Shelve the Potions! Review (PC)

Shelve the Potions! draws on the enchanting elements of alchemy and feline magic to concoct its own elixir—a familiar, smooth-tasting potion that, like Librarian and the other twenty-something sort-‘em-up brews of its kind, expels rigorous algorithms and highlights the importance of simplicity and coziness. With luminous elixirs aplenty and a host of puzzles to keep you busy, Knight Owl Games looks to build on a similar concept that, according to the community, has all the makings of a successful and highly cathartic invitational. The only thing that sets this world apart from its kin, of course, is its product. Say goodbye to the books, and say hello to the potions.

Thanks to the cats and their schemes, you have a job that requires your urgent attention. As the apprentice in a witch’s alchemy lab, you and you alone have the monumental task of cleaning up over two thousand potions and organizing them by their size, shape, and symbols. But, there’s a catch: every shelf has its own puzzle for you to solve, meaning, you can’t simply pick up each potion and stack it in one place. To complete this collection (and to win the favor of your witchy boss), you must solve the puzzles, learn the room’s secrets, and, if necessary, converse with the magical cats to borrow their advice.

Unlike your shameless Librarian doppelgänger, Shelve the Potions! requires you to scrub through the environment, connect various dots, and muster up the necessary data to complete each section of the project. Each shelf, for example, has a light challenge that you will need to overcome. In most cases, the puzzles are a cakewalk — to the point where you need only examine the room, locate a specific item, and then combine it with other things to complete the task at hand. And, given that this is a cozy game that turns a blind eye to strict timers and drastic consequences, if you simply wish to breeze over the puzzles, then you can talk to an impatient cat, request their services, and cut out a huge chunk of the organizing process, either by taking a piece of the puzzle out of the equation, or showing you where to dig your hands. The cat doesn’t care; it just wants you to fix their mistake before their owner returns from their trip.

Shelve the Potions! is an adorable game. Simple, but also one that makes the most of a familiar concept. While the general gameplay is heavily reliant on all of the same basic mechanics and beats, its inclusion of lightweight puzzles, symbolic mechanics, and feline ensembles is an excellent way to stir the pot and add something fresh to the cauldron. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a rather generic game, and it does wear its Librarian aesthetic on its sleeve like a badge of honor. That said, it is also a game that, unlike your typical AI-fueled fantasy, tries to bundle in its own spices and thematic extracts into the narrative. The puzzles, in particular, are a perfect illustration of that.

In the past several months I have tried to gel with the cozy atmosphere that other organizing sims have tried to establish, often to no avail. Shelve the Potions, on the other hand, is one of the select few games of its kind that I have been able to sit through to the final chapter. In other instances, I would have lost sight of the motive behind the graft, and after so long, abandoned the quest due to a lack of purpose or drive. But Shelve the Potions! is a little different — and in the best possible sense of the word. Thanks to its light challenges, quirky aesthetic, and feline touches, it’s a game that you can quite easily slip into and, without even realizing it, suddenly get lost in for dozens of hours at a time.

Sure enough, there is a formula here that has been trialed and distributed more times than anyone would care to admit. With that in mind, it does seem that there is the elephant in the room that needs to be addressed here: how many times can we clean up the same mess before that same formula loses its value? If it isn’t a potion today, then chances are it’ll be another product tomorrow. As the saying goes, you can only have so much of a good thing. And, as it turns out, Shelve the Potions, while clearly a good thing, sadly falls into that same position. The enigmatic cats are a bonus, though. There’s always a market for talking cats — even though they are a pain in the neck to hold under your wing.

It goes without saying at this point, but if you want a relaxing simulation game that scratches an itch and caters to the traditional Librarian tropes, then Shelve the Potions! is the perfect gift for you. As conceptually simple as it is, it does a lot more than your average AI-powered slop to keep you thoroughly engaged for the long haul — and that speaks volumes, truly. It’s best not to think of it as a love letter to Tidy Up the Arcane Library, but as an affordable solution for your Feng Shui tendencies. You might stop by for the potions, but you’ll stay for the warm ambiance and the cats. Well played, Knight Owl Games.

Verdict

Shelve the Potions! brews its own smooth elixir out of the fabric of a familiar Librarian-esque sort-‘em-up blueprint, not with the intent to create a word-for-word replica that transcribes all of the same elements, but to bottle its own message, its own formula, and its own idea of what makes a cozy chore sim so incredibly appealing and satisfying. With some fun, albeit easy puzzles, cryptic challenges, and some well-needed cat-like interactions to enchant an otherwise long-winded process, it falls into a category that is often considered an absolute delight to sit down with for a short period of time. Again, it might not be the first of its kind to combine clutter with therapeutic cleanup techniques, but it is one that gets everything right.