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[★★★☆☆] Not Now Mom, I'm Shelving Sorcerous Products and the Achievements Feel Like a JOB
Sep 21, 2026
This is a gameplay review of Shelves & Sorcery.
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00:00 Intro
03:14 Three levels
04:59 Variety of modes
05:55 Replay
08:22 Shelf signs
09:05 Unique items
10:43 Homeward
11:52 Cheaters
12:41 Perks
12:58 Arcane Sight
13:34 Enhancements
14:03 Bounding Leap
14:14 Potion placements
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello everyone. My name is Kay and this
0:03
is a pros and cons review of the game
0:06
Shelves and Sorcery on Not Now Mom. I'm
0:10
Gaming.
0:11
There's so many of these types of games.
0:13
Like I didn't think there was so many
0:16
and then I looked up one one or two on
0:19
YouTube and then they all just started
0:21
coming through on YouTube with the
0:23
algorithm. I'm like,
0:26
I like these games, but I've got other
0:29
games I need to play, too. I went to off
0:34
topic here. I went to a Edgar Alen Poe
0:37
speak easy a couple days ago. My
0:39
parents, it was so good. I'd never been
0:43
to a speak easy before, so I didn't
0:45
really know what I was getting into.
0:48
figured they were just going to do like
0:49
a short retelling of four different
0:52
stories from Edgar Alan Poe. And with
0:54
those four stories was four different
0:56
cocktails. The cocktails were great. The
0:58
actors were absolutely amazing.
1:02
The stories
1:04
they well they brought them to life,
1:07
let's say.
1:09
So kudos to them. It was really amazing.
1:13
And now Facebook is wanting me to do a
1:15
uh serial killer speakies. I'm like,
1:21
I love watching documentaries on serial
1:25
killers for some reason. I think it's
1:28
fascinating,
1:30
but I don't know. An inperson like
1:33
retelling
1:34
might spike my anxiety.
1:38
It might make it a little too real. Even
1:41
though I know like they were all real
1:43
they'd be talking about. I can't
1:45
remember which ones which ones they were
1:48
going to do a retelling of. No, Ted
1:50
Bundy was one of them. Uh,
1:55
Gasey was another. I can't remember the
1:58
other two. One of the last ones I I
2:00
didn't know the name of, but the other
2:02
one was popular.
2:05
But anyway,
2:07
speak easys are amazing. There is even a
2:10
Edgar Alan Poe musical that's gonna
2:14
come out pretty soon. I think they
2:16
talked about and uh the person who did
2:19
the songwriting on those is the same guy
2:24
who did Beetlejuice
2:27
and Night Before Christmas. So that's
2:30
bound to be really good. Anyway, Shelves
2:33
and Sorcery. You can play it solo for
2:37
right now as of this review. Uh, coming
2:40
soon is playing it with friends. I'm
2:42
sure that will be a whole heck of a lot
2:45
more helpful than doing this solo. I
2:48
mean, I don't mind doing these games
2:49
solo, don't get me wrong, but when you
2:53
I'll get into it. I'll just I'll get
2:56
into it because it's one of my little
2:58
rants for the review.
3:00
Anyways, there's a leaderboards as well.
3:04
There are timed
3:06
sections
3:08
so you can see who else is around the
3:10
same time as yours when you complete it.
3:15
Going into the game, we have three
3:17
different levels. The hearth and barrel,
3:20
the merchant's rest, the grand ethanam.
3:25
Now, the Hearth and Barrel has
3:28
about a thousand items. The Merchants
3:31
Rest has 3,000 and then the Grand
3:34
Ethanam has 4,000.
3:39
So, it's a lot. The store expands not
3:42
not even a store. It's kind of just a
3:45
gallery of sorts, but it expands quite a
3:49
bit from the first level. For each
3:52
level, there are four different modes
3:56
you can do. I I guess that's what we're
3:59
calling it. There's a core, which is
4:03
start casual, which is you just play the
4:06
game. You sort
4:08
the items are supposed to be, take all
4:11
the time you need. It doesn't matter.
4:12
There's no rush. Or there is a timed
4:16
where you can try to put everything in
4:19
its order as quick as you can and then
4:21
you will be on the leaderboards once
4:23
it's finished.
4:25
And the challenges is out of mana mode.
4:29
So you don't get any perks available.
4:33
It's just you trying to
4:38
tidy everything up without being able to
4:41
uh find the items via magic and stuff
4:45
like that.
