Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

[Tek7]

Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is a PC game that allows the player to alternate between buying and reselling items and dungeon crawling. It was developed by an independent Japanese studio, localized by another independent studio, and maintains the original Japanese voice tracks.

Yes, I have already downloaded the demo. No, I haven't bought the full version yet, but if I had a job, I probably would have already.

Any of you who are familiar with my tendency to spend more time in WoW playing the auction house than completing quests or running instances can probably imagine why and how much this game appeals to me.

And those of you who've read any of my posts blasting larger publishers for choking the heart and soul out of PC gaming for a quick buck (which I would think would include nearly every active user on the forums by now) could easily guess that I like to cheer on independent studios when they make great games.

I've only played about 30 minutes of the demo, but I really like it so far. Having "played" (I don't know if that's the right term) a visual novel translated from Japanese to English, the interface felt familiar. (No, Recettear isn't a visual novel, don't worry.) It's easy to draw immediate comparison between Recettear and the DS game Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island (especially when it comes to main characters) but Recettear has a stronger pull for me personally.

If this game has randomly generated dungeons, oh man. I hope it has randomly generated dungeons.

Yes, this is about as far off the beaten path while still being released on Steam as a game gets. But I just had to show a little love to Carpe Fulgur and EasyGameStation (though I have no idea what the Japanese equivalent of /cheer would be).

I know there are other great indie games out there, but this one really drew me in. If you all discover, play, and enjoy other indie games, feel free to start new threads about those games.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

If this game has randomly generated dungeons, oh man. I hope it has randomly generated dungeons.

??? Says so on the Steam page maybe you phrased that wrong, whatever, rejoice . Also says it has an "endless mode" .

I thought they had it on sale when it was just released too (can't remember for sure). You'll just have to wait for the Christmas Steam sale now Tek .

 

[Tek7]

??? Says so on the Steam page maybe you phrased that wrong

Nope, I just didn't read the entire description. Heh. ^^;;

I thought they had it on sale when it was just released too (can't remember for sure). You'll just have to wait for the Christmas Steam sale now Tek .

I hope it goes on sale before Christmas, but if that's how long it takes, well, so be it.

Even if my game budget is approximately $0 USD, I wanted to point out this game so others will take a look at it.

 

[Kendrik]

I will certainly look at it.

After playing more Street Fighter.

Edit: Playing the demo now. I like it. Quite a good bit. It's got charm. I like charm.

Edit2: It also has humor. I've chuckled a bunch. Also... moving about dungeons is slow, but I like the dungeon running so far. Now that I'm getting a handle on the mechanics (dungeon running and store/time management alike), the game is really growing on me.

No idea what I'm gonna do when the demo ends other than wait for the game to go on sale. lol

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

Nope, I just didn't read the entire description. Heh. ^^;;

>.< Urrr uh... then you didn't google it to see there is some evidence it comes with the poor man's Secure-Rom Punkbuster T_T.

 

[Kendrik]

This stupid demo gave me incentive to forgo lunch for an hour. Now that I'm done with lunch, I feel like I should be working through the Guild Wars: Prophecies campaign (I'm behind the times, sue me)... but the pull of the demo... I... I...

/goes back to the demo

 

[Tek7]

>.< Urrr uh... then you didn't google it to see there is some evidence it comes with the poor man's Secure-Rom Punkbuster T_T.

Nice try. But I already play Quake Live, so I already Punkbuster installed and running anyway. To my knowledge, PB is obnoxious, but not nearly so insidious as SecuROM.

And that's some...interesting evidence you have there. Orihime spinning a leek? I thought that meme died out 2 years ago...

This stupid demo gave me incentive to forgo lunch for an hour. Now that I'm done with lunch, I feel like I should be working through the Guild Wars: Prophecies campaign (I'm behind the times, sue me)... but the pull of the demo... I... I...

/goes back to the demo

MUAH HA HA HA!

I'll spread my eclectic taste in PC, console, and handheld games yet.

 

[Kendrik]

Good memes never die!

...not so sure that's a good meme. I prefer a Rickroll.

I played through the whole demo, by the way. The game rocks. Can't wait for it to go on sale.

Thanks for pointing this gem out, Tek.

 

[Tek7]

I played through the whole demo, by the way. The game rocks. Can't wait for it to go on sale.

Same. I'd love to speak my support independent studios with my wallet, but unemployment has a way of doing terrible, terrible damage to one's gaming budget.

Thanks for pointing this gem out, Tek.

