Demo Impressions: Recettear (PC)

The JRPG shop has long been a constant in most people’s mind. Typically, you always buy the same items, for the same price, and that’s just how they work in that relatively underdeveloped genre. Recettear, an independent Japanese title by Easy Game Station has been (wonderfully) localized by Carpe Fulgur recently, and the demo came out last week.

Recettear is what you’d get if the shopkeeper from almost any JRPG killed the hero and said “HEY, MAKE A GAME ABOUT ME!”. Instead of combating monsters and evildoers, you combat poverty by buying low at the market and from customers that want to sell you things, and then sell your goods to unsuspecting customers at slightly higher than the base price. You also contract adventurers to go into dungeons and bring back goods for you, which I’ll come back to later.

In the demo, there are several tutorials explaining how the game works. They work in with the narrative, Recette being a vessel for the player who’s also unfamiliar with how a shop works. You don’t feel exceptionally stupid going through each one, as you’re learning how the mechanics of the game work. After you get to about the third day, you’re almost done with the basic tutorials and you’ll only receive a short one every time you level up and get a new ability. These include buying items from customers and checking your stock when a customer asks if you have any more items.

I really enjoyed the shop portion of the game. Running back and forth from the Merchant’s Guild and the Market to get some items to throw up in my store, then selling them (always at about 130% of the original price, though people get mad if you haggle for too long/too high) to customers. Eventually though, you need more money — capitalism, ho! — to eventually pay of your seemingly endless debt to Tear’s loan company. That’s where the adventurers come in.

The dungeon portions of the game were a little frustrating for me. There’s no block button, despite the adventurer’s sprite having a shield drawn on it. There’s also no dodge or anything similar, so you’re limited to the four directional buttons, a light attack, and a spin attack that uses skill points (replenished by leveling up and items). It’s kind of clunky and the enemies are very difficult to avoid — maybe it’s just because I haven’t played a game like this in a long time, but it seems much harder than it should be. You also can’t escape the dungeons (or go back to previous floors) without dying, reaching the end or by using a door-portal that you’re supposed to find every five levels or so.

The demo ended up being an enjoyable experience. I’d like to get into it more, but I don’t think I’m economically savvy enough to be able to run my own store in a JRPG. It’s a lot of trial and error, and by the time the first payment deadline comes around I’m usually 4k pix (the currency of the game) short of the amount. I really like the idea though, and hope that the I can eventually figure out what I’m doing wrong and get past that blasted first payment deadline.