This game somehow reminds me of the "Dark Cloud" series on Playstation...it has a similiar charm to it...

Oh yeah, Dark Cloud was awesome. I spent more time building cities than dungeon crawling.

I played the Recettear demo. As much as I loved it, the dungeons were terrible. It was basically a game of how far can you go without getting ganked by five enemies at the same time. And you can't get enough money to pay rent without clearing the dungeons. Can anybody who bought the game confirm whether the dungeons, or the weekly rent, were toned down at all?

grrrraaaarrrggghhh!
i want this game so much.......need...moneys!
oh well.....i'll get this when i get my own computer....which is when i get a job....which i cant do yet......graaarrrggg!

@blalien I believe everything is the same from what I can recall from the demo. I would say that the dungeons don't give much trouble after the initial learning curve.

Outfitting your hired heros with the best equipment available to you and taking a methodical approach to clearing the dungeons makes them pretty simple.

For anyone on the fence about purchasing this, failing to meet the weekly payments doesn't force you to start all over:

You keep everything else (shop improvements, items, character improvements) but just kinda teleport back in time to day one of the game. I believe your past failure is written off as a dream.

20 bucks is a sizeable purchase though but i can at least testify I've already gotten 30 hours+ out of the game according to the counter so I expect to get my money's worth when all's said and done. I'd still be playing right now if I didn't have work to do.

Holy crap, this game released two days ago and you already logged 30 hours? You are certainly dedicated.

I believe that someday there will be new born of hybrid-type between Doujin and Casual Indie games.... There's no border upon creativity

Blalien, it's addicting. Only True Blood would distract me from it today.

Great game. I found the stereotypical Japanese schoolgirl vocals to be extremely annoying at first, but got over that quickly. It's cute, it has a lot of funny moments with references to other games and pop culture. It also has a good mixture of dungeon crawler and time management. I typically don't care for time management games, but this one is a keeper.

I did have to loop (restart on the second day after failing to make the first payment) once, but after that I've been progressing quickly. The key is not to be too aggressive with your profit margins (know who will pay what markup) and instead gain merchant levels quickly and buy high-priced items as fast as you can so that even though you aren't making a large margin on each item, you still are bringing in a lot.

After I made the first payment, I was already past the merchant level where I was getting timed orders. My strategy so far is to make payment, work the shop a couple days straight to amass some orders and make almost enough for my next payment, then dungeon dive every day, making sure that I have the ordered items ready and open for one shift on days that orders will be picked up.

So I started playing this game nonstop the day it was released and finally paid off the loan yesterday. I logged 32 hours-- it really is that addicting.

I was expecting a lot from the game after playing the demo, and the full version completely blew away my expectations. The game slowly introduces more and more strategy into the game as you level up. My favorite part is the random news alerts about the rising and falling prices of certain items, so you know what to stock up on and what to push at customers.

It's true that the dungeons are difficult at first. I had a little difficulty in the Hall of Trials and the first *real* dungeon, Jade Way. But the save feature is really handy here - if you save in the middle of a dungeon it will save your data as it was before you entered. So if you find yourself getting in over your head, you can save and retry. Once you get used to the different monsters the dungeon crawling becomes much easier. Eventually you also unlock new adventurers with different play styles which makes it more fun.

Even though I completed the main goal of the game, I'm definitely not done with it. There are a ton of different characters and story lines to follow. Once you complete the game for the first time, you unlock a few new modes to play. :)

$20 seems a high price to pay, but for me it was definitely worth it.

Oh, one point that I disagree with Vailan on: DO NOT outfit your adventurer to the tee, at least not at first. You will fail the dungeon a few times (I racked up five times) and when you fail, you can only take one item back. So if you give your adventurer five items, guess what? You're only bringing one back. Bring one nice item for your adventurer and, after he's gained a few levels and has a hope of surviving, a few foodstuffs.

To be totally honest, I rarely buy casual games, and have never bought one priced over $12. But I decided to make an exception with Recettear because I fell in love with it after the Demo. I was really inspired to support both the jp indie game company that produced this game, as well as the two goons who decided to go legit with localizing this game.

At first, I felt the game was really hard. It took me quite a few tries to successfully make $10k in the first week. Not to mention I kept wiping in in the dungeons. Then after some research I discovered a few tips and tricks:

1. When dungeon crawling, chain like crazy for exponential exp gain. Chaining involves killing the same monsters one after another. This is really easy the first 3 levels of Hall of Trials. Open the chests after you've cleared the floor to avoid Blue slimes from ruining your chain.

