Royal Alchemist

so i've pre-ordered the game in 2019 and got it in 2020, but got to it only recently, because of life. i have to say it was the best spent money in my life! i have only completed one ending (i've spent on it 25h in total! with a guide!!! oh, i love this game), but i can't wait to complete other endings. i honestly love mechanics, the nerd inside me sees them and squeals. i also adore writing, i found myself liking all the characters and finding them fairly realistic. the plot twists were foreshadowed in the best way: when plot twist happens i think "oooh, it makes perfect sense, why haven't i thought about it" (tho i predicted some of the lesser plot twists). also, this game has so many of them that i even wrote to my friends "me, the fool, thinking that it was the last plot twist in royal alchemist". the art and music were also great. the art was really pleasing to the eye and i really enjoyed it. i mean, the games i decide to play usually have to be visually pleasing, so the fact i first played the demo, then paid for the pre-order and played the full game, AND that i have the wallpaper from this game on my laptop, means something. going back to the music: i usually play without it, listening to the songs i like, but it was very enjoyable and suitable to mood, so i played fully listening to it, great job. all in all, this is probably one of my favourite visual novels of all time. thank you for reading my word vomit.

Hello, Developers. I'm here to give you the review as I have promised like months and months ago. I have typed all this after I finished playing, but for some reason procrastinated to post this ._. I don't want to keep procrastinating, so here it is! This is what I wrote right after I got all three romance endings, enjoy? XD

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I’m back to review, Devs! I did say I will review after I finished all endings, but I don’t want to overplay in one sitting, so I’m back after I finished all three romance endings.

I really adore stat-rising games. It is challenging and frustrating, but I really enjoy it. My strategy basically is just to make my own walkthrough. I’ve never used so many save slots in my VN-playing career lol But don’t worry, I will not share it with anyone even if they beg themselves to their knees! This is my hard work for almost 27 hours, so buy or make one yourself! x.x

[SPOILER ALERT! AND MESSY ENGLISH ALERT!]

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I played Aurelius’ Route first. Dang, it is so hard. I’m constantly being reminded of my poor etiquette hehe My favorite scene of his is when Alexis and Aurelius are playing chess. I’m amazed by the dialogues. It sounds… really inspiring. When Harris turns out to be a traitor, I feel my heart breaks with his. It must hurt cuz he is closer to Harris than his own parents. But when he kisses Alexis in front of his father, his uncle, his brother, and his mother figure asdfghjkl I’m not a fan of PDA, Aurelius, Your Highness!

If Aurelius’ route feels intense (maybe because I died countless times in his route lmao), Nazir feels like... a breath of fresh air. In his route, I have my self-made guide for one route already, so it’s easier. So I found myself indulging the story more. I’m smiling all the time, because he is just a ball of sunshine! To my surprise, his route is the purest of all lol My favorite scene is when he comes into Alexis’ chamber whenever he pleases. And when he turns into a Rosenkreuz, I truly feel the impact of what has been happening in his life. If I were him tho, I would resent my Rosenkreuz's blood. I have so much potential but this blood restrained me. Thank God he has Alexis at least.

If Nazir is a breath of fresh air (he is air alright), the Crown Prince is a cinnamon roll. He is too cute and pure!! ….Or so I thought. He makes me squeal out of his cuteness, but in the end my face just turns redder and redder… I feel like I intrude on something… You know what I’m talking about, Devs XD I’m so embarrassed omg They should get a room!!! But it dawned on me that they did get a room. I should have been the one to excuse myself asdfghjkl (I have seen “wilder” scenes, but… because it’s pure at first, I guess it makes me even more flustered. I didn't expect it.) My favorite scene of him… ironically… is when he hurts his eye. The CG is gorgeous!! And when he is crowned a king!! In fact, I was truly happy when I saw the scene for the first time in Aurelius' route. After experiencing a lot of deaths, the scene feels really REALLY rewarding.

My favorite character is… Beringer!! AAAA cute boy!! Please tell me you will explore his story in the future! If yes, I’m ded. Dang it, he’s too cute…

And about the MC, she is so bold. The LIs are all princes. If it were me, I would think this is SO not proper. (A mere tutor and royals!!! What an impropriety!!) But it just shows how MC is so honest with her feelings and so straight-forward. I think she’s a wonderful MC. She is not empty and she is her own person. Good job. I rarely insert myself to MCs, empty or not, so here I found myself cheering for her and for love. I’m like an invisible stalker who followed them all the time. And I don't mind hehe

I had hoped the Alchemy Requests are different for each route though. And I was hoping the route is less structured. But I understand, coding a game is hard haha And this game is time linear anyway, right?

Thank you for making such a great VN. I will definitely replay to find another ending.