Glad to be of help! And glad to bring some attention to a quality indie game.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

I had to try when you said you hadn't read the whole page. Ah well so ends my infamous pranking career at least the interwebs didn't explode (The rick roll doesn't play full screen due to some youtube restrictions which I wanted due too unpleasant youtube comments. I like the leek song it's a folk song in scat which is different. Well I like "Never going to Give you up" too it's so cheerful ).

I should have used kittens no one regrets surprise cuteness.

Nice try. But I already play Quake Live, so I already Punkbuster installed and running anyway. To my knowledge, PB is obnoxious, but not nearly so insidious as SecuROM.

It's not but it was annoying. When I tried Battlefield Heroes it automatically starts up and takes memory every time you turn your computer on. System resources being used for a game I'm not even playing = fail. You can turn it off but it shouldn't be turning on in the first place.

 

[RyanB]

Game looks cool. I remember having a lot of fun with the opening bit to Dragon Warrior 4 tending the shop as Taloon (NOT this impersonator Torneko!). Man, those were good times.

This stupid demo gave me incentive to forgo lunch for an hour. Now that I'm done with lunch, I feel like I should be working through the Guild Wars: Prophecies campaign (I'm behind the times, sue me)... but the pull of the demo... I... I...

/goes back to the demo

One of these days I'm going to sign back into Guildwars again, and millions of charr shall cry out and be suddenly silenced.

 

[Tek7]

I just played through my first dungeon in the demo. Battle is in real-time (no random encounters, no "touch an enemy and trigger a turn-based battle") similar to Secret of Mana. Dungeons are indeed randomly generated.

Where has this game been all my life?

 

[Kendrik]

I just played through my first dungeon in the demo. Battle is in real-time (no random encounters, no "touch an enemy and trigger a turn-based battle") similar to Secret of Mana. Dungeons are indeed randomly generated.

Where has this game been all my life?

Hiding in the shadows cast by towering megacorporations, waiting for the opportune moment to strike the hearts of many.

Seriously. So good, right?

 

[Tek7]

Hiding in the shadows cast by towering megacorporations, waiting for the opportune moment to strike the hearts of many.

Seriously. So good, right?

Yes indeed. The game is fantastic.

I think the last time I had a, "Well, it's about time someone made a game like this; it's so stinkin' obvious I'm amazed it's taken this long" moment like this was when I first played Soma Bringer with my wife. Action RPG in the style of Secret of Mana but for the Nintendo DS with wireless co-op? Yes, please.

 

[Kendrik]

I cannot wait for a Steam sale on this. Can't wait.

But I may or may not have trial access to StarCraft II, so mebbe waiting will not be that bad.

...except I'm waiting for seven gigabytes of downloading to finish.

 

[Tek7]

I cannot wait for a Steam sale on this. Can't wait.

QFT.

I'd eagerly drop the full amount on this game (I have every reason to believe it's worth it and would love to support indie developers), but unemployment = much, much tighter gaming budget. I bought Droplitz for $2.00 yesterday, but that's a long ways off from $20.

 

[Kendrik]

QFT.

I'd eagerly drop the full amount on this game (I have every reason to believe it's worth it and would love to support indie developers), but unemployment = much, much tighter gaming budget. I bought Droplitz for $2.00 yesterday, but that's a long ways off from $20.

QFT.

I bought Droplitz yesterday, too. It's really neat.

I'd consider spending the full price on Recettear, but a Steam sale seems highly probable if I wait it out, and I'm not exactly out of games to play right now.

Besides... Target has Dawn of War II being clearanced for $15 over here. It's been there for a while, so I'm anticipating a further price drop in the imminent future... at which point I'll pick it up.

I feel like a vulture circling their clearance items... but... I mean... saving money is nice.

 

[Tek7]

I feel like a vulture circling their clearance items... but... I mean... saving money is nice.

Well, at least you're not destroying the games industry by buying games used.

And for the record: If I did have a job, I would have purchased Recettear already. It's that good. I just need to be especially thrifty until I find full-time employment again.

 

[RyanB]

Well, at least you're not destroying the games industry by buying games used.

And for the record: If I did have a job, I would have purchased Recettear already. It's that good. I just need to be especially thrifty until I find full-time employment again.

Personally my "do I buy this used?" criteria is based on whether or not I want to support the publisher or not. Activision-published games I always look to used first. I do agree that used games sales are a bigger "problem" (for publishers) than piracy (which might lead to a legit sale) like this article says. I think the biggest problem with used game sales is Gamestop, though, haha.

 

[Neirai the Forgiven]

Alas, I liked playing this game except that whenever I enter a dungeon for some reason my framerate drops to a crawl, slowing the game entirely.

I may take it back up when I get a new PC.