Alchemist Adventure

I keep a soft spot for the kind of indie game that builds its entire identity around one big mechanical idea and then dares you to test its limits. Alchemist Adventure is that kind of game. From Brazilian developer Bad Minions, it drops you into the ruined region of Isur as Mya, an alchemist piecing together a fractured memory while searching for her missing family. The story is quietly affecting, delivered through illustrated comic-book style flashbacks with voice-over rather than walls of text, and it earns its melancholy atmosphere without ever becoming ponderous. The core hook is the alchemy system, and it genuinely is a hook worth grabbing. There are no locked recipes handed to you on a tutorial card. Fire, water, air, and earth are your four primary elements, and adding metals or special ingredients opens up new reactions with different combat and traversal effects. You can coat your sword in flame, brew resistance tonics, hurl explosive concoctions, freeze a path across water, or use electricity to chain damage through an enemy standing in a puddle. The puzzle design leans into this beautifully: using wind to shift stone blocks, earth to form mud bridges, fire to clear wooden barriers. When the systems click together, the game feels genuinely inventive in a way most action-RPGs do not bother to attempt. There is also a talent tree that feels considered rather than padded, and you can craft weapons and armour on top of the potions, giving Mya a self-sufficient, resourceful quality that fits the character. The friction is real, though, and it is worth naming plainly. Swapping between potions mid-combat requires opening the menu book, which is cumbersome when enemies are in your face. Tutorials front-load information at the opening area rather than letting mechanics surface organically during play, so newer players may find the systems overwhelming before they find them delightful. The save structure is manual-heavy, with camp saves spaced out enough that a sudden difficulty spike can send you back further than feels fair. Melee combat is functional but stiff, and reviewers across the board noted that visual polish falls short of the ambition on display. The game shipped from Early Access in June 2021 and has received patches post-launch, but some rough design seams remain visible. The local co-op mode is a genuine addition, though the second player fills a support role with more limited options compared to Mya. For the right player, none of that dims the appeal much. If you are drawn to games that ask you to think sideways, that reward curiosity over button-mashing, and that wear their handcrafted origins proudly, Alchemist Adventure offers a genuinely uncommon experience across four regions of lore-threaded exploration. It sits somewhere between a Zelda-influenced action-adventure and an elemental puzzle sandbox, and the music carries a low, atmospheric warmth that keeps the world feeling inhabited even when the ruins are silent. The story of Mya quietly earns your time.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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