To be honest, I'm more inclined to the idea that Alexis and the princes become friends instead. That's really rare. I don't really know why, but I think... as much as I LOVE stat-rising games, the downside is my immersion often breaks. I'm not too bonded to the characters, and as you can see my favorite characters are Beringer instead, not even one of the princes. But I won't think that is a bad thing! I'm happy with my feelings! I still love stat-rising games even with all the downsides. And there are so many events and scenes I like in the game. I like this game. Once again, that's just what matters. So, don't really mind this :D

Okay, that's all ^^ I'm looking forward to future updates or projects! Bye!

There's a lot of good things about this visual novel! I love the stat-raising aspects, the lore is unique, the art is beautiful, and the cast is full of colourful characters.

Unfortunately, I seem to have run into a glitch in the Mac version? When I tried to replay Aurelius' route to get all the CGs with the more masculine portrait, the truth serum didn't unlock after week 11. I tried to see if it was a glitch with the portrait by replaying up to that point with the more feminine portrait, but the item stayed locked. I then tried to see if playing Nazir's route instead would help, but the truth serum still stayed locked. I'm not exactly sure how to deal with this, and I'm pretty sure the truth serum is very important, so... help? Please?

EDIT: I reloaded some of my old saves for Aurelius' route and found that even with those files, the truth serum doesn't unlock?

EDIT 2: Sorry! It turns out that I might have just forgotten that the truth serum only unlocks in week 14, so there's no glitch here!

Awesome game! I've been playing for hours and hours and hours and still only finished Aurelius (I LOVE HIM SO MUCH) like there is so much gameplay, I love it! I can't wait to do Serin next~

Nazir immediately became my favorite when i saw him

is it out now? :o

Thank you! Aurelius is awesome character!

I was pleasantly surprised when i downloaded this game! I wasn't aware just how complex each and every character was (including the side characters), and I believe my only gripe would be that the two major plot twists didn't get much development until the very end. I would've loved to see either of those two characters slip up a few times or lose face to hint at, although not explicitly, what their goal was. Otherwise, this game was truly fantastic. Do you think you'll ever make a sequel? 

I love this game it quickly became one of my favorite. I had played Long Live The Queen before so when you released this one i didnt even hesitate ^^ I do have a question though : Could you give give me some indications on how to obtain Serin Bad Ending ? It's the last one i'm missing and despite replaying multiple times Serin's route i just can't manage to get it and nothing is written in the guide. Thanks again for this wonderful game, i'll be waiting the next one :)

Hi! Had a quick question (not sure to pose here or Steam). Is it normal or is it a glitch to get a negative item quantity? On the colorful cloth item, it says I have -1. I have not crafted this item yet on this save (though I did load back to a previous save and crafted it for a mission to see if I'd liked the outcome. I didn't and decided to just re-load back to my original save so that was in the future. Not sure if this is some sort of save glitch in that case? Can't see how that'd be possible in renpy's python engine.)

I am not sure if this is something intentional or not, but was a little confused.

I love the game so far but I've reached week 14, trying to make the truth serum and it absolutely won't let me. I have everything I need to make it but it tells me no one can craft it and won't give me the synth. button.

I am loving the demo so far and plan to buy the game soon.Would my demo progress transfer to the full game?

Long Live the Queen was, I think, the first skill raiser with multiple endings that I played (years ago now!) and it was fun. I hadn't really enjoyed that mechanic in another game since, until Royal Alchemist. Which is great because I still have many endings to collect, hah. Just finished my first play-through. The game is very pretty, of course, but also: the pacing of the skill checks were just right, and the writing made it so enjoyable even during all of my backtracking to re-stat. :D The main character's personality really shone through in mission logs and their funny asides--those were some of my favorite lines. Congrats on the release!

I posted this on an otome game forum and have pasted it here. This is spoiler free!

Here are some of the things that stood out to me:

-The writing is really beautiful. Even though with visual novels there is repetitive dialogue and scenes, often times I read the same scenes three times (on my multiple playthroughs) to appreciate the word choices and pick up on hints for plot twists. The world-building around the magic was natural and intriguing. 

-The MC is a strong (but not overpowered) magic-user. They’re really witty and made me laugh out loud several times. You can pick pronouns and a masculine/feminine portrait, which also affects the CGs. I also came to really care for the side characters. 

-There are three princes you can romance. Needless to say they each have their distinct personalities and ways of showing affection. I think all the routes have their shining moments, and are equal in quality. I appreciated the fact that if you pick one route, the other princes are still relevant and show up often to interact with the MC.

