If the name Raius sounds familiar, you might remember the pair of games Home and The Journey Home chronicling a life of adventure, friendships, and surprise backstabbings. Or you might remember Millika Village, another of their pieces built on preparing a village to survive a massive impending snowstorm. This time, your cast of characters includes a pair of siblings, Rook and Ashe, running a struggling alchemy shop in Crestfin city. Although their shop was successful for a while, they soon encountered competition from others setting up their own stores. Unfortunately, even though the siblings' medicines and recipes are far superior, others sold inferior potions at lower prices, threatening to force the shop to shutter its doors forever.
It is then that the heavens smile down on you slightly, as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presents itself. It seems that the baron is holding a citywide contest for a hair growth potion to fix his receding hairline. Even though it seems somewhat vain, you agree that trying is the only option. Despite some initial skepticisim, Ashe is confident that she can make a potion better than any in the city, given the right ingredients. But the siblings are alchemists, not adventurers, and procuring the required items proves to be a task for which they'll need hired help. After spending the last of their savings and barely staying afloat to do so, they will be forced to make a difficult choice between sure prosperity and empathy. Told in charming visual novel style with the help of Fungus, you use [Space] to advance text, hold [Esc] to skip it, and click when prompted to make choices. The game features multiple endings, so you may find yourself playing through more than once to answer the burning question, what if?
The story is touching, and the music very relaxing.
However, I'm not convinced by the way the game handles the choices. If you try to give the wrong potion (like, let's say... liquid inferno to a guy with a sore throat... :D), you don't any any special scene, just the same generic text you get everytime you choose the wrong potion.
I think the dev missed a very good opportunity to add some funny (or horrible) scenes.
It's quite short, you only have one real choice, but I think most players will have a good time. :)
I liked this game. It was simple, short and happy at the end. My only issue are the character designs...I wish they actually looked at each other. It felt weird to read the dialogue, and looking up to see them staring at me. Certainly, many graphic novels do this but I thought I'd like to point it out...it might just be a personal distaste. I also agree with the Chisto, it'd be nice if there were some funny cutscenes. It'd be even better if there were some minigames for the dangerous locations the hunters went. Overall, I think it's a pleasant game.
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