This game is surprisingly good. I picked it up during the steam sales not expecting much for ~$4.50. So far I have sunk 35 hours into it and plan on playing a lot more. The game has a very charming atmosphere, the dialog is great the translation is very good, the graphics are nostalgic and remind me a lot of Harvest Moon. The gameplay is versatile and fun. On the one hand you have the great economy-style in terms of running your shop, haggling prices, keeping an eye on Booms and pricerises/drops. On the other hand you have the random generated dungeons you can clear with unique bosses, loot and best of all: tons of adventurers you meet during the game that you can SELL stuff to that they will actually wear in the dungeons. There is plenty of stuff to see and do, not do you just sell and buy stuff but you constantly discover upgrades for items, the shop and your adventurers. As you progress a nice story unfolds and the difficulty is perfect. If you fail to meet the deadline for paying debt the game does a perfect job for those and let's them restart with a boost by keeping items/levels and adventurerlevel+gear.

The crafting system drives you into the dungeons to get even better items than any shop can sell you. After you "finished" the mail story line the game is far from over, new modes are unlocked and you can carry over your old stuff to new challenges (like survival mode).

The game is simply great, the best game I got to play in 2012.… Expand

I bought this game out of hope for a fresh and intriguing new take on the rpg genre considering it is based on an item shop. I was not disappointed at all. First thing I can say about this game is that is clean and simple with controls and gameplay that is easy to understand and learn quickly. The simple but robust gameplay is not the star, however, it is the straightforward yet addicting story line of a young girl who must open an item shop in order to pay off her father's debts to a finance agency. In order to to do so you must mix both the buy low sell high strategy with the in town marketing centers and hire adventurer's and train them/lead them through dungeons and lairs to find loot and treasure to sell in the shop. It is truly an addicting game in the sense that it keeps you wanting to just sell one more item, go dungeon raiding one more time so you can meet the reachable yet challenging goals set forth by the loan agency. Now, as for the graphics, they are very clean and fun with great character designs and, let's admit it, quite the cute roster of characters and world that they inhabit...not toooooooooooo cute though. The interplay between the main characters and the citizens if the town is great, with the fantastically mundane (chatting about the stars) to getting with fights with...interesting...strangers in town. I definitely recommend this game to whomever wishes for an interesting and unique twist on a rpg that includes a great amount of humor and addicting gameplay.… Expand

Very fun indie game. Simple and common gameplay mechanics (used in many japanese games, i.e. Princess Maker) makes the game even better. Nice and beautiful visuals, cute characters, lots of stuff to buy and sell. Some parts may feel a little repetitive, but it doesn't hurt good atmosphere. Btw, the game is bigger than it looks. So... Capitalism, ho!

I started playing the game yesterday evening and now I'm already at 18 hours. After finishing the debt part starts the Endless game part, in which you slowly start discovering the other adventurers and thanks to Arma's story, you learn the fate of your own father.
To be frank I was extremely sceptical at first. I played the demo but it left me neutral. But when the full game started unveiling itself, part after part, I started being more and more addicted to it, to the point that I started doing everything, completing everything to the max (merchant level 99, charme level 99 and bilions of pix). And I have yet to finish the story.
Maybe objectively this is not a masterpiece, but it doesn't matter. It's so ridiculously addicting and rewarding that It's a pleasure to play. Something I will probably keep playing for long time, even after finishing the story (which seems ridiculously big).
Really an amazing game. Congrats to the developing team and to the translators (even though they distorted the translation a little bit, matching it to the /b/ way of speaking).… Expand

I had no idea what I was in for when I read the description to this game but after playing 5 minutes I knew I was on to a winner. An absolute bargain for $20 bucks. Extremely replayable and very very addictive. A must have in your collection.

The simplistic graphics and presentation hide the brutal addictiveness of this (cute) beast. The marriage of a casual merchant sim with a Rogue-like dungeon crawler plus humourous Disgaea-like cutscenes would've netted a 9/10 alone, but the translations... OMG the translations...

-PERFECT 10-

Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is an unexpectedly fun and challenging game with both RPG and store management features. definitely a good buy and a great game.

Simply wonderful! Recettear is one of the most fantastic and original RPGs I've played in the past few years. Classic graphics and game-play with a different spin of the main character being an new item shop owner trying to pay off a debt, instead of an adventurer. The game is split off into two sections, store management where you sell items at the right times for the price that will get you the most profit. It wonderfully works in the concept of supply and demand as you get actual news on market updates sometimes more than once a day on what item prices are up and what ones are down. Along with the store management is going to the market or merchant's guild to buy items to sell in your store, or to help with dungeon crawling.
The second part is the dungeon crawling. On the days you need a large boost to your store inventory or ingredients for crafting, you can hire an adventurer from the adventurer's guild to go to a dungeon with you. This is where you will control the adventurer as your main character follows behind. Using the adventurer you will fight off enemies, picking up items that some drop and opening chests to usually get items/treasures. The good part about dungeon crawling is that you get items that you can sell for 100% profit, minus the fee to hire the adventurer. Lastly on the dungeon stuff, the adventurer you hire will level up through the process of killing enemies, like any RPG, which is a good thing because they will be stronger and you can later move on to bigger and better dungeons, but it is also a slight hindrance as well, because the stronger and more experienced an adventurer becomes, the more it will cost to hire him or her. As the game progresses through the story, you will be able to hire different kinds of adventurers. I'm giving this game a 10 because it is a solid RPG, with a fun and whimsical story, that has familiar game-play while still feeling quite original. I've played many RPGs in my day and I can say I've never before played a game like Recettear. The people that rate it real low because of a lot of dialogue have clearly never played a classic RPG, or they have been spoiled by playing too many fully voiced RPGs.

