[video=youtube;Tg-1okp_OeU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg-1okp_OeU[/video]
A lot of interesting Japanese games never make it to the US or are translated and whispered about in the internet here and there.
Here we have Carpe Fulgur, a fresh and new doujin game translation house, tackling their very first project EasyGameStation's Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale.
Recettear is an RPG that gives the classic formula a twist. Instead of you taking quests, doing dungeons, and buying equipment you take the role of the RPG shopkeeper.
The premise of the game is that the heroine's father went out to seek fame and fortune as a hero, but then suddenly vanished leaving a huge debt to be paid for. A "repo" fairy named Tear visits the hero's daughter, Recette Lemongrass, and offers that she either give up her house as payment or turn it into an item shop to make the money to pay off the debt.
As Recette Lemongrass you must decide how exactly you want to make the money to pay off the debt, how much you'll sell items for, and how you'll get stock for your store.
You can petition adventurer's to go to dungeons with you to get rare loot from monsters to sell in your shop.
You have full control of your adventurer in classic "dungeon crawl" style layouts with treasure, traps, and monsters lurking around every corner. Gameplay is that of an action RPG with the ability to do more damage with side attacks, back attacks, and the occasional critical strike.
You can also build "Chains" by killing the same type of monster repeatedly for more EXP.
Dungeons are broken up into segments of 5 floors with a boss on each fifth floor. Some bosses require use of the environment to deal damage to them rather than just hacking and slashing them.
All in all, Recettear does some really interesting things, and if you liked the demo and want to see more unique games like this officially translated by Carpe Fulger or other translator groups I'd recommend supporting this game to show there's a market for these types of games in the US. I for one cannot wait for the official release of this game.
For the demo and news on the full release of the game go here : Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale - An item-shop role-playing game for the PC
For a better review of the game go here: Localized demo for item-shop RPG Recettear available now- Destructoid