Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2024
The Last Alchemist
Developer Vile Monarch
Master the wonders of alchemy! Solve alchemical puzzles by transforming and combining Essences. Craft items, tools and machines. Explore the enchanting world, gather peculiar resources, and befriend the Agari, adorable mushroom folk who will help you find the cure for your mysterious disease. From the Steam store page
129 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Mastodon, Bluesky) · newest Aug 8, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
79
LovedLoved
99 positive · 27 negative
95% range 71–85%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 99 | 27 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
3 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
132 of 168 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 129 · most liked firstI love it, a perfect mix of "Here are the basic game mechanics", "Here are the end results you need" and "We're got going to spoon feed you the answers" Edit: Not going to lie, I expected the game to be longer than 6 hours...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Chemistry system is a brilliant little idea that belongs its own puzzle game or a much better survival crafting game, but is under served here. While the art is cute and the chemistry is clever, the game is a slog. The major failure here is simply the feel of controlling the game. The controls are clunky, with something as basic as turning the camera requiring you to hold RMB. You can't even look up to take in all the work that was put into the art of the valley. Baffling! But why? As…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really like this game but I don't like that there is no controller support. It makes playing a chore. At the very least the movement could have an option to be controlled with the mouse. I love the graphics/art style and appreciate that it's not another game in this genre using pixel art. I like the detail provided in the encyclopedia and I am looking forward to all that goes into crafting different essences and machines. I do hope it will either add controller support or be released on…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed the game until I got soft locked out of progression. Reading the tech issues, per the developer the "Talk with Xylanri next to the merchant stall" quest can stop all progression and they have not found a solution. It is a shame, since I love the puzzles and exploration, but since my story is soft locked, with no solution/work around, I can't proceed. Until they resolve this, I'll have to shelve this little gem.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really like this game. It doesn't seem too buggy but I'm only a few days into playing. It's a TAD confusing for all the steps you have to go through to achieve certain recipes but I'm particularly bad at following multiple steps so if you're even slightly smarter than me it probably won't be an issue. Otherwise I really like the gameplay loop, the art, the characters, the concept overall and the writing so far. One issue I have is the saving. You only save at the end of the day and I REALLY…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unfortunately the game breaking Xylari bug still persists. The game is nice, but progression of quests is not possible for me at the moment.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If I was better at tracking my playtime, this would've been a refund. The Last Alchemist could've been a great game had it had some more time in the oven as an early access title, but as a full release, I simply cannot recommend it. The art style, music, and sound effects for the game are great. It is pretty stable (at least I didn't encounter any bugs), and the whole alchemy system is interesting (in theory). But my biggest gripe with The Last Alchemist is that the game simply isn't fun. And…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Essentially a game of inventory management, organizing and remembering where you put that damn bottle that was green with swirls. (Or was it green with bubbles?) Graphics are nice, music is fine, the voice acting is atrocious but there's mercifully little of it. Story is linear, the world is fairly small. Interestingly enough there are some glowing rune stones scattered all over that I thought would be revealed as a fast travel system, but they are never explained in game and have no apparent…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →On the one hand if you like calm, no rush, relaxing games about gathering items and mild puzzles that aren't really puzzles, it is a good game and I recommend it. If you are someone who is going to get aggravated by horrible UI, storage, recipe waste and just feeling like you are repeating the same steps over and over again with little difference, I wouldn't recommend it. I was really on the fence on whether or not to recommend and I really wish Steam had a "meh" choice. Will I likely beat…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR: Waiting simulator Pros: The puzzle element of the game is interesting, trying to figure out the recipes for different alchemical properties. Cute graphics. Cons: Everything takes time to finnish in this game. You run out , get resources, then spend about 30s waiting for your craft. There is basically no point in pre-gathering materials since you won't have space for them, unless you want to clutter up your entire floor with loose materials. Building additional storage is to much…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is clearly a labor of love, but it has some pretty glaring flaws. The plot is pretty decent, if a bit dark. But I like the idea of searching for a cure to a plague that has crippled me and killed countless others. The basic concept of mixing essences to make potions is sound, and has been made into some great games. So, let's talk about those flaws. For one, it's much too linear; there is really no feeling of exploration, because you always need to get the ingredients from the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Liked this game a lot and love the system they intruduce. But there are 2 BIG problems. First, and the reason I can´t recommend this Game: It´s far too short. I played without rush but still finished it in arround 12 hours. The system would give so much more possibilities for Development and possibilities. But it ended so early without touching the potential of the gameidea only scraching on the surface. Second: The storage system is simply the floor since there is no incentive to use the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Everything is time-based. It just doesn't fit with a game about investigation and experimentation. It wouldn't be so bad, if not for the fact the days pass very quickly, too. So every second waiting is a second lost.