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In the southern hemisphere the Summer Game Fest is a winter event. The Frosty Game Fest exists as a counterpoint—highlighting more than 50 games, both new and upcoming, from Australia and New Zealand. Or as the show’s tagline puts it: “COOL SH*T FROM ANZ.” And you better pronounce it zed.
Enjoying a world premiere at this year’s Frosty Game Fest was Apothecary of City X, a sci-fi strategy-simulation where you are the last alchemist in a dystopian future. There’s a shop side of things where you have to identify ingredients and deliver people’s medicine or poison, as the case may be, which looks a bit like Strange Horticulture.
But there’s also an external element where you hit the streets in a junker mech, and fight other mechs in card combat. It’s a deckbuilder on the sly, with your deck of cards representing the run-down mech you climb into like a suit of armor when you need to leave your shop for the neon streets of City X.
It’s a quirky mash-up. One of the city’s zones is called the Breakfast Sector, as revealed in a scene where someone turns a crank on the side of his face seemingly to keep a headlamp running. If you’re low on goji berries you can cut a corner by substituting “old soda” in recipes, or swapping out ginseng for inspired cereal. Also, to get new builds for your mech you collect retro cartridges you interact with via some kind of cyberpunk viewmaster interface.
So yeah, it’s an unusual one. If you’re intrigued by the idea of running your own Chinese apothecary in a dystopian city, there’s a Steam page where you can wishlist it. Apothecary of City X is coming to early access in November of 2025.
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