I’d be a terrible witch. I’m forgetful, ditzy, and would definitely set the majority of my friends on fire by total accident. But I’d give it a good go, and you’d know by the stupid look on my face that my heart is in the right place.
Heart is what drivesPotionomics, a lovingly crafted dating sim RPG where a compassionate young woman called Sylvia inherits her deceased uncle’s potion shop and is saddled with an agonising debt of one million gold. I dabbled with the original game a couple of years ago until other things caught my attention, but now the Masterworks Edition has arrived on console, I have returned for a second and much longer shift. Turns out that making potions is hard work.
Mo Potions, Mo Problems
You must earn ingredients by sending a cute tomboy on dungeon runs or purchasing them from a local non-binary goblin who lives on your roof. After that, you need to determine their values, throw them in a cauldron.
And hope for the best. But your potion shop can’t just yeet potions onto any old shelf, you need to use your charms to barter and earn maximum profit. This is when Potionomics turns into a retail card battler.
You can customise your shop with new shelves and other pieces of furniture, which in turn will transform your decrepit shack into a wondrous magical boutique. All in good time.
Sylvia has to set up deals, exaggerate the value of her wares, and then pull customers into making a purchase before they grow impatient and barge out of the store. It’s a balancing act where you need to keep an eye on several different numbers and gauges, which is relatively overwhelming at first. However, after a few days, you’ll settle into a rhythm of making and selling your potions, and using new wealth to upgrade your shop and repay your debt.
Like a load of comfortable farming and retail sims in recent years, it wants to both challenge and charm you. Potionomics achieves this by tying your pilgrimage out of crushing debt with its dating sim mechanics. Every day your Owl roommate - who is totally just my uncle in disguise who faked his own death - will encourage you to explore the city you call home and make friends, earn new ingredients and prepare for upcoming competitions where your fate will be determined.
Despite its soft exterior, Potionomics is surprisingly ruthless, but its new edition introduces difficulty settings that allow you to put aside challenge in favour of fun. You can also make it even harder and go full capitalism, but I’m not good enough with numbers to even dare give that a try.
Soul Crushing Debt Won’t Stop Me From Getting My Flirt On
While I love earning a killing as much as the next pansexual garbage fire, what I really love about Potionomics is the dating side of things. Masterworks Edition also introduces a brand new polyamory option in which you may build relationships with every romantic interest with none of the consequences. New cards that can be used to sell potions are earned by going further into each relationship path, so this is not only mechanically beneficial, but it allows you to spoil yourself with cutesy narratives without the requirement of repeat playthroughs.
This new version also includes full voice acting for every character. Some dialogue remains silent, but for the most part, it now feels like an adorable slice of life anime.
To build relationships, you must visit specific locations on the map that characters call home, and from here you can purchase items, craft new equipment, or simply choose to bond with people by doing random activities. Reach a certain threshold, and you will be offered a quick chance to upgrade your relationship to the next level. It’s very mechanical, but considering it folds all of its gameplay systems together so nicely, I don’t mind. Besides, there is something quite lovely about bite-sized bits of narrative happening every other minute.
Some of the characters you’ll be developing the hots for include a vendor called Quinn who is all about causing chaos, but beneath their mischievous surface awaits a heart of gold. In the Heroes Guild sits a fledgling adventurer called Mint, and there’s also Baptiste, a stuffy noble who tries desperately to fit in without past riches to hold him up high. There are still a few faces I’m yet to meet, but everyone I stumble across is attractive, flawed, and interesting in their own way. Potionomics never takes itself too seriously, but it’s abundantly clear by the tone of its writing and visuals that it doesn’t want to. Yet it still offers a living, breathing world ripe for exploration.
Potionomics is one hell of a time, and now it’s on consoles with ample new content and a slew of improvements, there’s no better time to check this gem out. And if you’re after the best and most complete experience, take my advice and go hard on polyamory.
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