We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.

Secret of Evermore is pretty fun, and more challenging than Secret of Mana (which is the most similar game to it in terms of gameplay); the alchemy system is a clever and interesting alternative to magic, right up until getting reagents turns into a huge slog and you end up hoarding your spells for boss fights, which means they don't level up and are underpowered. Nice concept, but hard to implement well, and especially frustrating for the kind of gamer who wants to 100% it because it means hoooours of grinding for rare reagents and casting the same spells over and over.

I'm pretty sure the only reagents that aren't buyable somewhere are Meteorite and Dry Ice, which are only used for one spell that isn't even that useful. (And technically those are buyable but you need to have every Charm and spend 10,000 Jewels just to get a few of one.) You're restricted to three Atlas Amulets plus whatever you can find in chests after getting those three, but again, only used for one formula.

I agree that it's super-time consuming if you want to level up every single spell to max, but gathering reagents isn't the main reason why. As far as progress goes, you just need to level one spell up to 3 or 4 per world and you'll do fine.