If I were to somehow find myself on a planet inhabited by anthropomorphic potatoes who communicate almost entirely by referencing pop culture, the first thing I would do is hope that this series of events merely constituted a bizarre dream from which I would soon wake.

Failing that, I would likely make my way to the nearest smithy so as to arm myself in case any of these humanoid potatoes, or whatever wildlife inhabited such a planet, proved hostile. However, not once in this scenario did I consider the possibility that I might be one of the potatoes running the smithy.

That’s exactly what takes place in the game I’ll be reviewing today. Specifically, the game in question was published by Daedalic Entertainment and is entitled Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!. For simplicity’s sake, I shall refer to the game as A Weapon Shop throughout this review.

Within the context of the game, your character is the grandson of a legendary blacksmith. Soon after your grandfather’s apparent demise, you’re summoned to his smithy by a rather shady fellow who claims to have been your grandfather’s business partner.

This fellow, who calls himself “Agent 46,” summons you one day so that you may collect your inheritance. Your inheritance takes the form of the supposedly-legendary smithy once worked by your grandfather. You are henceforth expected to hire smiths and make the smithy profitable once more.

The man purporting to be your grandfather’s business partner claims to have made a deal which grants him near-total ownership of the shop and its profits. As such, you find yourself tasked with instructing your smiths to forge and sell various types of weapons to generate the profits necessary to essentially get “Agent 46” off your back whenever he demands his cut.

Your main objective is to make your smithy as profitable as possible via the aforementioned process of instructing any smiths in your employ to create and sell several types of weapons to the highest bidder. As you go about this objective, you’ll come to learn that there are different types of smiths you can hire, each with their own unique set of skills.

For example, the first smith placed in your employ is referred to as a designer; designers excel at boosting the “attack” stat on any weapons you forge. Two more smiths soon come to join you in addition to the designer. One of them is referred to as a craftsman, who excels at raising the “speed” stat on weapons; the other is simply called a metal worker, who excels at increasing a weapon’s “accuracy” stat.

In order to make a weapon as suitable as possible for a specific type of adventurer and maximize your profits from the sale of the weapon in doing so; you need to consider three things. The type of weapon you’re currently forging, the stats that would make such a weapon more appealing, and the type (or “class”) of adventurer for whom such a weapon would be most beneficial.

Allow me to elaborate. The first weapon you’re tasked with forging is a Dirk, which falls into the game’s “dagger” category. Daggers are typically most beneficial for adventurers of the Thief class. Thieves usually prioritize weapons with higher “speed” stats than anything else.

Thus, when planning sell a weapon to a Thief, you should focus on using the skills of any craftsmen in your employ to make daggers with a higher “speed” stat, which would allow the Thief who purchases it to be more effective in combat.

The fact that the weapon has a high enough primary stat will entice Thieves to pay more for any type of dagger you forge which suits their needs. This process may differ slightly depending on the class of adventurer to whom you plan to sell a weapon or two, but the forging and selling process largely remains the same.

As Agent 46 explains to you relatively early on in the game, a weapon which suits an adventurer as well as possible will enable them to fight more monsters; this, in turn, will increase their experience points and allow them to level up. That’s the main reason why you should carefully consider the types of adventurers to whom you sell your weapons.

If an adventurer levels up several times as a result of purchasing and using a weapon you forged, they’ll give your work and your shop a higher grade. These grades from adventurers increases your shop’s fame, which will prove to have several beneficial effects over time.

Of course, as time passes, you’ll find that you don’t generate quite as much profit from forging and selling the same weapon types to the same adventurers in the same zone or two. You might even find yourself becoming bored by the formulaic processes, as I did. This is why you’ll have to branch out at certain points and begin exploring new lands to find both new customers and new weapon types.

In order to travel to new areas for these purposes, you’ll need to unlock zones by using travel tickets. Once you have enough tickets, you can unlock access to a zone of your choice and begin sending your smiths to explore there.

Smiths will become more skilled explorers depending on how frequently you send them to new lands for this purpose. As smiths become more effective at exploring, they’ll typically find and bring back more items than they initially did. While exploring, smiths can find various amounts of items such as materials, relics, and enchantments.

Certain combinations of items you find while exploring may lead to new weapon types. The game will helpfully tell you when you might have found such a combination by notifying you that you can have one of your smiths research the given item combination.

The processes of exploring new lands, researching new weapon types, forging these new weapons, and selling them to new customers basically combine to constitute A Weapon Shop’s gameplay as a whole. In my experience, it’s always interesting to send a smith to explore a newly-unlocked zone and see what they can find.

As I mentioned earlier, however, these processes can become formulaic over time. I became somewhat bored early in the game by repeating the process of sending a smith out to purchase materials so that I could forge a few more Dirks or Short Bows to sell to the same general few customers.

The only real way I’ve noticed to lessen this monotony is to unlock new zones; even then, though, the processes can become formulaic all over again. I think the game definitely has interesting concepts to it, but the gameplay’s tendency to repeat itself could potentially prove detrimental in the eyes of certain players.

To begin my closing statements with a more personal note, I was most assuredly not kidding when I mentioned at the beginning of this review that the game is chock-full of pop culture references. I’ve found some of these references amusing, and perhaps even humorous the first time I encountered them.

This small level of endearment I experienced toward any pop culture references soon eroded and made way for a general sense of annoyance, however.

It’s entirely possible that the pop culture references present within A Weapon Shop might only serve to annoy players like me, and would be well-received by the rest of the game’s audience. I personally merely believe that a game as lighthearted as this possibly shouldn’t contain references to the much darker Hitman franchise, but that’s just me.

On a final note, I’ve been strongly considering taking a look at the other games in the Holy Potatoes! franchise. It is my hope that the other games in the franchise might be more up my alley than A Weapon Shop. If you find yourself interested in hearing what I might have to say about the other Holy Potatoes! games, do feel free to make your interest known in the comments below!

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Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!

$14.99 USD

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Gameplay is Easy to Learn
• Tutorial is In-Depth, Yet Not Overwhelming

Cons

• Gameplay Can Potentially Become Formulaic
• Frequent Pop Culture References May Annoy Some Players