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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

YAYIFICATIONS!

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale

Developed by: EasyGameStation
Localized by Carpe Fulgur
Released: 9/10/10
Systems: PC
Genre: RPG

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As the title implies, this game tells the tale of an item shop. Our heroine, Recette Lemongrass, is essentially pressed into service by a fairy named Tear. Recette must work off a debt that her father has incurred through his failed adventures and attempts at making it big. As Recette, you run your shop as you like it. Buy your stock wholesale and sell them at a markup, or hire one of several adventurers seek your goods in the depths of a challenging dungeon. Your shop, your goods, your methods- all things for you to play with. But mind the weekly debt, or you’ll soon end up in naught but a cardboard box!

Gameplay and Control: 4/5

Extremely, and I mean, EXTREMELY ADDICTING.

This is a game that when you initially pick up, you’ll be hard pressed to put it down (I’ve had many a late night and a tired morning at the campus thanks to this game). The concept is simple enough. Buy low, sell high, or adventure around, collect items, and sell them for 100% profit. Managing your shop is easy, and general gameplay is a quick learn. Unlike most economic based games, this has little/no learning curve, though play strategy can take a week or so in-game to figure out. Market fluctuations add some depth to the buy/sell aspect, as it forces you to think if you should gamble on buying a lot of a certain good during a price drop and hope that the good’s price normalizes before you need to pay back part of your father’s loan.

Controls are smooth and simple. Actions are mapped to Z, X, C, V, ESC, and the arrow keys. Of course, you could customize it, should your hands prefer a different layout (the writer of this review’s Second Opinion has custom mapped keys. Weirdo.)

Graphics 3/5

First and foremost, this game is not trying to be innovative with graphics at all. If anything, it’s a throwback to the top-down RPG’s of old. Despite that, everything is draped with color, and there’s not a single dull shot in the game.

Many of the dungeons are simply copy-pasted rooms (if you look closely you can actually see the dividing line between some of the templates). It’s nothing you wouldn’t expect of a relatively low-budget game. The usual clusterfuck of enemies is enough to keep you on your toes and your eyes off the repeating walls behind you.

2D sprites will be what they are. 2D sprites. For a game like this, they’re pretty well made, with animation fluid enough to tell what each is doing. Clearly, there wasn’t much attention given to the enemy sprites, as most of them are palette swaps of the weakest version.

The character sprites themselves are of a bumper quality, each character receiving specific attention. Recette receives major treatment, with many subtle animations you’ll hardly ever recognize, especially during the management of your shop.

Sound: 2/5

Typical top-down RPG fare. The music can get a bit monotonous at times, especially when you’re grinding out a dungeon for all its worth (which could probably run you 10 minutes towards the tougher dungeons). I play with the music off for the most part. There’s minimal character voicing, and the speech that is there goes completely untranslated. Which is great, since a translation would completely butcher the gaming experience. ‘Nuff said.

Story and Characters 3/5

Well, let’s be honest. The story is about as deep as the kiddie pool… when it’s DRY. You’re a girl who’s dad owes a large debt, and you pay it through a shop you open. Simple as that.

The characters are pretty well made, designed, and thought out.

You’ve got a few clichés, of course: =AVAST, MILD SPOILERS BE AHEAD, MATEY=

Airheaded Heroine: Recette

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Tsundere Partner: Tear

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The rookie adventurer who becomes bosom pals with our heroine: Louie

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Runaway Princess Thief: Charme

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Polite Young Lady: Nagi

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Tough guy with a heart: Elan

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Kindly Elf: Tielle

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Grim and Mean Assassin: Griff

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Scamming Merchant: Euria

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Quiet RoboFriend: Arma

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Conceited Mage: Caillou

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FINAL JUDGEMENT: 3.5/5

All in all, this was a very enjoyable game for me. It’s good to see that there are games that stress fun over achievements, graphics, or general ePeen wagging still. I’d definitely recommend this game to any of my readers, even if you’ve got a problem with the art style. It’s cute, get over it.

Well, that’s that.

Thanks for reading! Expect another review soon!

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I'd like to dedicate this review to the following people: Langston, Elizabeth, Thoraxz, and Psytemplar. Thanks for your support guys, I love you all!

33 comments:

  1. interesting character design, cool

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  2. Well, it's not my cup of tea, however I appreciate the well written review. I may have enjoyed reading it more than I would have enjoyed the game itself.

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  3. Good writing, my man. I may add it to my play list after I get done with Persona 3 Portable.

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  4. You put alot of hard work into this , thank you for sharing and writing this up

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  5. i dont think i could do without achievements and graphics any more , but yes it can be done. case in point mario. that game is simple as anything but is awesome in its own right.

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  6. wow i've been looking for this for hours, thanks for making this compilation!

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  7. Great review, think i might check this out!

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  8. These kind of games are pretty cool.

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  9. Definitely an improvement over the last review. But am I to assume Psytemplar couldn't (see: wouldn't stop being lazy) get you that second opinion? It is four in the morning. So I may have just missed it in my tired stupor.

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  10. Artwork reminds me of that one magical girl loli anime that only Patrick ended up watching...Mahou something.

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  11. Nice review!
    Supporting daily..check my blog

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  12. I usually don't play things like this, but you make it sound pretty good. I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the review!

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  13. FAAANTASTIC REVIEW! you got the essence of this game both good and bad, please do me a favor and keep it up and poast moar!

    thanks bro for makin me day :D

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  14. Not really my game but it seems like you really put alot of effort in this, which is very nice.

    Will check you out more!

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  15. Very good writing, impressive review

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  16. Oh man, that first pic cracked me the right up!

    It's a nice little game to play on the side.

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  17. This looks like an interesting concept for a computer game.

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  18. Seems like the audio is always the weak point, eh?

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  19. thats kinda the way i play diablo

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  20. Awesome, ill check this game out.

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  21. enjoyed the review, will you be reviewing any console games?

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  22. @jj_srk
    Yeah, I'll be reviewing console games as early as Friday, once my new monitor comes in, and I'll expand over to the PS3 once I get my hands on one (As my blog title says, I'm poor). If you've got any requests, please make them known. I'd be more than happy to do any requested reviews.

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  23. Great blog, man!

    Hope you`ll check out mine as well.

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  24. I've been playing the heck out of this one. I think it gets a liiiittle dull, but I agree with your review for the most part.

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