If you liked chemistry in school or enjoy puzzles, then The Last Alchemist from Vile Monarch and publisher Marvelous Europe is the game for you. Featuring a disabled alchemist trying to save himself from a sad end and a whole host of sentient mushrooms, The Last Alchemist is a gorgeous fantasy, puzzle, crafting game that I couldn’t stop playing.
In The Last Alchemist, players take on the role of the literal last alchemist who had left his hometown after an awful plague had killed nearly everyone except for himself and his master. Attempting to figure out a cure for the plague, he’s explored all over and has now returned in hopes of figuring out his master’s research.
Throughout the game, you’ll explore a beautiful world packed with resources that the alchemist can extract elements and essences from. Combine these in a successful way and you’ll be able to explore further and hopefully come across clues to develop the cure!
One of the best parts of the games is the sheer amount of possible combinations of essences possible. Fortunately you won’t be left alone to trial and error your way through those likely thousand+ combinations, as partway through the game, you’ll be able to access your old master’s microscope to figure out how different essences combine and go together.
This element of the game means that it takes a little bit of time to really get into the flow of figuring out the essences without help, allowing you to both explore the world more, since you can’t pass certain areas until you create specific properties, and meet some of the Agari.
Once you do have the microscope though, things get a bit easier, yet still challenging, as the needs of each property increases and changes. And if you don’t do things thoughtfully, your property will explode. Ask me how I know.
Even cooler is that the combinations follow a scientific naming method, just like in real chemistry. Could I outline exactly how it works? No. Did I recognize that tetra means three for properties with three of one essence? Yes.
I have to admit that it took me far too long to realize that the elements literally show where they can connect with others and probably made at least 20 properties for no reason. Still, it’s a lot of fun to make all the various combinations, and I imagine I’ll go back into the game soon and futz around some more to see how many wild properties I can make. Sadly ,only the properties meant to help the alchemist move forward in the game are useable, but I don’t think that detracts from the game.
Fortunately, although the alchemist might be one of the last people alive in this fantasy world, he’s not completely alone. One of the main aspects of the game is actually a community of adorable mushroom creatures! The Agari are a local civilization of sentient mushrooms with their own secrets and you’ll help some of them out along the way.
I don’t want to give away too much about the game’s overall story but one of its best aspects is the focus on the Agari and connectedness. Additionally, there’s a lot of musing on environmental safety and the impacts of one’s actions on the larger community.
Insight is also something beloved by the Agari and becomes an incredibly important part of the story, and I loved all the reveals that came with that. By acquiring insight from exploring, making new constructions (like the machine used to combine essences), and selling materials foraged from the world, the alchemist grows stronger and can make more properties.
The alchemist is disabled and seeing disabled leads in video games is still not super frequent. He’s lost his leg from the disease and has made himself an incredible prosthetic, but still uses a staff to help him walk and sprint! There’s also a real energy meter, he can’t just do whatever he wants all “day” so there are places to sit (and things you can construct!) to regain energy, or as a lot of people with chronic illnesses say, regain spoons.
Of course, you can’t really have a wholesome adventure fantasy game without farming, but The Last Alchemist doesn’t foreground this mechanic, which I personally love. While I enjoy farming in games, I don’t think that adding a heavily required farming mechanic would add anything to this game.
Instead, there are a few quests related to farming, but you have the choice on how much of it you want to do, as there is more than enough resources all around. When you do have to farm, there’s a particular reason and it adds to the game instead of making it feel like a quest just to have a quest.
Some tips though. Pay attention to the numbers listed for each element or essence needed to make a property, it does matter. On the flipside, sometimes a property will list a certain number but that number doesn’t correspond with the total number of “molecules” needed for the property. This means you can use other elements not listed! What those elements are, and how to make them when you need a specific number, I’ll leave up to you.
My only true critique of the game is that the Agari NPCs, and Maria who you’ll meet midway through the game, don’t have much to say. Unfortunately, while the alchemy part of the game is incredibly robust and fun, the NPCs only speak to you with new dialogue when you have a quest.
I really hope that if the game is expanded, the writers will be able to expand the dialogue a bit more, because there is so much interesting history and lore that could be included in just a handful of conversations!
Still, The Last Alchemist is a fun game, and if you enjoy puzzling through how to make a property and exploring fantasy worlds, this is definitely a game for you! I played it over a few days and on the last day spent literally 6 hours because I was so committed to getting to the end and figuring out the cure!
The game is out tomorrow for $19.99 with a 10% release discount!
Images and review copy courtesy of Marvelous Europe
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