#potion permit rue

[worriedvision]

Angsty alternative to Xiao's romance route (Potion Permit)

Gender neutral reader, reader is the chemist here. Sad ending BC when I was playing through Xiao's romance I got that heart sinking feeling from the beginning where we confess to him. Obviously spoilers for Xiao's romance route.

Goes without saying, this is not genshin impact Xiao.

--

"...You're usually so rational, why did you take Helene's horoscope reading as accurate?" Xiao asks, your confession hurting you as he looks at you with judgement.

"I thought you liked me back. Why else would you invite me out? I really enjoyed our night last night." You sheepishly admit, Xiao wincing when he hears this.

"...Well I just see you as a colleague." Xiao parries, you have to look at the ground out of sheer embarrassment. "You've been here for what, a few months? I don't know much about you."

Now you're tearing up. The way he seemed to soften around you as you worked as a chemist in Moonbury made you see something he didn't. Everyone else was especially cold, and in hindsight he was likely only being nice to you because of the Mayor.

"I'm sorry." You croak out, sniffling before you speed walk out of Xiao's house.

--

The next day, he talks to you like normal but you don't even say a word, just resorting to nodding. Walking up the stairs, you decide to make the difficult decision of requesting to return to the Capital once your work is complete.

"What's brought this on, _?" Myer asks. "I was under the impression you were beginning to enjoy Moonbury, I've heard good things from many of our citizens."

"...I still feel out of place. My position as a chemist from the Capital won't leave. I understand the people's frustration over the previous Chemists, and I do want to help Moonbury, but I don't belong here."

"...Have you spoken to Xiao about this? I don't want to sound rude when saying this, but Xiao is typically who would speak to me about this."

"Yeah, about that... I confessed to him. Silly, I know, I shouldn't have tried to get romantic with the person that speaks to me about pieces of my work."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that... I can try to make adjustments so that-"

"I'd rather just get through my responsibilities and leave when I complete my work here."

--

True to your word, a few months later you fix the issues caused by the Chemists running out of time to complete their work before leaving. While you felt happy to see Moonburys citizens so relieved, you still opt to leave.

Myer, Rue and Xiao see you off. Xiao doesn't say a word, he can't even look at you, and Rue tears up as she realises you won't be coming back anytime soon. Myer does the talking, wishing you well and thanking you for your support with Moonbury.

The train honks its horn, and you give one last goodbye to Myer - after all, he gave you the chance to work here, and you had a roof over your head as well as the clinic.

Taking a seat in the train, you look out the window as your dog whines. Waving out the window, you see Rue and Myer waving, both plastering the best smile they can, but Xiao doesn't wave.

He does, however, look at you with a regretful face. Chances are, he knew he was the reason you were leaving, but you look down at your dog before petting it's head.

[bitchfitch]

I've started playing Potion Permit, and so far it's one of my favorite games I've messed around with, but the most big brained move the devs made was giving you a dog on day 1, and then making that dog able to track NPCs and lead you directly to them no matter where they are in the town.

[hydrangeyes]

Playing Potion permit for a few days straight and while I LOVE it, I also have alot of.... thoughts.

Like I love love love this game, genuinely sat down blink and it's been a month non stop.

So with that said...

Let's just narrow it to romanceable:

- look, I was so happy I could romance Victor (I loved him first and soooo glad I got this legit after the update).

- I like matheo purely out of spite and wanting to give him a frustrated kiss on the lips.

- WHY CAN'T I ROMANCE THE TWINS? specifically Collin???? Like hello????

- but like, also: Moira, Dev, Nova (I said what I said), Rinehart, Lucke, Yorn (god please legit first bestie I made I love him so much), hell Opalheart (anothe I said what I said), Derek or Dean! Freakin' Dan also! (Edit: I just found out that Dan and Dev are the same person- split personality? Huh????)

Just. Why is Rue an option???? I legit thought she was AT MOST 12. 😮‍💨

Anyway, idk maybe It's because I just started actually romancing but it feels so.... last minute thought of? Like the actual dating part? Just odd the heart bar is completely maxed if you've only been on 1 date.

I wanna focus on this because if I focus on other aspects, I'll just get sad and go play stardew to clear my head.

