Potionomics is a Capitalist Roguelike card game that puts you in control of Slyvia. A redhead who inherits her uncle’s potion shop right at the heart of Rafta, a landmass floating continent held in the sky by magic. In this land, magic governs all aspects, as one would expect from most fantasy settings, potions are an essential commodity when out adventuring.
Potions relieve wounds, restore valuable mana resources, remove foul poisons, and even endow protection from fire. What would it be like to sell these adventure imbibements, instead of the one that consumes them? A dreadful economic headache would be putting it lightly, as this recipe of an indie title is packed with nauseating and alarming ingredients. Let this review serve as the proverbial nutrition facts.
Potionomics: Masterwork Edition
Developer: Voracious Games
Publisher: XSEED Games, Marvelous USA, Inc.
Platforms: Windows PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Release Date: October 22, 2024
Price: $29.99
Once Sylvia becomes comfortable in the potion shop, an owl strangely named “Owl” falls from the ceiling and into her lap, acting as her “Jiminy Cricket”. Guiding Slyvia and the player about the many features and tutorials will help give you a grasp of what it takes to keep your business afloat.
Creating products will have you throwing in all kinds of ingredients collected from activities outside the shop. Once potions are made, it’s time to throw them on the shelf for sale. This is where Potionomic’s best feature ensues: the card game feature that represents selling potions.
In this unique take on card games, the objective is to sell the potions you make at the most possible value, while not getting over-stressed by the customer’s whiny demands. Once a customer enters the scene to buy a potion, cards will be presented to you each turn.
Some effects will increase the interest the potential buyer will have, increase how much they will spend, or set up long-term combos for a greater result. Customers will throw curve balls at the player by attempting to haggle the price down or even bicker, stressing Slyvia out and potentially making her give up on selling the product entirely.
With the strategic use of shield value-boosting cards, it’s easy to stave off unneeded stress levels. The best cards are the ones that aid in the consumer’s patience which always seems to be the most useful because patient customers give Sylvia more actions to use card effects.
The card battles themselves are not only fun, but the charming spectacle of Slyvia facing her potential buyers tends to be quite a treat. Slyvia is a very animated girl packed with possibly hundreds of expressions. She tends to be rather flirtatious too, but in many cases, I found it to come off a bit questionable when she decides to make a move, especially when it’s a scene of first being acquainted with a potential love interest.
Dating and meeting characters is a very important feature in Potionomics. The more involved with a character, the more features become available. The most notable being additional advice and cards to add to your deck for future shop encounters. Every card earned always feels like a welcome addition to the game’s strategy.
Like in the Persona games or Metaphor: Refantazio, you face punishing consequences if you do not keep up with the larger objective at hand, and that would be the potion contests. With the use of day and night cycles, the mantra “time is the most valuable resource” will weigh heavy on one’s conscience.
Failing to make the required potions, you will fail the event essentially causing you to either restart the game or save from a previous file or autosave giving you more leeway to correct poor time management. This can be rather frustrating when still learning the game.
Without knowledge, players waste their resources and set themselves up for a terrible fate. Failing a potion tournament results in Sylvia losing her home, and living in a cardboard box, the exact description of the ensuing game over backdrop.
A recurring distracting issue is how heavy handed the diversity in Potionomics feels. This is most evident in simply looking at the character designs. NPCs are unrealistically diverse and most of the romanceable characters are female, severely limiting Sylvia’s hetero options. The few that aren’t female seem to come off as flamboyant or like a harmless beta man.
The comedy and interactions between Slyvia and her friends are entertaining. There are a lot of fourth-wall-breaking quips. Some dialogue exchanges such as using the term “XP” and then explaining that it’s slang for experience points reveal the artifice of the world and doesn’t take itself seriously.
Potionomics is very much the product it’s trying to be. A shopkeeper game with dating elements. There isn’t much of an overarching story past trying to pay off your Shop’s debt. The flow of it all does have a rather addicting feel of trying to see how far you can take things, resourcing your money for upgrades to more efficiently make potions, and also trying to keep up with the tournament requirements.
Potionomics is very stressful most of the time; much like running a real shop. The tumble art style may not be for everyone, but it does have its charm. I think Slyvia is doing alright. Give her a chance, she’s doing good.
Potionomics: Masterwork Edition was reviewed on a PlayStation 5 using a code provided by Xseed Games. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Potionomics: Masterwork Edition is now available for PC (via Steam), Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
