The Capitalism Simulator You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Need, or Potionomics: Masterwork Edition for short, is a strange one. Imagine, if you will, that you’re saddled with a dilapidated potion shop courtesy of a financially clueless uncle, and your grand purpose is to brew potions to keep debt collectors at bay – that’s Potionomics in a nutshell, and no matter how much sugar the Masterwork Edition adds it just doesn’t pass the taste test.
Now, on paper, the game has potential: you’re Sylvia, the latest victim of intergenerational financial ruin, and your goal is to resurrect a dying potion shop by crafting potions and sweet-talking customers out of their hard-earned coin.
At first glance, the game dazzles with an appealing art style and characters that promise to be bursting with personality, but when you start to look closer, a lot of the magic starts to wear off, and when it comes to the gameplay, things start to fizzle out – fast.
Now, my most significant gripe is that I am unable to nail down who the audience for Potionomics is. The game feels overtly juvenile but with a steep learning curve that feels years above that audience. The game also masquerades as a cosy-style game but with an endless amount of pressure and repetitive gameplay that loses its charm after the hundredth attempt to get the right mix of ingredients without imploding your finances.
Within an hour, the game already felt like a never-ending chore. To top it off, every ten in-game days, you’re up against a potion-brewing contest that decides whether you get to keep your business or reload your last save. Sounds fun, right? No, it’s just capitalism wrapped in a whimsical facade.
Most of the game will just be you scrambling to gather ingredients like a crazed shopkeeper possessed, knowing that every failed concoction pushes you closer to another lecture from the bank. And because each activity – shopping, brewing, selling, costs in-game time, those precious minutes are draining faster than game time in an MMO with a subscription fee.
But that’s not to say that Potionomics is all bad. The haggling system brings a unique twist: instead of a traditional sale, you use a card battle system to raise potion prices. In theory, it’s clever and new; in reality, it’s a repetitive grind that makes you feel less like a savvy merchant and more like you’re stuck in a perpetual debate club with people who just want a quick health potion.
