Mystic Emporium
Action & Arcade Games, Time Management Games May 17th, 2009
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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When almost all businesses have already been represented by time management games, developers resort to the imagination for a more unique casual game theme. The end result is Mystic Emporium, a time management game that doesn’t make you start a shop selling burgers or fashion, but rather magical stuff like potions and artifacts to satisfy your customers’ burning desire for power. And with all that magic, the game is just as fun (if not more fun) than your average time management installment.
Your alter ego in the game is a girl named Lilly. Lilly is a librarian at the Grand Magus Library but after earning enough money, decided to start a shop of their own. Her shop would be selling potions, artifacts and other magical stuff to the community and with the help of the former owner of the shop she’s paying in installment, she’s set to make a killing in profits and grow her business. But she won’t be able to do it alone, and that’s where you come in to help her manage her time and gain as much money as possible each and every day of the business.
Just like any other time management game, your objective in Mystic Emporium is to earn the goal money within the set amount of time available for you to run the business everyday. First, you must click each customer to know what they want to order. If they will be ordering potions, you need to cook them up in a cauldron and add ingredients depending on what the recipe book demands. And if they’ll be ordering artifacts, conjure one from the shelves and activate it with magic before delivery. Afterwards, you’ll just have to collect money and tips given to you and get ready for the next batch of creatures to appear at your shop.
As the levels go by, you’ll soon find yourself having more tasks to fulfill. Soon, you’ll be growing Hocus plants that bear Pocus berries by constantly giving it the ingredients it needs to grow. Later levels will also introduce potions that require ingredients coming from animal creatures, like the phoenix feather produced by your shop’s trusty phoenix friend. With all of the tasks at hand, try to reach for the expert goal in each level, for more points and money you get to earn after the level ends.
Between levels, Mystic Emporium also gives you a chance to buy upgrades for your shop and Lilly using the money you earned from the last level. Other than the upgrade feature, you can also have a chance to play a simple match-3 mini-game wherein you click on groups of 3 tiles or more on the game board. The mini-games give you a chance to win bonuses you can use during the actual game, like tip bonuses and faster Hocus plant growth, helping you achieve maximum profit whenever they are activated.
All of what’s said earlier is still typical among most time management games, so what makes Mystic Emporium so special compared to them? Well, in my opinion, it’s the amazing animation you get to experience throughout the whole game that makes it more fun and exciting to play. In fact, you can even watch Lilly dance and do a variety of actions whenever she’s idle, as well as watch even just the background elements of the game make actions just for the player’s pure entertainment.
Character designs are also well made. Customer types range from the typical old wizard to vampires, ghosts and even two headed ogres. Customer entrance and exit to the shop also varies, showing how much imagination ran this game during development. All in all, presentation is just outstanding, making the game stand out from the crowd even though the mechanics are still the same old time management gameplay.
The game is highly challenging too showing that even with magic, a little witch will still be as busy as any other business owner trying to run a shop on their own. Good thing that queuing comes easy for this game, making the controls as smooth as possible to plan all your activities ahead and as efficient as possible.
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