Much like many Steam games, I don't know how this got into my library. I'm sure the obvious answer is the Humble Bundle before it was bought out and ruined by some venture capital company. Either way, this game has been on my mind on and off for the last 13 years, wondering I'd ever get to it. No idea what inspired me to pick this up, but here we go!

Recettear is, as it says in the name of the game, a store managing simulator. The main goal of the game is to pay off your father's debt that he accrued before mysteriously "vanishing". It's your job to source items for a price, then sell them at a higher price. As they like to say in the game, "Capitalism, ho!". There's also a dungeon where you fight enemies and use your purchased items to upgrade the adventurer fighting for you. Along the way, you meet a whole cast of characters with different personalities and such that you have to learn to be the best shopkeeper you can.

Jumping into things, I want to admit something. I did the dungeon one time and never bothered again. It didn't seem like it was even remotely relevant. I must have been correct because I was able to beat the game without doing it ever again. For that reason, there isn't much to say about it. Knowing what I know now about the combat, it would have gotten tedious because it's not a very in-depth combat system. Move and swing your weapon, that's about it.

Another element was meeting and talking to the other characters in the game. They all have unique personalities and how much they're willing to spend on items. You're supposed to figure that out as you go, but the act of buying and selling every day got a little tedious. I ended up looking up and using a guide to tell me the best prices to sell things at the people and went from there. You can also meet and talk to people in the town, but I found the dialogue dull and went on far too long. I ended up skipping almost all of it.

Finally, the main loop of the game, buying and selling. You buy items from the market or the blacksmith to sell in your shop. Random events can make items cheaper or pricier, or it can make them more popular. You also unlock work orders where people will come in and ask for specific items after a certain number of days. Honestly, it all gets tedious. There's almost no depth to it apart from buying items during low price events, then selling them during high price events.

So, is it worth completing?

After beating the game, I had 19% of the items discovered, which is how you'd complete the game. I'm sure you could easily go through and get every item quickly, since only one or two items are "hard" to get. I had no desire to do this, however, so I won't be completing this game, and I don't recommend you do either. I'm sure it was a lot more fun in 2010 when it released. It's currently 20 USD on Steam, which is a price I could never imagine paying for this game today. Unfortunately, I found every part of the game tedious and not even that charming.

Published 09 May 2026 @ 5:36:55 PM UTC

End of Game Information

Total Time Played: 6 hours, 50 minutes