“Potions: A Curious Tale” Review — Cozy But Not Much Else

It is very cool that this game starts with some Muslim shit, though. More games should do that.

I booted up Potions: A Curious Tale and was intrigued by the amount of Muslim shit right out of the gate.

Protagonist Luna fights off a Kraken attacking Sinbad the sailor’s ship. He likens her to the Caliph’s armada while a vaguely Middle Eastern tune plays in the background. Referencing a Muslim spiritual leader is a fun way to get me, specifically, into the game.

I didn’t expect the game to continue living up to that very specific-to-me feeling, but I did expect it to be more engaging than it ended up being.

Potions: A Curious Tale came across my radar the way it probably did for many others: a Tweet from its creator describing how Electronic Arts (EA, as it’s known to Gamers) quietly re-released several of their old games around the time of Potions’ release, causing it to plummet on the Steam charts. As a staunch anti-corporation guy (just, like, in general), and especially an anti-EA guy, I figured I might as well check this game out. Especially since I had an email sitting in my inbox offering me a key for the game (thanks to the game’s developer Stumbling Cat for providing this).

And a curious tale this game definitely is. From living piles of ash to a hut on chicken legs, whimsy is the game’s core tone. One could call this a vibes-based game, and I assume many will (it even has an invulnerability mode for players who don’t want to worry about seeing a Game Over screen). But my problem with that phrase is that it always feels like an excuse for a lack of real substance. It’s essentially telling people to ignore the issues that jump out at them in favor of focusing on the overall aesthetic.

But aesthetic can only hold your attention for so long before the novelty wears off. And substance, unfortunately, this game lacks.

The potion crafting should be the highlight of this game, and not only because it’s in the title. It’s the core focus of everything you do. But more than anything it feels like a shallow, checklist-y experience, as opposed to one with mechanical depth that you can experiment and play around with. You walk around different areas, hitting A (in the Xbox controller configuration) next to crafting ingredients to harvest them. These ingredients are not marked in any way until you approach them and press A, meaning the way to maximize ingredient collection is to walk around and mash A in front of anything and everything. Things that didn’t seem like they’d be collectible ended up being so, and vice versa. Once you collect these ingredients, you return to your grandma’s house and craft potions using the cauldron.

And this crafting is pretty straightforward: pull up the recipe, see what types of ingredients you need (ingredients are split up into different color “mana” classes), and hit A to craft. And because you have to craft specific types of potions to get past various obstacles, the gameplay loop becomes a bit of a drag. Need a Minor Explosion Potion? Go walk around hitting A next to everything until you get ingredients with the right color mana, then go back to your grandma’s house to craft the potions, then go take care of the obstacle. An ingredient’s mana color usually corresponds to the color of the ingredient itself, but in the case of something like Feathers, which are physically white but considered yellow mana, it’s not always obvious. And the puzzles aren’t that difficult either. So you have an unlucky combo of a loop that doesn’t feel all that challenging, and your momentum constantly interrupted by the process of scavenging for ingredients and making potions.

But there are other things to hold onto, right? I mentioned that people might call this a vibes-based game. So how are the vibes? How are the characters or the narrative? The world itself?

Well, the world is fun. And the characters are all endearing and interesting enough. You have a Pokémon-esque rival named Emily who casts doubt on your ability to brew potions (which genuinely got under my skin in a way I did not expect). You have your grandma who is sweet and encouraging and always giving you helpful advice on how to brew potions. You have Mary Muffet, a girl Luna’s age who is also very nice. You have a cat named Helios that talks and follows you around (very good thing) and an old lady who is named after John Wick. But the way you engage with these characters is, essentially, by performing fetch quests for them. It’s a series of “go collect these for me and come back” objectives. There’s care and playfulness put into the world here. I just wish the game itself was more engaging to motivate more exploration of it.

Ultimately, I have conflicted feelings with this game. I’m glad games like this exist and really wanted to like it. Developer Renee Gittins worked ten years to bring this to fruition. It’s a testament to never giving up on your passion. I wish that the actual act of playing it inspired me as much as Gittins’ story does.

But, I reiterate: it is very cool that this game starts with some Muslim shit. More games should do that.