NEW YORK, April 18 — How do you lift a witch’s curse?

In Alchemy Story, released this week for Windows PCs, it’s by growing a market garden and caring for villagers that have been turned into friendly animals.

Sometimes caring means dancing.

Then there’s harvesting natural resources through lumberjacking, fishing and a bit of mining, with the ultimate aim of restoring the village through a touch of po tion-brewing know-how.

Along the way there are costumes and hairstyles to be customized, market stalls to be managed, pets to adopt and tools and equipment to be upgraded.

It’s fairly free form and player-directed and, perhaps unsurprisingly, has been winning comparison from Steam’s user base to giants of the genre like Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia and even the very fashionable Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Alchemy Story entered Early Access in August 2019 and launched on April 15 through Steam. — AFP-Relaxnews