Gorgeous deck-building shop sim Potionomics just got a patch that fixes all my problems with it—plus voice acting, and an option to smooch everyone in a single playthrough

GamesCard GamePotionomicsGorgeous deck-building shop sim Potionomics just got a patch that fixes all my problems with it—plus voice acting, and an option to smooch everyone in a single playthroughWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Voracious Games)

The protagonist of Potionomics holds her latest brew with a triumphant smile, as various side-characters pose stylishly in the background.

It’s a genuinely gorgeous little thing. Everything from its UI, to its character designs, to its animations are designed to give you a lovely little fuzz of belonging, and it helps that its mechanics all slot together satisfyingly, too. Alas, it had a few key problems when I played it that stopped me from finishing my playthrough—problems that are now thoroughly fixed via amajor updatethat dropped yesterday.

First up—being a game where time is a concern, Potionomics had this weird friction where you could end up in an XCOM-style death spiral if you wasted your time in those early days. This made it mechanically engaging, but often meant new players would spend a few hours getting invested before realising they were screwed. Well, now there’s difficulty options you can change at any time.

On that time restriction, one thing that always bothered me was how Potionomicsended.Mostly in that it did.It had this Persona-style deadline cutoff date where the credits roll and that’s basically it—which would be a fine way to structure things if it was a short game, but I didn’t finish my playthrough and I’d sunk about 30 hours into the thing. Well, now there’s an endless mode after the story’s finished, so you can tie off all your little romance arcs.

Speaking of, it was that long playtime—a good thing under any other circumstance—that also frustrated me when it came to the game’s romance options. Potionomics is filled with a cast of lovely, well-written characters, but you only ever get to smooch one in a playthrough and, given the fact said playthroughs last dozens of hours? It sucked. Well, no longer—there’s a “Free Love” mode you can toggle on when starting your game that lets you be as polyamorous as you’d like.

And I haven’t even gotten to the biggest feature here which is—voice acting! You can see an example of that below. It should be noted that while this trailer for the “Masterwork Edition” cites consoles, all the new features therein are just free updates for the Steam version.

Potionomics: Masterwork Edition - Launch Trailer - YouTubeWatch On

Potionomics: Masterwork Edition - Launch Trailer - YouTube

In a moment of what I can only assume is divine madness, the developers have added voice acting to the game two years after its release for its major story cutscenes. Now if you don’t mind me, I’m going to sit here pulling my non-existent hair out over how to spend my very limited free time, seeing as I’m knee deep in Metaphor: ReFantazio (which isreally quite very good), soon to play Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and have absolutely just added a Potionomics playthrough to my list of things to do. I don’t think I’m going outside for a while.

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