Potionomics Is Still A Delight 2 Years Later, And Its Biggest Update Launches This Fall
Still open for business.
The best management sim of the past few years just announced a new edition with some major updates, and it’s the perfect time to remember what made the original so great in the first place. Publisher XSEED Games announced Potionomics: Masterwork Edition earlier this week, which brings a host of free upgrades for the game, along with a fancy new physical edition for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
The Potionomics: Masterwork Edition physical release includes all the bonuses you’d expect from a collector’s edition game, including a two-disc soundtrack and a digital artbook. In addition to the game’s original soundtrack, the set includes some unreleased songs from the game. In keeping with Potionomics’ deckbuilding elements, the new edition also includes a set of 12 trading cards with new illustrations of the game’s characters.
Sylvia already sounds great in the trailer for Potionomics: Masterwork Edition, which adds voice acting to the game.
On top of that, Potionomics: Masterwork Edition brings with it an update for the game that will be available to new players and those who already own the game. The biggest change is the introduction of voice acting. Given how much of Potionomics’ charm comes from its lovable cast of characters, getting to hear them in a new way should make the game feel quite different — especially when you’re cozying up to your favorite romanceable NPC. It also adds an Endless mode so players can focus on just running their shop without the campaign’s overarching story, an easier Cozy difficulty, and the aptly named Capitalism mode, which makes earning a living even harder.
As for what’s staying the same, Potionomics is still just as magical of a shop simulator as it was upon its 2022 release. The game follows Sylvia, a young witch who inherits her dearly departed uncle’s potion shop — along with the mountains of debt he racked up before disappearing. In order to raise the money she needs to pay off her magically bound debt, Sylvia competes in a potion-making tournament, with increasingly difficult stages coming up every few days.
All this adds up to a delightful adventure that has players gathering ingredients, brewing potions, haggling with customers, and flirting with friends and rivals to keep her new shop afloat. Potionomics is divided into multiple types of gameplay, without a dud in the bunch.
Potionomics’ delightful NPCs have a new way to express themselves after the Masterwork update.
Potionomics is mostly about brewing potions and getting customers to pay the highest price possible without scaring them off. Brewing requires much more than just chucking ingredients into a pot and waiting, thanks to a wonderfully complex crafting system. Making the best potion means carefully selecting ingredients with the proper balance of five different magical elements. Adding more than the minimum and keeping the elemental ratio perfect results in more or better potions, so there’s always a reward for putting your all into each cauldron.
Once that’s done, Sylvia needs to talk customers into the best prices through a satisfying card game. Patrons get impatient the longer Sylvia keeps up her sales pitch, so players have a limited number of poker hands to get more from each sale. Along the way, Sylvia gathers more cards and upgrades her shop to improve at every aspect of her business.
The fantastic brewing system in Potionomics remains the same in the new edition.
Then there’s Potionomics’ social elements. You can schmooze with each of the game’s major NPCs to increase their relationship with Sylvia, netting her better prices on their goods and — more importantly — the chance to smooch them. Potionomics’ characters are all well defined and interesting enough to feel like real people rather than just robotic merchants.
When I reviewed Potionomics back in 2022, its charming character writing and engaging gameplay systems won me over and left me wanting more even after the game ended. I’ve gone back to the game a few times since its release whenever I want a chill shop sim that has enough challenge and heart to feel like much more than the time-filler that cozy games can sometimes feel like. Given how much the original game holds up on multiple replays, I’m eager to give it another shot when Masterwork Edition lands. The new Potionomics release is currently scheduled for sometime this fall, meaning there’s plenty of time to give the original a spin before then. If it launches without delay, Potionomics: Masterwork Edition could be the perfect witchy game for spooky season this autumn.
