Indie games: Doing It Right.
Pros:
+ Bargain. $20 on Steam, for a good game that'll appeal to the whole family? It's a steal at that price.
+ Easy to dive into. The companion fairy explains most game mechanics pretty well and the cutscenes are clear and to-the-point.
+ Just plain fun. Hassle-free installation and play in Win7 x64. No major bugs. The patch which came out recently addressed some balance concerns which weren't a huge deal in the first place. Yes, it's a sad state of affairs that this needs to be a positive point. However, I've purchased too many crap buggy games before. Recettear simply works.
+ Colourful. Every single item has it's own unique icon. You won't get omgwtfbbq textures here but then again this isn't an FPS. The game world design is nice and bright, and the characters are lovely. Gameplay in the dungeon is smooth.
+ Low CPU load. This game won't require you to sell a kidney to purchase a Core i7 machine with 2 video cards running in SLI mode. I won't be surprised if people have fun with this game on netbooks.
Cons:
- Not much in the way of character development. Recettear leans more towards the minigame niche rather than the RPG niche.
- The companion fairy does tell you how to make the most money, but her strategy is actually counterproductive in the long run. See, any time a customer haggles on the price, a hidden "selling combo exp" bonus gets reset. To prevent losing this bonus, sell high enough to make a profit but low enough that the customer doesn't try to haggle with you.
- Dungeon design is fairly dull. It's immediately obvious the generator simply creates rooms and corridors. Shrug. It's not terrible, but you'll find it repetitive after a while.
Awesome game. I rarely review games until I play them until the end or hundreds of hours of grind, but this game deserves a shout out. It's proof that you don't need a Hollywood-style budget to create great games. I'll take Recettear any time over another tired $60 FPS monstrosity filled with shiny explosions.