's enough information available to the player for them to actively plan for their goals (the early Atelier games Really struggled with that bit).

I say on paper, because practically I don't know how much the mechanical density adds to the experience. Is this game really more fun for having a deckbuilding game as its haggling mechanic?

Like, there's a lot to this game, and I feel the same goal could have been achieved with... less than a lot.

Also the pacing feels Very quick at times, even compared to something like Atelier Marie. I don't think that's necessarely bad, but didn't fully work for me (Like, games like Atelier or Recettear use long rpg sections as a way to slow down the pace and add an element of real time waiting to the shop-simulation aspect. I like that choice a lot structurally, but I can definitelly see the appeal of a shop-simulation game that cuts down on the rpg faff. It just didn't quite work for me this time around).

It's fun. But again, I think I like it more in theory than when actually playing it.

If a charismatic game that is part management game about potion making, part deckbuilding card game about haggling to sell your potions, part dating sim to unlock new cards for your deck by improving your relationship with your friends (each one providing services that help with the potion making, like gathering or selling ingredients for your potions) sounds good to you, you'll love Potionomics.

The artstyle and animations are beautiful and so charismatic, the characters are so fun and expressive and the music also carries that same charisma to boot. The game feels polished in all aspects and I can't commend it enough for that.

That said, the only reason why this isn't a five star review is because of pacing - a lot of the game can feel samey and while they did their best to create time limits and new potions to brew and equipment to upgrade every week, there's not a lot of incentive to be brewing these new potions except the competition ones that happen every end of these 10 day periods that the game revolves around.

If you're just looking for a chill dating sim, then this isn't for you. You gotta enjoy the ingredient management, potion making and deckbuilder minigame otherwise you'll just be annoyed at the time limit for things. I think this really niched out their game because you gotta be from different niches to enjoy it but - if you are, you'll absolutely love this.

pretty neat game! the core gameplay loop of Potionomics is essentially doing a variety of everyday chores (but magical) all in service of growing your small potion brewing business. stuff like shopping for magical ingredients, brewing potions to use and sell, and dealing with customers. this core gameplay loop is expertly woven together through the use of ticking timers urging you to make progress, stretch goals that you need to accomplish, and a variety of different gameplay interfaces (such as a deck building game) for engaging with the different facets of running a cliche fantasyland store. the potion brewing system is easily the star of the show here, with all of the other mechanics working in service of allowing you to brew better, more lucrative potions as the game goes on.

beyond gameplay there is an incredibly predictable but decent story and some fun characters. there are also romance options if that's your thing (which are also the primary way of building your deck). the dialogue during these scenes is incredibly corny but it's also Gay so it's really cool actually

the game does have its problems though. i feel like it was a little longer than it needed to be, and there's a pretty significant jump in difficulty at 2/3rds of the way through that made me drop it for a while. also, for a game about paying off a debt there are plenty of situations where you'll have 75 grand just lying around and nothing particularly important to spend it on. also as far as qol is concerned this game could really benefit from some kind of a "shopping list" feature.

but when it all works (which is almost all of the time), it's a blast

I think we all have gotten pretty used to the subconscious belief that, in this climate, good games reach the mainstream and become popular sooner or later, nevermind their genre, gameplay, aesthetics, and just the actual quality they’re working with. Potionomics, while some success is not out of the question for this one, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be the next Superhot, Spelunky, or even Sythe: Digital Edition after all. There was (understandably) no marketing for this game, I’ve only seen one big-ish YouTuber talk about it, and basically no big outlets paid this game any attention. I guess that’s what you get for releasing almost day-in-day with Plague Tale 2 and withing a week of Mario-Plus-fucking-Rabbids. Gosh, not even Backloggd, a site full of pretentious indie-lovers and covert weaboos, noticed that this game came out, and the devs literally have the word VOR(e) in the name!

Jokes aside, my point is that it’s a shame this game hasn’t received the attention it deserved. It didn’t rock my world or anything, but for what it is, and what the sequel and/or DLCs building on it’s ideas could be, there are not a lot of games I’d LOVE to see become a franchise like this one.

“Why doe”, you ask? Well!

On your quest to quickly amass a number of ingredients, shop-upgrades and coins in your bank account necessary to win each new potion-brewing competition, you will meet a cast of wacky, deceptively simple and instantly endearing characters, all connected to the capital “C” Capitalist system this world is living under. And, aside from the aesthetics, the characters are probably the best part of Potionomics as a whole. They are fun with how they present themselves and how they interact with Sylvia, the main girl; they are intriguing with each relationship-level up revealing a bit more about them as people, as well as the stuff they had to go through in their past; they are, most importantly, extremely comfy. They give you a chance to breathe in-between frantically trying to come up with a good ingredient combo for your next potion, to relax and feel like Sylvia is not just a debt-bound slave to the market, but a person living her life, bonding with people she meets.

It was truly a shock just how well the characters and your little interactions with them worked for me; they almost perfectly support the stressful, anxiety-inducing timebomb that are the weekly potion contests, driving you to interact with these people as a form of genuine recreation. The cool thing here, also, is that the game doesn’t rely on the raw nature of these characters as NPCs with how expertly it wieves their stories and moments you spend with them into the “actual” gameplay – the card battles.

