The Last Alchemist (PC) Review

The Last Alchemist tasks players with learning and compiling alchemical solutions, most of which will be sprayed on various items or compounds found throughout the world, breaking them down to reveal new ingredients or pathways to new areas. Ingredients can be refined to their base elements, tetromino-like shapes and colours that can be used in the world or combined to form new elements with new properties.

Alchemy recipes provide clues to which ingredients or properties are needed, and it's up to players to piece out how they fit together, or else devote some of the alchemist's daily time to studying the materials and learning all of their combinations and properties outright.

It might come across as tedious, but the developers have wrapped it all up in a crisp life sim package that is more fun and interesting in practice; while by no means an action game, finding various ingredients and breaking them down to learn about them is where much of the gameplay lies.

The Last Alchemist is a casual game, and between the lovable mushroom townsfolk and the peaceful strolls through calm valleys, beside gently babbling streams, and among the tattered remnants of a town and its people long gone, players might forget that the alchemist is locked in a battle for time. All of this is brought to life by lovely graphics and strong character designs that look like they could've come straight from the golden era of Don Bluth films.

Somewhat less appealing is the inventory and recipe management; while it is nice that pretty much everything is contained within the encyclopaedia, which is just a click away, a lot of the information inside is presented much like an actual book, and flipping back and forth around the different pages can become tedious. The developers have included the ability to pin recipes in place, which helps, but it's hard to escape feeling overwhelmed by seeing virtually all of the information all at once.

The same goes for the inventory screen, which displays all inventory at once, and doesn't appear to have a good way of sorting anything; it's just all kind of dumped in there. At the end of the day, these are minor issues, and in a sense, almost add to the "dusty old attic" vibe the game as a whole gives off, but a better system for information or inventory management wouldn't hurt.

The Last Alchemist lacks a bit in the sound department, with just a few music tracks that get repetitive. The gameplay loop is also somewhat restrictive; while players could in theory come up with different solutions to many of the puzzles, the game guides and directs them to the extent that it isn't likely to happen.

Players can use their newfound alchemy skills to learn recipes for furniture and decorate their base (or make more storage space), and while it's a nice touch and it's always nice to provide more options, it takes a while to gather enough resources to build anything, and outside of more shelf room, it doesn't seem to really have any actual point. It also feels counterintuitive for an alchemist who is supposedly dying to spend his time making furniture.

Actions take from the stamina bar, but a quick visit to the meditation mat refills this in no time, so it feels like the game can't decide whether to rush the player, or push them into taking their time with a casual sim experience.

The Last Alchemist can be completed somewhat quickly, especially if players choose not to take their time exploring, or ignore the farming and building/customising aspects (both of which are very easy to do, even unintentionally).

It feels like all of the pieces for a great game are here, but their balancing and placement don't make the best use of them. The race against time feels disingenuous in the face of the casual, relaxing vibe of the game, the building and farming elements are present but underutilised, the characters have depth and personality, but most of them don't get to shine outside of one or two objectives centered around them. Even a tiny bit of relationship building à la Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley could add a whole other layer of gameplay.

The foundation is strong and the team is still updating the game, so time will tell if some of the issues get fixed along the way, but fans of alchemy, sims, casual exploration, or crafting will find plenty to like about The Last Alchemist right now.