Trying as if it’s been torn straight out of an alchemist’s journal, Potion Craft is a beautiful simulation recreation that’s certain to enchantment to the mystically inclined, though — oddly — it looks like a nasty match on Swap. Arriving on Nintendo’s console one yr after its PC and Xbox launch, it places you within the footwear of a ‘ye olde’ village alchemist working a retailer and following a each day cycle of harvesting components and crafting with them.
Because the alchemist, chances are you’ll be requested to create potions for farmers, battle mages, hunters, and even one thing somewhat darker, like a potion of necromancy. There’s a morality scoring system of kinds. For those who serve prospects with evil intentions, your morality score will go down and extra ne’er-do-wells will come to you. You’ll have to resolve what sort of alchemist you wish to be.
Potion Craft’s chapter-based gameplay loop is repetitive, however in a approach that can really feel worthwhile for seasoned simulation followers. You have to to reap or buy each particular person ingredient, mash all of them up, combine them in the best portions, and warmth them up. Following these steps will, in flip, transfer a potion bottle icon on the map in the direction of totally different goals. Completely different recipes are hidden in between obstacles, and exploration clears away the clouds protecting hidden areas.
The sport doesn’t change a lot as you progress. The potions get trickier to seek out however the act of creating them doesn’t get any more durable. The shoppers and distributors are the identical day by day, however their requests get somewhat extra particular and attention-grabbing. The sense of development right here comes from the potion guide. There are heaps of potions that may be crafted and they are often customised totally.
One subject that we bumped into throughout our playthrough is that utilizing the water jug to return the potion bottle to the centre may generally trigger the sport to crash. A memory-related subject, maybe — we managed to treatment this with a system restart and by deleting fairly just a few Swap information, but it surely was irritating and reset the day’s progress every time that it occurred. There are additionally some hefty loading occasions to sit down via when beginning up the sport.
Sadly, Potion Craft doesn’t really feel at house on Swap. Whereas the sport definitely has a transparent aesthetic enchantment, the textual content is difficult to learn, the icons are onerous to differentiate, and it doesn’t supply any accessibility choices of observe. The button controls depart somewhat to be desired, too; we discovered ourselves taking part in with the touchscreen for the overwhelming majority of our playthrough. Getting a max-level potion requires you to line up the potion bottles completely – and that is very tough, frustratingly so at occasions.
Potion Craft is sure to be a gem for the best viewers and is right for devoted completionist crafters who take pleasure in sim video games with strategic components and cosy, magical aesthetics. It is a heady concoction, only one that does not go down very nicely on Swap.