Hows everyone liking it so far?

[ProbablyLobsters]

Any complaints, mod ideas, or anything? Generally curious as what you all think. Might even be a good little spot for people who are on the fence to learn a bit more about the in game experience. And yes, we all wish the dog wasnt as annoying lol

[Bubbles]

It's a fun game but it's very casual and nothing is particularly challenging. Most people are going to compare this to Stardew but honestly this is much easier and feels more casual. Stardew is also a more open game with more map area.

The minigames are short and so easy that some reviewers say they feel like extra buttons to push instead of a proper minigame. The mingames in the arcade are also easy but are more fun. Issue is there is no motivation to play the arcade games as there are no rewards, point shop, etc. At least for me the lack of reward kills any motive to go there after after checking it out.

Combat is also pretty easy but there are some monsters that are a bit harder and require a bit more strategy. I have yet to die in combat 7 hours in.

Honestly, while I am enjoying Potions Permit it feels a bit like a kid's game. There is no challenge. Other than the social aspect, you could probably let a 6 year old play Potions Permit without issue. Due to the ease and lack of content I am not sure it has much replay value. The game could use some free content updates like Stardew did as well as a serious rework of the minigames.

I really hope the Devs take after Concerned Ape (Stardew Dev) and put out free content. The $$ DLC at launch has already got a lot of the playerbase feeling off-put and leery. Unfortunately for the devs, Stardew has set a high standard that other games in the same categories are going to be compared against. Stardew fans are going to want a similar experience and after-purchase-care that Stardew provided and the DLC's don't give the impression that will be the case.

All in all, in the game's current state I would suggest getting it on sale unless you are just starved for a Harvest Moon inspired crafting/social sim.

[Kafka]

I'm super disappointed with it. I was really looking forward to this game launching and I've found the gameplay to be terrible. I played for several hours to give it a really good chance but it's terrible.

What I was expecting from what was advertised was to do my profession (diagnose people, make potions), form relationships with the townspeople and discovery (diseases, ingredients, potions, story, envrionment).

What I got was 90% of the gameplay is in the forest harvesting resources from plants, rocks and animals. The combat mechanics are exactly the same as the harvesting mechanics right down to using the same tool. Bashing different art sprites with an axe/hammer/scythe repeatedly for hours isn't fun at all. There's literally no variety.

In life sims I usually squeeze every hour out of every day, usually risking collapsing, but in this game I was sending my character to bed at 4pm because there was nothing to do except chop down trees.

I know a lot of people are comparing this game to Stardew - I think that's unfair in terms of the success Stardew has had, but if you look at the core game mechanics that have come to be recognised as staple in most life sims they're missing major elements for example: spending most of your time doing your profession or engaging with towns people. There's no seasons and the mechanics are incredibly shallow.

The game is called Potion Permit but maybe it should be Grindy Forest, because you spend so little time actually being a doctor/chemist - some days you don't even have patients to treat.

You can put Stardew comparisons aside and also look at games like Graveyard Keeper and Moonlighter which provide far more depth for example:

In Moonlighter there's LESS mechanics than Potion Permit which is still far more fun. Because you are a shopkeeper moonlighting as an adventurer - which is exactly what you are doing in the gameplay - run a shop, crawl dungeons, fill shop with goods found in dungeons, sell them, go dungeon crawling again - it's FUN. It's what you expected of the game Moonlighter.

In Graveyard Keeper there are more mechanics so you have a variety of tasks to do each week and different tasks to do on different days, the discovery and exploration is in the crafting because the crafting system has so much depth. It doesn't feel grindy because there's so much to do and such a deep crafting system that you don't feel like you're doing the same tasks over and over.

In Potion Permit you chop down trees and kill forest animals and if you're lucky you might get a patient to treat. The name and game description is misleading.

[Explicitly Offensive Cuneiform]

It's more graveyard keeper than stardew valley. One thing that could improve upon the game, is having potion requests from the medical commission. right now if i want money i just spam potions, but now if there were medicine requests where they needed potions that would make mixing them more interesting. Especially if they were for epidemics or mass causality events.

[Spoike]

Unfortunately can't play the demo on my Mac as 32-bit apps are not working in recent version of MacOS.

[koinzell]

really disappointed with it.

[ProbablyLobsters]

That seems to be the general opinion. Ill admit its been sort of a letdown. I wasnt exactly expecting Stardew, but i was also expecting more. Ya know?

[Explicitly Offensive Cuneiform]

Originally posted by Ovdusk:

That seems to be the general opinion. Ill admit its been sort of a letdown. I wasnt exactly expecting Stardew, but i was also expecting more. Ya know?

They dropped the ball a bit. They made it out that this was supposed to be a game about a doctor, but rarely do you do any doctoring. Instead it's painful fetch quests for villagers that are not that likeable.