For every rank-up with each of your peeps’ relationship level you’re rewarded with a card, generally contextualized as a tactic they use to deal with stress, or self-contiousness, or people that they want to seduce into giving them more money for the cheap meade they serve at the tavern. Each characters’ card collection is tied to a theme or an attitude they’re associated with, like Shafron being a chill woodling lady, or Mint being a go-getter not afraid to go on adventures to prove herself to the lads at the Guild, or Quin, doing gay and being crimes. Each card comes with a lesson or wisdom of some kind, like how you should yell about how awesome you are to pump yourself up right into your customers’ faces, or be homosexual. And so, when using Baptiste’s cards to increase a customer’s patience meter and make it easier for you to grab their attention, you remember all the stories he recanted about the importance of empathy, compromise, and showbodiness when making deals, and you almost want to strike the same slightly goofy pose as Sylvia when trying to apply these lessons to the current haggling session. “Yes”, you say, “I will pretend to be your friend just so you will give me more money for this shitty Mana Potion, also play some guitar riffs for good measure”. Combining different NPCs’ cards into your deck is made intuitive that way, as channelling a charming guildmaster guy as you’re imitating confidence-incarnate in the form of an anthropomorphic sculptor walrus just makes sense.

All this, in addition to being tight as fuck, creates a sense that whatever it is you’re doing, whether it’s getting to know new people, going shopping or commissioning some fancy shop repairs, you’re progressing the story, deepening your connection with the supportives and the main character, and getting better at the game itself, whether it’s through upgrades or general knowledge of how to navigate the game’s systems. With the intent of the story seemingly being to be fun, intimate and full of friendship and panic, I’d say this simple yet ludicrously effective weaving of story into gameplay into story into gameplay is commendable, and indicative of the talent and skill of the guys and girls (and nbs) working at Voracious Games.

At the end of the day, the amazing thing about Potionomics is that, despite being a game with such accents put on time-management and stress-tolerance on the part of the player, your journey through it is made effortless through its writing and presentation, as well as the intuitiveness of it’s systems. It’s wild for me, a person who isn’t exactly in love with those “just chill and soak in the atmosphere” games like Abzu or Gris, to be having such a relaxing time with a game where you spend 20 actual hours in a rat race you HAVE to win in order to not get evicted, and it’s a testament to how crucial storytelling can be in getting a player into that flow-state where you feel just strong enough to not buckle under all the pressure you’re put under.

In conclusion,

Roxanne milkers in my mouth pls pls

There is so much good in this game. The visuals are beautiful, the character designs are phenomenally expressive, the music is really nice and always fits the mood.

This game combines business management, deckbuilding, and persona style social link mechanics, and they mostly work to enhance each other. All of the characters are really endearing, and each one adds a fun new layer to running your business.

The haggling mechanic is a lot of fun too. It plays out as a deckbuilder and you get new cards from bonding with your friends. This is the game that got me into deckbuilders and I can't thank it enough for that.

That being said, there are a few major issues. For one, this game is way too freaking long. It took me 30 hours to beat, and that was 10-15 to many. The gameplay is great, but you will be sick of it by the time the credits roll. It was not meant to last this long. Also, the potion making mechanic isn't the best either.

Don't get me wrong, it's fun, but it's easily the least interesting part of the game, and it's the one you'll be doing the most because every other mechanic like the social bonding and haggling can be skipped, but you need to make the potions manually.

If you want my advice, play up to the third tournemant. After that, the game doesn't get bad, but you're gonna get tired of it.

Nettes Alchemie/Handels/Dating Spiel.
Das Problem ist, dass nichts davon wirklich ausgereift ist.
Die Tränke, die man machen kann, sind stark begrenzt und die Hälfte davon nutzlos.

Aber was mich wirklich am meisten stört, sind die Optik und die Ladezeiten.
Egal wohin man geht, man muss ständig 5 bis 10 Sekunden warten.
Dafür sieht das Spiel aber aus, wie ein Handyspiel.
Wo kommt die Ladezeit her?
Dazu hat man in vielen Bereichen nicht die Informationen, die man benötigt um gewisse Entscheidungen zu treffen.
Manche Tränke darf man nicht verkaufen, weil man sie für den Contest braucht.
Welche das sind, sieht man aber im Verkaufsbildschirm nicht mehr.
Solche Sachen nerven ungemein.
Dazu fehlt jede Form von Charme oder Komplexität, die ein Atelier zumindest bis auf die letzten Teile in jeder Minute versprüht.

Pros:
- Super cute
- Great character designs
- Well-written dialogue

Cons:
- Card battler is meh
- Other mechanics feel like busy work

Potionomics executed every idea it had to perfection. The moment to moment gameplay in making high quality potions versus bartering their value up is addictively good. The character interactions and overall writing is high quality, makes you feel like you are talking to complete and fun people, all while backed by a progressive underpinning which I cannot get enough of. The visuals are the absolute best use of cg-animation I have ever and may ever see with characters being unbelievably expressive in what is a clear labour of love. With the music having entered some of my playlists for reading and relaxing in my down time. I fully recommend this title to people who are even ambivilant towards the genres present in this title.

The only reason I give it 4.5 stars instead of 5 is that it is missing a je ne sais quoi that makes my brain associate it with other titles I think of as masterpieces. This is more of just a personal hangup than anything negative for the title. I cannot justify calling it anything less than perfect, but sometimes people are irrational when it comes to media.