4:47
And then the arch mage mode which is you
4:50
have everything available to you on the
4:53
start. My pet peeve here, I don't mind
4:59
I don't mind the choices here cuz it
5:02
gives you a variety of choices, you
5:03
know. Do you do you want to try to
5:05
speedrun it? Do you want to just do it
5:07
casual,
5:09
you know, for a cozy experience? Do you
5:11
want to try to do it without any kind of
5:14
magic whatsoever? Or do you just want
5:16
everything for the start just to
5:20
see where everything goes? I guess maybe
5:23
you just don't want to take it have it
5:25
take as forever as casual would. But
5:28
anyway, my biggest pet peeve
5:32
is each of these little modes
5:37
has an achievement tied to it.
5:40
So, not only do you have to do the
5:42
hearth and barrel and do it in casual,
5:45
timed, out of mana, and arch mage mode
5:48
to get those four achievements, you also
5:50
had to do the same for the merchant rest
5:53
and the grand ethnam.
5:55
So, you had to play this game 12 times
6:00
in order to get the achievements
6:02
required for the levels.
6:05
The replayability for this game is not
6:09
fun enough, not rewarding enough to want
6:13
to do
6:15
just fixing up these shops 12 times. Are
6:19
you kidding me? It's not It's no longer
6:22
serotonin at the end of it. Once you get
6:24
to Grand Ethan, at that point, it's like
6:27
Jesus.
6:28
I have to do this out of mana mode and
6:32
casual and timed. It's a bit bonkers to
6:36
me and I am in the process of trying to
6:39
get all these achievements. I have to do
6:42
I think the merchants rest for one of
6:45
the modes and then two different modes
6:47
for a grand ethanam. So, and I'm just
6:51
like I don't even want to I've got other
6:54
games to play. I don't need to achieve
6:57
that hunt. It's just that people go on
7:00
my Steam, they leave comments saying all
7:02
my 100% games are adult variety. And no,
7:07
they are not. Not all of them. Just like
7:12
70% probably.
7:15
And that's cuz you got games like this
7:17
that want me to spend what probably
7:21
24 hours trying to get four 12
7:24
achievements.
7:26
Like talk talk about a time sync. And
7:30
I'll go ahead and say it feels like a
7:31
waste of time.
7:33
But maybe some of you like replaying a
7:35
game like this
7:37
over and over and over and over. But I
7:42
feel like once you played it maybe
7:44
twice, you're kind of
7:47
well, me personally, I'm kind of over
7:49
it. Like it was fun the first time. It
7:52
was still fine the second time.
7:56
Third time, you're kind of pushing it.
7:58
Fourth time I'm done with it.
8:02
The fourth time it's no longer a cozy
8:04
casual game. It's it's a job. and I
8:08
don't want to feel like I'm doing a job
8:11
in a video game, even though a lot of
8:14
these are job simulators. But yeah,
8:17
that's my whole entire rant. Before we
8:20
actually get into the game play, when
8:23
you get into the game, don't expect any
8:26
big signs on the walls telling you where
8:29
certain things will go. Instead, there
8:30
are icons of what is going to be going
8:35
where. And well, it's it's okay to me to
8:40
have this kind of thing. Signs are a bit
8:42
easier to read. You don't have to like
8:45
approach it up close just to squint at
8:47
it to see what on earth you need to put
8:50
there. But for the hearth and barrel,
8:52
everything is basically in one pile.
8:55
None of the items are really blocking
8:58
any of the shelves, which is great. It
9:01
feels like a crime when big old piles do
9:04
that.
9:06
Everything is fairly different looking
9:08
enough that you shouldn't have really
9:10
any problem deciphering what's what in
9:13
the mess, which I think is really nice.
9:16
You know what the berries look like, the
9:19
regular foods, the potions, there's
9:22
staffs, there's daggers
9:25
or dragon eggs, all that stuff. And even
9:28
in a big pile like this, they kind of
9:31
each individually stand out when you
9:34
actually know what you're looking for.
9:36
You start off with an inventory of five
9:38
items, and each item you put on a shelf
9:41
is one coin. And when you fill up a
9:45
shelf, you'll get one magic point, which
9:49
you can go into uh I think the book of
9:53
sorcery. Yeah, the book of sorcery. and
9:57
use some of those points to get a perk
10:00
and perk upgrades. And then you can use
10:02
your money for a book of enchantments,
10:05
which increases inventory size, your
10:08
speed, your reach, and stuff like that.
10:11
I will say by the time you do the last
10:15
level, the one with the most items,
10:18
you're going to love this first level
10:20
here, cuz that last one is a doozy.
10:25
Especially with all of the potions.
