Merchants of Rosewall

Merchants of Rosewall had a lot of potential, but it doesn't quite deliver. The design is very average, nothing special or exciting. The story is also very weak probably a 4/10 at best. The idea behind the game is good, but it lacks personality and customisation, which makes it feel shallow. There are a lot of technical issues. The UI disappears sometimes, and you have to save and restart to fix it. And there are lots of bugs, which makes the game frustrating to play. One of the worst parts is the "quest" where you have to upgrade your shop within a certain number of days. The problem is, making quality items takes way too long to earn enough XP, so the economy feels really unbalanced and slow. Overall, the game has potential but is held back by bugs, bad design, and poor balance. It’s not worth buying playing right now.

Has its charm, but there is a huge issue with memory leak. After 30-40 minutes, game crashes or causes the computer to freeze. Game starts using 1gb of ram and only goes up. I ll wait until this is fixed to continue

I've put a lot of hours into this game. I really wanted to like it. I tried to power through because the story was interesting to me, even if the gameplay got pretty repetitive. But with so many bugs and one bug that has now prevented me from being able to progress at all, I can't say this game is worth it. Gameplay got pretty repetitive and kind of boring after a while. I had no trouble getting to the required reknown level in a few days and had just weeks left of very repetitive days of going back and forth between the market and my store. It took me a bit to figure out you can run the shop with nothing to sell and essentially skip the day, but once I did that saved me. I was expecting more free reign over things in my shop too. Especially with the artisans. But you get to choose who to hire once and then just get assigned a new artisan according to the game's schedule. I was hoping the Guildhall would be a place I could visit with a rotating availability of artisans to hire. I was also hoping for a bit more story involving the artisans or to be able to talk or get to know them. So I'm disappointed in that aspect of the game. It plays a lot more like a visual novel than I expected. I was willing to play through the game though for the story but the bugs have finally got to me. Game crashing several times. Issues with UI not working anymore, can't open my inventory or compendium or anything. A bug where stuff I had sold the day before would still be displayed on my store shelves but weren't actually there. A bug where items on my shelves wouldn't be visible but we're there and did sell. Had a bug where a couple times I would be stuck on the last second of the shop being open and would have to quit and reload the day. After fully expanding my store I lost my display cases. They were fully upgraded before the final store expansion but once I expanded the game treated the cases as if they were still locked behind reknown level 2, despite being a much higher level and having access to them already. And the final bug that has prevented my game from progressing is the game being stuck on the sell excess goods screen. I am reknown level 8 and it is the last day of the month and I would get more story progressing. Unfortunately every time I reload or restart my game and play the day over again I am met with a blank screen where the sell excess goods screen should be and it has completely broken my game. I really wanted to like this game. Unfortunately the game is really buggy, unpolished, boring and quite repetitive. If the story interests you and you don't mind a more visual novel like experience then wait for the game to be fixed before buying. For myself I have given up on the game. The experience has been very frustrating and disappointing and I won't be returning to it, even if it gets fixed.

[h3][b][i]Normal Rating:[/i][/b][i] 2.5/5[/i] | [b][i]Completionist Rating:[/i][/b][i] 0/5 (Impossible to 100%)[/i][/h3] [hr][/hr] [h3][b]Full YouTube Review:[/b] [url=https://youtu.be/gcMPLfOlfIw]Click Here![/url][/h3] [hr][/hr] Merchants of Rosewall offers an interesting blend of shopkeeping management and light storytelling in a beautifully drawn fantasy setting. At first glance, it promises the joy of running a complex business with crafting, trading, and character-driven interactions. However, what starts off as a charming concept soon buckles under frustrating mechanics, disjointed design choices, and a major game-breaking bug. [b]Pros:[/b] [list] [*]Unique multi-industry crafting system [*]Charming, hand-drawn art style [*]Diverse and natural-feeling character designs [*]Engaging core concept of running a fantasy business [*]Fitting soundtrack and sound effects [/list] [b]Cons:[/b] [list] [*]No automation makes progression tedious [*]Lack of meaningful choice in worker hiring [*]Story feels disconnected from business gameplay [*]UI is clunky with poor filtering options [*]Game-breaking bug severely limits late-game play (I lost the ability to use the main feature in selling high-value products and this also led to more bugs like disappearing items I've produced) [/list] Merchants of Rosewall has the heart of a great management sim buried under poor design decisions and technical problems. The setting and crafting systems offer real potential, but without proper quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, the experience is more frustrating than rewarding. With some much-needed updates, this could become a niche gem, but for now, it’s hard to recommend. (P.S. I've been messaging in the Discord regarding my issues, and it has been over a month with no fixes. I doubt this game will ever reach a point where I can recommend it at this rate.) Edit: I have reached the end of the game, and it is impossible to 100%. You cannot continue the game after the final quest, which means you cannot level your companions to the point of getting the achievement. [hr][/hr] [h3][b]Information for Fellow Completionists [/b][/h3] [list] [*]0 missable achievements [*]1 grindy achievement (pure speculation since I am still waiting on a bug fix to progress) [*]No paid DLC achievements [*]1 broken achievement (Master & Apprentice) [*]No multiplayer achievements [/list]

I received the game from a Dare Drop campaign for Content Creators. A weird mix of story based game with crafting items and store management. Would be fine but: [UPDATE] (previous review below) - I played the game again for 2 hours and it seemed fixed, but I'll have to play more to make sure the issue is gone! During 4 hours of play I had to reload the game twice cause first time it was missing a button for ''Talk to Gems'' and second time game just froze completely with just music playing. Reloading to last checkpoint 2nd time took me way more back than I expected ;( Can't recommend in the current state, sorry :(

Game is really buggy and feels unfinished

TLDR: Very Cute Game, Interesting Story and fun mechanics, but quite one dimnesional Gameply. I think you should buy it if you look for a cozy Story Game. You may not want to buy it if you look for a deep Shop Sim Game. Long Form: Despite some flaws, I think this is a Game to recommend. It is a good first game for a new aspiring studio. It has really giid Aspacts and some Flaws, that make it not greate, but I has a lot of Fun with it. And I think many others can do to. Pros: - quite interesting Story with Fun Characters - Very nice artwork of the colourful Characters and Areas - Lots of good Ideas that make this game really unique - A good UI with quick access to Information - A good working basic Shop Gameplay Loop Cons: - Some Gameplay Elements really Clash with each other - The progession System is very linear, so you cannot really strategise - The Crafting System is really interesting, but too slow for the pace of the rest of the Game - As A result, you may have a greate selection of interesting Crafting recipies, but stick to simple stuff - You get the Workers much to slow - Aside from Story locations, the Map is really barren I hope I could give you a quick Idea of the Game and would recommend to buy it on Sale. P.S. As of Writing this (7th of March 25) there still is a Gamebreaking Bug that may freze your PC for a minute. If after Autosaving the Game the Night isn't over, close and restart the game to avoid the freze. P.P.S. English isn't my native language, so please excuse some errors on my part

I want to like this game, but every way I try to play it (steam deck with comparability mode or on desktop) has a lot of random crashes. Took me way too many attempts to even reach a point where saving was allowed. Maybe when it’s better optimized I’ll try it again. For now I recommend passing.

I'll wait for one or two patches before playing again BUT I fell in love with what I saw so far. The game is so damn beautifully written it blew me away. It's the little things you know? ^^ Sadly it crashed before I could make up my mind about the gameplay loop so I can't comment that. I'd suggest to wait as I will and check here again after a patch if you're undecided.

Easy to understand gameplay wise, interesting story, and characters I’m excited to learn more about.