Name: Recettear – An Item Shop’s Tale
Developer: EasyGameStation
Year: 2007
Platform: PC
Genre: Action Role Playing Game, Simulation Game
You know all those item shops you run into in various RPGs to get your food, gear and whatnot? Well this game is played from behind the counter of such an item shop. Recette is a naïve, easy going, optimistic but a bit of lazy girl who lives alone since her father left. She hasn’t worked a single day in her life, living from edible
herbs she found until a fairy named Tear notifies Recette that she will lose her house if she isn’t able to pay back her father’s debt. Because Recette has no income at all, Tear offers her to help set up an item shop so Recette can work, and earning money to pay the debt. That is as far as the plot goes, basically. The rest is all based on character interaction and the game is full of funny sketches.
In game you control mainly Recette. You go out shopping for items in the village, stock your shop and sell your items to meet your weekly payment. This may sound boring, but it is strangely addicting. You have many interactions with people and the will all try to haggle with you. Some people will pay more for your items than others and because items increase and decrease in value or popularity, running your shop efficient isn’t as easy as it sounds.
You can also hire several adventurers to explore dungeons for treasure, which you can then sell in your shop. In a dungeon you control the adventurer instead of Recette. You see all the monster on the map and you just kill them as you go. There are several dungeons and they are all full of traps. This is a nice addition to the game, but in my opinion you lose too much time compared to what you gain, and this will make it harder to reach the mark for your weekly payments. If you happen to fail to make your weekly payment, you have to start again from the beginning, but you will keep all your items you own that moment and your current levels. This is the case for your level as a seller and the levels of your adventurers. If you have finished the game there are several more options. You can play in free mode, just running the shop without weekly payments, or start a new game plus. Before you know it you will be hooked and have spent many hours playing.
Fun facts about Recettear!
... Alouette, your rival, comes to investigate your shop in a carton box that came from amazon.
... Recettear uses many French names for characters and places.
... The news announcements usually also contain a random statement at the end that makes no
sense at all.
... Recette has some unexpected skills. Like herbalism, sewing skills, and knowledge of anatomy,
psysiology and nutrition.
This sounds like a fun game :3
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