Played a bit, here's recorded gameplay and some written thoughts:
Could use a tooltip window when I mouse over an ingredient to see what effects it has without opening the book.
Game needs a more straight forward introduction to main gameplay.
As you can see in the recording I went around and gathered some herbs and done some quests. But if I understand correctly this isn't the gameplay loop, it's more to add flavor and lore to the game. After turning off recording I went to see what the quest board is about. I assume the gameplay loop is centered around it, but I don't really get how it works.
When brewing I wasn't sure what decides what type of potion I'll get. I know it's decided by strongest effect value. But when brewing a potion with two effects of equal strength the result seemed random?
Overall I think there's too much walking not enough brewing here. To me main fun from alchemy system comes from experimenting and learning what are the rules. The ingredients could even have unknown effects at the start, but if there was a way to get more ingredients faster, then the player could spend more time at the cauldron, experimenting and making failed potions to discover effects of the herbs.
For example in Potion Craft, gathering ingredients is basically a formality. I'm not saying to remove walking, being able to visit the town, talk with npcs and see the world is bigger than our potion shop was very cool. Even in the current state, walking up to some blue guy and learning there's goblins who need our potions makes it feel more meaningful than Potion Craft where our clients were pretty bland. Makes me curious, what will happen if I supply these guys.
Currently this reminds more of Mystia Izakaya morning section, where you gather ingredients and talk with people, but without time management and with less ingredients per time spent gathering them. I get the impression walking in the nature and gathering is meant to be an important part of the game, but with long distances and small yields it felt more like a speed bump.
I only skimmed the surface of this game from what I see, but in short I feel filtered by gathering.