It wouldn’t be a PAX East without a stop at one of my favorite booths, the XSEED booth. For those who don’t know, XSEED does a great job in bringing Japanese-styled games to the United States. We have them to thank for the likes of Rune Factory and Senran Kagura to name a few. This time they brought a few games with them to PAX East so let’s get right into it!
It feels like quite a few developers are coming out with a “potion-crafting” game and XSEED brought to Boston their iteration, Potionomics. Out of all the potion creating games I played at PAX East, this by far was my favorite. You play the role of Sylvia who suddenly becomes the owner of a potion shop after the death of her uncle and she gets thrown into the world of potions/business ownership. Right off the bat, she befriends an owl named Owl and he helps you get your footing in the potion game. While working at the potion shop, you’ll have to create and sell potions, as this is a business after all. However, here’s the fun part as you can negotiate and haggle with your customers, via a card game system.
You’ll try to get cheap deals for potions while keeping the customers happy and not get stressed out. That being said, the card game combat, for a demo build, felt crisp and didn’t slow the gameplay down. You get better cards after you defeat customers in combat so make sure you use the best cards. The writing and graphics looks fantastic as the banter between Owl and Sylvia make them feel like they have known each other for years, rather than only a short time. Potionomics has that anime style to it that makes character interaction so much more fun as you’re waiting to see what facial expression the characters go with next. I can’t wait to see the full game in action but if it’s anything like the PAX East demo, it’s going to be very fun.
Next up is a game called Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories that pays homage to the Game Boy era by the way it looks. How can a game that makes owning melon a crime not be fun? You get thrown right into Hog Town, looking for your friend, Cantaloupe. You’ll have to interact with everyone in Hog Town to figure out just what in the world is going on. Two of my favorite characters in the demo were Kitty Princess and Strong Dog, who are a couple in Hog Town and appears to be some of your best friends. You play the role of “self-appointed detective” as you sift through Hog Town, interrogating the animal underbelly to find clues. From what I played, it’s going to be interesting to see why melons are illegal and what exactly happened to our friend. It will also be fun to see how we interact with the Cavity Crew, the “evil” organization of Hog Town and to see if they are actually the bad guys.