Evolution of the Business RPG

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Introduction This is an article written by Yanfly. By now, the Business RPG is an evergrowing genre. These are sometimes known as an Item Shop RPG or Restaurant RPG, but ultimately, their playstyles are the same. The player character runs an item shop or restaurant for half the day, then spends the other half of the day gathering resources or dungeon crawling. If this sounds familiar, it's because there's a lot of games like it already. These games include the likes of Recettear, Moonlighter, Mystia's Izakaya, Cuisineer, and Dave the Diver. While not all of them are RPG's in the traditional sense, I want to use these five for this article to provide examples with and show how they evolved and what we can learn from these games should we ever decide to make our own Business RPG. Getting to Know Each Game Let's introduce each game so that we have an idea of what they're like. Recettear Release Date: Sep 10, 2010 This is a game about Recette who has to take on the debt of her parents. She does so through the aid of Tear, a debt collector fairy, and paying off the item shop's debt is her goal. Recette does this by collecting goods from the town's wholesaler. However, if she doesn't have enough money, she'll go gather goodes from the dungeons nearby instead. This game is home to some of the memes you see online such as "Capitalism, ho!". Many people consider this grandfather of all Business RPG's. And for good reason, too! The formula used by Recettear is seen throughout the future games regardless of whether or not they have an item shop or restaurant and regardless of whether or not there are dungeons, too. As this game was released in 2010, it wouldn't come off as surprising if some folks did not know of its existence as it was a very niche game at the time. Fans loved this game and though it arrived on Steam rather late, it still managed to accrue 6,000+ reviews at the time of writing this article. Moonlighter Release Date: May 29, 2018 Moonlighter is a game that centers around Will, the son of a merchant. However, Will's father has long disappeared and never came back after venturing into the nearby dungeons. Will decides to carry on his father's legacy by running his shop and exploring the dungeons to find items worth selling. The store is ran during the day, and Will ventures into the dungeons during moonlight, hence the name. While Recettear is one of the pioneers for the genre back in 2010, Moonlighter is the one that brought the genre back in 2018 with high levels of success. It uses an extremely similar formula to Recettear but changed quite a few things up. The item shop system was overhauled to be more linear and straight forward. The dungeon and combat was also overhauled to feel better and fit the modern gaming landscape more. All in all, Moonlighter was a modern day success with a review count of 13,500+ at the time of writing this article. Mystia's Izakaya Release Date: Oct 1, 2021 Just a few years down the line, Mystia's Izakaya came out as the next big Business RPG. It's a fangame for the ever so timeless Touhou Project series and focuses on one of its characters called Mystia, who runs an izakaya (Japanese food/drink stall) for various reasons, namely debt. Somehow, the debt keeps piling up, but Mystia powers through with her business. Mystia's Izakaya is one of the first of many modern Business RPG's that focus on the restaurant aspect. The Recettear formula is alive and well, but many changes have occurred. Unlike Recettear and Moonlighter, there's no more dungeons. In fact, there's no more combat. There is, instead, a resource gathering focus that's found across many maps. Handling the restaurant is also vastly different from handling an item shop, too. There was also more focus on narrative, too. The game was a massive hit on Steam with a total review count of 17,000+ at the time of writing this article. Cuisineer Release Date: Nov 9, 2023 In late 2023, Cuisineer launched as one of the more modern Business RPG's featuring a restaurant theme. It has a similar story to the other Business RPG's so far. The main character, Pom, has to pay off the debt of her parents and she will have to do so through their restaurant. She uses her past experiences as an adventurer to find her new calling as a restaurateur. Unsurprisingly, the Recettear formula is still at play here for Cuisineer. Just like with Mystia's Izakaya, resource gathering is done separately from restaurant work. This time, however, the ingredients used for the kitchen will fight back and Pom has to fight her way through combat vegetables and warrior shrimps. There is also boba tea. This charming little game is starting off the year with 1,000+ reviews at the time of writing this article. Dave the Diver Release Date: Jun 28, 2023 We go back in time a few months for the release of Dave the Diver, the most successful of the Business RPG's thusfar. The game focuses around Dave, a fun loving diver, who somehow gets roped into helping a sushi restaurant. He goes into the sea and collects fresh ingredients for this sushi restaurant and continuously gets more and more involved with misadventures. Dave the Diver strays away from the usual top-down RPG appearance that most Business RPG's have and goes for a more 2D platformer aesthetic. However, it still very much so follows the Business RPG formula of collecting resources during one half of the day and running a business in the other half. Amongst all of the Business RPG's listed, Dave the Diver is the most successful of them, sitting at 86,000+ reviews at the time of writing this article, and this article will explore why. Day Cycle Each game has a similar gameplay loop of gathering resources and selling them in the business. However, each game has a different way in how they handle the way each day progresses. Let's take a look at each one. Recettear: Each day gives you a set amount of hours to go do stuff in. Time does not progress until you perform an action. You can open up the shop at any time, in which case, time will progress steadily until nightfall. If you choose to not open up the item shop, you can go to the dungeon instead, in which case, you will always return at night despite how much time was spent in the dungeon. Moonlighter: Each day is split up into two phases: day and night. No time passes during the day and you can perform near infinite actions to perform around town, that is, until you choose to open up your shop or enter the dungeon. When closing shop or leaving the dungeon, you will then come back out at night time. Night time does not have time advance either, but you can still venture out in town to interact with townsfolk. You can also choose to enter the dungeon here, or you can go to sleep to go to the next day cycle. Mystia's Izakaya: Each day is split up into two phases: day and night. During the day, you can do things like interact with NPC's or pick up resources. Interacting with most NPC's do not advance time though some actions will advance time by 30 minutes. Picking up resources will always advance time by 30 minutes. Once time reaches 18:00, it's time to open up the restaurant. The restaurant will advance time steadily until closing hours. Then it's time to move to the next day. Cuisineer: Each day gives you a set amount of hours to go and do stuff in. Time advances steadily throughout the day even if you idle or are in a menu. However, if you go into a dungeon, time stops and will automatically set the time to night when leaving the dungeon. If you choose to open up the restaurant, time will advance steadily with you serving customers until the time you choose to close the restaurant. Dave the Diver: Each day has four phases: Day Preparation, Day Diving, Night Preparation, Night Restaurant. Day Preparation allows you to prepare and interact with NPC's or other aspects of the game without time moving forward. The moment Dave enters the water to dive, day time advances into the Day Diving phase. Here, time does not move forward until you return back to the surface. However, a limited oxygen tank can function as a timer, although you can refill your oxygen tank with various interactions. Night Preparation phase is just like the Day Preparation phase: you can interact with NPC's and other aspects of the game. When you choose to open up the restaurant, and for a set amount of time moving steadily forward, you have to go and serve the customers. End of Article MA Ghostwriter