If you look at the most successful people in the world today they would mostly be businessmen of every sort. It has always been that way ever since merchants and traders started buying and selling goods in ancient history.
Skip to the modern era and you will find that many countries are run on a system, this system that increases wealth is called capitalism,basically it’s the same system that gets gaming companies to sell lots and lots of games. Sometimes these games are either great ones that are worth bang for your buck and sometimes its the bad kind that make you think why the hell did they made this crap?!
Thorughout the years, I myself have experienced the good, bad and ugly in games. Every year was either a good or bad one, and ever since most gaming companies did it for the money, it was not good news for us gamers who wanted our dreams to be held in more capable hands.
The good news is that indie games made it into existence and former game developers from big companies are shifting their jobs to make better games. It’s better to be your own boss than to slave from some corporate sleazeball.
Not to say that every company is generally greedy or corrupt, but they gotta survive too, such is also the tale of a particular item shop called Recettear.
I accidentally stumbled on this game with Steam, it’s preview images made me nostalgic of older games on the PSP, Nintendo DS, I had to find it since I was also a sucker for anime games.
Recettear was unique in its gameplay in that it gives you the role of an item shop seller, quite different from the role of a loot-collecting adventurer, but your initial impression of a shop merchant won’t be a disappointment.
Recettear follows the story of Recette, she’s a typical good and cute girl whose ditziness you will sure to love, Wondering why a girl her age is running an item shop then? That’s when the story starts…
One morning a fairy named Tear wakes her up to tell her that her father (an wanna-be adventurer) has mysteriously gone missing and that he has acquired a massive amount of debt and that if no payment is given then the house will be given over to the authorities.
Recette could not handle the shock and does not know what to do… Tear has a suggestion however and helps Recette to pay off the debt by turning part of the house into a business, and in a town of adventurers the most profitable venture is…an item shop.
The game runs just as a visual novel/simulation/rpg game. From the very start I got hooked with it. The colorful anime art and music will satisfy that craving for anime-themed games. The characters themselves are full of personality and the japanese voice-overs are sure to delight your cuteness needs.
As much as the game is liken to a slice of life in a medieval fantasy realm, the chunk of the game is based on running the item shop or Recettear (I bet you can guess the name now). If you have run games that involve shopping,trading,mercantile systems then this game will latch on you like a leech. You will learn how to haggle, barter, and deal with each customer you get.
If this seems overwhelming then don’t worry Tear will guide you via tutorial so read and understand. You might not be certain on how to start the running the shop at first but once you get used to item prices on the market and selling your stuff to your customers, then you will get the pattern once you buy better items later. The main tip is to BUY LOW and SELL HIGH.
At the end of each day (4 timeframes) Tear will assess your work. Don’t get too comfortable selling though, remember you have debt to pay at the end of each week. It’s handy to keep spare notes around for item prices. (I did not consult any wiki on this).
Sometimes, you might find yourself lacking on items or money to buy them. This calls for some dungeon crawling, head on to the adventurers guild and get someone to hunt items on you, you start out with Louie a poor swordsman who survives on a daily basis. He has skills though and sometimes buys form your store. There are alot of adventureres you will meet though, from a know-it-all mage, to an aloof woman with no sense of direction you meet at a dungeon. All sorts await at Recettear.
At almost every 5 stages or so, are the boss stages, most are nostalgic of earlier rpg games and it’s up to you to find their weaknesses. Mostly their behaviors are patterned on a certain attack basis so pack up some food to defeat them.
Overall Recettear gets a 9/10. 9 being the game is “ubber fantastic”, and while the game does present some difficulty, it still is addicting as ever.
What does happen if you don’t pay the debt? well… that’s for you to find out. Hopefully you won’t allow that to happen to Recette, right?
And now for gaming morals. I actually learned alot from the game especially on entrepreneurship. I am experiencing it first hand working for a cosplay shop named Sugarfluff, and this game is a reference point to help improve the shop too. I will write about that later but for now here is what I have learned from Recettear.
-Buy Low,Sell High, but not to the point that greed takes over your main objective.
-Debt can be bad, but if you pay it as consistenly as you can then it helps you to get back up when life pushes you down.
-Sometimes life will force you to do things that you are not prepared to do, don’t be afraid to ask help from others.
-Running a business is hard, but when you do it and imagine it as a game you need to win or reach the high score, then you are bound to succeed.
-Start small, you don’t need millions of money to make a business, the most successful and richest ones in the world started from a simple idea or they rode the ones that were trending.
-Business is war, prepare thyself for if you are not competing with others, then you compete with yourself.
-If ever you are thinking of making a video game, why not make one based on road’s less travelled? Recettear took a route that was diffferent from all those other games with big sword wielding heroes or scantily clad healer stereotypes.
-Take care of your friends and they will take care of you.
-Life can actually be a good RPG, but it still depends on how you play it.
-Indie games are video game promises fulfilled.
I am having fun blogging again everyone, till the next post 🙂
ZAMBOANGAMER039 