G-Review : Recettear

You know those role-playing game item shop owners that perpetually sit at the cash register and wait for your adventurers to come in ? In Recettear: An Item Shop's tale, the tables are spun around. Instead of intermittently ducking your head into a shop to snatch up better gear and items, you're running the establishment. That may sound kind of dull at first. After all, what does an item-shop owner typically do in RPGs aside from sit and wait? Perpetually practice the only three lines of dialogue they'll ever say? Re-read that magazine on the counter that's always open to the same page? Brood about the lack of return business once adventurers find higher quality stock in the shop beyond that creepy cave to the west? As it turns out in Recettear, there's much more to the process than that. The entertainment value of the gameplay formula takes a dive once you learn how it all works, but it's still a fun ride.

Regarding the awkward sounding title, something that's actually mocked within the game, Recettear is a combination of the two main characters' names. Tear, a fairy, tracks down Recette, a hopelessly optimistic girl that gets stiffed with her dad's loan payments. Tear's there to make sure the money is repaid in a timely fashion, and the item shop is the way Recette raises the necessary funds.

Though the game is presented in a colorful, cutesy anime style, and Recette's as oblivious and innocent as can be, this isn't a simple game. There's a high degree of difficulty, and quite a bit to learn. At the beginning you're given a calendar and a weekly loan payment goal. Initially it's a small sum, but by the later weeks on the first playthrough you'll likely be tearing at your hair wondering how it'll ever be possible to meet a 200,000 or 500,000 deadline of pix, the game's currency. Should you fail, the game restarts at the first week -- thankfully keeping character progress when it loops to make the second try a little easier. The key is getting the most out of your limited time, and understanding that this game is more about the process of buying low and selling high than anything else.

Each day in Recettear is broken up into four parts, and it's your call how to best spend each segment of time. Opening the shop brings in customers, who then mill around and make requests. Exiting the shop opens up access to other vendors that'll sell weapons, armor, and upgrades that help you turn a profit. If you want to invest the time, you can dungeon crawl, though Recette and Tear don't directly attack. Adventurers met throughout the course of the game will offer their services to the pair of heroines, letting them tag along as the different adventurer types attack foes with daggers, magic, arrows, swords and more. The gameplay in the dungeons is a very simple formula of attack and avoid. The adventurers have different statistics and slightly varying attack types, some up close and some at range, but there's never much depth regardless of which one is being used. Considering the size of some of the later levels, the combat can become wearyingly repetitive in later stages as the same encounters are recycled, but they do serve a purpose. Though adventurers will level as they kill, you'll fight bosses, and new areas will be opened, the main benefit of adventuring will be the treasure that enemies drop . The key is balancing the time it takes to head into a dungeon – nearly an entire in-game day – with the needs of keeping your shop open for business.

When you finally decide to open for business, a number of factors must be considered. Individual items must be physically placed upon display cases within the store, and at the windows is where you'll want to place key items. This can be useful in attracting business and triggering rushes of customers, such as women in search of food items or adventurers looking for blades. When everything's in place, the doors can be opened and the ensuing