Recettear

[J T]

Has anyone played this game yet?

I just tried the demo. I'm surprised at how fun it is.

It was a Japanese indie game that was successful enough to see a translated import in the US. It's sort of an RPG, but not exactly like any RPG you have played before. You live in a typical RPG town and run an item shop. You have to haggle prices and befriend adventurers to keep business going smoothly. I thought running an item shop sounded like a really boring idea for an RPG, but they have made it surprisingly entertaining. There are also action segments because you have to do some adventuring into dungeons to collect items to sell in your shop. The game is charming and has a silly nerdy humor to it. I recommend at least giving the demo a try. I intend to get the full version at some point.

[Flake]

I heard about this - I'm definitely going to have to try it. It sounds like a great spin on a (frankly) tired genre.

[irixith]

I played the demo and absolutely hated it. Wayyyy too much dialogue, and really bad dialogue to boot. The gameplay is absurdly boring -- after your first few item sales, you've pretty much seen all the game has to offer. Even the 'dungeon crawling' aspect doesn't increase the fun level. The core mechanic of haggling just doesn't provide any satisfaction whatsoever!

I might have to note that I don't watch and have no interest in Anime of any kind, of if that's the part of the appeal that I'm missing, I guess it would make sense. I still can't believe the game has sold as well as it has.

[chuckbanzai]

Man I played the heck out of this game. Finished it, and played quite a while into the endless mode.

First off, this game is not for everyone. It's gameplay mechanics can be wonky, and it can even break it's own rules sometimes. That said, I could certainly recommend this title to anyone who is a fan of rogue-likes, and the Harvest Moon/Rune Factory crowd.

The demo is cool and all but the gameplay really improves over the course of the game as the depth unfolds. Once you reach endless mode you can really dig into the dungeons and that is where the more "hardcore" gamer can find some fun. With 100 floor dungeons and requiring some actual planning you will find yourself strangely drawn to this game.

That being said, what I wouldn't give for a handheld version of this. It has sold incredibly well, so perhaps a sequel might see light on the 3DS or something.

[jfrost]

I hate it when I can't even come up with a plausible pronunciation of something.

How do you pronounce this game's name?

[Lord Huggington]

How do you pronounce this game's name?

"Re-set-tear" I think. There's actually a joke in the game that if people pronounce the store's name wrong it could turn out rather badly. :p I won't spoil the joke though.

I've just finished making my second payment (your character's main goal in the game is to pay off her father's debts through profits from the store) and am really enjoying the game. The first while feels like a glorified tutorial, getting used to haggling and dungeon crawling, but now that Recette's merchant level is starting to get higher, some interesting options are opening up. I'm busily fiddling around with changing the decor of the store to attract different sorts of clientele, and also have basic fusion available for making very nice items that should sell for a mint.

Being a fan of rogue-likes such as Fatal Labyrinth, Dungeon Hack, and the like, I do enjoy the combat, and the boss fights are pretty neat. I can hardly wait to get to the last dungeon and try the 30 levels of Boss Rush there.

All-in-all, I'm having quite a bit of fun with Recettear. From what I've heard, the game has already sold more copies in the West over the last couple of months that it has in the three years since it came out in Japan. If this is true, I'm really happy for EasyGameStation, and hope this leads to them making many, many more nifty doujin games, as well as helping us see more doujin titles getting localized for our market.