Like money? Like items? I do!
Slash monsters, sell stuff, buy stuff cheaply and sell em back to the town at higher prices.
Plot & Gameplay
Quite funny plot actually, you play Recette whom one day gets visited by a loan-shark fairy, yes you heard right!, and she tells you your father has left you a very large dept and you have to work it off in his item-store.
Every week you will have to pay a certain amount or will be forced to live out of a cardboard box, which is actually quite funny to see her little new home so try losing once in a while, but fear not losing this game you will only start over but with all the things you had so if you feel you are going to lose spend your money on items.
You run your shop by putting wares in your windows and on your tables, when you then open shop customers will swarm in and ask to buy the things from you, here you can select prices in percent of base-value and some customers you will notice have more money than others but this is something you soon get the hang of and you will also soon curse those little girls who can never afford a thing.
Addicting gameplay must totally be the best word to sum this game up you just see all that money roll in as you sell stuff at your greedy prices and the slogan that comes up everytime you sell something "Capitalism, Ho!" always makes me chuckle a bit and feel extra nice about myself when i just sold a couple of already expensive items for 300% the price during a price-boom.
But even though its very addicting it can become very repetetive, especially in the beginning when there isnt many different things to do in the shop though it gets a bit busier as people start coming in and selling you stuff instead of buying and also start taking orders for several items which you have a certain time to get before they come back for them, tip: get the most expensive things in the category they want and sell it for 150% Capitalism, HO!
You can also go on adventures with a nice selection of adventurers from which i still prefer the first one Louie, he is super-poor and very nice to you.
In dungeons you can slay monsters and bosses and get nice and expensive items to sell for more PIX, which is the currency in the Recettear-world.
If you happen to die in a dungeon fear not you will get to bring back one item that you have found with you.
Here another part of the shopping-gameplay makes it pretty fun, you cant give your adventurers equipment for free, if you do they will not count as theirs and will have to be taken back as the free one item if you die so it is not recommended, just wait for them to come into the shop and ask for their weapon of choice and when they do give them a price-offer they cant refuse just to be on the safe-side especially with Louie since he is soo damned poor in the beginning of the game.
After you clear the main story you will be able to continue in a +-mode so dont be scared about finishing before you happen to get all the goody goody items and heroes you can get
Visuals
The game doesnt put much focus on visuals but i should say its solid, it doesnt irritate and everything fits nicely into the image that they seem to try to give you, also a plus is that you will never have problem playing the game on any computer and since it is a game you can spend hours on and with low system requirements its ideal for a road-trip or boring vacationing with your family.
Sound
I love it, but after a while that damn soundtrack gets a bit old..
The best thing here though must be the original voice-actors, if you are into anime and such you will appreciate the cute voice of recettear every time a customer comes up to you and everytime you get something sold.
Feeling
Zelda, but only the battle-part of zelda and then i only mean when doing adventures in Recettear of course too which you could skip almost totally and still be able to clear the game, but then you would miss out on alot of fun!
But the overall feeling of the game is that it is cute and relaxing to play except when you play some bosses and really gotta focus on that dodging and timing blows before you get super-high level on your adventurer and don't have to worry about a thing anymore...
Summary
You notice as you read this that there is alot more to say about plot and gameplay, and these are namely the stronger points of the game and definetly the focus of the creators and this i think is great for any indie-game it makes for low system requirement and easy to get into and play for anyone.
Plot 7/10 - Funny and cute! especially the part about living in a cardboard box..
Visuals 6/10 - they aren't ugly and don't annoy but they aren't anything really special either.
Sound 7/10 - I just love the voices soo much.
Feeling 7/10 - It has a lovely retro-feeling that i think alot of people like about it.