-This is a stat-raising game. I know a lot of people don’t enjoy stat-raising, but I think this game does it justice. The MC is an alchemy tutor to the princes, so the stats also fit in with the story. The stats actually affect the MC’s interactions with other characters, and you can even die if you don’t have enough points. There’s an easy mode and stat bonuses you can turn on for less pressure. Completing “stat checks” felt very rewarding and I liked the planning aspect. 

-In addition to the stats, there is a missions and crafting system. You get very short side stories, coins, and potential stat boosts by successfully completing missions. The items you craft can have an effect on the story and may be needed in missions or requested by side characters. For me this was a fun gameplay element and immersed me in the tutor/alchemist role of the MC.

-The art, backgrounds, and CGs are gorgeous. The music is standard for a visual novel but still great and worked to set the tone for each scene.

Some things that others might not like:

-There is not much romance until the latter part of the game. It’s more of a slow burn, with the plot coming first. I personally prefer this type of story (Reminds me of Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds).

-There are some plot twists. The good part is that they are unpredictable and had me fooled. However, I felt that there were still some questions left unresolved and a few unconvincing aspects. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the story.

-The stats system might feel tedious when doing multiple playthroughs. There are stats that the princes prefer if you pay attention, but there’s not really a way to predict which stats you’ll need and when (unless you buy the art/guide book... which is more expensive than the game). There are a few hints in the game, but sometimes they come too late. Fortunately, many times the only consequence is embarrassing yourself. Or occasionally dying. 

With some intense save reloading on easy mode, the perfectionist in me managed to pass all stat checks and requests in my third playthrough.

-There are male/female variations of the CGs, so to unlock them all you would have to complete a route with both the female and male portrait.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by Royal Alchemist and it is now one of my top otome games, though I may be biased because I love the fantasy/magic genre. I still have the non-romance endings, missions, and deaths to unlock, but I’m already looking forward to more work by the developers! 

If I absolutely had to pick a favorite route, it would be Aurelius. But Serin and Nazir are so sweet <3

Would it ever be possible for the game to be released on Nintendo Switch?

Also, to the creators, do you have any concepts similar to this game coming soon? (I know you've only finished but I'm anxious haha)

 sorry for the stupid question

since i always buy games on itch bc i only use paypal

if i buy this game here and use the steam key to my steam account, does that mean i buy the game on steam ? cuz i never buy any games on steam and they ( steam ) ask me to buy games so i can add friend and more . or i must buy it on steam ?

wewow. i've been playing for several hours so far, and this game is totally worth the wait!! So far, i'm loving this a lot. I like how the MC is capable of saving themselves in many situations, the beautiful artworks, and the surprising amount of side characters! 

I'd love to have more variety of "flavoring"  for the MC's response, though. But overall, this is such a nice, enjoyable game, and i like it a lot <3

I finally bought it and played my first paythrough (Serin best boi)!  I had to come back to leave my review here as well (I posted a similar one on steam ^^).

I have to say, I really loved it! 

I like that the game really makes you think through your decisions strategically in order to succeed in each stage. The stat system is a bit trial and error at first until you get the hang of it. Overall, it's fun, and I like the use of your skills to craft specific items.

The story is engaging, the characters well design and written, and the art is beautiful!
The game offers plenty of hours of gameplay (I spent over 20 hours on just my first playthrough). 
All in all, It's a memorable and fun game. I'd totally recommend it!

I'm looking forward to your next project!! Royal Alchemist was so worth the wait ;-; <3

I survived the demo, yay!

And that was an AMAZING demo, I'm so happy I got to play such a generous amount of the game, it definitely got me interested and I even went back to make different choices to see what happens. I totally failed the first time but when I went back, I understood the skills a bit better and knew what to focus on. 

The characters were intriguing, each in their own way and I like the mysteries that were going around, right from the start and especially how the kingdom was created and all, hm-hm, I'd like to learn more. The art was great, I especially liked the CGs, the one for casting magic - sooo pretty! The fights were nicely handled too and I also liked the difference the skills made to various scenes. I'd have to keep the game on a wishlist for when I clear my backlog a bit because seeing all those locked endings and also possible deaths- I'd be curious to unlock all~ 

What is the age rating for this game? Are there naughty scenes for the dates?

I've also already written this review on steam, but I wanted to post it here as well in case some people exclusively view itch.io and I wanted more people to know about this amazing game.

This is my review:

"Royal Alchemist is a game that is better than how it looks and that is already saying a lot considering how amazing it looks like. It’s unique, special, full of good content, and just a joy to play.

