Within the aftermath of Stardew Valley’s success and recognition, there have been many makes an attempt by different builders to carve their very own piece of the pixel farm life simulator pie. Whereas these video games so typically put you within the position of a poor farmer or another place of battle, Discounty does the alternative, having you successfully play because the unhealthy guys in Stardew Valley: the outsider that has every part and is making an attempt to weasel into the neighborhood. You are not actually enjoying a mirror of that sport’s story, but it surely’s awfully close–instead of being the brand new farmer in a small, struggling city, you are as an alternative the brand new proprietor of the big-brand grocery store that is making an attempt to monopolize the economic system and push out present distributors to extend your revenue margins. It altogether makes for a sport that’s enjoyable to play (in that hypnotic type of approach that is recognizable in so many video games that romanticize retail work), however it’s finally narratively fairly uncomfortable at instances and too muddled in its storytelling to make the most of that discomfort to ship a compelling message.
Granted, you are merely the pawn within the palm of the hand of a a lot greedier capitalist: your aunt. Roped into shifting to her small harbor city of Blomkest to assist out along with her struggling market, you arrive to search out she’s bought out to the Discounty chain and rebranded. Your aunt is straight away portrayed as a suspicious individual, preserving secrets and techniques locked away in sheds, making backroom offers with banks, and firing staff with out a second thought. It is all within the identify of increasing her grocery store enterprise empire, and also you’re her most loyal pawn, charming locals into going alongside along with your expansions and buying their wares in order that residents should go to Discounty to purchase meals and residential provides.
It feels scummy, particularly since your character has zero spine, pushing the buck on duty and ignoring the implications of their actions for a giant chunk of the sport’s story, which primarily offers with a hurting neighborhood that wants therapeutic.
Discounty comes very near tackling this story in a nuanced and measured approach. An unfair and demanding boss places you instantly on the backfoot, creating the implication that you simply’re powerless. And because the sole worker for a lot of the story, you must deal with all the retailer’s tasks solo for six days per week, eight hours a day. That leaves you treasured little free time to really exit and discuss to folks and attempt to assist them with their issues. At face worth, it seems as if Discounty is presenting the perspective of an overworked and underpaid retail employee not having the bandwidth to deal with societal problems–a pretty correct reflection of lots of people in actual life day-to-day. It is exhausting to dismantle the machine once you’re an unwilling cog caught up in its design.
The protagonist is not characterised that approach although; as an alternative, they’re propped up because the savior that Blomkest’s economic system wants. You resolve the destiny of those folks, and also you willingly go in opposition to their needs within the identify of capitalism. The story tries to make you’re feeling unhealthy about this a number of instances (which in itself is annoying, as there is not any option to not make the selections that you simply’re being condemned for), with residents coming into your retailer and expressing their displeasure at your costs, monopolization of the economic system, and willingness to destroy present infrastructure and city historical past within the identify of increasing the dimensions of your retailer. However they instantly forgive you and return to frequently buying with you the very subsequent day, draining any type of narrative consequence out of your actions.
So typically, Discounty feels prefer it’s on the verge of constructing a degree about this–the sport nearly delves into the topic of how, within the grand scheme of issues, we bemoan massive firms and big-name manufacturers however then are all too fast to depend on them. But it surely’s so muddled by the sport’s insistence to continuously divert consideration away from this material. It needs to be a “cozy” sport, and coping with nuanced points that make you assume aren’t cozy. Just about each story beat is shuffled below the rug as quickly because it’s introduced up, creating spikes in tone that ricochet between outlandish silliness and discomforting actuality, and do not enable house for the participant to take a seat with any of what they discovered as a result of there are cabinets to inventory. Discounty has a barebones narrative framework that leaves you wanting for a solution that the story feels ill-equipped to offer as a result of it by chance stumbled into asking the query.
These hang-ups with the story apart, the moment-to-moment gameplay of Discounty is fairly enjoyable. Most of it sees you frantically working round your individual retailer to maintain cabinets stocked or take cost on the money register. As your small business grows, new challenges come up. Clients can observe in filth that you have to take time to wash, for instance, and as your inventory grows, discovering sufficient house for all of your shelving can show a difficult puzzle. However discovering options to those issues within the fixed drive to push effectivity and buyer satisfaction are frequently rewarding. With every shift, you may discover shortcomings you may shore up or locations the place you may enhance, and with cautious consideration (and the earnings you earn), you may put your plans into motion.
Want extra prospects coming in to purchase the excess of cabbage you by chance ordered? Purchase an attention-grabbing prop that may compel extra folks so as to add cabbage to their grocery lists and print out some flyers to plaster round city to drive up the quantity of people that go to within the coming week. Uncover that filth retains piling up subsequent to the milk? Shift your cabinets round in order that there are two avenues to achieve your milk part, lessening the visitors by way of the previously singular lane, after which transfer the cleansing provides subsequent to the milk part so you may simply seize them. Struggling so as to add up buyer’s massive orders even with the in-built calculator and stressing about how typically folks complain in regards to the pace of service? Put money into a scanner that cuts out the necessity to add up the person worth of every merchandise.
As Discounty’s story continues, you may unlock extra challenges, like day by day and weekly quotas that internet you a bonus foreign money to unlock new gadgets to inventory the shop with. You may have story-driven milestones to perform the likes of elevating an enormous sum to afford one other growth or discovering a option to make a take care of a number of suppliers to develop your small business. The chase to realize these targets turns into the driving power in Discounty, and even when the narrative payoff for these duties is hit-or-miss every time, the feeling of hitting one other milestone and checking off a job in your to-do listing is frequently fulfilling. Discounty grades your efficiency every day as properly, so the act of merely streamlining your small business to make it much more productive than it was the day earlier than is gratifying too and creates smaller milestones that you could pursue between the bigger targets that usually take a number of in-game weeks to work towards.
If you’re not working within the retailer, you are free to discover the city and discuss to its varied residents. Every has a memorable persona and design, setting a excessive commonplace on first assembly that the sport would not all the time meet in subsequent interactions. Outdoors of particular story beats, every citizen solely has a handful of issues to say, so chatting with them three or 4 instances can exhaust all their dialogue and trigger them to begin repeating earlier conversations. This will get annoying, particularly with the residents that you must communicate to dozens of instances as a result of they’re store distributors that you simply purchase furnishings from or suppliers that you simply acquire particular items from–clicking by way of the identical dialogue chains time and again turns into grating shortly.
Speaking to the opposite characters can push ahead different plot factors too, together with a number of that focus on mysterious happenings that plague the city. Why are the woods closed and lined in a wierd purple mist? What’s up with the massive inhabitants of rats congregating in random elements round city? What’s your aunt preserving within the locked shed and why does she hold saying that you do not have to fret about it? These mysteries are largely character-driven, and the reward on your sleuthing is studying extra in regards to the denizens that decision Blomkest their residence. They don’t seem to be all that difficult to puzzle by way of, with the clue wanted to proceed normally falling into your lap simply by placing time into the shop. However they’re all enjoyable distractions and get you extra concerned with the colourful forged of characters, making fixing every thriller way more worthwhile than simply going as much as folks and making an attempt to speak to them usually.
With some caveats, I would suggest Discounty. The story will make you frequently really feel such as you’re the unhealthy man in all this, and technically you’re even when it is no fault of your individual. But it surely’s straightforward to disregard the riffraff and the difficulty you are inflicting your fellow residents in your fixed pursuit of bringing a factory-level of effectivity to your rising grocery store, and driving up earnings for the only real goal of shopping for upgrades that may allow you to drive earnings even additional. Perhaps Stardew Valley’s JojaMart had the best concept in spite of everything.