Game Store Chronicle

30/10 for including sandbox mode without being additional DLC which so many sims do. You can run a store buildup like always, make checkout for customers super easy with auto-exact change, game runs smooth as butter, orders are a little more realistic with wait times and not having new releases will affect you, lots of stuff is a bit different in this game and that's a great thing. The one downside is the Ai art included but as long as it's being replaced at some point as described, I'm ok with that. I really hope they fix the "drop held item" binding as it's not entirely functional. Otherwise, I'll keep playing it and see what they do next. Great game so far otherwise!

After watching people like jacksepticeye play similar games such as Retro Rewind, I decided to give Game Store Chronicle a try, and for the most part, it delivers exactly what you'd expect from the premise. You manage a video game store through the decades, beginning in the 1970s. The games and consoles are fictionalized versions of their real-world counterparts, and as the years pass, new technology and products become available. You can decorate and expand your store, keep track of prices and consumer interest, and eventually hire employees to help keep everything running. As you progress, you also unlock new features such as accepting trade-ins and other services you'd expect from a game store trying to remain relevant as the industry evolves. If you enjoy life simulators, organizing things, watching numbers go up, and constantly tinkering with a business to make it more efficient, there's a lot to enjoy here. There's something strangely satisfying about rearranging shelves, adjusting prices, ordering inventory, and watching your little store gradually become bigger and more successful. That said, I'm currently in the 1980s and I'm beginning to feel the repetition. There is p…

eeeehhhhhh I mean it's fun and I enjoyed my time, but progression is EXTREMELY slow. Like I mean slow slow. In the 12 hours I played I unlocked 3 new items to sell. That's it. So the store was empty since you only need like 2 shelves each item and you only sell like 5 different items. Leveling up only lets you play an easily rigged mini game to give you a buff for 1-3 days like cheaper rent bill or more customers. Even for a shop sim it's soooooooo repetitive with hardly anything to do at all. The dumb on me part is I didn't realize until later that everything is A.I generated. Just open the menu for the items and inspect them. You can see random stuff being meshed and a staircase that goes over the door and connects to the second floor window in the graphic. lol stuff like that. Game is early access as hell.

I'm giving this a thumbs up with a MAJOR caveat: This is a very slow burn of a sim game. Progression is very slow, and the gameplay has a lot of quirks and jank that might take away from the experience. All in all, I'm able to run a game store, so I'm enjoying it even if the mechanics and progression need some work.

GSC is great! Straightforward and slower paced to match the retro feel of the era, has a good variety of games to sell, and the general feeling is perfectly game-store-cozy. The devs also responded quickly to prior feedback I had left, so they're clearly listening and improving the game.

Let me get to the cons first: You're the store keeper. If you can't effort your employees you're doing everything on your own. And making sure that your shelfs are filled while nobody waits for too long at the checkout is stress. It's repetitive. You're refilling every shelf, you're working the checkout, you're ordering the games and hardware, you're deciding the prices (well, the game makes suggestions, but you can ignore those). And that's pretty much everything you'll do in this game. It's a game store simulator, what else did you expect? Pros: Its realism isn't too excessive. You can rely on delivery of your orders (no delays), you can rely on your employees to do their job (no sick days or vacation), you can rely on the products (no reclamations). In summary the game does what is promised while leaving out things that could ruin the fun. Just open your store and handle it the way you wish your rl gamestore would have been handled. And on top of that, what actually didn't influence my review so far (except maybe the fact that i wrote one at all, which I did because they asked for one): The devs are awesome. I reported issues with my localization (german), and first changes s…