Faire Trade

I have to actually ask, honest to kupo question. Why should i play this over Winkeltje? the new features are just outright... padding? Cool i have a house, with no point in existing. theres a town, with no reason to exist except to make me walk to town to get blueprints. I just.... dont understand why i should pick this over Winkeltje. Honest pass. I tried to like it but i just can't.

The top negative review says "this game looks just like the original, isn't it a sequel? Shouldn't it be different?" while also saying "There's a new trading stall to trade, why need a house? Why need a town? The original was charming because it was only a shop you had to run." So, it's different? lol Anyway I found that amusing. I haven't played a whole lot of it yet but from what I have played it's well on its way. It's a lot like the original game but has some added mechanics, such as a town you can visit and a home you live in. It's cute and relaxing. If you enjoyed the original playstyle of the first I think you'll like this one too.

I really wanted to like this game. The art style is charming, the concept is solid, and I love shop management games. Unfortunately, after a few hours it became obvious that **Faire Trade values busywork far more than the player's time.** The onboarding is rough. The tutorial feels poorly paced, and at one point I didn't even have enough money to complete the objective it was asking me to do and what that objective was - wasn't even clear! Instead of teaching the game's systems naturally, it left me wondering whether I had made a mistake or whether the economy simply wasn't balanced around the tutorial. The biggest problem, however, is the gameplay loop. Customers frequently buy a single item, instantly emptying a display, which sends you running back to storage to refill it. Over and over. It quickly turns into: * Customer buys one item. * Shelf is empty. * Restock. * Repeat. That isn't engaging management—it's repetitive maintenance. The game advertises employees, but don't expect meaningful automation. Even with staff available, much of your time is still spent manually restocking, crafting, transporting goods, and handling logistics yourself. It never reaches that satisfy…

I was pretty excited when I got this gifted to me, because I love a good shop simulator, but I couldn't even get past the tutorial. It was quite difficult as all it would say is something like "Craft this thing" or "Go here" but did not explain how to craft, where to get the ingredients to craft said thing, and no other indication as to where you had to go without running around aimlessly. Took me a hot minute to find who I need to look for in town, but since you can't angle the camera to look around in front of you, you're quite limited. I wanted to love this game, but if I got frustrated during the tutorial then that's it for me. Went ahead and refunded.

Love this game! Not a big surprise because I enjoyed their last game. A pure shop game that is deep and complex while still being chill to play.

The creators of Winkeltje are working hard to bring us a worthy successor. Faire Trade is still baking but is coming along very well! It is a good game in a basic formula. More features are in the works and this is looking like an excellent game when it finishes early access.