Brew is a bit rough around the edges. It could use some polish, especially in melee combat and experience points. However, I kept returning to the dungeon for another run and another run.. so it has a nice hook. Takes about 10h to 100%, has no missable achievements.
Approximate time to 100%: Around 10 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 3/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 50 runs, as it is a roguelite. However, after grinding the friendships, you can quit the dungeon after entering it to get through the 50 days.
Is there a good guide available: I wrote this guide:
https://www.missitheachievementhuntress.com/brew-100-achieve...Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: No
Grinding Achievements: Yes, the friendships and the 50 days are grindy
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No, you can play on story difficulty
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: One achievement was glitched, but starting an extra save unlocked it instantly
Gamepad or mouse and keyboard: I preferred to play with a gamepad
In Brew, you play as a mouse that keeps failing an entry exam to join the alchemy academy. However, somebody decided to sponsor you and pay the entrance fee. So you just joined this school together with some other students, and some of them have been there for a while.
Getting through your study is simulated in a way that you fight through a dungeon, and your exam is a boss fight with one of your teachers. You get experience points for fighting, which makes you stronger. Also, your friendships with other students will come with many benefits. Will you be able to finish your study, aka get through the tower in one run?
This review of Brew is a mixed bag. I like the students' stories and the relationships between them. Another great thing is the artwork; it is beautiful, and I love that the dungeons have different biomes. And most importantly, I kept coming back for more every single time. After the first few hurdles, it was hard to quit the game. The feeling of "just one more run" was strong.
There were also a lot of things I struggled with. For example, melee combat sucks. It is horrible. It feels lucky but it will also push you back instead of moving the enemy forward. It is hard to explain, but I really didn't like it and just ignored it as an option. You will also earn very little experience. The first like 2 to 3 levels are fine, but then the scaling feels off, and you almost get no experience. When I finished all the achievements, I had the minimum required in one tree (so only one skill was maxed out, and the rest had only 1 point) and 2 points in another skill tree.
There is also this message at the start of the dungeon about potions, it is very confusing at first because you have only a few options, so the game shows the option menu, but then closes it because you do not have enough to choose a preferred type of alchemy during that run. That it pops up and then closes felt like a bug, but later on, it will be clear that it is intended, but just confusing at the start.
And last thing that felt off to me is the idle animation. Not the animation itself, but when the game loads a new room in the dungeon, it seems that your character is waiting. So when you get there, your character can be in idle mode, waving at you, or sitting down on the floor (or lying down might be a better description), which felt like it broke the immersion. This also happened when chatting with NPCs. I like that there is an idle animation; however, I would increase the timer to trigger it quite a bit. And I wish I didn't feel this way, as the waving animation is cute, but it felt off, just breaking the tension of fighting through the tower.
Most of those things can be easily fixed, and the developers have already done a bunch of updates since the launch. So it can only go up from here, but yeah, it is a bit rough around the edges at the moment.
None of the achievements in Brew are missable. Completion takes around 10 hours. Start gifting people ingredients as soon as possible, and don't forget to chat with them when you can. After having unlocked the other achievements, you know that you can easily move days in-game by going to the dungeon and then quitting the run.
I give Brew 3 out of 5 stars.
3.0