Potion Permit [Review]

Potion Permit is a calm and casual “farming” game developed by MassHive Media and published by both PQube and Playdigious. I only put quotes in farming because you don’t actually farm, but in every sense of how the game plays, it is one. You move to a new town and get a broken-down, old house you have to fix up. You have a set amount of tools that you can use to harvest items, like cutting down trees and breaking rocks. There are tons of villagers to befriend and even romance if you would like. So, I would still consider this game a farming sim, just a much more unique take on the genre. To start, the main menu is beautifully crafted with some of the most calming and memorable songs I've heard in a game in a while. This game immediately feels inviting, as if you’ve come back home after being away for a long time. Something that surprised me a lot was the inclusion of character creation. I didn’t go into this game with the mindset that I was playing as myself. I figured I would be playing as a predetermined character in this world. There aren’t a ton of options that you can choose from, but you can make the character your own. You can choose your gender, skin, color, hair, eye color, outfit, and cape.

So, what exactly do you do in a farming game that you can’t farm in? Well, as a chemist, you go into the wild to collect ingredients for healing potions, of course! The town is a bit apprehensive, but once they start to fall ill and can’t seem to fix their illnesses with modern medicine, they turn to you. But you have to act fast; you have a countdown to heal your patients before they have to leave to get care elsewhere. So far, I haven’t had any trouble helping them within the day limit. But, like others in its genre, this game isn't particularly difficult. Since this game doesn't have farming, that means it focuses more on combat. When going into the wild, there is a nice variety of enemies that have to be defeated in different ways. From bears to beetles and armadillos that you have to knock onto their backs with a hammer, the enemies are pretty unique and diverse. A nice feature that helps it stand out as combat-focused is that you can roll, which isn’t something I’ve seen in farming games. While the game is unique, I did have some issues with it. There’s a weird glitch that occurs throughout the entire game, in and out of cutscenes, where if you walk a certain way, your hair glitches out and turns brown. This happens no matter what hair color you choose. The glitching is especially bad while fishing. This can get a bit distracting and annoying.

I also have a bit of a problem with this game's use of minigames. There is a minigame for everything. To locate injuries on a client, you either have to play Simon Says or a rhythm game (ESC minigame) where you have to hit the directional buttons at a certain time. Or the minigame for researching, where you just change the symbols to the correct ones. I think the minigames are done great at certain points, though, like when you help the townspeople by signing up for part-time jobs. While they take two in-game hours to complete, you essentially get paid to play a thirty-second minigame. But I think they’re used too often. Not every little thing needs a minigame; this just makes the necessary minigames like fishing feel lackluster and not fun. There are a few things in this game that feel unnecessary, like the minigames or even your pet dog. Your dog gets tired throughout the day and starts to pant and slow down, but there’s nothing to do for him. I'd say it would make the dog feel useless, but he already doesn’t do anything but follow you around.

While there are some downsides, there are also some quality-of-life changes that I just adore. There’s a fast travel system, something I don’t get to see a lot in games like this. Throughout the world, there are flags you can interact with and unlock a fast travel point. And, you see these flags often! It’s not just in a few areas; there are even two in the town itself! I love farming games, but something that can get annoying after playing sooo many is how much walking around you always have to do. Some games will combat it by allowing some sort of quick travel, like Stardew Valley’s mine cart system. But, this is only for three areas of the game, and you have to unlock it yourself. The Potion Permit just allows you to fast-travel from the beginning of the game without any prerequisites. There’s also this very small but useful detail I love where, if you or an enemy walk behind something like a tree, a silhouette appears so you can still see where you are. This is especially nice in this game due to how many enemies you’ll be fighting.

Something you often see in farming games is that the town is very quick to judge and dislike the new guy (which is you). And you have to spend a lot of time with individuals to build up a relationship. This game is no different, but it also has a town trust system. If you neglect patients or don’t heal them on time, the town will start to dislike you. In this negative trust, the townspeople will not interact with you, meaning you can’t trigger events. There are a lot of events you need to do to continue certain missions by talking to individual town members like the mayor, and you would be barred from these if you managed to make the town hate you. I think this is a fun gimmick to make sure you take care of your patients, and while I’ve seen similar things before, it is always an interesting way to add more stakes to a usually easy and calm genre.

Potion Permit is a great game to try out if you’re a farming game fan. It’s a unique take on the genre but still feels and plays like any other pixelated farming game, so there is no learning curve for those used to them. The game can become a bit long with its repetitive gameplay and many cutscenes, so I would recommend not playing this game in long sit-down sessions. Instead, this is a fantastic pick-up-and-play game that you can come back to whenever you’re getting that itch. This is why I think it’s best played on the switch for easy stop-and-play. Potion Permit is a fun and unique game with plenty of heart put into it and easily deserves a 7/10. It is currently available for Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, PC, and Android.

this is a fantastic pick-up-and-play game that you can come back to whenever you’re getting that itch. This is why I think it’s best played on the switch for easy stop-and-play. Potion Permit is a fun and unique game with plenty of heart put into it