Cause I am HEATED about how the resources are just... so small and the stamina bar being what it is.

Someone needs to make a mod to have these folks romanceable plsssssssss (I'm not at the point where I wanna make them myself tbh 🙃)

I was so ready to romance Osman till I found out he's already married 😮‍💨 another bestie I made, and I like that he worries about our well-being

[volixia669]

Potion Permit isn't flawless (whyyyyyyy does this small town of like 15 need three cops?) but I'm liking it!

A little disappointed the whole incident that causes the town's distrust of chemists was an oopsie daisy that's quickly resolved. I dunno. Seemed a perfect set up for a whole, "the capital didn't give a fuck and you need to learn to distrust the state and work with rural customs while 'science isn't bad, greed is' is learned by the locals."

But I suppose if that was the plot we wouldn't have THREE fucking cops.

Still, if you like grindy games, it has a pretty solid gameplay loop. The character designs are diverse and pretty good! Aside from Rue, who I think could have been made older.

That said, the writing has a lot of poteeeential, but given what other folks here have mentioned, it doesn't go as far as it could.

[the-universe-in-our-mind]

DAY 1 OF FLUFFTOBER: Lost pet meet cute

Ship: Evan x Xiao

Fandom: Potion Permit

Words: 623

Arriving in a new village, where most people do not like you at first, is always a challenge. Yet, it’s something Evan had been ready to face, as his coworkers from the big town had warned him about. Moving to Moonbury Island, after the incident, was not the best decision, they had told him. Without ever explaining the incident.

But here he was. The mayor had introduced him to the villagers, which had gone, as expected, not well.

Evan had worked hard to find a cure for the mayor’s daughter, Rue, which he had found pretty quickly. He was now pretty much accepted in the village, maybe tolerated for certain people.

It was one of those calm mornings, where no one was at the clinic, which he now was responsible for. Banjo had begged to be let outside, and Evan was watching him, as people were walking around.

Unexpectedly, Banjo barked at something, which made Evan look at him. As Banjo walked to the tavern, Evan was following him closely. The dog grabbed in his mouth what seemed to be a small object.

“What did you find, Banjo?” Evan approached him, now being able to identify the object as a pen.

As he was about to grab it, Banjo started running in the city hall’s direction.

“Banjo, wait!” Evan yelled before running after him.

He lost him for a second, not being able to catch up.

But as he continued in the same direction, he was able to find him. Embarrassment took over him as he noticed the dog, sitting in front of Xiao, the mayor’s assistant, tail shaking. But as he saw Xiao’s startled expression turn into a softer look, getting down to pet Banjo, he felt a bit relieved.

Evan walked up to them, with an apologetic look.

“I’m so sorry, he took off running before I was able to catch him.” He let Xiao know and the assistant looked back up, with a small smile.

“That’s okay. He does look adorable. What’s his name?” He asked him in a friendly tone.

Well, that did go better than he feared it would go.

“His name’s Banjo.” Evan said with a smile.

As Xiao got up again, now with a more professional smile, Evan realized the actual reason why Banjo must have run toward Xiao.

“By the way, would this happen to be yours?” He asked, as Evan placed his hand near Banjo’s mouth, who let the pen fall into his hand. Evan wiped it quickly on his shirt before handing it to the other man.

Xiao looked surprised at the view of the pen, nodding, before taking it.

“It is, actually. Where did you find it?” He wondered and Evan chuckled as he pointed at his dog.

“Oh, all the credit goes to this one. He was trained to pick stuff people would leave behind.” He explained as he started petting Banjo, who barked in what seemed an affirmative answer.

“Oh,did he?” Xiao said, with curiosity.

“Yes, he used to work with me at the hospital with other patients.” Evan explained quickly.

There was a small silence and Evan stood quickly back up.

“Anyway, I better get him home. I’ll get the potion you asked for later.” He assured and Xiao nodded.

“Alright then. Have a good day, Evan.” Xiao said before heading inside the city hall.

Evan felt his heart calm down a bit as the other man was now inside the building. Well, that was definitely a way to make an impression.

Banjo barked again, his tail still shaking. Evan looked at him with a resigned look.

“You’re a good boy, Banjo.” He assured before walking him back home.

