Announced during Gamescom 2022, Marvelous Europe and developer Vile Monarch confirmed that The Last Alchemist is currently in development, and will be released to Steam Early Access early in 2023. This is an Alchemy Management game which the companies claim is about “the blazing pursuit of science in a world of superstition”.
In the superstitious heart of 17th century Europe, Alchemy is a mad new practice to be feared and forbidden. The Inquisition, a group of fanatical lawmakers with rising power, condemns Alchemy as heresy and intends to root out and punish Alchemists as the world’s most dangerous heretics.
As an Apprentice with a knack for unruly experimentation, you must master Alchemy in a world that despises it. Take on the mantle of your late mentor and inherit Old Imperial Star Observatory, a laboratory equipped with all the marvels, mechanisms, and knowledge you need to become the new Master Alchemist.
The game’s alchemy management system is broken down into three key elements:
Test, Transmute, Transform: Extract Essences from everything you collect, fuse them together and solve Alchemy puzzles to obtain the Properties you need for a thriving Alchemy career. There are over 200 Properties to discover, with wondrous — or dangerous — effects. They can make you run faster and jump higher, cause or cure your ills, and help or hinder your best laid plans.
Conduct risky experiments: Grow carnivorous plants in your lab. Explode your Essence containers to observe what happens when they flow free. Combine bizarre ingredients without the proper analysis. The consequences could blow your mind… sometimes literally.
Alchemical mastery: Delve into a Research System that rewards you for analysing everything you collect. Complete your Encyclopaedia and become a fount of Alchemical knowledge.
Don’t expect The Last Alchemist to see you staying within the safe confines of your Atelier. You must also farm and harvest the crops that prove vital to your experiments, and manage your finite daily energy to reap the greatest rewards. Furthermore, you must embark outside and explore the rough surrounds for resources, secrets and other fantastical ingredients that may or may not want to harm you during the collection progress. Discover ways to overcome obstacles, unlock new routes and use your surroundings to your advantage — allying yourself with strange and mysterious wanderers along the way.
Expect to hear more about The Last Alchemist in the months leading to its Early Access launch early in the new year.
