This Idle Game Cast A Spell On Me And I Don't Want Out

Date: 2025-08-07 21:40:00

It's difficult to describe Cauldron. Or, more accurately, it's difficult to explain just one of its systems in a vacuum, to accurately convey the intermingling of systems that has dominated my gaming attention lately. Every piece is so interconnected and each one sings on its own, but it's really the harmony of them all together that makes it special. Like the Cauldron itself, you can throw a bunch of ingredients into a big pot, and what comes out is magical.At its most basic, Cauldron presents itself like an idle minigame collection. You start in a fairly small plot of land, surrounded by darkness, and you have access to three minigames: apple-collecting, fishing, and mining. As you explore each game, you start an automated counter that gathers materials for you, while also obtaining them manually by playing the minigames. The more apples you have, the more you can buy upgrades to the apple collecting minigame, and so on. You're lightly encouraged to hop from minigame to minigame, each one lasting only a minute or two, gathering materials and letting them passively gather for you, to slowly start upgrading.But then you notice that when you press up against the edges of the darkness, it prompts a classic turn-based RPG to fight monsters and uncover more land. You can fight the monsters or you can bribe them to clear out of the area using the resources you've gathered. As you explore the land uncovered by darkness, you unlock new party members, who can be played manually or given automations. As you feed more materials into the cauldron your characters get more powerful, making for an interesting push-pull dynamic: Do you pay for upgrades to the minigames or to upgrade your party members? Juggling this back and forth is a key part of the game, assuring you never quite run out of things to do.Continue Reading at GameSpot

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