[indisputablypercy]

I’ve been playing a lot of potion permit lately and i have some thoughts

This game rocks it’s super cute and fun

I don’t THINK Rue is supposed to be as young as people think she is. I get her being a romance target. Like story wise it makes sense. but. like. even her tarot card looks so young. So like. again i don’t think it’s the intention of the devs to have a child romance target. she just. she’s just small. i think that’s the intent. but still it’s. odd

Also why can’t I date Lucke. Or Runeheart. or Dev i like Dev

I’m so happy that I can date Victor now like hi. hi. hello weird graveyard man hi.

I wish there were more gift options than just the moon cloves :/

I absolutely adore every character. they’re all so well designed and cute. even if i tend to give all my mooncloves to Victor and Dev.

I really like the combat resource collection portion of the game. I like how you can use any tool as a weapon with pros and cons to each. like that was so well thought out. adore it

I wish the romance system went like. beyond just one date then boom you’re done. maxed out. let me do more. please. i’m begging. i know there’s more dates. but. like. more pls.

But yeah!! overall!! really loving it. My autistic ass rotates through ‘cozy games’ to hyper fixate on and Potion Permit is a great addition to that list lol even if i have some problems with it i still recommend

[shellibocs]

A and/or S for the initials thing? 🫶

quite a few so I’m keeping these little bios short! so for the A’s…

alicia joy rossi. or dr. rossi. one of my call of duty ocs. dr. rossi is the psychiatrist who frequently works with TF 141 and co. she is shipped with john price

amara celeste owens. my most favorite girl, my infamous second son oc. a d.u.p. researcher who ends up fighting against them after developing plant themed powers of her own. she is shipped with delsin rowe

andrea hope kwan. or just andy. my tomb raider oc, an ecosystem ecologist who accompanies lara on her adventures to make sure she doesn’t wreck the environment Too Much. she is shipped with another of @jendoe ‘s ocs, shane nishimura

annette marie hayes. or nettie. one of my red dead ocs. a seamstress from blackwater who is a tad bit clumsy. she is shipped with charles smith

arden. my potion permit chemist. she is shipped with reyner

asha. my stardew valley farmer. she is shipped with haley

and the S’s

silas xavier kane. one of my cyberpunk 2077 ocs. a mercenary who frequently works with my other oc iseul. has a dog named maple

spencer james clarke. my oc for the quarry. part time lifeguard. part time camp nurse. she is shipped with jacob custos

soleil alexander cloverhorn. or sol. one of my baldur’s gate 3 characters. a fey’ri warlock/fighter trying to make a name for herself. she is shipped with gale dekarios

sylvia rue green. or just sylvie. another one of my call of duty ocs. one of TF 141’s sniper and reconnaissance experts. she is shipped with alex keller

[sammatage]

Been playing Potion Permit and I'm so glad Matheo is romanceable. Although I was thinking about a wild alternate story twist if his romance story is pursued based entirely on the way he's designed.

What if throughout the game, Matheo is actually a vampire feeding on the citizens of Moonbury? He masquerades as the doctor because vampire bites have mild curative properties. His facade is in jeopardy when the Chemist called because his bites are unable to cure what is wrong with Rue.

He always talks about upholding traditional medical practices (leeches and blood letting). He voices his concern over unnatural remedies (not wanting side effects when drinking their blood). He even has a vested concern in the surrounding environment of the town (maintaining the welfare of those he feeds on).

Of course, he can't just tell the Chemist that he's a vampire. It's not until he catches feelings and they confess to him that he initially rejects them over not wanting them to know the truth.

[jake-marshall]

Potion Permit Review

Okay, so. As previously noted, Potion Permit consumed the past two weeks of my life. (This reminds me of when I played Return to PoPoLoCrois, and, same thing - was balls deep in it for 2 weeks bc it made my brain go brrrr). As a fan of most HM games, even the less popular ones, I really enjoyed this overall. So it has a Stardew graphic style mixed with the overworld combat of RF, and this is my review(ish) of the Switch version. Pros.

GREAT controls. I never at any point felt anything was tedious or difficult to engage with (outside of the grow box maybe?) It was very simplistic and stream-lined.

Cute/fun minigames. Nothing gets frantic or taxing. The Potion making is honestly really fun.

