Review | Potion Party

LifeisXbox’s Potion Party review | Potion Party is a couch co-op alchemy game for up to four players developed by RP Games (PC version) and FusionPlay (PlayStation version). Working as a team, you and your friends must manage your own alchemy shop, brew colorful potions and deliver them to customers. What intrigued me most about Potion Party is that it’s a co-op game, and you actually get to manage a shop with multiple people. I don’t know about you, but this sounded like such a fun game to me! And the vibrant artstyle got me even more excited about the game. Let’s check it out, shall we?!

We played Potion Party for 4 hours on PC. This game is also available on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

What we liked!

• Gameplay | The basics of Potion Party are quite simple: make and sell potions (and later also candy). Customers come into your store asking for a specific potion, and then it’s up to you (and your friends) to brew it. You have to grow the ingredients, smash them into powder using your mortal en pestle, and then brew them. Sounds easy, but the customers ask for difficult or extra big potions sometimes. There are also slimes, ghosts and thieves that try and get in your way, but luckily, there are ways to get rid of them. For example, you can scare off thieves by throwing water on them. Anyway, the gameplay is divided into 12 stages. Each stage introduces new elements, teaches you new things, and helps you on your way to become a master alchemist! In order to get past a stage, there is a certain amount of coins you need to earn. And this isn’t always easy. Launching new features every stage really helps keep things interesting.
• Multiplayer | Even though I initially tried Potion Party by myself, it’s clear that this game is a lot of fun in co-op mode. I only played Potion Party with my boyfriend, since covid prevented us from inviting other friends, but I can tell this game would be crazy chaotic with four players. In a good way, of course! I felt the adrenaline rushing through my body when trying to reach the set goal of a stage. My boyfriend and I rushed brewing our potions, growing our ingredients, and tried to work together as efficiently as possible. This game can honestly make you nervous so it will definitely require some good teamwork! Besides the co-op mode, there is also a versus mode where you can play 1v1 or 2v2. You’ll have to finish all twelve levels in single player or co-op mode first though, since this option doesn’t unlock until you become the master alchemist.
• Shop | With the coins you earn in your shop, you can buy things in the shop. First of all, you can buy new characters to play with. Every character had its own advantage (except for starter Abel who has ‘no talents’ as the game so kindly puts it), for example the wolf character will help customers return 5% faster. Plus these characters can level up so they become even more useful! You can also buy necessary upgrades for your shop, like extra flower pots, brewing stands or watering cans. And last but not least: decorations! I didn’t pay much attention to these because I just wanted to upgrade tools, but then I noticed that these decorations also have certain advantages! Why not get a bonsai tree that will help plants grow 20% faster or buy a little cat statue that will gain you one extra gold per potion sold?
• Graphics | As you can tell by the main visual of Potion Party, this is a very, very bright and colourful little game. Since the potions you create are quite colourful as well, this does feel like a perfect artstyle. The pixelated graphics are very cute and reminded me off Stardew Valley, and that I really had to play that game more as well. The different characters to choose from (after you buy them, of course, nothing comes for free in this life) are just as vibrant and all have their own characteristics making each of them original. You can even play with a wizard that wears a big ass pointy hat or a green-haired girl that has antlers sticking out of her head.
• Sound | The soundtrack is just as cute as the graphics and everything else in this game. I feel like it fits in with the pixelated graphics just perfectly, and helps build tension in the alchemy shop. When you’re playing against the clock ticking away, some upbeat tunes really help you keep your edge, especially if you’re playing with your friends!

Somewhere between

• Single player | I started this game in single player mode, mainly because my boyfriend initially didn’t have time to try out this game together. Unfortunately, you cannot possibly play through all of Potion Party on your own, or I just really suck. I got stuck at stage 6, and could not reach the set goal by myself. This was a bit of a bummer to me, since I did enjoy this game a lot. Up to the point where I had to call in some reinforcements, meaning my boyfriend had to create a character, and help me run my little potion shop. Okay, to be totally fair, the first line of the Steam page does say ‘Potion Party is a funny couch co-op alchemy game for one to four players’. The devs do clearly state that this is a co-op game. But I was doing so good running that shop by myself at first!

What we disliked

• Nothing | I did not encounter anything negative about Potion Party, isn’t that neat!

CONCLUSION

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