Potion Permit Reviews

Potion Permit is ranked in the 48th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Metro GameCentral
GameCentral
Top Critic
6 / 10
Sep 23, 2022

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.

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7 / 10
Sep 28, 2022

Potion Permit is a step forward for the life-sim genre, despite some serious bugs holding it back.

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6.5 / 10.0
Oct 13, 2022

Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.

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6.5 / 10.0
Sep 16, 2022

Potion Permit has a great concept, but ultimately some quest issues and the sheer amount of grind make it a bit of a drag.

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Sep 16, 2022

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.

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8 / 10.0
Sep 22, 2022

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.

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8 / 10.0
Sep 22, 2022

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.

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6 / 10
Sep 22, 2022

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.

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6 / 10
Oct 5, 2022

Unfortunately, there are also a lot of bugs present in the game. Characters will glitch in and out of existence while you’re talking with them. Sometimes the whole screen will go black and your character will pop up in a different part of the map when fast travelling. It’s things like this that really stop Potion Permit from reaching its potential, and its charming visuals can only do so much to counter this.

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Sep 16, 2022

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.

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3 / 5.0
Sep 22, 2022

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.

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7 / 10
Oct 1, 2022

Potion Permit makes an effort to implement engaging minigame mechanics through potion brewing and patient diagnosis, but outside of that, a lack of challenge and a feeling of repetition means it struggles to stand out in the vast field of life sims. Still, it presents a fun and enchanting experience which gets a massive shot in the arm from excellent presentation in both the audio and visual departments. Potion Permit fits the bill for something to pick up now and then and pass a few hours, and there are certainly enough quests for you to sink your teeth into and keep you entertained for a while, even if it's not as catching as the best in the genre.

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Sep 26, 2022

Potion Permit is a fresh new take on the popular genre -- it's a must-have for any wholesome game or farm simulator enthusiast.

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7.5 / 10.0
Sep 30, 2022

Potion Permit is a game I can sink my teeth in and play for hours, not realising that it's actually 5am. The days are quick, so it's tough to do everything in one go, but the game also doesn't pressure you to complete things in a timeframe very often. There are annoying bugs that can limit access to side-quests and mini-games, which is disappointing to see. Though with loads of things to do, you never feel that dreaded sense of aimlessness. Potion Permit is a cozy game that makes me excited to get back into it.

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RPG Fan
Top Critic
70%
Oct 30, 2022

There's a lot of promise in the game's premise but it's still a glitchy mess that drags on from slow gameplay with minimal difficulty.

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6.5 / 10.0
Sep 23, 2022

Potion Permit mixes interesting gameplay and an intriguing story, but it doesn't manage to make the most of a wonderful setting.

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3.8 / 5.0
Sep 24, 2022

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.

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8.5 / 10.0
Oct 30, 2022

Potion Permit is a unique cozy game with adorable pixel graphics that will keep you busy for hours. The difficulty is relatively easy, but the gameplay is still fun and engaging.

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Jordan Ryan
Top Critic
8 / 10.0
Oct 9, 2022

Potion Permit is a fun new game cut from familiar cloth. It offers a new and relatively unique spin on the popular farming and life simulator formula, and is a game I can see myself coming back to regularly for months, and maybe even years, to come.

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6 / 10.0
Sep 22, 2022

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.

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