2. There is limited respawn of monsters on each level. Try not to kill monsters in 1 hit when chaining, this decreases their respawn probability. (Not 100% sure, but there seems to be a weak correlation of some sort) It's not very practical to chain in Jade Way, so just find chests and kill along the way.

3. Most monsters can be safely attached from the diagonal position. Kobolds are the like are easily dealt with by running across to trigger their attack, then flanking them for the kill.

4. On Day 2, complete the Hall of Trials, save, then go back in and complete Jade Way 1-15. Lvl 5 Boss: Kill all the little Slime while you wait for the Boss Slime to shrink. Once it's small, you can kill it in 1 or 2 hits. Lvl 10 Boss: Kill all the Red shrooms. The rat will fall over after consuming Purple shrooms. Attack when it's lying down. Lvl 15: Requires slightly quicker reflexes. Make sure you have HP Recovery Food (Walnut Bread, Apples, Cherry, etc), and some SP Recovery Food (Chocolate, Honey, Fish thing, etc). Wait for her to come to you, then attack her when she is within your blade distance, this will cause her to jump back a bit and attack again. Your melee range is longer than her's (sword vs dagger). You might have to hit, run, hit, run, hit because she comes back to attack too quickly. Recover with foods when necessary.

5. Leveling up Merchant levels gives you more money then trying to sell high. Chaining Just Combos and Near Pin Combos level you up pretty fast. Just Combo = giving an acceptable price in one try. Near Pin = given price is close to customer's ideal price. Just Combo's are generally around 110-120%--varies slightly between different customers. Near Pin is usually around 105-115%-- varies with customers as well. Merchant Lvl 5 is really useful for being able to create expensive fusion items. (i.e. Azure Necklace + Special Inkwell = Azure Neclace = $15k)

You can easily earn up to 30k within the first week if you clear dungeons and level up your merchant. :D !

I highly, highly recommend all of you buy this game. ALL OF YOU

I cried about how "hard" the dungeons were at first too, but now it's quite easy save for the occasional stupid mistake. I powergamed the demo so that I had the 3rd adventurer and merchant level 8 unlocked on day 8, that is how much I grew to love the game. Now it's more than easy to meet the deadline, where I am in the game.

Chrystelle gives really good advice, I'd also add that if you get the little girl in your store, her budget is only about 600 pix, so you shouldn't charge her anything above that or she'll tell you she can't afford it. She tends to only buy certain items like food and hats and books, so stock up on the cheapest of those.

PS 20bux is not a lot, this is a REAL game, not some repetitive boring casualgame of a genre that's been done a million times, not to mention that it isn't being released by some huge company with a lot of money. If you want more cool translated games you'd otherwise never get to play, support them!

I second most of what everyone else said. The learning curve is a bit steep, and the game doesn't hold your hand past the 4th or so merchant level. There's a lot of trial and error, but I like that about a game. The vocals are a bit annoying, but you can turn them off. Dungeon crawling is done in real-time, not turn-based like older RPGs, so it keeps your interest. I think it's definitely worth the $20. I've paid much more for console games that weren't nearly as entertaining.

I usually buy only one game a year, then keep myself occupied with old purchases (TF2) and the free/indie games you can find. This year the game I purchased was Recettear, and I count it as a good purchase indeed. Capitalism ho!

Expanding on what Chrystelle offered (all good advice):

One thing I'd point out is that the tutorial Tear offers is biased, and this plays into both the character and the learning experience. The stern, impersonal Tear suggests some price points for haggling, which are actually less than stellar. Tear isn't very good at interacting with others, and this shows in her tutorial. I'd recommend ignoring the price points she sets and focusing more on selling at a lower price (110% to 120%) to make customers happy and build relationships.

People don't like coming to your shop and not finding what they want, and they don't like having to part with too much money. What really wins them over is when the cute little girl shopkeeper knows just how much they're prepared to pay, on the first guess.

Figuring out the price point & selling to them without making them haggle will help you on two fronts. As Chrystelle suggested, it raises your merchant level. To clarify, Just bonuses are an exponentially increasing experience bonus when you sell to multiple people in a row without haggling. You'll also get bonuses for guessing exactly (+30) or getting close to (+15) the amount they're prepared to spend, which fluctuates slightly as their attitude towards you and the value of the item does. What Chrystelle didn't mention is that this will make people like you (you'll know you're on the right track when the little hearts start appearing as customers buy from you) which in turn increases their budget and the amount they're willing to spend: the maximum amount they can spend when you suggest an item to them, the quality of the items they reach for in your shop, and the % markup you can get away with on goods.

As for dungeons, I think the best tip I can offer is that every enemy will leave themselves vulnerable at some point. Once you learn their pattern, you can bait them into attacking and then take them out. Save special abilities for those monsters who your current adventurer isn't very good at baiting/attacking, like wasps (for most characters) or pumpkins.