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cute art got me to buy it, but it's just complex for complexity's sake. Tiny bag, no sorting, you pick each item and move them by hand. Lots of information and the tutorial info dump doesn't help with some things, need wiki to understand. Need to sell stuff just to be able to build, but things regrow once a week. Lots waiting for things to wait for other things. +Good designs and animations +Music -Unskippale cutscenes -Info dumping every step -No jumping even though you have verticality…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is visually appealing, but the game play is terrible. You have to make chemicals with no guide whatsoever. The provided encyclopedia does hot help at all, and the formulas that should work produce something entirely different. You get frustrated every step of the way. If you want to endlessly make formulas that make so sense and no progress in the game, enjoy.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked the idea of alchemy done in this way. But. There are some things that make me not to recommend it. 1) There are countless bugs that do not break the game but still are inconvenient. For example, sometimes the button to activate the machine does not appear until you go away and then back. Also changing the recipe for machine is not flawless and sometimes you have to fiddle with camera angle to do it 2) The inventory system. Every item takes 1 slot of your not that big inventory. And the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I felt kinda bad for not liking this game. It has a lot of heart, and I don't think it was made by a huge team. I really enjoyed the opening cinematic, and the introduction to the castle. I liked Alchemist and the funny mushroom guys. I was relieved the game had a pretty comprehensive tutorial - but it started to annoy me when it would tell me to open the encyclopedia, I would start reading the flavor text of a journal entry, and a tutorial window would steal my entire screen and I had to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An ambitious game from a studio known for 2D Interactive Games. It's got feelings of Farm Sim games, a bit of Astroneer, and more. The execution overall is a little rough but very well done. The graphics are beautiful, the characters are fun. The animations are really adorable and enjoyable, even the sound cracks. Small things bother me, like the proximity to machines, dragging, etc. The biggest issue is so far the start doesn't really help you understand how and when to go out on your own,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is just boring. No voice acting, no immersion. The first hour just pick this up, put this down, wait, repeat. Not worth my time
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of my biggest pet peeves is games that don't respect a players time, and this game is just awful about it. Getting anything done requires jumping through 15 hoops - getting materials (a constant battle with extremely limited inventory and no item stacking), grinding them up (40 sec wait each time), researching (another wait + a currency cost each time), combining (did I mention every action has a 40 second wait time?) and then doing that over and over again. It is such a slog to play this…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[Buyers Beware] I dont know man, to me it appears that some mechanics are made complicated just to pad the game time, some appears unnecessary complicated, the time never stops even when you are reading descriptions. It might be possible that the mechanics werent fully developed, missing some "Quality of Life" improvements to the game. Another grip that I have is that you need to find a new material to progress but sometimes you need to figure out with the ones that you already have, so every…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'd like to say this game is one worth checking out. That it is worth the price when on a really good sale discount, and that it was developed with the care the story tries to emphasize. It really does. But, also it isn't. A major positive is that it absolutely does look like the screenshots on this store page. Each character, while we barely get to know them, is distinctively colorful. The Alchemist himself is a delightful middle aged gent who carries himself with as much grace, and wit as…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is short and sweet. It definitely requires some thinking, and sometimes I found myself overthinking some of the simpler formulas. The characters are adorable, the design is fantastic, and overall - despite the super-cancer plot - it's very relaxing. Unfortunately it's a very short game. If I weren't so scatterbrained, I could probably have finished it in half my initial playtime (16.4hrs) - if not less, because at least 2hrs were spent trying to put together a bigger lab post-story.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I´m sorry to say that although this game is very cute and has a nice storyline, it still feels unfinished. I've played a mere 18 hours. There are a couple of bugs and it feels like they've had to publish too soon. I hope they keep developing it! Opportunities I see to improve the game: - Include a playable female main character - a couple of faces/hairdo's - more tools - renovating the lab, part by part. Also include flooring or wallpapers (or at least fix the current one) - more…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is really amazing. The setting is beautiful, the Agari are sweet, the story is good and interesting. I like the way you have to craft. It's not like other games, because you have to grind essences and solve puzzles with it. It's hard to explain, but if you like cozy games with a lot to do and to explore, you'll have fun wit The Last Alchemist :3
