Alchemist Adventure Review

Game: Alchemist Adventure
Genre: Action, Adventure, Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam)
Developer|Publisher: Bad Minions | Super.com
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price:  UK £15.99 | US $19.99 | EU € 19,99
Release Date: June 10th, 2021

Review code provided with many thanks to Super.com

From Early Access to Completion

Alchemist Adventure is an action-adventure game that recently came out of Steam Early Access. An opportunity for indie developers to sell their game while it is still in development. It’s a great opportunity for gamers to support a project and also get a little insight into seeing a game grow and form into its final flowery product. But at some stage, Early Access comes to a close and with that the game sees its full release on PC as well as Nintendo Switch, the latter of which I’ll be reviewing today. 

Alchemist Awakening 

Alchemist Adventure has you play as Mya who awakens to a strange and unknown place with no memories. But it is not long before Mya gradually remembers her past, which is presented in colourful still art images with fully-voiced cutscenes. As you explore you will also find several notes littered around offering you lore about this mysterious world. The game plays a lot like a top-down dungeon crawler, where you move with the analogue stick and swing your sword with the trigger. Hold the trigger down and your sword will constantly swing which is handy.

The game has a main quest for you to complete which is marked on your map in the top right of the screen. You’ll spend plenty of time exploring off the beaten path searching for treasure chests and finding blueprints to craft new equipment. You will also come across the odd fluffy character with a side quest to complete. You soon discover Mya is an alchemist with the ability to combine elements to create some rather useful magic spells. It’s here where the game has its main intriguing hook.

Open the Book

When you enter the menu you are greeted with a lovely animation of a spell book opening up. It’s in this menu that you create your spells, of which there are an enormous amount of combinations. The game doesn’t do the best job of breaking you into this system easily. At the top of the options, the menu is a page of information that gets you used to the core elements Fire, Water, Earth and Wind as well as several metal and special elements. It gives you a vague idea about the alchemy system but as the player, you really are just left to experiment until you find the combination that works for you.

You start by creating spells that can be used to destroy obstacles and harm enemies. But soon you are crafting defensive spells and spells to buff your sword. There are different flasks and potions available which all serve a different purpose and make certain spells more useful than others in certain situations.

I spent entire gaming sessions just messing around in the spell book trying to make a basic healing spell and I have to say I didn’t find this entertaining. I can see some gamers enjoying the mystery and lack of hand-holding. But when there are several segments of the game that require you to craft a specific spell to make it through say a poison cloud it would have helped it it could have thrown just a little bone if you get stuck. 

Spells and more Spells

With so many spells that you can potentially create it does also lead to a lot of tedium. In most dungeons, you often need to switch between specific spells regularly. For example, you need to douse a fire with water, then activate a team with electricity, then freeze water to walk over it.

These are all interesting puzzles to solve but the game often slows to a crawl consistently going into menus to switch to the right spell. The game does have a quick access wheel for spells but even with this it doesn’t tell you what each spell actually is, just it’s symbol. So unless you have an impressive memory this won’t be as useful as the main options menu.

Break Barrels

Once you obtain a new element like fire you can use this base spell as much as you like but when you combine this with the metal or special elements you have a limited amount of spells to use. So expect to spend a horrific amount of time breaking barrels, rocks and burning down fences to obtain more elements. Something that also becomes boring quickly. You can obtain elements from slaying enemies but I think I spent more time doing all the above than actually slaying. 

Graphics and Co-op

Graphics are generally acceptable. The characters are presented as 3D models which look a little rough when you see them up close and personal but for the most part, you’re viewing them from a top-down view.  The environments are of your typical fantasy setting. Some nice green grass areas followed by several caves and castles to explore.

The areas to explore are enormous, so much so that the areas can feel a little empty. But don’t worry there is sure to be a plentiful supply of enemies to come round the corner to test your skills like lizard people, robot-like creatures and of course spiders. 

The game also features local co-op. I was unable to test this myself. But one player can essentially play as support, fairly like the character you meet early on in the game. In single-player, you can also switch to this character. A nice feature indeed. But it does come across that the co-op partners abilities are more limited than the main character. Co-op is always welcome but just be aware your co-op partner will not be as well equipped as Mya.

Conclusion – A Gem With Rough Edges

I have to say with all my niggles I had fun with Alchemist Adventure. I generally liked what this game was going for. Hopefully, the developers will continue to polish up this game post-release because hidden within all of the difficulties I had is a true gem of a game. Just in its current state, right now you need to put up with some rough design choices. 

Final Verdict: I like it

Notes: 

Typically when I post this review the developers have released a patch for this game. So it does appear that they are continuing to support the game which is a good sign of improvements to come.