Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale Review

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is a single player PC roleplaying game (RPG) in which the player manages an item shop. Gameplay consists of buying items from a wholesaler or getting treasure from dungeons. The items are then sold in the player’s shop which can be customized and decorated in various ways.

Recettear isn’t that hard to master but it is fun.

The story is that Recette lives in a nice little house in the center of town. Her father has been absent for quite some time but at the start of the game, Recette finds out that he borrowed a lot of money from Terme Finance. Tear, a fairy, arrives and tries to collect the money that is owed. However, since Recette has no assets apart from the house, there are only two options – sell the house (Recette would be homeless and penniless) or start a business. Recette sensibly decides to start a business by opening an item shop on the ground floor of her house.

When I first played the game I had a lot of trouble because I followed the instructions in the tutorial. That led to me being unable to pay the weekly installments on the loan. Recette got ejected from the house and had to live in a cardboard box. Oh my! Thankfully, the internet exists so I was able to find tips about how to play the game better. On my second playthrough I was able to finish the game and pay off the entire loan. I had fun the second time around.

The trick is to buy low and sell high. Also, early on in the game, it pays to build rapport with the customers. At first customers only have a little bit of money to spend in the shop but as Recette becomes more friendly with them, they start to spend more. A LOT more.

There are also trends in the game like when certain items become popular (leading to greater demand and a price increase) or unpopular (lower demand and lower price). Both trends are useful: buy low when an item is unpopular then sell them when they are popular and higher priced.

Dungeons are also pretty fun! It’s just basic running around and killing stuff but its refreshing to play something easy.

I also like the art and sound. The voices are super cute. 😀 Character designs are likewise anime/manga cute and diabetes-inducing. Recette is an adorable airhead, I just wanna hug her sometimes.

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is a relaxing and fun game. It’s short and not too complex but it’s not like it costs a lot. I still play it even though I have completed the story. Overall, I would rate this 5 out 5 stars.