Decent Music. It's nice background music the way, I guess, ACNH has nice soothing background music. Nothing is a bop like HM/RF tunes but that's fine.

Good Male romance candidates - I feel like the 4 boys available to romance are all diverse enough to appease most everyone's tastes. Xiao is my husbando but I know a lot of people will go for Matheo or Victor (and I'll probably go for Victor if i ever play a boy file).

Interesting enough side characters. Nothing groundbreaking-ly unique but I did get a sense of community from the town of Moonbury, at least. and wanted to befriend everyone/know their story.

Pretty good pacing. At least for me, I never felt overwhelmed even when taking on numerous side quests. Outside of healing patients, nothing had a timeframe which was nice because it really did let you go at your own pace. CONS

No weather changes? I felt this could have really added to the game in terms of immersion even if it didn't affect anything gameplay-wise.

In that vein, no seasons. Again, it would be something I'd like to see expanded upon if there's a sequel. It would feel more like time is passing and therefore adding to the immersion.

Meh Female Romance Candidates - again, this is just personal taste but I did not like any of the available women - some of them, in fact, I outright disliked (Helene). Leano was the only okay one but she felt a bit too gimmicky with the pirate thing. And I don't even know why Rue was an option. I would have taken Bubble and Runehart happily over Rue and Helene.

Some of the topics presented in the side/character quests fell flat for me. I give PP kudos for trying, for touching on things like eating disorders, anxiety, and DID but the way a lot of it was easily resolved/hand-waved away felt big oof. Like I didn't feel the poor execution was for lack of trying, at least.

Not enough Collin and Moira lol.

Biggest con for me was not being able to romance Lucke. I really hope they make him and the aforementioned girls, as well as Dean and Derrek available... some day...

So overall I would recommend the game if you want something charming to mindlessly put 30-40 hours into. But there's a lot of loose ends that, for me, don't make it as compulsively replayable as RF/SoS. Still, i feel like it's something I might come back to every year or two to revisit, and I'm glad to have met some new blorbos. :)

[cozycottagegamereviews]

Review of Potion Permit

Developer: MassHive Media

Publisher: PQube

Release Year: 2022

I realize this game is a bit older, but I recently completed my first play through and wanted to share my thoughts.

Storyline

You play a chemist from the capital who is assigned to the small town of Moonbury. You quickly discover that everyone hates you and wants nothing to do with you, but the mayor has agreed to let you live in a rundown shack in hopes you can help his daughter. You help her and the other residents of Moonbury reluctantly agree to let you offer them health care.

You spend the rest of the game getting to know the residents, earning their trust and uncovering the secrets of the past that led to the people of Moonbury distrusting people from the capital in the first place.

I found the storyline for this game very satisfying, but it was also kind of short. By the time I’d wrapped up the story I was still making friends with some of the villagers and there were a lot of potions and upgrades that I hadn’t unlocked.

Art

Loved the art for this game! The characters, the monsters, the village and the surrounding environment were all beautiful to behold.

I really liked the photo album in the chemist’s house. As you reach a certain friendship level with each character, you unlock a photo of them. It gives you a better idea of what they look like and incorporates some beautiful character art into the game.

Friendships

Making friends with the villagers and unlocking their stories was probably my favourite part of the game.

Each character had a fun storyline to explore and it was great getting to know them.

My one complaint (and it’s minor) is that I like learning which gifts to give each character in a game like this, but that’s not part of Potion Permit. The people of Moonbury have a tradition where they give each other a certain tea and that’s the only gift you can give. It’s a nice part of the story, but you don’t learn the individual tastes of each character.

Romance

I have to be honest, this part of the game was a little bit of a let down in some ways.

For one, romances in Potion Permit only advance to the dating stage. You can’t marry anyone or even enter an exclusive relationship.

For two, when I was doing my play through there were only six characters who could be romanced: three female and three male.

For the men there’s Reyner, Xiao and Matheo. All fine choices. I was immediately drawn to Xiao and found the romance plot with him quite sweet. Matheo is the person who hates you the most when you first arrive and at first I was curious as to why he was even a romance option. But the story with him was also really sweet and well done.

For the female characters there’s Martha (the requisite female character who can’t wait to throw herself at you), Leano (pirate empress of my ❤️) and finally Rue, the mayor’s daughter and a CHILD!

