Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale will be out next week at Gamersgate, Steam and Impulse. It's been mentioned quite a few times at Rock, Paper, Shotgun already, and I'm playing the demo, and it's quite interesting.
So, any comments? Have you tried it? Have you played it 3 years ago when it was released in Japanese? Do you like it? Will you buy it? Go!

I have finished the demo today. The game reminded me of The Guild, with about the same difficulty. Yes, don't get fooled by the pretty design, the game is not extremely hard, but it's not as easy as it looks.
I'm afraid that the game might be a little bit repetitive though, but it's good entertainment and it changes from what I usually play, so I liked it.

I tend to shy away from overtly anime-styled games, but this one did catch my eye the other day. It sounds interesting, though I'm not sure the gameplay would hold my interest through the entire campaign.
I am not likely to buy it at launch - generally I only pay $20+ for a game that I really, really want - but I will play the demo, at least. If I like it, I may pick it up sometime down the road.

I'm am very curious - why shy away from styling, even if overtly done? I assume overt - you mean open / clear / obvious, so you mean just anime games? Or overdone? Anyway, would like to know what turns you off about them.

It's not that I object to stylized or cartoony graphics in general; they are a welcome alternative to the obsessive pursuit of photorealism that ultrabudget games usually go for. I just don't particularly like the stereotypical anime art and animation style. I used to be a fan, actually, but in recent years I've begun to find it a bit repulsive.
It goes without saying that there's quite a wide range of art styles that appear in manga and anime, since anime is just, well, Japanese animation. Recettear, though, is a good example of the stereotype.
That's the kind of art, animation, and presentation that puts me off nowadays. I'm not entirely sure why. I guess I find it a bit overly saccharine. I wouldn't dismiss the game out of hand because of it, but it does make me less interested than I would otherwise have been. It goes the other way, as well - my initial interest in Dragon Age was diminished because the game seemed to be trying so laughably hard to be moody and grimdark.
To be fair, there is hideous animation all over the world.

Will you buy it?
Nope. Can't. Not because I don't want to, but because CF have left distribution of all versions of the game up to EGS in Japan. When EGS were emailed about selling the English version, they simply redirected back to CF, who redirect back to EGS and round and round....
When CF were asked if they'd help EGS with negotiating the release for Japan as EGS felt they were incapable of doing so themselves, they out right stated that nope, they would not help them.
I did at least manage to persuade GamersGate to fire off an email to EGS (although it's very unlikely that anything will come of it if they don't speak English).
Still, GamersGate, being GamersGate gave me a complimentary copy (but then, I was possibly the first person to bring the game to their attention in the first place).
As for buying the Japanese language version, haven't bought it yet, but may well do so if CF actually go ahead with their idea of replacing the Japanese voices with English ones.

I don't like this sort of style in general, either, but I'd say it actually works pretty well with this game. It's an interesting contrast to some of the darker parts of the game.
Source? From what I've read, they don't handle the rights to a Japanese release, that's all in EGS' hands.

I just finished the demo, and the "ending" is beyond cute and very effective at "selling" the game. I might get this game after all, as I can't think of many games this charming.
Maybe I'll get it together with Penumbra Collection. Perhaps they'll balance each other out? :-D

Personal correspondence between both EGS and CF. Basically, while CF may not handle release of the English version in Japan, EGS were under the impression that they would at least help -- seeing as they can bridge the language gap and all that.
Also if CF want EGS to start using SteamWorks for a later revision for Recettear, don't you think it'd at least be a good faith measure to help them with negotiations for Japan considering that EGS will have to handle all the programming to implement any form of SteamWorks integration?

If steam wasnt being so slow.... I would have picked it up.....

So, no links or anything, then? Eh.
Sure it would, which is one of the reasons what you're saying doesn't sound very credible.

Nope. I'm not one to go posting emails in public. Besides, my correspondence with EGS was conducted in Japanese, so it wouldn't mean much to you anyhow I bet.
And yet, what I'm saying is unfortunately the truth. Which is also why my final correspondence with CF was less than pleasant (that and it was around 3 am and I was unable to sleep due to the never ending bloody heat wave, which tends to put me in a bad mood anyhow).

Played the demo, preordered the game. I find simple game play helpful at times when all you have is a few minutes to spare once in awhile.

It's really cool, nice pick up and play style. I'll pre-order this definantly.