Fancy exploring a cute pixel-art land filled with wild bouncing jellies? Alchemic Cutie is a very sweet casual RPG and it's officially out now on Steam. Note: key provided by the developer.
Developed by Viridian Software / Vakio is another entry in the colourful and casual market, a very welcome addition too as it's properly wholesome. Wimba Island, the place you live, is a magical land filled with wild jellies. These strange creatures roam the lands and your family has made a living out of breeding them.
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Taming them is initially a little amusing, and I will admit to a proper chuckle the first time. You have a flute, which you use on them to sway them before you capture them. Once done, you give them a little balloon and they float off towards your family farm. It's so delightfully silly! Once you've tamed them, you have to look after them and keep them happy. Otherwise, the poor things might go "poof" and vanish into the night if they're unhappy, so you need to regularly check up on them.
Breeding jellies is no simple task. Keeping up with their happiness can take a lot of work, especially when you've got a few going. If they eat too much, they turn into some sort of crystal and that's the end of their life. Breeding them passes down various traits and you can end up with thousands of combinations so it will certainly keep you busy. You also need to actually get two jellies to like each other too, for them to do a little happy dance and then produce an egg. Eggs need some care and attention too, although not always. You can wait around for it to hatch, or speed up the process by giving it some love or carrying it around with you.
Styled a lot mechanically like Stardew Valley, although with quite a different setting of course. Just as easy to get sucked into though. You roam around foraging for resources, taming jellies, picking up their poop and deposit whatever is needed into a little hut ready for a weekly shipment pickup. All while trying to figure out some of the island's secrets, breeding new jellies and entering in some competitions too.
A satisfying gameplay loop for a game that's got a fair few more mechanics than it initially seems.
In my play-through of the native Linux version, it worked flawlessly. A very joyful and relaxing experience that reminded me of both Stardew Valley and Slime Rancher if they had a weird baby. I'm a little bit in love with it - so very charming.
Game Features:
- A whole island ready to explore that changes with the seasons
- Over 4000 possible Jellies with lots of items to find and quests to do
- Befriend a village of cute, odd, and wholesome characters
- Engaging Jelly raising and alchemy systems for you to master
- Fun jelly competitions to win medals
- Modding support
- Jelly sharing via special codes
You can buy Alchemic Cutie on Steam.
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