October 2023 Progress Report

Waking up alone in a dusty home with the feeling of something important forgotten, a possessed goat outside your swampy huts informs you of your new duties. A contract was signed, in exchange for 12 wicked souls, a wish. As Witch of the Woods and Lady of the Swamp, you wonder what you could have possibly wished for in exchange for such a laborious task; something to do with these missing memories, perhaps? Set out and weave spells, bottle potions, and snatch these 12 misbehaving souls so they won't be causing any more trouble.

9-11+ hours to complete, Wytchwood is a crafting adventure game with fables and fairytales. (Not Disney, closer to the original source material.) 3 chapters in which you collect 4 souls each, this game is very much a sort of magpie simulator; if you see a thing, pick it up. If you do not like collecting things, you may get bored and annoyed because the game expects you to obtain crafting materials proactively to make trinkets and cast spells. Wytchwood is a dark, morbid, but strangely cozy game with witty dialogue where you play as an old, ancient, knowledgeable bird-like witch with various powers and interesting (read: chaotic neutral) problem-solving skills that means the bad guys have a real bad time and the villagers are pretty happy. Warmly wholesome, I liked it enough to finish the entire game in one playthrough.

Sent by the medical association from the capital to the Island of Moonbury, play as an intelligent budding chemist whose goal is to bring modern medicine to this old town who’s only method of healing is the even older ways of Herbal medicine. With a unique environment allowing rare and valuable plants to flourish, gain the townfolks trust to form a mutually beneficial relationship and bring this dying town back to life.

20-35+ hours to complete, Potion Permit is an LGBTQ+ Crafting Adventure Simulator where you play as a chemist who was sent from the capital by the medical association to introduce modern medicine and healthcare to an old town stuck in the even older ways of Herbalism. 8 love interests and 3 large areas to explore, Potion Permit is mainly focused on the villagers and the social aspect of the town and its inhabitants. Making Potions is fun, it feels rewarding to study water/plant/disease samples and to just be the town’s doctor. There are housing upgrades and home decoration, as well as your own clinic you can upgrade. Yes, you can pet the dog.

While I have an overall positive impression of Potion Permit, there are things I genuinely felt could have been done better. The town’s layout is hell to navigate and is 1/4th the entire map, so many parts felt empty aside from hub areas NPCs regularly visit. Secondly, the material upgrades for simple things are just insane and they only get more absurd as you play which leads to this game, about healthcare and living with nature, to becoming a Deforestation sim since you need 6,000 logs and 5,000 stones to upgrade 3 of your tools, nevermind the building upgrades and the frequent material quest requests. Character notes are out of touch and in some cases, completely false; Leano verbally says she has her hand “cut clean off in a sword fight” but notes say it was a sailing accident. Rue’s notes say it’s her dream to become a chemist, which is literally never mentioned anywhere else in the entire game. Characters claim to be workaholics and are regarded by other characters as a busybody takes frequent strolls around town, reading on benches, and feeding ducks and fish. Playing Potion Permit was a huge love-hate relationship. I genuinely feel that while it’s a good game, it needs work if it wants to be replayable.