Potion Permit (PC)

The latest Stardew-like I’ve played; this one has you as an alchemist from the big city who comes to provide modern medical care to a small town. You have the usual loops of going into dangerous areas to get materials and giving gifts to win the love of the townsfolk; but instead of a farm you have a clinic and need to play minigames to diagnose and cure people who come in. The central mechanic is making medicine out of materials with your alchemy pot, where each ingredient is a tetrad and each recipe is a shape—you can make the same potion out of a variety of ingredients, so long as they fit. This is very quest-driven; upgrading friendship with each villager to the next level will require a quest from them, which might just be watching a cutscene or might be a big fetch quest. You need to also do quests to upgrade your standing in the village, which in turn lets you unlock new areas for better materials.

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Overall: This was fun and a little change of pace in the cozy genre. Hunting down NPCs to turn in quest rewards can be a little irritating, the money-making loop is a little grindy, and the late-game Achievement selection is kinda weird; but overall it’s a fun time and a reasonable length.