EPTRecettear is the latest game to be released on STEAM, and is a direct localization of a Japanese doujin game. In it you take the part of an item shop owner that can be found in any generic RPG, and provides a refreshing look to the genre.
This first piqued my interest after one of the webcomics I regularly read featured the game several days ago:
![[image loading]](http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/image/377)
![[image loading]](http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/image/378)
After looking at the comments, I was surprised that Steam had actually officially released a Japanese game, and a doujin game at that.
The screenshots and reviews looked quite promising:
![[image loading]](http://jayisgames.com/images/recettear.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.diygamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/recettear1-300x225.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.diygamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/recettear2-300x223.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4118/4981001439_beb5e233ec.jpg)
I had previously enjoyed a Japanese game series called Ys which had a similar 3rd person rpg gameplay, but without the tycoon aspect. Considering that this was the first localized Japanese game to be released on Steam, I decided to take the plunge and have a go.
.....
And man. Four days never seemed to go by so fast. The initial game mechanics is not that difficult to grasp. After a few tries, I could easily get a pretty good income stream going. But the game has absolutely INGENIOUS addiction-inducing mechanics. (This was seen in Ys as well)
First, the game has 8 companions. You can, with some effort, collect all 8 in one playthrough. However, you can only keep just one companion in each playthrough, and the rest has to be unlocked again even if you do a New Game +. This is important, since New Game + is the only way you can possibly hope to gain all the available items. Some of the companions have very difficult requirements to unlock - i.e. you have to hope to meet her in the middle of a randomized dungeon, and thus have to seek out every corner of every map each time you run a dungeon until you meet up with her.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/YoOLC.jpg)
Full companion "cards."
Next, the game has ~8 dungeons, but some of the later dungeons have 100 levels, plus one dungeon with 60 levels worth of bosses. And the dungeons can only be unlocked after specific conditions, story or otherwise, have been met. Pretty impressive for a game that is primarily a tycoon game. Each dungeon is randomly generated, so you can't just memorize a pattern and follow through
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/gvp4U.jpg)
[i]all 6 dungeons[i]
Next, the item rarity and crafting system. For a game that supposedly focuses on a tycoon mechanic, the game has an impressive list of crafting recipes. There's probably at least 50 or more different crafting components, plus different weapon type for each companion, plus three different armor types and accessories etc etc... And all of them have crafting recipes. By the way, the crafting components drop very sparingly, and only during dungeon crawls. Because there's so many of them, you can only hope to get like 3-5 of the components at a time. Some of the recipes call for as much as 50 of the components, which adds up to an unbelievable amount of grinding. But when you do make the final ultimate items, you can be godlike in the dungeons - so it feels like it's worth it in the end.
And you know what? Each component also has "quality" levels. The higher the quality of the component you use, the stronger the final item. So, you end up grinding forever until you get 50 +4 cotton balls...
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/2ZrSq.jpg)
Are you serious? 50??
And not even all the items can be crafted, which leads me to the item completion mode. The way the dungeons are structured mean that you can either do boss runs to get the rare items, or do regular dungeon crawls to get the common items. Items in the medium quality, however, cannot be crafted (not strong enough) and also never drops from the enemies. And the game has a E-PEEN meter a.k.a. % completion item encyclopedia, and you can find yourself grinding for like 12 hours trying to find that last weak-ass spear that just never seems to drop so that you can go from 99% to 100%.
G]http://imgur.com/w5Gnn.jpg
And finally, the survival mode. The point of getting all the companions and saving up enough money is to "heirloom" into the survival mode the ability to summon all the companions. The survival hell mode, the ultimate challenge, only allows you to import this summoning capability as well as the merchant "reputations." And, you guessed it - there's a hitch with the reputations. One of the customers is actually a real hack that sells things at 500% their proper price. But you have to earn enough money such that you can afford this price, because you need that reputation during the survival hell mode.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/jga56.jpg)
So just from my descriptions, I'm sure you can tell how much of a grind the game can be. But man, you don't feel it when you play it. It's like playing football manager or civilization - you don't notice the time, and then it's suddenly 4am in the morning.
In the end, it was all worth it. The game's dialogue is hilarious the first time around, and afterwards the grinding is just barely bearable such that you keep playing it, trying to get that last few components to upgrade your next weapon/armor, etc etc. In all, it was a very nice game, and well worth the price.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/D6Rry.jpg)
100% completion
Frankly, though the game supposedly primarily deals with the mechanics of selling/buying items, the biggest entertainment comes from the crafting/dungeon crawl. The merchant aspect is just a means to an end, to earn enough money and craft powerful items. [/IMG]
![[image loading]](http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3917/1283752917334.jpg)
