The Shopkeeper

Craptasic

i lost the shop

Its like playing a version of groundhog day where you watch a man get belittled by his mother in law over and over again, slowly dying inside only to wonder whats this all for, whats it all about. Well i think i have the answer finally and its this... Its a waste of time go do something better than play this.

I'm sorry, but this game feels like either there is no actual ending, or it was executed very poorly so that hardly anyone can figure out the exact sequence to progress or gain any further story. I can love games with rewinding features, as long as it actually reveals more depthy beneath it. This did not provide any depth whatsoever and was quite boring after 5 minutes. I will say though, the structure of the game is a foot in the right direction. I can appreciate the hand-drawn art and graphics, and the voiceovers. These are excellent qualities for any game, of any genre. I hope that the developer makes a better game next time and learn from their mistakes.

Repetitive and pointless. The art looks nice, but the "story" is incoherent.

Point-and-click story game. You are a young man with a business that is in trouble, and you're trying to get help from your mother-in-law. Toward this end you're visiting an antique shop looking for a gift to put her in a good mood. The shopkeeper has a story to tell about every single item in his shop. After examining an item, talk with the mother-in-law to attempt to persuade her. An interesting concept with annoying execution. You will wind up doing the same sequence over and over and over and over again: walk into shop, hear story about item, walk into mother-in-law's office, pick item in room to discuss, have conversation, more often than not get turned down. The conversations can be skipped through, but they're still lengthy. Charting the different conversation paths alone isn't sufficient to get a successful outcome. I eventually found a walkthrough to explain what I had to do to get what. I kept asking myself, "Why is this necessary?" The stories the shopkeeper has for the items, and the suggestion of his own backstory, are intriguing, but hearing one involves the entire sequence of events. Why can't the guy just stand there and find out about each and every item? If for whatever reason he's not going to ask about an item, why must he go to the shop at all each iteration? And why involve the florist? Some people have compared the game to [I]Groundhog Day[/I]. I disagree. Part of the fun with Groundhog Day was seeing the poor sap dealing with having to go through his day over and over again. In this case, the player is the poor sap; the people in the game seem just fine. Perhaps this is artistic intent, and therefore fiendishly effective; all things considered, though, if I want recreational frustrating repetition I'll go play Getting Over It. I got it through HB. I only recommend it if you can get it for almost free.

Very tedious and repetitive.

A little bit of TLC would have gone a long way for this game. A few more dialogue options and a bit more variation would have really lifted it up. 5/10.