I could not for the life of me figure out why Rue was a romance option, especially when there were other characters who seemed like more obvious choices. Bubble is super sweet and kind, and Runeheart is a badass.

Since my play through though it seems they’ve added two additional romance options, Helene and Victor, so maybe there are future plans to add even more romance options. (Like Lucke and Forrest, for instance, or the two women mentioned above.)

I’ll have to go back and spend more time with Helene and Victor. The one nice thing about the romances only progressing as far as dating is that you can spend time with multiple characters and there are no hurt feelings.

Foraging and Potion Making

Considering the name of the game I maybe should have opened with this.

The gameplay revolves around you heading out into the wilderness where you forage materials using a scythe, pick axe and regular axe. You pick flowers, mine rocks and cut down trees. You also defeat monsters and harvest their corpses for potion ingredients.

Then you take everything home and throw it in a cauldron. Each ingredient takes the form of a different shape and is one of four colours, depending on its element. Each potion requires you to fill a certain shape. Some potions can use ingredients from all four elements, while others use only three, two or one. Somehow you have to fill in the shape to make the potion.

The foraging was mostly fun and exploring the wilds surrounding Moonbury was challenging, but not overly stressful. My only complaint is that sometimes you had to grind pretty hard to get all the materials needed to upgrade your tools, your cauldron, your house and your clinic.

The actual potion making I found to be a lot of fun. It was my favourite part after getting to know the villagers.

Diagnosing the Villagers

In order to know which potion each villager needs, you first have to diagnose their ailments. This involves completing one of three possible mini games.

For the most part I did okay at this but you eventually get to the point where the rhythm section mini game can be quite challenging. Luckily you can unlock a potion to help you bypass these harder mini games, but only once you’ve completely upgraded your cauldron. I recommend prioritizing the cauldron upgrades.

Cooking

I love cooking in this game! The only real purpose the food serves is to replenish your energy (you can’t gift it) but it was still fun to discover the recipes and ingredients.

The one weird thing is that I hit the credits and there’s still one recipe I haven’t unlocked. Not sure what I missed.

Fishing

The weird thing about fishing in this game is that you can only fish in one of four specific spots.

But the fishing mini game is a lot of fun (once you figure it out). To fish in the game you cast your line and drag it past a fish-shaped shadow, hoping for a bite. Once the fish is on the line, you reel it in, but the fish will put up a fight. If the line turns red, let the line go slack and wait for the fish to exhaust itself before reeling it in again. (Very similar to Fae Farm.)

Honestly, even though the fishing was fun the limited locations meant I didn’t fish often. It was only when my beloved Leano demanded fish that I prioritized it.

Overall

I had a lot of fun playing this game, but it was pretty short. I’m excited to see some new content has been added and will check it out.

[andromachos]

i like the general consensus of potion permit is everyone mad that you cannot romance helene but you can romance rue

[thefairyquill]

Rue from Potion Permit should not be romanceable. She's implied to be a young teenager while all the other options are young adults wtf

In the spirit of @trisexyual's post:

Reblog and respond with your top romanceable video game character/s that you think should NOT have been romanceable

[geyadronedihada]

Potion Permit is really a great game but it's also an incredible example of people who didn't realize which NPCs would want to be romanced.

[p01kad0t]

I've got Potion Permit a couple days ago and m having a blast playing but

Devs

Babes

What the actual hell went through your heads when you picked the romance options

[the-universe-in-our-mind]

OCS INTRODUCTION PART 8: POTION PERMIT

name: Kora

age/date of birth: 25 years old/February 5

zodiac sign: Aquarius

pronouns: She/they

best friend(s): Lucke, Bubble and Rue.

in a relationship: Yes, with Martha.

name: Darla

age/date of birth: 26 years old/December 16th

zodiac sign: Sagittarius

pronouns: She/they

best friend(s): Runeheart, Helen, Martha, Yorn and Xiao.

in a relationship: Yes, with Reyner.

name: Evan

age/date of birth: 25 years old/October 8

zodiac sign: Libra

pronouns: He/they

best friend(s): Forrest, Leano, Runeheart, Yorn, Derrick and Dean.

in a relationship: Yes, with Xiao.