Potion Permit

Cute and Cozy <3

good game

# Relaxing and charming, but not as potion-focused as I expected ## What I liked Potion Permit has a beautiful art style and a genuinely cozy atmosphere. The world is charming, the characters are pleasant to interact with, and the game is very easy to enjoy after a long or exhausting day. It is one of those games that is great for relaxing rather than constantly optimizing or strategizing. The story is also a pleasant surprise. None of the individual storylines are particularly deep, but there are quite a few of them, and they are easy to follow without becoming overwhelming. That makes the game well suited for players who want a light, low-stress experience. ## The biggest weakness: repetitive gameplay The main problem is that the gameplay becomes repetitive fairly quickly. The diagnosis and potion-unlocking minigames are extremely simple and eventually feel almost pointless. They are introduced as mechanics, but they add very little challenge or decision-making. Potion brewing is the most interesting system in the game, but it also feels underdeveloped. Since many different materials can be used for the same potion, there is very little sense of learning actual recipes or experimenting with meaningful combinations. From a chemistry or alchemy perspective, it feels strangely random. ## Side activities There are several additional activities such as fishing and cooking, but they rarely feel rewarding enough to justify the time investment. Fishing is surprisingly time-consuming for the benefit it provides, and cooking has only a small number of recipes that feel genuinely useful. ## More farming than alchemy Ironically, for a game called **Potion Permit**, potion making often feels like a secondary activity. A large part of the game is spent gathering wood, stone, and other resources, earning money, upgrading your house, and gradually unlocking more areas of the map. I kept expecting the game to become more focused on being a chemist or alchemist, but it never fully does. It is much more of a resource-farming and town-progression game than a deep potion-brewing simulator. ## Final thoughts Despite its flaws, I still enjoyed Potion Permit. The presentation, music, and cozy atmosphere carry the experience, and it is an easy game to recommend if you are looking for something relaxing and undemanding. Just do not expect a particularly deep crafting system or a game centered primarily around brewing potions. **A charming cozy game with a lot of repetitive mechanics, but one that is still worth playing if you enjoy relaxed life-sim and resource-gathering games.**

Very much enjoyed this game but I doubt Stardew fans will find much of value here over Stardew (which I haven't played so I don't have a point of comparison). I enjoyed what was on offer but would've liked for there to be a bit more to the game. The gameplay loop was enjoyable and I liked the story as well. Moonbury was a fun town to explore, even though the island itself felt a bit bare bones when you're out gathering resources. Also found the resource gathering to get stale very quickly and it started to get a bit annoying whenever I had to go out and grind for stuff, especially as there's no way to raise your stamina meter. The real highlight was the town and its citizens, I quickly grew fond of them and felt like I became a part of the community. Not every character is created equal, the non-romanceable ones f.e. only have two bonding events so some of them end up a bit shallow (in particular Mariele who just doesn't have anything going on outside of her status as the mayor's wife). Also just felt a bit random of who was romanceable and who wasn't. It's a bit disappointing that only 10 of the characters are romanceable, especially considering there are only three pre-existing couples on the island so in theory you should be able to date everyone aside from those six characters (as well as the minors and the nun for obvious reasons). My first pick would've hands down been the hottest hunk on the island, my man Yorn, but alas, he is arbitrarily not romanceable so I had to settle for literally every available man. Potion Permit is a rare game where you can be poly so big win for all you poly people out there.

Loved this game to bits. The style is gorgeous, the npcs are lovely, the mechanics are simple and the dog companion is absolutely adorable. The gathering resources aspect is nice, finding out what is what shape and there are so many combinations you can do while crafting the potions. Quick disclaimer you can finish the story and roll the credits before fully upgrading everything - at that point the last few achievements became grindy. I feel like the 1k of each type of resource (cut down 1k individual trees) is a bit much. All in all there were soooo many positives, I highly recommend this game.

Really good if you enjoyed discounty and just fun tasks to do variety. Wish there was more fishing element but that may just be a me thing

don,t miss to play