Luna, a young witch-in-training with a talent for potion-making, travels to her grandmother’s home in the town of Old Haven to study under her. There, Luna will discover a series of enchanting puzzles to solve, tasks to complete, and, of course, potions to craft. She’ll interact with a vast cast of fairy-tale inspired characters as she strives to learn everything she can about potion-crafting and the other key tenets of being a witch. What awaits at the end of Luna’s journey? She’s not sure, but she does know one thing – with the help of her trusty potion satchel, she’ll be able to handle anything the world throws at her!
Potions: A Curious Tale is a combination crafting and adventure game developed by Stumbling Cat and published by Stumbling Cat and Hawthorn Games. It has a rich, elaborate crafting system reminiscent of titles like the Atelier series paired with a bright, colorful fairy-tale world populated with characters ranging from Little Miss Muffet to Rumplestiltskin. The gameplay features a mix of crafting and exploration, with a hybrid puzzle-combat system that focuses on finding the right potion to interact with each creature or element of the environment. Sometimes, you’ll need to charm or frighten a creature to earn the resources it drops – other times, a good old-fashioned explosion will do just fine!
First things first: I was absolutely charmed by Potions within one minute, and that feeling of charm and delight never went away throughout the entire experience. The game is bright and colorful and cheerful. The creatures, even the aggressive ones, are adorable. There are antagonists, in a way – Rumplestiltskin, for example, is just as much of a trickster as he always is – but the world ultimately feels very cozy and safe. If you find yourself in a pinch, you can always teleport back to Granny’s house, where she’ll be ready and waiting with a complimentary full heal and wise words of advice! I don’t know if Potions is officially categorized as a cozy game, but it definitely gave me the feeling of comfort and safety I associate with the genre.
Of course, the heart of a game called Potions is its potion-crafting system, and this is a great one. There are a vast number of potions you can make – several dozen – but creating them is fairly simple, as it only requires combining the right types of elemental materials in your cauldron. Once you’ve made a potion once, the recipe is saved and you can bring it up any time.
Potions is also very kind about letting you experiment – while most recipes are given to you at some point or another, if you accidentally come upon a recipe on your own, it gets registered into your potion book just the same. I loved this encouragement to go crazy and try out different ingredient combos, and wound up discovering several potions just by playing around on my own. It also helps that ingredients respawn quite quickly, so a failed experiment or two isn’t a major setback for Luna.
The idea of using potions in combat to create what I would best describe as “puzzle combat” is also a great one. Luna doesn’t have any weapons in her arsenal – in fact, in Potions‘ very first scene, you can attempt to pick up a sword and she’ll simply go “No! That’s sharp!” – other than her potions, so you have to use them to find creative solutions. Sure, you can take down some enemies with a basic Minor Explosion or Fire Bomb, but others will require some outside-the-box thinking. For example, try harnessing the wind to blow apples from the tree, or dying things red to provoke a charging bull into destroying obstacles for you!
There are also plenty of hidden secrets and environmental puzzles that you also have to use your potions and mastery of the elements to solve. Potions features a collectible system in the form of Cards of different rarities (bronze, silver, and gold). Finding these Cards is generally optional, but highly recommended as they open up locked areas of the world that often contain treasure or a bounty of ingredients. Finding all of these cards will require using your head to figure out how different elements interact with each other or which specific potion might be required to conquer a certain obstacle. Some of the puzzles are a bit tricky, but get creative and don’t be afraid to experiment!
The plot of Potions is nothing groundbreaking – you will go on a series of quests involving helping out various people you meet – but the characters are fun enough that it stays enjoyable throughout. I liked that you can optionally rescue townspeople as you travel through each area, which causes the town to grow more populated and more conversations and side quests to open up as Luna’s adventure continues. Of course, my own progress through the plot was very slow because I was constantly stopping to explore each secret cave, collect each card, and rescue each townsperson, but it was totally worth it in the end!
As previously mentioned, the art style of Potions is colorful and cute, with a definite “classic fairy tale” vibe. I liked that even minor characters who Luna might interact with once or twice were given distinct and unique designs – there weren’t really any “generic townsperson” or “generic quest giver” type characters. There were several characters who I wished played a larger role simply because their design was so cute and memorable. I especially liked Helios, the glowing, talking cat who accompanies Luna on most of her adventures. Fortunately, he’s a major character who generally sticks around – and you can even pet him!
Anyone in the mood for a cozy game that can scratch that Atelier itch should definitely give Potions: A Curious Tale a try. It’s a thoroughly pleasant game that encourages you to experiment and explore everything a potion can do (and there’s quite a lot). So gather some ingredients, get on your broom and set out on your witchy journey today!
Kate played Potions: A Curious Tale on PC using a provided review code.
