So... I'm not a mad fan of JRPGs or Japanese culture, I don't have anything against them either, though. Usually I wouldn't have paid much attention to the game I'm presenting but I did try the demo after reading on it on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and I must say it's quite excellent.

It's basically an RPG/adventure/simulation hybrid about running an item shop. As unappealing as this might sound at first the overall blend of various elements is quite excellent - you trade, you hack&slash away in dungeons, you level and equip contracted adventurers and the story is very charming and funny - it brought a big smile on my face more than once due to cheesy puns and pop-culture references.

The demo is quite long - over one hour, I'd say, on the first run. And by all means try it - the final game will be released later this game for $20 and I almost had enough entertainment playing the demo alone. Actually Recettear is a Japanese indie title released back in 2007 but only now has a small group of people joined forces to localize and re-distribute it.
Really, try it yourself - you might be surprised how much you'll enjoy it. ^^

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

It has a fresh concept, but I think the shop part may get repetitive after a while.
Feels like the shop part could be more complex regarding the relationship to your customer or maybe their personalities, its just "average man buys at 140%, old man buys under 130%, loser adventurer can be charged 135%, little girl sells for 40%", at least in the demo.

Yeah, the full game has more depth to it - you can also upgrade your shop with more displays, decorate it to cater to different kinds of people (there's a graph for the store's "atmosphere" if you noticed) and so on - people have reported that from the Japanese version.

Ah, and as hinted at the end of the demo you have to deal with a competing store later on too, so you have to worry about market prices of many wares and not losing clients to the competition.

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

Recettear now on Steam (and also on Impulse and some other channels no one cares about).

PREORDER NAO! The power of me compels you!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/70400/

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

LOLWUT? 0_o

Seriously - I will bump this thread over and over. :-P
It's the kind of game that is simply perfect in what it does and if it doesn't put a big smile on your face you must be a very sad person.

Part of Recettear's appeal are the well written characters - sure, the localization is good but I'm certain the Japanese devs are to thank for that as well. It's the same reason why I (and many others) got hooked on i.e. the Phoenix Wright series. The characters have real depth and personalities to them, to the extent that you can basically put them in some made-up situations and still imagine how they would behave in them - in the age of shitty game characters and/or webcomics and so on, where everybody is characterized by what they DO, not by who they ARE, this is a rare gem - and a funny one at that!
Ah, and everything is underlined with character portraits changing expressions (as common in Japanese games) and also Japanese voice-over sound-bites (just reactions, not full voice-overs).

Take a look at one of the first conversations between Tear and Recette:

Tear: Naturally, we are not demanding it all be repaid at once. There is still a small amount of time left before any payment is due. Therefore...
Recette: Am I gonna get sold off in parts to distant, foreign lands to repay Papa's debts? ... I wonder if I can survive with only two internal organs? Maybe if I eat a lot of spinach, that can replace my blood, and... oh, but I don't wanna be a sailor! What am I gonna do?...

A quest description at the Inn: "My inner mind has become a reality-cracking overgod. He torments me! Help!"

Or Recette's unfailing optimism, strangely tolerable naivete and cuteness expressed through, among others, dozens of variations of "OK" in the gist of "Pie-kay!", "Yayifications!" or "Yepperoni!". ;-)

That is basically McMoist's level of absurdist writing and when it comes to our community it doesn't get better than that. :-P

The only character that is probably "normal" by our standards is Tear but then again she's a friggin' loan-shark fairy, which undermines her seriousness in a different way. ;-)

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

The idea of the game is fucking confusing, its based around an item shop for crying out loud! It shouldn't work as well as it does and yet...

The humor is there too which tbh is a good thing because I don't think it'd be as good without it.

The art style is the only thing of the game I don't really like but it fits with the game so well that its a minor complaint as far as i'm concerned.

I've got a feeling that when I actually get around to buying the game it'll be like Harvest Moon, which I feel deserves the reward for oddest addictive game ever. Its a fucking Farm sim! Why is it so good!?!?!?!?!?!?!

But yeah...i liked the demo.

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Hey, thanks mate!

Tear: Press the primary button to put items on the counter.
Recette: Primary... button?

Finally a game character questions this kind of explanation.

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All roads may lead to Rome, but all Wikipedia pages eventually get you to the Third Reich. - m3n

Heh, yeah. I always wanted Solid Snake to ask Roy Campbell what the hell he was talking about when he was telling you to press 'Triangle'.

It's out on Steam! (And elsewhere.)
Also, second best selling game. 0_o

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell