Overview
Originally released at Comiket 73 in 2007, Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is a store-management RPG. Receiving relative acclaim following its release, it was eventually announced that the game would be receiving an English-language localization, handled by Carpe Fulgur. Originally slated to release on September 10th, 2010 via Impulse, the game's release was eventually expanded to include Steam and GamersGate, with Recettear becoming the first Japanese indie game to launch on Steam.
Story
Recette Lemongrass, a young girl living in the town of Pensee, suddenly finds herself forced to pay back a large loan taken out by her missing father. However she is given a choice by Tear, a fairy assigned to collect the loan. Either Tear can take Recette's house to pay off the debt instantly, or Recette can pay it off by converting the house into an item shop. Together with her new - and very stubborn - fairy partner, Tear, Recette begins the journey of paying off her father's debt.
Gameplay
Capitalism, ho!The gameplay of Recettear consists of running an item shop. You buy and sell items from the market or the Merchant Guild and place them on display in your store. When arrangement of the store is complete the store can be opened and customers will come in and ask to buy or sell an item, at which point haggling over the price ensues.
There is also a better way to get items, which involves dungeon crawling. An adventurer needs to be hired to go through dungeons and collect items, which you may sell at your item shop. There are 8 different adventurers whom can be hired. Each of them levels up and gains new abilities and stats as they are used. Adventurers will also buy items from your shop, like ordinary customers, and whatever items bought from you will be used/equipped by them in dungeons when you hire them.
In addition, items can be created through Fusion. Ingredients, which can only be obtained from a dungeon, combined with certain regular items can be fused together to create something completely new and unique. These items sell for greater amount of pix (the game's currency) and/or have greater combat stats.
Selling items will earn you experience that will in turn allow you to increase your Merchant Level. Obtaining Merchant Levels will unlock different features such as store expansions, carpet/wallpaper/counter changes, new fusion recipes etc.
The Shop's Items
There's a wide range of products the player can buy and/or sell in Recettear, but they all fall into a number of categories and subcategories. Listed below is every subcategory grouped by the larger category they belong to, alongside examples of some of the items within each subcategory.
Weapons
Swords (e.g.: Worn Sword, Steel Sword, Demonbane) |
Daggers (e.g.: Rusty Dagger, Survival Knife, Tuna Shanker) |
Staves (e.g.: Focus Staff, Pretty Wand, Crystal Rod) |
Bows (e.g.: Wooden Bow, Longbow, Hurricane Bow) |
Spears (e.g.: Laundry Pole, Practice Lance, Grand Naginata) |
Gloves (e.g.: Leather Glove, Power Glove, Giant's Fist) |
Claws (e.g.: Evil Claw, Rending Claw, Soul Eater) |
Parts (e.g.: Punch Unit, Flamethrower, Drill Arm) |
Armor
Clothes (e.g.: Clothes, Silk Clothes, Sailor Suit) |
Robes (e.g.: Raincoat, Wizard's Robe, Santa Coat) |
Breastplates (e.g.: Scrap Plate, Steel Breastplate, Rainbow Mail) |
Heavy Armor (e.g.: Leather Armor, Iron Armor, Ancient Armor) |
Bracelets (e.g.: Wooden Armband, Spiked Armband, Angel Bracelet) |
Shields (e.g.: Wooden Shield, Knight Shield, Runic Defender) |
Hats (e.g.: Wool Hat, Warm Hat, Emperor's Crown) |
Helmets (e.g.: Wooden Helm, Parade Helm, Ancient Helm) |
Accessories
Scarves (e.g.: Old Muffler, Handknit Muffler, Legendary Scarf) |
Shoes (e.g.: Summer Sandals, Hard Boots, Jet Boots) |
Rings (e.g.: Broken Ring, Healing Ring, Soul Ring) |
Capes (e.g.: Cloth Cape, Adventurer's Cape, Druid Mantle) |
Necklaces (e.g.: Treeseed Necklace, Magnet Necklace, Spirit Magatama) |
Charms (e.g.: Souvenir Charm, Popular Charm, Miracle Charm) |
Furniture
Carpets (e.g.: Red Carpet, Checkered Carpet, Cute Carpet) |
Counters (e.g.: Wooden Counter, Legendary Counter, Barrel Counter) |
Flooring (e.g.: Plank Floor, Brick Floor, Tea-colored Floor) |
Wallpapers (e.g.: Lacquer Walls, Stone Walls, Ocean Wallpaper) |
Venders (The only vending machines in the game are the Old Vender, Vending Machine, and SuperVend SDXK56) |
Misc.
Food (e.g.: Walnut Bread, Beef Bowl, Shortcake) |
Books (e.g.: Les Infortunes, Booze of the World, Tale of Two Sisters) |
Treasures (e.g.: Unthankful Statue, Cat Statue, Music Box) |
Medicine (e.g.: Ferromin, Ferromin R, Strong Concoction) |
System Requirements
- Processor - Pentium 4 1.7ghz or Athlon XP 1700 (or equivalent processor).
- System Memory - 256MB of system RAM (512 recommended for Windows Vista and Windows 7).
- Video Card - DirectX 8.1-compatible video card of any type with at least 64 megabytes of video RAM.
- Sound Card - DirectX 8.1-compatible sound card/motherboard chip.
- Other - DirectX 8.1-compatible game controller required for playing with game controller.
- Operating System - Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 supported.
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