by The cast of characters is quirky and fun (after all, “Capitalism, Ho!” isn’t a meme for no reason). But that’s all there is – after the second week or so, I began to realize that the mechanics lack depth and the dungeons are repetitive.
Here’s the long bit:
I have many tiny nitpicks, but the one that is the easiest to point out is that in a haggling game, you would expect … well … haggling. But there are no counter-offers – not even clever dialogue hints as to what price they’re willing to pay (that I was able to figure out, anyway). Instead, they tell you exactly how to beat the game in the tutorial – 125% for selling, 50% for buying (plus or minus 5%). High price items will be 3x the base cost. Low price items are roughly 1/2 the base cost. The Little Girl can’t afford anything. Knock 10% off for heroes. Even worse, they all have distinct “this price is too high” responses. Initially, I thought these would line up to how far off of a reasonable price I was. But no, it’s just random.
And it never varies – if a haggling game makes me want to just put price tags out since there’s no actual haggling involved, then its done its job poorly.
The premise is that you’re repaying a loan and have multiple payment dates – but instead of just penalizing you for being the slightest bit under the amount, it send you back to the start of the game. I’d be more okay with a Game Over and menu drop, since there is a save system (which almost defeats the purpose of starting over) – but instead, it resets you to day 2 and …keeps your items for some unknown reason. Anyway – as much charm as there is, I can’t justify finishing it. I really wanted to like it, and there’s quite a bit of potential. But it misses the mark.
As an example of the nonsensical mechanics of this game: I buy these armor items from the guildmaster / blacksmith. Then he comes into my shop and buys them back from me for more than he sold them. Mr. Guildmaster: You can literally make more for yourself. These mechanics don’t make sense.
I’m being harsh because I really wanted to like this game. I expected a lot because of its reputation.