Final Profit: A Shop RPG

OH HO HO HO HO What a fantastic hidden gem this is

I have to start off by stating that I am genuinely scared to write this review. Every other negative review has received a big response from the developer about how they're wrong to feel the way they do about the game. Some have also been harassed by other players for it. But that's precisely why I'm writing this right now. While by no means one of the worst games ever made, I don't think this game deserves a 92% score. And I think if people felt safe to share their opinion on it, that score would have been more representative. I truly hope the developer will leave me alone, but that's something I have no control over. I will leave comments disabled to protect myself. Let me start with the good. The story setup is very unique, about a Fairy queen becoming a business woman to defeat a bad company that's been wrecking havock in the neighbouring country and now threatens her own. The mechanics of running the store, finding products to sell and more that I'd rather not spoil, are fun and offer a variety of gameplay. There's a little bit of representation in there for the gay and lesbian communities. At first sight, a promising game. But then there's the bad. I don't say something like this lightly, but the story feels written by a teenager. A queen gets exiled from her own kingdom, for coming up with a solution that might save it from ruin. But then behind the scenes everybody is actually really supportive. It makes no sense and completely removes all of the stakes of this theme. The bad people are caricaturally bad. They also get callously murdered by the protagonists, on at least three occasions so far within my 12 hour playthrough. The protagonists show zero emotional response to this. In the real world, that would be considered sociopathic. In this case, it just feels like abysmal writing. Taking a person's life is hard, and should leave a very big impact on a person. As the player, I was forced to dump a body in a river. This isn't optional, and to me it was horrifying. But the protagonist doesn't even shrug. It's literally like she just took out a bag of trash, and then continues her quest to drive out the competition with dubious practices herself. Meanwhile, the representative that tried to have her abducted to be sold as a slave somehow gets a pass. Nothing in this narrative is in any way believable, consistent, or to me remotely likeable. Then there's the representation. As a queer person I understand the need for that, of course. But out of the three romances encountered so far, all of them were gay. All of them were also white. So while it may be representative for some, the game as a whole is by no means inclusive. And I think that's just as harmful as doing it the other way around. So far I think I've encountered one non-white human character with a portrait and actual speaking lines. Perhaps it gets better later in the story, but I'm not sure I have the strength to get there. There's also multiple moments where I was just confused by the pronoun situation. One character gets referred to as both him and them, while I think he just identifies as a man. Here too, respecting he/him pronouns is just as important as respecting they/them. The game as whole just left a very bad taste in my mouth as if it was trying to say that only divergent people need to have their way of life respected. ...And then only if they're white. But I definitely don't think that last part is intentional in any way, just that it wasn't handled properly. The gameplay, while at times more than a tad grindy, is like I mentioned before, quite a lot of fun, with a lot of variety. But it's the guidance where I think this game is genuinely lacking. Hints aren't hints. They're all riddles, which for non-native speakers are at some points just impossible to figure out. Everything is hard and confusing. Hints are supposed to be helpful for people that don't think like the developers. But instead of improving the game, the developer went around answering every question people had with more vague hints. A game needs to be playable without getting personal feedback from a developer. It needs to be playable in the case that the developer ceases to exist. This is NOT how one makes a game function. I would also like to make a special mention of the worldbuilding; For me, it just doesn't work. The many different technologies and aesthetics just don't mix. You start out thinking it's going to be medieval, and there's people fighting with magic and swords, but then the business side has advanced technology at the level of computers and guns. I thought it utterly jarring, and really missed the high fantasy feel of the tutorial village. Oh, and the one high rise building is of course dark and "wrong". Critising capitalism is one thing, but criticising a way of building that allows people to have enough room to live in in very densily populated areas is just naively priviliged. I'll try to hold my tongue, but the game is full of those little judgements. It's, in my opinion, in extremely bad taste. I guess it boils down once more to inclusivity being very hard to find here. To conclude: The game had a lot of promise, and gameplay wise I think it's executed well, if you have the patience to deal with a lot of uselessly vague hints. But the story is woefully mishandled, and it feels ironically unwelcoming for all but a select few. I can't in good conscience recommend this. If you really want to try it, get it on sale, and go for the "business only" option. Skip the main story, it's an actual option when you start a new game.

Such a well done game, though completely different from SNES RPGs like FF6 or Secret of Mana it really had that vibe going on a smaller scale. Secrets everywhere, choices actually mean something. Great job

This game is so much fun and I cant believe it isnt more popular. There is SO much to do and it really is scratching my rags to riches itch. I expected a cute little shop sim and got a huge world with rich lore and rpg style gameplay 10/10

GEM of a game. It's satisfying, hilarious, clever, addicting... I really dug my teeth into this game and loved every moment!

Game good

That was a very surprising and unexpected discovery. Great game.

This game is sooo fun. I love it