Inspectors' Review:
Paper is nice.
Very sniffable!
Very comfy to sleep on!
Maybe could be a back scratcher?
Helping to give it an aged look :P
Boss' Review:
Mysteries of Alchemy is a puzzle game created by Jachin Letwory, who has launched two other games of the course of his puzzling career, The VOC Treasure and Junior Treasure Hunter. He launched Mysteries of Alchemy as a Kickstarter back in October 2020 and arrived in backers hands in January 2021.
The premise of Mysteries of Alchemy follows an alchemy student, Little John, who discovers a series of old papers that claims to be a recipe. You are given custody of this treasure he found and as a naturally inquisitive person you decide to see for yourself if this recipe can create what alchemist have longed for…the ability to turn metal to gold.
Now, in terms of narrative, there is little to no story line, much like an escape room. You have an introduction video letting you know how this book was acquired but the book itself contains no narrative you are meant to unravel. I found the premise intriguing, which was why I backed the game, and I had thought the solutions of all the puzzles would be assembled together but the ending of the misses an opportunity to tie in the narrative premise from the beginning in addition there were these symbols that could have been used for a puzzle but were not. With how this game was built up, I expected more story and for the solutions to used by the player to discover the end result. The online system for the game requires you to put the solutions into it and once you have you are notified you have completed the game and there is a little explanation about the recipe. As a player who enjoys immersion and storytelling, this abrupt out of world explanation took away from ending.
That said, the puzzles and artwork of the game were really well done. The variety of puzzles was wonderful and I really enjoyed solving them because they felt fresh and new to me. You have pattern identification, ciphers, paths, folding, manipulation, and more that encouraged you to look at the pages differently. I liked how the games required you to write on the puzzles but, at the same time, you had the option of defacing a printed copy rather than your handmade copy. This hands-on approach to puzzle definitely engages the puzzler a lot more. The puzzles were a range of easy to medium and the hint system acted as a nudge a player along by asking a question – usually the second hint would give the best help for me. In terms of play time, there were about 14 puzzles and it took us about 2.5/3 hours for two players.
In terms of customer service, Jachin kept backer up to date and send my game out in a timely manner. He is quick to answer questions. I also play-tested four of the puzzles back when he was making the game (I paid for the deluxe game out of pocket) and was happy to see the feedback I gave was implemented and it helped the people I was playing with. I also spoke with the creator about my feedback playing this version and he says he does have plans to make changes to the ended to provide more narrative which is promising!
Overall, Mysteries of Alchemy is a beautifully drawn puzzle game that is hands on. The lack of true narrative conclusion does damper some of my enjoyment (it is not the narrative puzzle game I expected) but for someone who loves puzzles for puzzle's sake I feel this could be a good game to play with your coffee in the morning. There are varying cost to buy the game (digital for 15 euros to 59 euros for the deluxe ages paper) so if you are interested, take a look at the differences to decide what you want from it. I will add the deluxe is quite expensive for what you get as the digital version would give you the same enjoyment if you are there for the puzzles more than immersion. I am interested is seeing what update it made to the game and will update this review accordingly when it happens.
Check out this game (and his others) here.