Final Profit: A Shop RPG

So if you haven't checked out CrystalCow's review of the game, I highly suggest you do so. I am one of those friends mentioned. I went into this game with very little expectations. A fairy shopkeeping sim. It sounded right up my alley. I also know a lot of intricacies about running a business. But this is a game so I did not expect all that much. WOW. Full stop. WOW. This game absolutely blew me away. I just recently learned about the upcoming game Oil Town and it will be wishlisted after I am done with this review. This game consumed me for a solid two weeks. I got off work, I wanted to play. I got home from the gym, it was time to play. The story was intriguing and gave me real Brennan Lee Mulligan "Capitalism is bad" vibes and I am 1000% here for that. The graphics were nostalgic but beautifully done. The area's grew as you grew and it felt very manageable. I abhor games that do not give you a map, but this was presented in a such a way that honestly, I wouldn't have wanted a map. The struggle was just enough to make me want to learn the layout as I progressed. The mini games that were presented to you to help you level up and grow your business was creative and insightful. The NPC's were quirky and fun. (Shout out to the bestest boy Tinto). If you've made it this far in the review... just buy the damn game. And have fun :)

This was a really pleasant experience for me. The story is surprisingly deep, the game mechanics well thought out. In addition this game has just so many hidden secrets, gimmics and mechanics that it puts triple a productions to shame. Looking forward to new game+ and the next game by the developer!

Overall, I would recommend Final Profit. Especially if you're looking for a 👍 Fresh RPG Maker experience 👍 Very graphically beautiful RPG 👍 Something entirely different as a palette cleanser 👍 A continuous dopamine drip of investing, upgrading, and growing. 🟢 Final Profit runs very well on the deck. Its a chill experience to play on the sofa. 🔴 With the only exception being the horse-themed fast travel area, which absolutely eats frames. I try to spend as little time there as I can. 🟢 Graphically, Final Profit punches well above it's weight. It looks consistently great through-out. It's very readable and each area is unique and memorable. The lake feels like a proper large lake, the city level feels like a sprawling concrete jungle, and the magical realms feel, well, magical. The game makes the utmost skill and craft out of tilemaps and spriteheets. The main character, while not to my taste, has a unique design, and the secondary characters are distinct and full of personality. 🟢 There are many small mechanics that layer up and increase in velocity quite well: lots of tiny bonuses to buy in various ways. Those small optimizations add up to a fairly satisfying snowball effect. You can't help but wonder what new thing is coming around the corner and what new goal you can hit. You can sense the potential for automation and profit just around the corner all the time. Number do be going up. 🟢 I am not a big RPG Maker games connoisseur personally, but people who are have told me that Final Profit feels like a fresh take on the RPG Maker scene. If you are looking for an RPG Maker game that shakes up the formula a bit, Final Profit will do that for you. 🟢 Final Profit is **not** a midwit take down of capitalism, nor does it glaze sports car communists on twitch. This is absolutely a plus, because no one deserves a economics lecture from a javascript programmer. 🟢🟠 If you are looking for a story rich RPG, with twists and turns, in a deeply considered fantasy world, you will probably feel a bit let down. Final Profit tells a story of betrayal and revenge in a fantasy world, but it's really for delivering RPG tropes and gags. This is more like a light comedy than a drama. Don't expect Lord of the Rings. For many people this is a plus. 🟠 The central mechanic of running the shop can feel quite tedious at times. You can't decide the prices or the position of your goods, like a shop keeper might. Nor do you haggle or trade. Instead, you secure supply and restock items continually. You're more like a shopkeeper's assistant than the shopkeeper. 🟠 The writing and the tone can be schizophrenic and inconsistent. Sometimes, it is a tale of intrigue in a fantasy land; sometimes, it is a reddit-tier parody of capitalism; sometimes, it is jumble of RPG jokes and tropes. The writing bounces between these tones at breakneck speed. It is a little jarring to be betrayed and kicked out of my kingdom and begin my plot for revenge, then a few moments later shop keeper of a traditional adventurer's shop pulls a gun on you because a JPEG of a bird ratted him out. I don't know if it's a loony toons style gag gun, or guns literally exist. I understand lots of RPGs, especially RPG-Maker ones, have a similar jumble of charming ideas, but Final Profit struggles to bring them all together in execution. This is not a deal breaker and it's still enjoyable. Indeed, this is how some people like it. But don't expect a consistent and hard fantasy world. 🟠 The music and sound design is nothing to write about. At it's best, it is unnoticeable and at it's worst it is distracting. The track that plays on the main menu is a perfect example of a bad track. 🔴 Some of the in-game hints are actually misleading. The most frustrating example I encountered was: the game hinted that I would find my way into the sewers in Enterpriseton via an entrance guarded by G-knights. I took this as meaning man-hole on the streets of Enterpriseton, nearby one of the three G-knights I discovered and chased away. I spent a long time inspecting parts areas around Enterpriseton, expecting to be able to enter the sewers. This is actually wrong. You must back track to a castle first. I only knew this castle existed by luck, when I had brought the artist there to inspire his art. It's possible a previous character had talked about it too, but that was 5.5 hours ago, and there's no quest log remind yourself. This is especially annoying when other characters literally show a screenshot of the location you need to be, on demand, for free. 🔴 Identity politics. It has infested every game in some shade or another and Final Profit is no exception. However, compared to many other games, it is pretty much unobtrusive. Expect to roll your eyes now a little, which is worth knowing if you want to avoid IDPOL altogether.

mechanically addicting, very fun, creative use of rpgmaker

This would be an incredible game for what it is if it stopped before the final act. The final act is an absurdly boring slog. But, still, I respect it for being weird. One of those RPGMaker games that feels like forcing the square peg into the circle shaped hole where the engine absolutely wasn't designed for some silliness like this, but surprisingly manages to work well. Big recommend.

Congratulations. You found it. This is THE hidden gem of RPG Maker games. The best one. Excellent work, I bet you had to sift through a lot of meh stuff first, but this game will make it worth it. It is unreal how much work went into this, there are tons of secrets and upgrades and easter eggs and just, all the things. GET IT.

Recommended, with caveats. The first 3/4 are great--good variety of things to do, engaging story, fun characters, and overall very impressive for a solo dev (I believe). If you're looking for logistics and fixed sales shop simulator, it's amazing and feels very rewarding. However, the final 1/4 feels quite grindy. It's odd because I looked online and I saw a lot of feedback from pre-final builds on people commenting on this and the dev seem satisfied with the options. However, after confirming that I hadn't missed money making opportunities, the final quarter feels like a weird mix of not having enough automation tools, and not having enough to do to make money that scales into what the game expects. Essentially I had discovered everything (again, confirmed via guides) and a lot of it was either waiting around passively for money to come in, or doing the same core shop loop that grew stale at that point. With that said, still an overall very fun game. And one minor quibble, if the dev is reading this: PLEASE learn the difference between its and it's, you use the wrong one throughout the game including in a lot of the achievements.

The most addicting game i have ever played

fun and addicting

Unique and fun is all I can say I guess. Runs a bit slow in the steamdeck at times, but otherwise it is great to kill some time on a trip.