Potionomics: Masterwork Edition Review (PS5) – After making waves on PC, Potionomics finally makes the jump to console with its “Masterwork Edition” that expands meaningfully on almost every aspect of the game since its launch a couple of years ago.
Building on what was already a formidable management deck builder, Potionomics: Masterwork Edition is a delight that more than lives up to its title, and establishes itself as a must-play for any players interested in a new spin on the management genre.
With a bevvy of thoughtful quality-of-life updates and improvements, the scope to enjoy the meticulous and expressive world of Potionomics has been expanded a thousand-fold, all the while maintaining the core of potion-making at its centre for newer players.
Potionomics: Masterwork Edition Review (PS5) – Brew-tiful Execution
Setting Up Shop
On paper, Potionomics sounds like a relatively simple shop management game with a focus on expressive animation and charm being what sets it apart.
On a basic level, each in-game day gives you a set amount of time units to purchase ingredients, start brewing potions and then subsequently sell them in your store.
By itself this loop is well executed and easy to approach from a newcomer’s perspective, it never felt like the game was throwing too much information at me for it to be overwhelming as a first foray into the genre.
As new features are introduced and events occur, information is clearly communicated about just how things are changing and the types of conditions you can expect.
These are always presented as natural in-game occurrences that have realistic impacts on the world around you, even if you’re not out exploring it yourself. If there’s an ecological disaster in a biome, ingredients from that area will be more expensive, if there’s a harvest festival in town, your customers will be far more open to a good deal.
Just below the simple loop of making potions and selling potions, there’s a complex set of moving systems that will constantly keep you thinking about your next steps and the best way to make as much profit as possible, in a way that had me scratching my head for minutes at a time.
Bursting With Character
Being a well-thought-out business management game is one thing, but Potionomics goes above and beyond in its presentation to a level that honestly staggered me, only being enhanced by this updated version.
Through unique character design and some of the most expressive animations I’ve seen in a game like this, Potionomics exceeds itself in crafting an experience that feels well-rounded in almost every way.
Sylvia as a protagonist is full of charm and following her story to turn her Uncle’s failing potion business into a bustling venture is one that was a strong enough excuse to keep on growing and building on the management aspects of the game.
The animations of Potionomics were always a point of praise on the game’s original release and that same praise is true over 2 years later; this game has some of the most expressive animations that I’ve seen out of a project of this scale.
Each character you meet is totally distinct and full of small details that make them a delight to interact with as they come into your shop and you form relationships with them.
Expressive animations are now supplemented by a brilliant voice cast that breathes new life into this eccentric cast of adventurers, potion-makers and guild-masters to elevate the characters to a new height.
All major story beats are now fully voiced and are done with great care. This version of the game also includes an option for an increased focused on romance, with the option to be able to romance every character in the game during one playthrough, if polyamory is your thing.
This option has no bearing on the minute-to-minute gameplay but speaks to the lengths that Voracious Games have gone to when considering inclusivity and allowing players to tailor the experience to their own preferences.
Potionomics is a deeply inclusive game and a deep respect for its audience can be felt throughout.
The Fine Print
There are more than a few spinning plates when it comes to Potionomics and it’s an ambitious balance. As well as the business management that forms the beating heart of the game, Potionomics blends elements of dating simulators and deckbuilders into this core to make for a game unlike any that I’ve played.
Expressive animations would be wasted on characters that you can’t freely interact with, and Masterworks Edition takes the typical trappings of a management game and blends it with social simulator elements to ensure you can have your cake and eat it too.
As well as being unique customers, each character you meet has a distinct purpose in the world of Rafta that lends itself to a unique degree of interactivity. Instead of just having an ingredient shop, the vendor for the ingredient shop is Quinn, a character you can grow closer too and eventually form a romantic connection with – should you choose to.
There’s a clever incentive to return to the shop for both your shop and Sylvia’s own needs as well, and it made me actually think about who I wanted to talk to during my limited time.
This once again opens another layer of complexity with how these social interactions intersect with the deck-builder side of Potionomics, and the haggling of customers to get as much profit as possible. I was consistently impressed with how each of these seemingly isolated mechanics actually ended up coming together and being cohesive for the overall experience.
Getting Down to Business
When it comes down to it, the bottom line is the most important part of Potionomics. All of the social interaction in the world won’t help you earn the coin you need to pay off your deceased Uncle’s debt; that only comes through brewing and selling your own brand of potions in your customised shop.
Over the course of days and weeks, you grow from meager health and mana potions to more specialised items that will fetch higher prices and help you succeed in competitions at specific intervals for big rewards.
There’s a constant sense of progression and growth as you steadily acquire more items to use in your brews, and the equipment to see them shine on your shelves for punters to buy.
You’ll work with adventurers to source ingredients, give them to shopkeepers to help stock them regularly, and then buy more and more to fulfill the increasingly complex orders of your customers.
It’s not enough to just fulfill them though, there’s an entire deck-builder card game that is tied to your profit margins and this is where your social interactions start to emerge and you can take what you’ve learnt from others and use it on your own customers.
As you spend time with other shopkeepers and characters, you can steadily adopt part of their persuasive repertoire into your own in the form of cards. While Sylvia has her own rustic brand of negotiation, cleverly incorporating the techniques of others into your own is the key to gaining an edge in conversation and driving up your prices.
Some cards will increase the amount of patience your customer has, some will give you more options to pursue and others will lower your stress levels. Player expression is a big part of how you choose to build your approach to negotiation and I enjoyed fine-tuning my way to increased prices.
Spending time with shopkeepers will also help you expand your shop’s selling capabilities – investing in better equipment and expanding your space will only expand your empire beyond your modest starting area.
Everything feeds back into itself and the result is an addicting loop that is exceptionally fun to experiment with; made even more addicting with the inclusion of a dedicated endless mode
A Learning Experience
Potionomics is at its best when you know what you’re doing; which might seem a bit obvious. Most games are more fun when you know the ins and outs of what’s happening but I find this especially to be the case with how you go about doing well in Potionomics.
While the game does a decent job at explaining the fundamentals of what to do, I very quickly found the game letting go of the proverbial leash and letting me go out alone into the world and my own potion peril.
Mechanics are generally explained in the most basic of senses and it’s up to you to place the rest of the puzzle together – or consult an online guide for some more specific help. While you’re encouraged to experiment and work out what works best – Potionomics isn’t a pushover.
Despite the incredibly charming and cutesy visuals and energy running through the game, this is a serious resource management experience that will put you to the test if you aren’t ready.
Even before the first major boss, you’ll be contending with strict time management, ingredient sourcing and fulfilling specific orders to specific requests, without much margin for error if you want to succeed convincingly.
Masterwork Edition does introduce a lower difficulty to accommodate for greener players but there’s still a lot left to the player to work out for themselves – which you could argue is in the spirit of the business. I just wish there were some more pointers there, even just as an option.
But if you’re prepared to put in the time and really get grafting with what the game gives you, Potionomics is a fantastic management game that itself manages to avoid the exceptionally common pitfalls of the genre on console.
Where so many become clunky with interfaces being crow-barred onto a standard controller, Potionomics effortlessly makes the jump to console and does so in the best possible form.
Potionomics: Masterwork Edition is now available on PS5.
Review code generously provided by the publisher.