While it's a beautiful game, with zero AI influence, and the added puzzle element is an interesting twist on the genre, many of the puzzles are either hard to memorize, or hard to enact, once you know the answer. Most of the puzzles have two phases -- figuring out the pattern (this is generally quite enjoyable), and then trying to sort the potions according to that pattern (which is where everything falls apart). That's the part of the puzzle that's hard because you can't tell the pieces apart at a glance, or because you have to do the equivalent of enter an 8-digit code manually.
There's 13 colors of potions, each of which has 16 shelves of 8 potions and 4 shelves of 5 potions. All of the puzzles for the 5-potion sets are enjoyable and easy to memorize solutions to, so they aren't the problem. The problem is some of the sets of 8 potions. Keep in mind that each of these puzzles, you'll be repeating verbatim 4-8 times, for different potion colors.
Everything below this point is spoilers.
Examples of not-so-good puzzles:
- Memorize an arbitrary sequence of 8 things (8 chess pieces including color, 8 playing cards, 8 elements, 8 types of weather, 8 ingredients, 8 music notes, 8 runes, 8 storybook locations, etc). Keep in mind that the human brain can usually hold 4-7 pieces of information in mind at once comfortably, so for the full sequence you're either going to have to write it down physically or open up your menu cheat sheet 1-2 times per shelf. Figuring out the sequence can be fun; remembering and using it is not. Especially since there are so many puzzles like this going on at once.
- Sort polygons by number of sides, including telling the difference between 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 sided polygons at a glance. They aren't very visually distinct, you have to count sides manually every time. This puzzle would have worked better if it only covered 3/4/5/6/7, or even 1/2/3/4/5 utlizing a circle and a pointed ellipse. Or even if there was a star drawn between the points, or some other unique decorative elements or colors for each number of sides, so you can tell them apart once you know which is which color...?
- Animated sequences that did not have to be animated: Stare at a spinning clock or compass, or a series of music notes or moon phases, and try to write down the entire sequence in order before it speeds past. Also, potions with 1-8 floating baubles circling around them, that go BEHIND the potion bottle's neck, and overlap with neighboring ones when held in your hand. It takes several seconds per potion just to see what you're looking at, and count 8 things. It's very visually busy in a way that it did not have to be. This would work MUCH better as a 5-potion set -- both so that the animated sequences aren't as long, and so that you don't have to visually identify 8 vs 7 floating sims plumbobs in motion.
- A sequence of 8 flowers that vary mostly by number of leaves -- but when the potion is in your hand, the full flower is the size of a single letter of on-screen text, and only a third of that is leaves. Squint for it. Especially if it's on one of the smaller bottles (I'm looking at you, brown). Flowers that had different blossoms, silhouettes, and more than 2 colors would have been easier to tell apart at that resolution.
- Take the potions across the room to the macguffin that will print numbers on them to tell you the sequence. This one is kind of fine, mostly, aside from the fact it's very easy to get turned around in the potion shop, and it gets very repetitive after the fourth or sixteenth time. Especially if you saved all the puzzles for the end, so you could figure out the answer to each memorization puzzle once and then enact it. Don't do that, by the way. Doesn't help.
I did actively enjoy some of the puzzles, though, even for the 8-potion sets. The one that's basically roman numerals was actually a lot of fun; once you spot the pattern, you can work out where each one goes without memorizing anything. Also the ones where it's simple logic -- biggest to smallest, empty to full, rainbow order, numbers on the potion, etc. Most of those are 5-potion sets, coincidentally. The ones that just already have a number printed on them are fine, they don't interfere with shelving.
So -- what would have helped?
- A powerup or accessibility option that displays the solution to the current puzzle on-screen (if you have the solution unlocked already), without you having to go into and out of the menu constantly. Ideally toggleable.
- A powerup that puts potions from your inventory onto the shelf, if you are looking at a correct shelf, and have the solution to the puzzle recorded in your log. That means you've already done it the hard way once.
- Adjusted art for the polygons and flowers to improve legibility.
- Change the floating plumbobs, clock, compass, and moon phases to be 5-potion sets; that's enough to only need to change 1 piece of furniture per color.
- Consider changing the potions with 1-8 things floating in them to also be a 5-potion set -- either alongside 3 more of the memorization puzzles, or in place of the music one. The music puzzle could easily be replaced with a shortest-to-longest note size puzzle, similar in theme.