One of the other reviews says says that the store management isn't complex enough to be compelling for more than 4-5 hours, the problem with saying that is that it shows that they didn't play very long, because I've played 16 hours and I'm still getting new facets and challenges to running the store. The game doesn't give you all the ways to run your store right off, it treats those like any abilities learned in an RPG. As you get more experienced at running your shop and level up as a merchant, you gain more things that you can do, like decorating your store and new ways to sell things to your customers.

Finally, I would add that just because it doesn't have the latest newfangled sparkling graphics and gimmicky interface, doesn't mean that it isn't an original title. The story and store management along side the classic game play is what makes the game original. The art and graphics(classic around PS2 era JRPG type) are solid, fitting the style of the game and the story.

It isn't hard for this game to shine with with all the samey RPG drivel that tends to be heralded as special and wonderful(usually only because of the graphics). I highly recommend this game to any gamer that is properly familiar with and loves RPGs.… Expand

I wasn't expecting much from this game, and it blew me away. Sure the pixellated graphics could be better, they're very cute but not refined, and lack of animation. Yet, this game is MUCH deeper than it looks, and it's huge, in fact, the game is bigger after the game "ends" (but I won't spoil the story).
How to describe this game, it's similar to Harvest Moon, except that you harvest treasures in dungeons. And you own a shop. What could be just a strategy game doesn't really shine through its story, but through its characters. Each of them has a sould, and a role that isn't necessarily obvious when the game starts. Of course, you've got to love cute anime stuff in general, that's a requirement to play this game. So I've been disappointed by a lot of blockbuster games, while this "little" game appeared to be amazing. Really expecting Recettear 2 with a bigger budget.… Expand

A wonderfully addictive and inventive little commerce simulator with an entertaining RPG element. While it is very simplistic, the innovation and ideas created a very fun game for people who would enjoy bartering constantly to progress through the game. For those expecting another JRPG, there are better elsewhere, but for a unique economy simulator mixed with an RPG, this is great.

Best game I've ever play in PC, a handheld styled rpg mixed with item shop selling is getting you hooked in this game. Hope more JRPG indie titles will come to western territories. This is the only game outside from Nintendo border that can also a Perfect Game for everyone

I found the game more than fun enough to do 2 New Game + runs back-to-back. Plus the overall story, and the localisation in particular, is absolutely brilliant.

**Positives**: Very unique. If there's another game out there like this, I haven't heard of it. (+3)
The market system works very well, you buy and sell for a little profit, slowly working your way up (+3)
The game advances at a sensible pace, upgrading the list of items every few levels, so you're never without new items to make a profit on (+3).
There are few buttons that need to be pressed, making it easy to pick up and play (+2).
The characters are, for the most part, lovable (+2).
The item design, prices, and most importantly, in-jokes that come with them, are top-notch (+2).
Bosses are all well-designed, and almost all have a tactic beyond "slash and run", and area always a challenge, without being excruciating (+3).
I'd love to go on, but it's getting too long already.
**Neutral**: They've translated "mataku" (which usually means "geez" or a verbal *facepalm*) as "merde", which just doesn't feel right, but isn't bad enough to deduct points.
**Negative**: Euria. A girl who always breaks your chain of gaining experience from selling items. Once "unlocked", she visits your store, selling goods to you at very inflated prices. This is a death knell if you encounter her early enough (-1). FUN FACT: Euria sounds like 'urea', the waste part of urine! Sounds pretty apt!
Constantly levelling up in dungeons makes dungeoneering very easy for the first few levels, and very annoying in the later stages, where you are about to fight a boss, but want to level up first (to get full health). (-1).
It can be said that the markets fluctuate TOO much, if you buy a somewhat expensive item at low price, and sell it when it's high price, you make a much higher profit than you should, making the game fairly easy if you're lucky enough. (-1).
**TOTAL**: 18-3=15. Recettear is one of my all-time favourite games, and is perfect in almost every way, with some VERY minor exceptions. Worth the unusually high price tag, and MORE!… Expand

I had no idea what to expect when I first got this game, other than that my friend told me it was about running a shop. That didn't exactly sell it high, but it was in a pack for $5 so I went for it. Much to my surprise, it was one of the most addicting games I've played. Quite literally I could not put it down, even after I had beaten it. Somehow it manages to get you caught up in the story with great dialogue and well executed gameplay. The only thing I didn't like was the dungeon feature, which seemed out of place in the game and wasn't up to the standard of everything else around it. However, it is entirely optional and easy to ignore with no consequences for doing so, so it isn't a problem at all. Fantastic game overall.… Expand