Afflicted by a curse in his youth, a well-practised alchemist now finds his health ailing in his later years. He visits the home of his former teacher but discovers he has passed away. Determined not to give up hope, the alchemist decides to use the old professor’s equipment to have one final attempt at finding a cure for his illness. However, overestimating his abilities, he blows up the laboratory. The only thing he can do now is rebuild it, while at the same time learning the skills and recipes that might finally restore his health once and for all.
Materials are gathered from the surrounding areas outside the laboratory, and then combined in various ways to create tools and machines that will allow the alchemist to craft increasingly complex things. While out exploring and gathering, you’ll gain Insight which can be spent on building constructions and researching new items. The crafting process in the Last Alchemist can be quite long-winded – for example, raw materials first need to be placed into a grinder to extract their essence, and then multiple types of essence need to be combined in a fusion machine before they can be used. Coupled with limited inventory space and a fairly long wait for the machines to do their thing (around 30 seconds to a minute each time), you’re likely to find yourself doing a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in order to complete your objectives.
It takes time and effort to really understand what the game wants you do to, and further investment is needed to get to grips with how the crafting system actually works – very little is explained in depth, so you really need to think about what you’re doing in order to get the best results. If you’re a fan of games like Stardew Valley but find that it’s all a bit too straightforward, The Last Alchemist might be right up your street – it offers something a bit more substantial to wrap your brain around, while still maintaining the relaxing vibe of a combat-free craft ’em up.
PLATFORM: PC | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
