Potion Permit Reviews
Potion Permit has grown a lot since LadiesGamers previewed it nearly two years ago! While the final game sometimes lacks depth in its numerous systems, it compensates with breadth and charm. It manages to be meditative without feeling melancholic. The days flutter away, but there are no seasonal changes. Suspicious townsfolk will gradually warm to your presence as you repair your clinic and heal various ailments. It’s more a game about revitalization than it is about the passage of time, yet I could spend many more hours in Moonbury completing quests and concocting potions.
Potion Permit has a great concept, but ultimately some quest issues and the sheer amount of grind make it a bit of a drag.
MassiveHive Media’s Potion Permit is about as easygoing as a game about healthcare could be.
This alchemical adventure may lack the polish and depth of some of its contemporaries, but it is an enjoyable life simulation RPG nonetheless.
Potion Permit is at best an okay game. From someone who was looking forward to this game for a while, it hurts to say, but it just doesn’t live up to what it’s selling. MassHive tries a lot of different things in this RPG slice-of-life game, but it doesn’t reach the mark on most of them. Players should wait on this title until it has received the necessary fixes and balancing changes, if then.
However, despite these frustrations players will likely still find themselves returning to Potion Permit for hours at a time - it's incredibly easy to get in a "just one more day" loop despite some of the game's duller moments, because the puzzling and progression elements like improving as a chemist, forging friendships, and upgrading the clinic are so satisfying. At its core, Potion Permit is a unique and cozy indie game that clearly has a large amount of effort and ambition behind it, which helps it overcome some - but not all - of its flaws. For players looking to sink dozens of hours into a different style of simulation title, brewing up a life in Potion Permit may be just what the doctor ordered.
There’s a lot to love about Potion Permit. It’s a game that, as mentioned, gives you a purpose, and does a great job of letting you experience the journey from total newcomer to heart of the community. It’s a perfect game for those seeking a relaxing, chilled-out experience - a tonic for a market filled with life sims that emphasise profit and efficiency. The only things lacking are a little difficulty to keep things interesting and some bug fixing to keep things running smoothly.
Potion Permit is brilliant, offering some incredible quality of life improvements to ease a player into the genre. It introduces several accommodations that I hope become the golden standard of slice-of-life romps.
Potion Permit is an attractive life sim with plenty of chemistry but its gameplay could really do with more variety and challenge to keep things engaging. I also hope that a big patch is on its way to remedy all of the odd bugs on display.
Potion Permit is probably the best mix of stress and calm gaming I have seen. It leans a little more towards the calm gaming, but having the little bits of fighting mixes things up without ever feeling like I will be severely punished. A fair amount of little things here would make many other life sims easier to navigate. Things like fast travel from anywhere, the addition of a mini-map, and the ability to swap available tasks with a single button. Small additions, but to me, really help to keep me engaged and within the world. The game is not without its faults; though minor they are, worse has been looked over in other games. I found Potion Permit fun and charming, but I can’t overlook the addition of the DDR mechanic, especially where no music is used to help create a beat. Even something as basic as a heartbeat would have helped and made it feel a little more lively. All said and done; this little slice of medicinal fun worthy of all your time and money.
Potion Permit nearly is the wholesome game that I was looking for but not quite. I love Moonbury and all its stories. There are those weird bugs all over the game though. And also, I spend more time cutting trees than healing my patients. The grind in this game is unbelievable and nearly absurd. And still, I have a lot of fun - just because of Moonbury and the great stories it tells.
Review in German | Read full review
Potion Permit has you go from unwelcomed guest to belle of the ball. This doesn't feel like other life-sim game in a couple of ways. The handful of mini-games, the romancing, and the gifting feel different, in some good - and sometimes only decent - ways. The pixel art looks great, and load times on the Switch were a breeze. I would have liked more of an overall challenge; the game never feels hard or very difficult. Potion Permit works best when throwing on some headphones and listening to a podcast.
Potion Permit offers up quite the accessible life sim experience, making growth progress more quickly than most games in the genre. A bit of the luster is lost in this change of focus, but the product itself is a fun, engaging, light-hearted, and accessible time.
The town of Moonbury is charming with a massive cast of varied and fun characters, and the resource gathering gameplay loop has the usual ability to keep you sucked in for hours, but there's just something there that made me feel like it wasn't scratching the itch as well as it could have. Add to that the various technical issues and the inexcusable crime of not allowing me to romance Helene, and it is difficult to imagine recommending this game to someone before pointing them towards many of the other options popping up around it. Despite all it does well, Potion Permit doesn't quite do enough to stand apart from the crowd.
Of course, other aspects of those goals fall short. The mini-games are not too exciting and a lot of the other life sim aspects feel like an afterthought because it takes so long to unlock them. Not to mention the bugs you’ll run into along the way that also bring down the experience. It’s hard to deny that the ideas behind Potion Permit are great, but it doesn’t quite reach the level where the gameplay becomes truly captivating.
Potion Permit certainly has its own unique charm as you continue shaping the fortunes of Moonbury and its citizens. Unfortunately, it can get fairly monotonous later on.
A cosy game of potion manufacture, healing, and friendship set in a delightful isometric world, that's let down by its grinding repetition and some serious bugs.
Potion Permit mixes interesting gameplay and an intriguing story, but it doesn't manage to make the most of a wonderful setting.
Potion Permit may not be the best life simulation or harvesting game you would play, but experiencing it shouldn't be empty of pleasure. Since you play as a Chemist rather than a farmer, this change itself promises unique things that the game provides most of them. While the story itself is well-written and simple, the characterization could have been much better. Even though the gameplay gets to the required pace a little late, once it does it becomes addictive rather quickly. The art style and music of the game have created good chemistry with the overall tone of the game.
Potion Permit is a quaint little alchemy simulator that will delight anyone looking for something cozy. It’s not exactly the Stardew Valley sibling it appears to be, but it has the potential to become just as beloved in its own right nonetheless. If you’re hurting for a cute life sim that blossoms over time, Potion Permit will cure what ails you.