A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux

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For Mello Kurosol, disaster is always one bad customer away. 

When Logan Apollo, business partner to unlicensed alchemist Mello Kurosol, returns all wrong from a job far outside Lore City limits, Mello must brew deadly potions for the malicious entity possessing Logan's body before time runs out.

Engage your friend in conversation to unwind the mystery of his capture, and brew your way out of a dire hostage situation before your alchemy lab becomes your tomb.


Alkahest is an 18+ thriller visual novel about pushing your limits to gain freedom. Taking place over a single night, this conversation between two categories of criminal explores themes of corruption, religion, and justice through an outsider's lens.

While Alkahest is casually inclusive of diverse ethnicities and sexualities, this game does not follow a hero's journey and is not suitable for young players. Content warnings are detailed below. 

FEATURING:

  • 6 Unique Endings
  • 10 Gorgeously-Illustrated CGs
  • 6 Diverse Characters explored through clashing perspectives
  • A Point-&-Click alchemy mini-game that informs the course of your story
  • A Glimpse into corrupt dungeonpunk world where theocracy reigns supreme, magic is innate to all but controlled by the ruling few, and the shadow market breeds opportunity for those who seek it

At 70,000+ words in length players can unlock a first ending in under 2 hours. 
Estimated full game completion: 6 hours.


Playable scenes may contain the following:

  • Suggestive intimidation (implicit sexuality)
  • Physical violence while under duress
  • Psychological manipulation
  • Mind control (possession)
  • Protagonist death/murder
  • Villain death/murder
  • Visible blood splatter

Some conversational routes facilitate protagonist self-destruction.
All characters are at least 25 and older. 

 

Click the DOWNLOAD button to claim the guide for free.

Available now in association with Lore City Workshop, a dungeonpunk imprint of Split Fate Studios

Tweet your thoughts via #ALKAHESTVN!



Banner headshots by the incredibly talented Paexie.

StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux
Rating
Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars
(38 total ratings)
AuthorSplit Fate Studios
GenreVisual Novel, Interactive Fiction, Strategy
Tagsalchemy, Dark Fantasy, LGBT, lgbtq, Narrative, potions, Queer

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

ALKAHEST | PC | Windows + Linux 312 MB
Version 7
ALKAHEST | MAC | Mac OS 276 MB
Version 7
ALKAHEST | PDF | Official Guide 94 kB

Development log

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Comments

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(+1)

I realy love this game. The story is great and the artstyle and character design  ist gorgeus. I had a lot of fun and I will probably come back a few times to replay it.

(1 edit) (+3)

I loved this game, the art, character design, setting, story are all amazing. Oh, and both main characters really handsome too ;)
I also love how you make us think, but also tell us immediately if we made the potion correctly or not, not making us guess. This is great and kind of unique in VNs.

But I would love a guide, official or not, or at least list of the endings. I really enjoyed it, but found 4 endings (1, 4, 5 and 6). I would love to see the rest. Maybe even make the guide paid, I would certainly buy it.

(+2)

Ahhh!  Thank you so much!!  This means the world to us!

As for the guide; we're currently developing a walkthrough that we're hoping to have released soon!

(+5)

Hi there! We've just released our Official Guide! 

You should be able to access it for free by clicking the Download button and clicking forward to the files page. Thanks for your patience!!

Hi! The game has been wonderful so far, devoured it within a morning. Just one problem I encountered while looking for ending #3: I'm currently preparing draught number 4, and the game misidentifies the Sanguis Flame I select as being Void Bloom.
I'm not sure where this comes from, as I've prepared this draught in other playthroughs and not encountered problems. But I've reloaded this particular playthrough  and gotten this bug consistently.

A few details if they help: this current playthrough went with antagonistic dialogue, made draughts #1 and #2 successfully, deliberately botched #3 then asked about Jessamine. Made the choice to prepare #4 properly, then got stuck in the alchemy preparation due to the bug above.

Hi there!  Thank you so much for letting us know!  Do you know if your version is the most up-to-date version of the game?

We'll be investigating this issue and try to have a fix ready ASAP!

(+1)

Yep, I'm up to date, got my download last night! Good luck bug hunting.

(+1)

Due to your very helpful replication details we were able to pinpoint this bug and swat it right into non-existence! 

We just pushed through a bugfix that should allow you to progress, so please feel free to update when you can and thanks again for your patience!

(+1)

Obsessed with the writing, I love the en media res and worldbuilding, and the word choice certainly tickles the brain into learning at times. Gorgeous art (SO stylistic and evocative) and atmospheric music, and again wow at that writing. I loved the personal moment of "Oh! The protagonist is black" when I read the line about his locs, which was a nice touch.

Oh wow, apologies for our delay but thank you so much! This is such a kind comment and we're so, so happy you've enjoyed the game thus far. This made our day!

I'm really enjoying playing this and I love the writing! Unfortunately, I've hit an error:

I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.
While running game code:
  File "game/script.rpy", line 17005, in <module>
NameError: name 'motive_real' is not defined
-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------
Full traceback:
  File "script.rpyc", line 17005, in script
  File "renpy/ast.py", line 1852, in execute
    if renpy.python.py_eval(condition):
  File "renpy/python.py", line 2249, in py_eval
    return py_eval_bytecode(code, globals, locals)
  File "renpy/python.py", line 2242, in py_eval_bytecode
    return eval(bytecode, globals, locals)
  File "game/script.rpy", line 17005, in <module>
NameError: name 'motive_real' is not defined
Windows-10-10.0.19041
Ren'Py 7.4.4.1439
ALKAHEST 
Mon Jun  7 14:46:41 2021

Looking forward to playing more!

(+1)

Thank you for letting us know!  We've updated the files and this error should be fixed!

Thank you so much for playing!!

(+1)

I had a great time playing this and managed to get all the endings apart from the second one. Are there any plans to release a walk-through?

Thank you for an excellent game!

(+2)

Thank you so much for taking the time to play and for your kind feedback! We hadn't planned on releasing a walk-through, but we've noticed a few players having a bit of trouble achieving a few endings, so we're definitely looking into it!

We'll reply here when we've made one available!!

(+3)

This was so good! I played for about three and a half hours and got all but endings 2 and 3 so hopefully I can figure that out soon... Story is incredibly compelling and I have a thousand questions about the universe and can't wait to see what's next!

Thank you so much!! πŸ’–πŸ’–πŸ’–

(+1)

Hello! I was wondering if you have figured out how to get endings 2 and 3 yet? I'm stuck on those myself 

Hi! I got 3 but not 2 yet. They’re actually working on a simple guide/walkthrough so that will help. I can try to go back and figure out how I got 3 tho. Lemme know :) 

Ah I wasn't aware that they were working on a guide! I'll wait for that then, thank you so much for the answer!

(+4)

The writing is incredible, the art is absolutely delicious, and the tension is palpable! Alkahest draws you in and absolutely refuses to let go, and I truly can't recommend it enough to anyone. The alchemy portions are very clever, and the chemistry (heh... sorry) between the two characters is absolutely electric. I had an incredible time with Alkahest and I'll be eagerly awaiting more from Split Fate!! 

(+1)

You! This is too kind!! πŸ’–πŸ’–πŸ’–