Developer: EasyGameStation
Publisher: Carpe Fulgur LLC
Genre: Anime, RPG, Dungeon Crawler, Indie, Simulation, Fantasy, Strategy, Action, Adventure, Visual Novel
Release Date: 10 Sep, 2010
I've spent many hours playing this game in the past and then just recently I saw it in my library and decided to start a new playthrough and instantly remembered why I used to love playing it.
You start the game as a young, not so bright girl named Recette who has been left a huge debt by her absent minded and selfish adventurer father.
In comes Tear, a Fairy sent by the company the debt is owed to, offering to lend a helping hand and help Recette pay the money back by the appointed time limit.
How? by turning Recette's home into an Item Shop where she can trade goods in order to aquire the funds to Pay the debt back.
It's not as serious of a game as it sounds though.
Recette's full of steam and all gung-hoh about paying it back in full and enjoying her time doing it.
The game is set in a fantasy, RPG like world and is basically split into three parts which I'll touch on briefly.
Firstly is the games Flagship, Recettear, this is your base and where you'll make your profits from.
While here, you have free roam of the room and can interact with things as you would in an RPG game.
You'll decorate and organize the shop, then display and sell things that you believe will make tidy profit.
Next is the Town. It's like a Hub where you can access all of the locations in the game from.
This is where you'll head out to purchase and sell things from the market or merchant association and it is also somewhere you'll be able to interact with the townsfolk in too.
it's similar to a visual novel in that you don't actually walk around town but fast travel to locations and converse or purchase/sell before moving to the next event or shop.
Lastly is Adventuring. Yes... Adventuring!!!
In this portion of the game you'll have a look through your currently collected guild cards and choose an Adventurer to outfit and take into a dungeon with you.
From here you'll aim to complete the dungeon while collecting wonderful little trinkets and treasure to frown at in confusion and bewilderment before you take the door back to town and actually figure out what you can use them for.
The enemies come in quite a few varieties as well as a few variations of each, making adventuring a bit more difficult each step of the way but not mundane enough to get bored of.
It adds a nice change of pace to each floor and each variant has it's own unique drop to watch out for.
This part can be grindy to some extent but it's also your choice whether you want to continue or call it a day and head back at the next door you find.
Now... these are all somewhat lackluster singularly. sitting in a shop all day would get boring, as would wandering around town and non stop dungeon diving.
But when you put them all together it actually works well and makes for quite a bit of fun.
The subtle changes you see, like new purchaseables in shops and new characters popping into the mix as you progress through the game is enjoyable and it's also fun to see what's around the corner.
''Who is that shady guy and why doesn't he talk much?''
''Now he's in the store... Buy something!''
''Will you just leave already?! I don't want it!!!''
''Ha! Easy money.''
''Damnit Louie, Buy the boots already!!''
It's really easy to get heavily involved in everything that is going on and the more I played, the more I wanted to see what was next.
More money equals more options, more options equal more loot or rare items, more loot and rare items can be turned into rarer ones which can be used in dungeons to make more money or straight up sold for a high value.
It's a never ending cycle of money making and I can't find any faults in making money.
But there is also a lot of RNG involved and mixing it in with the allocated time restraint can make earning money as frustrating as losing money sometimes.
The game does offers challenges and set backs which can really hurt your monthly earnings but also boons which can massively change the playing field making last months 15% above margin to look pitiful.
Learning about and understanding different events and how to capitalize quickly on inflation can really help you negate any losses you may have incurred last month, as does the horde of random items you have when prices drop and you're best stock is now worthless.
But sometimes there's just no way to avoid it and you have to power on through instead or just go adventuring for the day and hope tomorrow is better...
Either way, they're both very endearing parts of this game which add more variety and help to suprise you and change your pace.
The vibe I get from the game is very light and cute with a little bit of darkness just to help balance it out.
The artwork is clear and very well done as well as the character models, monsters and the locations being very vibrant and colourful making it very visually appealing to look at, as well as play.
Even the dungeons aren't just plain caves underground, there are several different backdrops and tile designs which make each dungeon change as you progress through them.
All in all, a cute and fun game to play and something you can take your time with and enjoy at your own leasure.
Popping into town looking for good deals to sell off for profit or finding boss loot and rare drops to sell or hoard is so relaxing and fun and even the random events you come accross can give you a giggle now and then.
With the cute and colourful town and the dark and maze like dungeons with a variety of themes and enemies in the mix, you probably won't quickly get bored of it and there's definitely a lot to do, even where End Game is concerned.
Bye for now!
Rhiyous.
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