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Visually Stunning But Lacking Some Basics The Last Alchemist has an intriguing story line, and a great art style with lots of attention to detail, but it lacks certain quality of life features that I've come to expect as standard with most games in this genre. Pros: - Beautiful art style and attention to detail. The game is stunning! The world is beautifully crafted and is very visually appealing. There's beautiful art on the walls in the main building that blows me away. Even the little…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Last Alchemist is a whimsical, slow-burning alchemical adventure that blends puzzle-solving, exploration, and resource management into a gentle but deeply methodical experience. Developed by Vile Monarch and published by Marvelous Europe, the game casts you as the final practitioner of a dying craft, returning to a long-abandoned workshop in hopes of curing a mysterious plague spreading across the land—and afflicting you as well. Rather than leaning on combat or high-stakes drama, the game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoy playing this game, but it does seem unnecessarily complicated and convoluted. I've heard people say it's six hours long, but I've played it for 4 and haven't seen half the map. I get stuck a lot and have to take a break. I haven't used any guides and enjoy just experimenting with combinations of essences and building furniture. The materials are finite and take time to come back. Giving you access to the seeds and spores earlier would be helpful. I still don't have access to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun game about alchemy and helping little mushroom friends. There's a bunch of alchemical games coming out these days and it's interesting to see how much each game tackles the subject. I think that The Last Alchemist has one of the better systems for justifying the alchemical properties of its mixtures. Ingredients are ground into essences, which have a combination of colors and shapes to them. You can then combine these essences together to form new compounds which can take on new…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The only good game from obscure devs and publishers that otherwise have anime slop. Arguably, the entire alchemical system seems really thought out. It's historically informed and palatized. You're a crippled, old ginger man returning to the castle he trained at before he got ill. Very simple story. It's slow, dull while you're waiting for things to craft. The whole game has character, but no depth.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →too quiet, and font is small
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love the game but would love some Improvements 1) Improve the controls, or at the least add Support for Controller 2) A hint system for where to look or what to find I did find a bug? where I put 4 ghostshroom spore's in containers about 3 days past and I finally make what i need and they've despawned. nothing else I've found despawns so I'm saying bug The main part of the alchemy puzzle is amazing
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The concept for this game is fantastic. I really, really wanted to like this game. However, once again, we have a fully released game with game breaking bugs. I struggled trying to figure out many of the alchemical formulas because some of the ones in the alchemy book are just completely incorrect. Quests progressed without me having completed the requirements just by booting up the game. In one case, the quest text didn't even tell you where you need to go for the objective. I ended up…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Personally I loved this game, but I'm a big fan of being able to work my brain, explore and craft. The journey from beginning to end was very well done, the Enoki were lovable even when they were sassy. It challenged my brain and I did end up seeking help in the discussions here and there, the 27 hours of game play was 70% of me frolicking, decorating, and organizing all the things! It was definitely an awesome game for my neuro spicy mind! Highly recommend!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its a fantastic game that offers engaging puzzles and a heartwarming, albeit simple, story. The gameplay is immersive, and the alchemical mechanics are a joy to explore. However, the game is quite short, and it feels like the final arc was somewhat rushed. Some of the last ingredients you gather never actually become necessary, which leaves a sense of unfinished business. Despite these minor issues, it's a highly enjoyable game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall enjoyable and a touching albeit simple story. It feels like the start of a good game even though the story arc of the protagonist is fully complete as is. If I could I would give it something in between the thumbs up and thumbs down as it feels like there should be more story and additional act. Pros: Interesting/attractive art style and fun/unique puzzle dynamics. Cons: At just under 10 hours to complete the primary objective for the genre the game represents the play time to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is right up my alley, I *love* the concept of it but it feels unpolished. I love the MC’s backstory, I love the Agari creatures, I love alchemy/fantasy games in general. I’m writing this review while I wait for my character to pass out after getting stuck on the wooden stairs by the Agari Chute :/ I don’t want to reset the day and lose my progress but there’s no “unstuck” feature, it’s honestly a bit disheartening to find bugs like these in the starting area. I wish the tutorials…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Is it perfect? No, does need a little polishing on the edges, but pretty bug free. Definetly something if you like chemistry.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game! Takes a second to get used to moving the screen around but understand the choice due to ability to click on things as you go. Only thing that gets me occasionally is when I go to research something and I forget to hold down E, it looks like it goes but I come back and it never went. Other than that, it is a great game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is exactly what I was looking for - an alchemy game that makes you feel like a scientist, not just selecting the next item from a research menu and spending 'research points' to unlock the next upgrade. I reached the end goal in about 10 hours, and I greatly enjoyed working out the more complex formulae toward the end. From a game design perspective, I think the uses for the chemicals you construct was probably close to perfect. If this were a sandbox game rather than a narrative, I would…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is very hard and the controls are very clunky. It would be better with controller support and camera angle, and not needing so much insight. Too many machines to start. I like the concept but I don't think it was very well executed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →fun game with a good systems and an enjoyable art style but the 60fps lock and constant hitching renders the game unplayable for myself