10:27
Potions drove me insane. The books drove
10:30
me insane. There's so many times where I
10:33
put potions on different shelves or
10:36
books on different shelves and there is
10:38
a problem with one of the skills that
10:42
you can buy. So, you can grab a bunch of
10:44
items and you can press one of the
10:47
skills that will automatically put those
10:50
items in your inventory onto the
10:52
appropriate shelves. However, if you've
10:56
filled up the shelves for where those
10:58
things need to be, it will stop just
11:01
full stop and it'll say there is no
11:04
space available or something like that.
11:06
And you might have like 10 more items in
11:09
your inventory just chilling out cuz
11:12
that one that first item that's on hand
11:15
doesn't have a place to go on the
11:17
shelves. And that is incredibly annoying
11:22
cuz that is one item that can't be found
11:24
on the shelf for shelf space. And you're
11:27
not going to move any of the other items
11:29
in my inventory to their proper shelves.
11:31
No. So if you've got like a whole
11:34
variety of items that go just everywhere
11:37
around the store, you're you're kind of
11:40
boned until you figure out where you
11:42
went wrong on shelving. But it's not
11:45
really a problem in this first level
11:47
here. it definitely becomes a nuisance
11:50
in the third level. One of the things as
11:53
of right now in this review with the
11:55
leaderboards is there are cheaters in
11:57
this game. So you'll find that like in
12:01
the third level of the leaderboard
12:02
section for the timed events, people are
12:05
getting it done in like an hour and so
12:08
many minutes or low 2our mark. And in
12:12
this level the people are getting it
12:14
done in like 12 minutes or something
12:15
like that. It's It's not possible. Not
12:18
without cheats. So, I did go into the
12:20
discussions to kind of like glance
12:22
around at that, see if anyone else
12:24
noticed that. And I believe the
12:26
developer was saying something like they
12:28
were implementing something soon to kind
12:31
of clear up the leaderboard charts of
12:34
cheaters. So, it should be fixed soon
12:38
after this review comes out, which is
12:40
nice. So, yeah. As far as the book of
12:42
sorcery goes, you can have arcane sight,
12:45
which will show you where the items are.
12:47
Homeward, which will take the items in
12:49
your inventory and put them on the
12:51
shelves, and then gathering gale, where
12:53
you have one item in hand, and it will
12:56
bring all the other items to your
12:58
inventory.
12:59
Arcane Sight is a bit finicky for me
13:03
because when you use it, the items have
13:06
a purple pink glow to them and some
13:09
items out on the floor are purple pink.
13:13
So, it makes it really hard sometimes to
13:16
distinguish where you're looking for the
13:19
items that you need to pick up. There
13:21
were more than a few times where I was
13:23
like moving around
13:26
where's where are these items at? I
13:29
couldn't see them cuz they were just
13:31
they blended in too well and I I didn't
13:34
like that. As far as the book of
13:36
enhancements, there's travelers pack for
13:38
inventory size, fleet foot for speed, uh
13:42
extended reach just to
13:45
stand there and pick things up or put
13:48
them on the shelves without having to
13:50
run closer. The extended reach is
13:53
actually amazing in this game. you can
13:56
reach pretty darn far when it comes to
13:59
putting things away on the shelves and
14:02
just standing in one spot. And then
14:04
there's Bounding Leap, which is a jump
14:05
that I never used ever. I think my
14:08
biggest gripe above anything else in
14:10
this game when it comes to item
14:13
placements is the potions on the third
14:16
level. Like so many of them kind of look
14:18
alike
14:20
and there are so many of the same ones
14:22
with different colors. It's not like
14:25
always going to give you, hey, there's
14:27
going to be four of each potion with
14:31
different colors. It there's four of
14:33
each, there's three of each, there's two
14:34
of each, there's there's one. It's very
14:37
sporadic in the color schemes. And it
14:41
was just it was the worst. I always
14:45
wanted to save potions for last, and
14:47
then I was looking around for
14:48
everything. I was like, I hate that I
14:50
saved these for last. But you know what?
14:53
All in all, this was a good game. I
14:55
really liked it. They did do a good job
14:58
with kind of making everything a bit
15:00
different in a way that you would know
15:02
what you're picking up and where it
15:04
needed to go. Maybe one of the flaws of
15:06
that would be in the toy section. There
15:10
are two dog toys. One of them has a
15:14
closed mouth. One of them has an open
15:15
mouth. And it's like, really? Really?
15:19
You couldn't like do a different
15:21
coloration? Same coloration, same same
15:24
everything. Open and closed mouth. Seems
15:28
a bit lazy to me, but whatever.
15:31
It's not a really amazing game. There's
15:33
no big secrets in here or anything like
15:36
that. Nothing you can find. It's just
15:39
your casual put the appropriate items on
15:42
their appropriate shelves and that's
15:44
that. I'll give it a three
Games