You caught me lol, the potions were in fact just an addition to fit the theme.
I've got a plan to update the game to make potion crafting more engaging where instead of fighting enemies for items, you mine items out of blocks forcing you to slow down without forcing you to directly fight the enemies (which are not the most engaging things to fight), and I should probably pare down the ingredient numbers. My thought process for having so many was that I wanted to force the player to get ingredients from both the light and dark worlds, and I initially wanted to have more potions but was pressed for time. It is what it is for the jam.
Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it.