Regarding potions - I like the potion system in general, but I think the fun / usefulness of potions is a bit hindered by a couple of things. Firstly, I found the 2 status-curing potions (anti-venom and antidote) to be relatively useless. Those conditions don't last long enough to be a serious problem, and so the potions just aren't really needed. It's far easier to just wait out the effects of the condition and to use a healing potion.
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This is especially true for the antidote potion, because its recipe include the healing herb. Why would I want to brew an antidote when I could produce a healing potion which uses fewer ingredients and is generally more powerful and more versatile?
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'Blooddrop blossom' was the key ingredient that I found lacking. I had lots of 'tar bead' (the healing herb), and I had plenty of the other ingredients - but I couldn't really use most of the stuff I had because most of the interesting potions require blooddrop blossom.
ie the mana potion, the speed potion, and the rage potion all require blooddrop blossom - which is not very common. Meanwhile the antidote potion and the anti-venom potion were basically useless, and the healing herb was abundant. So healing potions were very common, and all the others were very rare.
ie the mana potion, the speed potion, and the rage potion all require blooddrop blossom - which is not very common. Meanwhile the antidote potion and the anti-venom potion were basically useless, and the healing herb was abundant. So healing potions were very common, and all the others were very rare.
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There were just two instances in the game where I got stuck for awhile and found it a bit frustrating. It's not really a big deal, but I figure I might as well mention what they were just in case there's something that could be changed in the game to make it less likely to happen to other players.
The first case I think was due to a minor bug / minor design flaw. I couldn't work out where to go next, and I explored the whole level extremely thoroughly - looking at every wall, and double checking every switch and so on - only to finally discover that I only reason I was stuck is that a scripted in-game event had failed to trigger:
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It was at the key in the "outer sanctum". Apparently what's meant to happen is that picking up the key causes a bunch of walls get lowered, opening the path to the next puzzle. (The next puzzle is the riddle/scavenger-hunt with the four items.) But in my cause, the walls did not get lowered at that time. After hours of searching the rest of the level, I finally picked up an arrow which happened to be on shelf that once held the key - and picking up that arrow triggered the pathway to open. I don't remember if the arrow was there originally or if I'd just dumped it there because I didn't need it - but I was a bit frustrated at having wasted so much time just because I hadn't picked up an arrow sooner. I'm not really sure if this problem was bad game-design, or just bad luck for me.
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I searched for the final piece of the machine for quite a long time, only to finally work out that I actually already had the piece! It was the small gear. I had already found it and tried it but failed to place it in the right position, and so I'd decided it wasn't one of the four piece - especially since I'd already used the 'bladed cog'. I was a little bit annoyed when I finally found out that it fits into a place which obviously does nothing. I mean really, if you look where the small cog goes, you can plainly see that it has no functionality in the machine - that's why I didn't try that position in the first place... 
But really, I guess I should have known better.
But really, I guess I should have known better.
When I play again, I'm going to pick different spells skills. In the game I just played, I used earth and fire (which seem to be the obvious options based on the order the spells are revealed, and the skills of the default mage). So next time, I guess I'll use ice and air - but I'm a little bit concerned that it will be a bit samey. By the looks of things all the spell groups consist of a short range attack, a long range attack, an enchant spell, and a shield spell. Only the air group has a fifth spell. I think it might be a bit better if there was more difference between the spells than just their damage type. On the other hand, I suppose there are some differences: the poison spells create a persisting cloud of poison rather than just being instantaneous damage; and the ice spells (presumably) can immobilize enemies - so that's not bad. But I'd like to see a bit more variety still - for example, there could be a spell that slows enemies, or an attack that bounces off walls, or an attack which splashes onto neighbouring squares, or one which spins the enemy around, and so on. ... None of this is really important for the first play through the game though, because the player isn't going to get enough skill points to experiment with all the spells anyway. So really the extra variety I'm talking about would just be for a bit of extra replay value.
(I don't think the game is too short. I just want more because I liked it!)