Kingdom’s Item Shop

This is a Circle Ent game, which means it’s pretty cheap and usually rather casual. In Kingdom’s Item Shop, the player chooses to play as either a boy or girl shopkeeper and starts playing right away. From humble beginnings selling only one item at a time, the shop is upgraded and well stocked enough to become Kingdom’s Item Shop, the highest level and the end of the game.

There are three main things to do: questing, making recipes, and stocking the shop. When questing, you hire adventurers to fight monsters for you, and you run around picking up the items they drop. There are 3 classes of adventurers, and you set them to attack, defend, or activate skills with the X button. There are about 7 different quest locations.

Then you stock the shop with items that you have gotten, which range from commons to rares that might only drop from quest bosses. These items also have a popularity from low to high and a price which they sell at. Selling is a big part of the game, but in order to make progress, I also had to figure out recipes for more items to sell.

The recipes use two or three ingredients to make a special item, such as bread made from wheat and spring water or casual clothes made from cotton and an orange flower.  The game gives clues about what goes into an item, and I am glad I was able to figure out most everything myself. I made it to 60-70% completion at the crafting shops. You can make food, equips, clothes, and spells.

There’s also some special orders which can be completed to earn reputation needed to rank up. And the shop can be upgraded and so can your character in various ways... Such as bonuses from selling a certain amount of an item or badges to make quests cheaper.

I really liked it. It lasted about 10 hours and kept me coming back to it to sell some stuff. You see, the game is active even when it is in sleep mode or the system is off. I like how relaxed it was and I’m satisfied but a little sad it’s over. I guess I can keep playing. It’s an entertaining game that is overall competent, not dull.

When I got it on sale, I also got Adventure Bar Story and Conveni Dream, which are similar in some ways (haven’t started the latter yet), but Adventure Bar Story is a bit more difficult and obtuse. I’m also thinking of buying Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, which looks good and got great reviews, and Ever Oasis is another simulation game that I’d like to finish, but I don’t think anything will be as ultra casual or fun as Kingdom’s Item Shop.

Mario and Luigi: Dream Team

This game is an action RPG starring the Super Mario Bros, and as a Mario game it is one of the crown jewels of the first-party 3DS library, and one of the best games. It was the first Mario and Luigi game I played seriously. The exploring and platform jumping takes place in both 3D areas and 2D dream sequences. The adventure is on Pi’illo Island in which “pi’illos” are cute creatures which look like a pillow have been turned to stone and trapped in the dreamworld. It is the heroes’ job to rescue them.

There are many customization options throughout the game, from gear to which stats to level up and which badges to use in battle. Items are found often enough when exploring that I didn’t need to buy them too much, but they all have their uses.

Special attacks, which Mario and Luigi find, are exciting to use and figure out when to use the right one. The Dreams are dreamy and good side quests. Music is good: mostly upbeat, sometimes ambient and mysterious, and occasionally a classic theme played.

I didn’t really look forward to the giant battles using the stylus with the system on its side, but content is content and they were not bad. The QTEs (quick time events) are a welcome change from all the button pressing.

There is a feeling of overcoming adversity and completing challenges while playing Dream Team. It’s almost hard to believe all the inputs were my own, that I was actually playing the game. That is to say, it made me feel like I had skills.

The level and encounter design was genius, and it does ramp up towards the end. The last castle is epic and feels like something out of Zelda. It was fun to play and put a smile on my face.

I wasn’t sure I liked the graphics when I played the demo, but I grew fonder of Mario and Luigi than ever while playing this game and the art is pretty good. Mario has starred in games other than 2D platformers since the 90s, even board games for computers and stuff like that, but this is a Mario game that fits well on the system.

The amount of tutorials and dialogue does not negatively affect the game, nor were they excessive. One review said the boss fights at the end went on too long, so I decided to equip an accessory that made Mario eat a mushroom automatically when he needed it. This was a good idea and the end would have been challenging without the automatic heals.

It took me 46 hours to beat the game and I rated it 5 out of 5 on the eShop, for gamers who enjoy intense play. I’ve also got Paper Jam to play next since I enjoyed this one so much. Dream Team is a gem among 3DS games and I’m glad I played it.