I usually hate stat raising in visual novels; I find them unnecessary. Sometimes it even feels like the developers use it as a cheap way to distract us from the lack of actual content in the story. So it was surprising to see how much I actually enjoyed – and not tolerated, but genuinely enjoyed – the stat raising aspect of this game. The dialogue changed based on the stats, your lives depended on those stats, and how much you knew and figure out also depended on those stats. That added a great replay value to the game. They made complete sense and were essential. However, precisely because they make so much sense, I recommend for everyone to save often in the game, because if you raise the wrong stats, you really can die. Luckily though, you get stronger after that. There is a story mode and adventure mode. I’ve played with story-mode first and died about 2 times, but depending on your choices, you can have more chances to die.

Anyway, I mentioned before how I thought that developers sometimes uses stats to cover up lack of content. That was NOT the case with Royal Alchemist. In fact, it had a rich story with plot twists, lovable love interests, smart main character, and likable side characters. After playing through all the routes, I was able to learn new things about events that took place in another characters’ route and see different sides of the story. I’ve spent about 25-30 hours playing the game so it is definitely worth its price."

Also, I wanted to thank the developers for making this wonderful game. I’m on the discord too so I’ve already said this there, but Royal Alchemist has become one of my favorite visual novels. 😊

this is simply a gorgeous game! the money was well spent, and i've fallen in love with all the characters (especially neri & sala.) i love the concept of gaining points. everyone is depicted so well, with their own specified reasons behind the way they guide themselves. (minor spoiler if u would count it) however, i wish there was more of a thorough analysis of the characters in the end, for nazir was a difficult person to understand if you had been in another route other than his.

nonetheless, the plot is very engaging. it captivated me at first glance in the demo and continued to amaze me with its detailed artwork. the romance is also very subtle at first, it slowly eases the main mc into it and does not rush the love. i can see the effort that goes into the game. i'm certainly grateful for having the opportunity to experience this! thank you for your hard work! <3

The game is amazing. I really love it, yet there's one frustrating thing about it for me.  

!Warning. Might be spoilers ahead! 

Well, I played Aurelius route and I find MC attitude is being not quite satisfying. I mean, MC seems to be too passive and unemotional about his own (I played as a male) heart and love experience. Aurelius is a cold person himself and it's adorable he has a type, yet MC is not the same at all so why he acts as one? He is much more open and emotional, yet his attitude towards Aurelius is pretty distant even at the end of the game. I wonder why so? MC hardly acts as being in love, he doesn't seem as a person who truly loves his darling, sometimes he's seemed to be more interested in and caring about everyone else except his LI. His feelings' evolution has a bit lack of logic for my taste. It's like: "Oh, this grumpy guy gets on my nerves. He is a real jerk, hate him. Ok, then kiss him, kiss him with all the passion I have (o_O) and...well, I can't forget this kiss and feel awkward, thus I think I like him. Wanna marry him? Alright, maybe so". That was pretty weird relations development, Aurelius himself seems to show more feelings toward MC :)  I mean it would be nice to see more MC thoughts about his beloved, something more emotional and warm, something that makes to believe he is deeply in love, his feelings are strong and he really cares. Some more romantic as an ideal. But still VN is nice and exciting, I like twists.They were really unexpected. Thank you for great job :)

i love the game but I wish Neri had a route. He is amazing! Also, is it possible to make Aurelius king? 

I tried getting  Survive IV but the achievement didn't  unlock did i do something wrong and Investigator but ill do that one last i can get that one either.

So, finally a novel where mc has logic in actions and thoughts). I really like your game even considering that I didn't finish it yet.
But a small question: is there a way to delete saves? I just have too many of them (I bought game on steam)

I already posted this review on Steam, but i thought it would be okay to copy and paste it here for those who are looking trough reviews on here deciding if playing this game or not. So for those who need it, here's a spoiler free review :)

I finally finished everyone's routes so -since all i need to unlock now is the bonus stuff and different endings- i can safely say this: This game is incredible. I loved the first version of the demo when i encountered this game for the first time, and it didn't let me down in the least with the full release.
It helped me cheering up and distract myself these last few days thanks to it's interesting story, well written characters, and funny moments. I extremely liked the MC, as well, making them probably my favourite main character of any visual novel i ever played. I also wasn't able to call quite a few of the plot twists, if not almost every single one. The art style, too, it's just stunning. This game is worth it's money. I have couple warnings tho: 

1) This game is a stat raising. As someone who sucks at those, having a mini guide (t'was a pre-order gift) was a life saver. The developers sell a guide and i highly suggest you buy it - although the game is probably also enjoyable without it, the guide helps SO MUCH. 

2) Even though It's a really well made game, i did find some minor errors and bugs of course. But the creators are always quick to answer and give help tho those who contact them, and they promise the next patch of the game will be more polished of this few minor issues.

Moral of the story: this game is a masterpiece, i'm extremely happy i buyed it, and i suggest you all do it as well!