Capitalism, ho!
Recette Lemongrass is a young girl that lives in Pensee without a care in the world, until her father leaves her to "become a hero". Left in the family home alone, Recette receives a visit from Tear, a representative from Terme Finance - it turns out her father also left behind an epic debt, one she must pay back as he cannot be located. Tear floats the concept of an item shop, Pensee is a hub for would-be RPG adventurers so the conditions are ideal. Recette begins to work off her debt by selling items at inflated prices, and buying new ones for below cost.
The game's bread and butter is selling items in Recettear to the public; everytime you sell an item to a customer or buy one of theirs you gain experience - this allows you to level up as a merchant. Each level unlocks new features, such as the ability to take orders in advance and to redecorate your store. Once the store begins to run low on stock Recette ventures out into dungeons after hiring a hero - the other half of the game is a dungeon-crawling affair in which you are able to take up to 20 items back to the store to sell.
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is developed by EasyGameStation, an indepdendent game developer in Japan. The game was first released in 2007 at the 73rd Comiket convention1 and in 2010 was localized by Carpe Fulgur. As of January 2012, the game has sold over 170,000 copies outside Japan2.