Early on, I found that doing dungeons ASAP and doing multiple floors, leaving with a bag full of only the good stuff, kept the shop stocked with enough stuff (and leaves you with lots of lesser stuff to fill orders or meet requests, for those whose budgets won't let them take the most valuable stuff). Later, with the advent of increasing and decreasing values of items, and a decent merchant level, you should be able to keep your store stocked with high-value items that are in high demand, selling them for 60-100k each.

Currently on my third playthrough. Honestly can't recommend this game enough.

For those of you having trouble with your first dungeon. Buy walnut bread, equip it, use it. It will heal you, it will save you.

Also, get the patch available at the game's site (http://www.carpefulgur.com/recettear/downloads.htm). The patch corrects some text errors as well as an issue I was having with a missing image and, most pertinently, monster damage. Makes the baddies in the first two dungeons a lot easier to survive.

If you got the game from Steam, it should autoupdate. I hate Steam with a passion, though, and just found out about the patch through another forum.

[Inserted URL to patch. -Jay]

The patch corrects some text errors as well as an issue I was having with a missing image and, most pertinently, monster damage. Makes the baddies in the first two dungeons a lot easier to survive.

Alright, this game is now officially perfect.

Much thanks to Zazazu and Jay for the requisite Game Patch. Without this patch, the dungeons are simply impractical. I used all the Apples and all the Bread just to survive the first dungeon!
Then the killer: neither the Market nor the Merchant's guild appears to restock, ever! Which means, guard your apples! (Admittedly, I've not gone past day 8, but do they ever restock their shelves? That's probably why I'm able to meet my quotas!)

Gordon: at certain points, when you increase your merchant level, the selection in the shops increases; this also allows you to buy unlimited quantities of formerly limited items. You shouldn't have any trouble getting the first of these bonuses by day 8, unless you've been haggling aggressively and missing out on the juicy Just Combo bonus. Try buying at 55% and selling at 105% and see how that works for you.

awesome game! I'm sooo addicted right now!

Stores restock after a week, IIRC.

funny game, just finished obsidian tower and defeated Griff the claw user demon. currently level 51 (merchant perks up to level 50 only, with the last perk being your adventurer able to stock 3 items when he dies in a dungeon) a very addicting game. key to success - make full use of popular items, sell items at 104% and buy at 70% when trying to level up (near pins 95%), earn more by EXPERIMENTING (the personalities and your reputation to different characters affect your haggling limits), be considerate to new customers (sometimes you sell WAY BELOW the base price), and change your walls/floor/counters/carpets to get the customers you wanted (Caillou loves the heretical look, as Nagi loves the plain style and Alouette wants her shop as gaudy as ever). Dungeon crawl whenever you're free, and as much as chaining is good, they don't really matter aa the game progresses. The farther you go inside the dungeon, more chars are unlocked (others can be unlocked thru events - with funny stories). Do concentrate in one character for the meantime, and play around with the others if you got the hang of it (Tielle the elven archer is SOOO strong even with low level weapons...) enjoy the game! Capitalism, ho!

My mind has become a reality-cracking overlord.

So then, some useful info for y'all:

Payments needed each week:

Bonuses for each merchant level:

How to unlock adventurers:

Different dungeons:

Different modes:

Assorted tips and tricks
Shop:

Dungeon:

Time Management:

Heh, I love the little girls. One quick way to rise through the ranks is to buy nothing but sweets and the occasional bit of clothing, bracelet, book, or accessory, and they and the old men will become massively cheap experience magnets. Two dungeon trawls through the Trials on day one, day two spent selling the expensive junk, open day 3 with buying up sweets, watch the experience roll in the next two days.
Punched through to level 8 no trouble, without even restocking. It's Louie that craps on my day, when you're just starting out even the base price is too much! You broke-ass mofo, Y DUN U GIT A JEEEERB....Oh wait, you're working for me, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR MONEY

I like to focus on power leveling one aspect at a time, it makes the other half easier when you go into it. First the shop, then get Louie a parade armor/steel sword and do 1-15 all in one go, then get Charme a pure edge and sandwich board while power leveling the shop again, then amber garden all in one go once you can hold 25 items. After this, and from taking advantage of the occasional price boost, you should be able to double profits every time you spend a day selling. Once you have around 400-500k built up before day 22 you can dick around doing whatever, maybe try and nab Nagi and Elan. Also don't forget to drop old decorations in the window, Alouette, the guildmaster, or the old men will purchase them eventually.

Can anyone tell me how to unlock obsidian tower? I already finished all the events.