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STAFF REVIEW of Alchemist: The Potion Monger (Xbox One)


Tuesday, July 16, 2024.
by Peggy Doyle

Alchemist: The Potion Monger Box art I love any sim game, especially those that allow me to live a life nothing like my own. Alchemist: The Potion Monger, developed and published by Art Games Studios S.A, gives me that opportunity. Explore the world, gather ingredients, and make potions you can use, buy, or sell. That is the format of gameplay in its simplest terms. Of course, there is more to the game.

After deciding what type of character you will play, each of the six animal species has a different bonus starting perk, and you can pick a male or female, you’ll pick a name and start the game. You start in front of your new home. You will unpack the most basic equipment and furniture – a bedroll, table, cauldron, mortar, and pestle. This is all you have to start. Oh, and your trusty pet dog (who you can name and of course pet). You walk outside your new home and look for ingredients. In the beginning there are flowers and mushrooms near your home. Each ingredient found can be presented to your dog, who will then identify any special traits it has. Your dog can detect earth attributes. Each ingredient will have different attributes depending on its form. For example, whole vs ground or dried etc. After processing an ingredient, you present it to your pet again and they will determine additional attributes. These are all recorded in your trusty journal that you can look at anytime. Filling out the entire attribute tree will take a very long time.



I specifically mention what your dog can do, because as you progress through the story you will acquire additional pets that can determine other elements’ attributes like air, water, and fire. Discovering all of the attributes of a particular ingredient will take a lot of time and effort but is important when brewing different potions, as each potion recipe gives you the attributes needed to brew it instead of the ingredients needed.

How you play Alchemist: The Potion Monger is entirely up to you. You can use your skills for good or evil, helping farmers with their crops for example, or burning them to the ground. Helping the local woman be more attractive with perfume or decreasing her attractiveness by tossing a stink bomb at her. There is a loose story to follow and a checklist of activities, and a vendor will also give you contracts to level up, but you really can play however you want to. Helping the local vendors will curry favour and they will often give you discounts though, so play your hands carefully.


After sinking my first six or so hours into the game, I came to the realization that it was going to be a real grind finding recipes and ingredients. You will need to rank up your reputation to access certain recipes. You do this by performing tasks for the townsfolk, however, many of their tasks require you to make potions that you can’t make yet or involve ingredients you haven’t found yet. It was honestly incredibly frustrating.

There is some combat in the game where you will battle blobs of slime in the world using a stick, and sometimes they will drop ingredients, though not always. You will also encounter bigger enemies (bosses), and these are tough to beat, especially in the beginning when you can’t make a lot of potions to your benefit or can’t afford a better weapon.

As for making potions, this is also a bit finicky. Pick the potion you want to make and pin it. This will show you the traits you need to make the potion. Determine the ingredients you need and if they have to be ground or whole. You can have two different mortar & pestles. Make sure you pick the right one, as they each give you a different trait. Add them to your cauldron and after some quick time events, your potion will brew. Choose the wrong ingredient or trait and it will explode.



It's clear a lot of effort went into the potion-making. Each potion has a weak, regular, and strong version and each requires different ingredients. The equipment you can acquire can strengthen or remove attributes, so it's clear there was a lot of thought put into this part of the game.

Although not a highly realistic game, the colours, scenery, and design were all beautiful. I loved the brighter than real life aesthetic, giving it a more fantasy-inspired feel. The soundtrack is bouncy and kept me moving along my journey in a happy mood.

Besides the grindy nature of finding recipes and ingredients, the saving feature is my next largest complaint. You can only manually save if you sleep at your house. This means the potential to lose a lot of progress is always looming over you. I did lose a lot of progress when I accidentally came across a battle I was not ready for and died. Considering this game has a childlike aesthetic and feel, I would have liked more saving options to balance its cozy visual vibe.

Overall Alchemist: The Potion Monger is a fine little family-friendly game. The story is simple and the aesthetic is delightful. It scratches the itch for home design and crafting sim fans. Your pets are adorable, and I spent far too much time petting them and seeing the little hearts above their heads.

**Alchemist: The Potion Monger was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**





Overall: 7.0 / 10
Gameplay: 7.0 / 10
Visuals: 7.5 / 10
Sound: 7.0 / 10

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