Amber's Magic Shop

I was excited about the concept of the game, looking forward to a combination visual novel/potion crafting sim. Unfortunately, the potion crafting part is boring and tedious, and repeated way too many times between VN pieces. The story is, sadly, also a bit lackluster, largely due to mediocre writing, more than the concept of the story. Quick edit for the warning of mild spoilers ahead. A couple of the love interests could have been interesting, but the writing leans too hard on some really lame tropes. Multiple cases of "oh no, I'm on a step ladder, I hope no one looks up my dress" and "Oops, got wet in light colored clothing!" and similar when the tone of the game isn't really matched to those sorts of jokes. The game tries to be a darker tone, but also throws things like that in fairly often. These things also tend to happen back to back, or very near it, so seeing it once, then a second time two scenes later, really doesn't do any favors on making it a better story tool. Along with the lame tropes, the game boasts a failed morality system that punishes the MC for things like not apologizing to a xenophobe for "the crimes of her people" or encouraging a friend to leave an abusive home. And then, the break up scene with a character the MC had not dated, or seen more than once in two years so far as the story shows. While she's at it, the MC also mentions "dating other people" which the story also really hadn't shown. One failed dinner and a ball attended two years prior really doesn't strike me as "dating other people", let alone getting serious with them as the break up scene implies. All that said, I do like a couple of the love interests, and I wish the writing had been good enough to keep me going on it. I quit before I finished a single route, at around seven hours in, shortly after the first (of presumably many) break ups.

Listen. I'll start by saying that i bought the game a couple of years ago and still haven't finished the game yet. As you can see, I've played 8.5 hours. I'm only writing this review because I randomly saw the game while writing a different one , and decided I might as well. I can't really remark about characters or relationships or whatever. But I can explain why I never bothered finishing the game. At the beginning, you get to choose whether to play with the titular "magic shop" or just skip between cutscenes. I unfortunately chose the shop. I actually liked the concept. Every day you choose which ingredients to look for, you make potions for your boss (eventually you open your own shop), you study and improve your skill. It's kind of fun. Until you do it for the millionth time. It is so. Freaking. Long. I played nearly 9 hours, I remind you. Almost all of that spent just calculating how much of this I need and how many times should I do this to get this much money... A game like this combines the "story" of a visual novel with the "game" of a... game. If pulled off you get something better than either one. Amber's Magic Shop does not pull it off. There's too much game - and very repetitive game - and barely any story. I don't think the game is worthless. I really did enjoy myself for a while. But you'd better be patient and really, really determined.

I've had this game for a while and I keep coming back to it, so I finally decided to leave a review! I want to preface this by saying that I do play this game on 'Visual Novel mode' as crafting isn't really my thing, so my experience of it is really only the story rather than the other gameplay elements. However, I find the story really engaging, I enjoy learning more about the world of Aravorn through the eyes of so many diverse and different characters and I LOVE how your decisions shape the story. There's so many different ways to approach a situation, each one having a different effect on your character, the character you're talking to and sometimes the story as well. It really allowed me to roleplay and make my Amber feel unique. The romances too, are diverse. I feel like there's something for everyone. Whether it's straight, lesbian or even polyamory, which isn't something that gets covered in a lot of VNs. Personally, the polyamory route is my favourite and I genuinely feel like it's a very tactful representation, with all three members comfortable and involved. But even if that's not your thing, there's the vampire, the elven noble, the mercenary, the wizard and more. And there are four endings for each romance. I hardly ever see that many options for one romanceable character. There's 'Light' 'Dark' 'Dark Plus' and 'Light Plus' - and they aren't just 'good' or 'bad' options, which makes some endings kind of unpredictable. For some characters, the Dark options aren't so bad - and the light ones are horrible! And it isn't an instant 'game over' if you don't complete the main plot which runs alongside the romances, there is a different ending for that too, one for a Light Amber and one for a Dark. All of this has meant that the game can feel different for me every time I play. It also avoids the problem I have with a lot of Winter Wolves games where I feel like you have to guess the right answer every encounter to not be alone at the end of the game. The only thing I would say is a little weird is when Amber starts closing off her romance options, and she has a full "break up scene" with the other character, even if there has been no hint of them dating in the actual path. But an easily ignorable flaw in an otherwise really fun visual novel. I'd say if VNs are your thing, this one is worth a try. And don't worry if you don't enjoy the crafting, there's always the visual novel mode!

I bought the game in a sale and think it deserves a better rating than just "mixed". Yes, it's different than the other games of this studio, but it is fun, if you like crafting.

Bought it years only started playing as of late enjoyed most of the routes, found some of the dark endings better than some of the light endings but that might just be my preference.

El juego es maravilloso! amo a Ruby <3

A pretty nice game with interesting characters.

Plays very similarly to the original Atelier games, with some of the characters even following the same tropes. Has many great quality of life features and doesn't require the player to always have a guide next to them when playing. If you like alchemy games, I recommend it.

It's a fun game.

Awesome game! Really enjoying it so far.