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So far I am enjoying it. Cute graphics, music, animations, sfx, characters ^^ It's a very cozy game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I definitely had to look up a guide for the last part of the game, but I enjoyed piecing together everything before that. Some of the areas were a little challenging to get into, but once you know what you're doing, it's not too bad. I really liked making furniture for the castle and a part of me wishes that there was more of that in the game - like more variety in style and more animations to interact with the objects that you build. But unfortunately that's not the focus of the game.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun alchemy system and art style! Bought the game on sale for $8 USD and finished the game in 8 hours which is about the ratio I look for. So if you have a free weekend and it's on sale, pick it up!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →3/5 - simple, but not very usefull interface - furniture is overpriced ( hard to craft) - some gameplay designed to eat time (grind) - story/side missions too short -- cold be good for children, but some puzzles/alchemy is relative hard
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Did not encounter a bug. All achievements are unlocked.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Calm and memorable way of harvesting, researching and practicing alchemy. Played the game together with my son who loves the friendly tone and pretty colors.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed this casual, cute little puzzle game. Good thing there's plenty of room on the floor for resources and potions, so I could skip the grind to build storage! :D
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting game, with solid foundations and a cool concept. A bit on the short side, though. It pretty much stops when it becomes truly interesting. A few things are a bit annoying : crafting storage is quite expensive, and very much unnessecary as the floor is good storage and as cheap as free. The downside is you have to constantly switch between "autopick on" while you're gathering outside and "autopick off" while youre doing stuff at home, or you'll pick back what's on the floor.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very fun and cute crafting game. Figuring out the formulas for alchemy was very fun puzzling!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You can read my other reviews [url=https://www.indiecornergames.com/] here! As fantastic and enjoyable as automation titles may be for some, this genre has never appealed to me. To my astonishment, after seeing “The Last Alchemist” for the first time on my X timeline (formerly Twitter), I encountered an experience brimming with care, special attention to narrative, and an engaging atmosphere in a magical world. After all, how else can one talk to creatures that look like mushrooms? The first…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →not happy with this game for a few reasons. The movement is awkward, You do one or two things and your energy is gone. There is a lot to do but the lack of energy makes it impossible to explore and figure out what you need and where to get it from. Last of all is the complexity of the Alchemy recipes. This is supposed to be a relaxing game but trying to figure out what essences I need is making me tear my hair out.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i was excited at first to play this game. nice looking game but when i was fusing stuff to try and make alkaline it blew up everything i had, there are no instructions on how to make complicated stuff. the game wanted me to start over, there was no warning that i would lose everything. unless your a chemist do not buy this game. it is terrible. not worth the money will be asking for a refund. also would like to say the tutorial writing was very small hard to read and very confusing when it came…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It really sucked me in, it's not super long but it feels finished and that really is a breath of fresh air these days. Did not find any points where it felt unfinished. Are there points that could still be tightened up and made more streamlined, yes, but none of these feel like a major deal. It has a compelling and fun alchemy system, while sometimes a bit grindy (especially when you need lots of inspiration) most of the time it is well paced and engaging. I am hoping for more content for this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A cozy game that isn't focused on farming?? Sign me up! If you combine enchanting puzzles, magical potions, and cute mushroom critters and you’ll get The Last Alchemist - an alchemy simulation game about finding a cure for your terminal illness. The gameplay revolves around foraging for plants and resources in the open world that can then be turned into essences. Combine these essences in a Tetris-esque puzzles to to create alchemical compounds that can be used to clear obstacles and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is super cute and I'm enjoying the crafting a lot. I'm glad I got this.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A good potion-making game. Got it on sale. Break down ingredients, consider shape, colour and weight to make new effects, then use them on things in the world to get more ingredients. Good loop, neither too short nor too long, proper ending. Good vibes and aesthetic. If you are looking for more potion making and have run out, try this! A few UX and design decisions are lacking. I recommend the designers play: Astroneer, Witch in the Woods, Mixture Mill, and Apico. They each do aspects much…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A nice quirky game. The mechanics are great to interact with, especially the alchemy. The storyline is guided all the way through so there isnt really any open world exploration. It actually felt a little short, as by the time you reached the latter parts of the game and unlocked some of the machines, you can just power through and finish without using them much (Particularly the seed/farming mechanics). Theres no controller support though which is a pity, but the keyboard/mouse controls work…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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