Carpe Fulgur had the bad judgement to release Recettear: An item Shop’s Tale while I was traveling. But that’s okay. Recette and her mob-connected business fairy, Tear, would wait. Painting the shelves. That chocolate bar melting in the window was this guy’s inheritance from his grandmother. “Sell it,” she told him, “if you ever need the money.”

It had been in his family for generations, and he hated to let it go. Bring up the offer just a touch and he might part with it.

To recap the game a little, Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is the story of a young girl, Recette, whose adventurer father borrows a large sum of money from the mob and promptly disappears, never to be seen again (as far as I know). Tear, the mob fairy, gets in contact with Recette fairly soon and informs her that the collateral for her father’s loan was the family home, which is now forfeit. This is a bit of a shock for Recette, who was just getting used to being alone in the world. Now she’s alone *and *homeless. Tear takes pity, and gives her a month to repay the loan – which is so substantial that she can’t tell Recette just how much it is (I estimate well over 1,000,000 pix – pix being the currency of the land). Tear suggests she turn the house into an item shop and sell things to adventurers and townspeople and so on. Perhaps hire adventurers to go into dungeons and get things for them to sell.

The demo covers the first week, and gives you some of the flavor of the full game. You’ll have little trouble exploring the first dungeon with your hired adventurer or making your first 10,000 pix payment (grats! You have paid off 1% of your debt!). You have a good feeling. You laughed at Tear’s businesslike nature and Recette’s obliviousness to her situation. You kinda felt weird about the Merchant Guild guildmaster who sells stuff cheap to Recette and then shows up at the store to buy it all back later.

But you haven’t met the Mouse with a Grudge (and a huge crowbar). Having a grudge only gets you so far. Having a grudge and a crowbar, well – now you’re making your point. You haven’t met the cyborg girl who doesn’t understand the difference between “taking” and “buying”. You haven’t met the kimono-clad lady who keeps trying to find her way home and just ending up deeper in dungeons. You haven’t met Recette’s arch-rival and best customer, Alouette. You haven’t been yet told that Recette is too short to own an item shop (but, strangely, the fairy Tear is tall enough).

And you probably haven’t had to sleep in a cardboard box after your home was repossessed.

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is just good, clean family fun. It’s available now from Impulse, Steam and Gamer’s Gate. I bought mine at Impulse – no DRM, and you can copy it to any PC. Any of YOUR PCs – don’t pirate, buy! Best $20 you’ll spend this month.

Anyway, here’s some hints:

Dungeons can drop decent gear, but you’ll find better (more profitable) stuff in the market or the merchant’s guild. Your BEST stuff, the stuff that will make you rich, is crafted in the forge with “fusion”, using items dropped in dungeons combined with items bought. You’ll need fusion to win the game.

I tend to go dungeon diving every couple of days for raw materials, do whatever fusion I can, then spend a couple of days tending shop. Now that I have leveled enough to need to fill advance orders, the days I must spend in the shop are more or less fixed.

The customers have certain percentages of base value at which they will sell or buy. Naturally, these values change based on the demand. Don’t worry about losing the little girl as a customer. I always sell her the cheapest stuff. Advance orders are golden. They’ll buy whatever you hand them, as long as it fits their general needs. No matter how expensive it is.

Jade Way: First Boss: King Slime. Drops Slime Liver, which you’ll need for fusion and an advance order. Takes damage in inverse proportion to its size. Kill it when it’s small.

Jade Way: Second Boss: Reginald Drisby. Whacks you with the crowbar if you’re in front of him, occasionally sends out nasty bubbles. He likes mushrooms. Red mushrooms heal him, purple mushrooms knock him out. Kill all the red mushrooms as they pop, and get behind him and let loose with the back hits when he falls over.

Alouette will buy things for a lot of money. Gouge her mercilessly. Her fairy, though, is a cheapskate.