Recettear: Broke to Hope
by Litda Tuy

Originally Written 05/01/11 
Updated as of 19/10/2011

There’s a Bechedel test that gets talked about and thrown around lot. I think this game passes it after the introduction.

Recettear is a vendor simulator about paying off the debt of your father, as the game progresses it becomes less than trying to pay off a bill and more about running your own business and finding your own path. There is a large world inside Recettear, as you play through and get to understand the characters and game mechanics, you will definitely become addicted you’ll realize why I highly recommend this game.

You play Recette, a young ditsy brunette that ends up running the item shop to pay for a debt that her father left her with after he ran off to become an adventurer. It’s a long, long time before you see her father again and when you do it’s quite a scene. Recette is a cheerful girl and decides in order to pay the debt she will open an item shop.

Recette is accompanied always throughout the game by a small fairy named Tear. Tear is a fairy that has been contracted throughout the game to make sure you pay your dad’s loan to a company named Terme Finance. Tear teaches you about making money, the game basic mechanics and makes sure you pay your debt when the payments on time.

A game based on running an item shop and selling items does not sound fun, but it actually is. There are other parts of the game, like defeating dungeons and beating bosses. Well you don’t fight, but you tag along. You meet and get to know the NPC’s a little, even though they all are the same. You can build friendships with the NPC and adventurer characters and they’ll sell you things that can be sold at a better rate in the store or will help you fill the slots of your fusion window, because if you are playing this game and you haven’t been fusing items for fun on the side as well as selling and collecting things and hoarding stock, then get to it.

You can expand your shop, put in items, change your item shops counters, walls and floors after you raise your merchant level. Your shop expands with you if you let it, your tiny shop will hopefully become item shop in my game: huge with many spaces to place items and too little things to sell and not enough imagination to figure out how to use the space effectively.

This game comes at a high recommendation. My copy of Recettear was purchased during as Steam sale and it was discounted for $10.00: half the original price. There is a demo of the game available if you would like to sample it. It also has a predecessor Chantilise which was released by the game localizing company Carpefulgur as of July 27th, 2011.

It’s a solid game with a lot of things to do. You end up enjoying the game a lot too. It also stars to female leads which is rare. There are more girls then guys and no one is overly sexualized or fetishized at all. I can’t compare it to a lot of games. Suikoden 4’s buying and selling system and Harvest Moon, but Harvest Moon was never like this sorta maybe the fighting version I never played but that didn’t star any girls….maybe?

The game is pretty familiar if you know and played a lot of JRPG’s there are a lot of elements and jokes based on those types of games. It’s still very original due to the selling aspect. It also has that Ragnarok Online feel, Japanese RPG style, light fantasy. But it also has that “work hard until you get that cow/house upgrade/bed” aspect of Harvest Moon.

The lesson Recettear seeks to teach is: never co-sign for anyone and despite it that minor detail, paying off one’s debts (although challenging) was fun.

Do play if you liked: Old school Japanese RPG’s | Ragnarok Online | Harvest Moon | Suikoden 4 (only if you abused that money making thing)