Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

I agree with the many other reviews noting both how cute and how repetitive it is. As I continued to play, the effect of the former faded and the absolute thrill of doing almost exactly the same thing day after in-game day left me trying to speed through the game just so I could try to finish it before I couldn't put up with it anymore. I think it might be worth giving a whirl if you e.g., get it on a steep sale (or like the demo!), but I also think you should know that the tedium does not get better over time so once you're not having much fun you should probably just drop it. FYI there's also a fan-made patch to add widescreen aspect ratios and higher frame rates etc (Fancy Screen Patch for Recettear) which you might like to check out if you first try the game and enjoy it.

补票，好玩，神作，bgm好听，什么都好

Literally the best game on Steam.

Terrible controls, a tedious continuously exponentially increasing target that you will inevitably fail way more times than is reasonable as a first hurdle, poorly optimised layout, unfocused between whether it wants to be an RPG or a shop sim, just an utterly unfun game to play.

Honestly this is one of the best shopkeeping games I've ever played. It has just the right amount of variables and details to make the game exciting, but not overwhelming.

Gameplay: Good! I enjoyed it. Colorful, just challenging enough to stay engaging, pretty good characters overall. That said... being saddled with a child-labor forcing snotty-ass fairy, even after you have paid off the heinous debt of your father, at threat of being homeless is INFURIATING. Never EVER forget that this scumlord was going to make Recette live in a BOX. I hate her, I loathe her, but the game's narrative doesn't allow me any way of getting rid of her. She's everything wrong with capitalism and the world. A pure narcissist who whips almost $100K US (assuming the prices are originally in yen) out of a ten year old in a MONTH, part of which involves life-threatening situations. The entire town, who love Recette, should have been sending Tear death threats to get the hell out once the debt was paid. She's not cute. I don't care if this is a hot take- it's the right one. Tear is AN AWFUL CHARACTER and we shouldn't just glean over it like it's fine because the character we're playing is naive. She's like, ten years old. I'm not. I don't want to see Tear ever again. I might play new game plus one day, if there's ever an update where Tear ACTUALLY f*cks off at the end! Until then, no recommendation, and if you do buy this? Wait for it to be like $5. I wouldn't recommend against the studio at all, though. I would def buy more of their games, but this particular one commits this terrible sin of like, pretending everything is fine with this character. I played a lot of this game while 'elevated' and even I can't overlook how terrible Tear is. For the sake of the player's meta enjoyment, she needs to be gone at the end of the game. That's it. That's all there is to it. This is just a singular, intensely bad writing choice and it was mostly good. Just... wow, did they ever screw that pooch with this one singular decision.

An unexpected joy. Who knew capitalism became palatable when you can literally seize the means of production. I found the narrative charming and often hilariously meta, the dungeons fun in their complexity arising from a bunch of seemingly simple pieces, and the shop dynamics an interesting counterpart thereto. It's a challenge without being punishing, and the loops are all snappy, punchy fun.

I forgot I owned this game. I'm glad I re-found it in my collection.