Discounty
Developer: Crinkle Cut Games
Publisher: PQube
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $19.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
There have been many different kinds of “cozy life” sim games that have taken standard jobs and made them more charming than they seem. The most common of these happen to be farming games or those that blend farming and magic together to help bridge the gap a bit. Along these same lines we’ve seen things like fishing games, undertaking, and more but few happened to focus on something that most people dread, working in retail. That happens to be where developer Crinkle Cut Games and PQube have ventured into with Discounty, placing players in charge of a rural supermarket that would give nightmares to any longtime retail employee. Packaged in a colorful presentation and solid mechanics set in a town with more behind its charming aesthetic, is Discounty a successful take on a cozy retail game?
Story
When players, who have circumstances of their own that are only ever briefly mentioned, are brought to the distant small town of Blomkest where they find that their aunt Tellar has been trying to get a “supermarket” going for years and has recently become part of the “Discounty” chain of stores where they do nothing but provide a name and resources for some odd reason. With Aunt Tellar sticking the player in a trailer in her backyard, she sticks all of the labor of getting the Discounty store up-and-running with only a few short days of getting the hang of things before firing the only other employee, leaving players at the mercy of the consumers, business partners, and cash register.
As the store’s only employee it is up to the player to not only order shipments and stock shelves but also “broker deals” with the various other vendors within the town that offer unique items outside of Discounty’s standard fare, and it is worth noting that almost the entirety of the story progresses as players make steps in improving their Discounty chain, be it upgrading the terms of their deals or signing new ones. That being said, while the core storyline does revolve around the Discounty shop, both in regards to its development and how its rapid growth is impacting this small town steeped in its own history and folklore, there are small snippets of story for each of the characters in the game as well, though these are a bit minimal and unfortunately don’t have nearly as much depth as one would hope, especially given the game genre.
Players will be able to spend their free time before and after shift, and all day on Sundays either stocking shelves, ordering new produce and dry goods from the computer or from up to four different business partners they will sign with, or simply exploring the town of Blomkest and finding out more about its inhabitants. Similar to story progression, some of these character interactions are gated behind certain story beats but it is interesting to note that a lot of characters have unique dialogue that mentions various quests and things that the player has done to help the town, even if some of it randomly appears in conversations way later than it actually happened. Like a case where the local fisherman Fisher talked about how good it was of me to find sheep nearly seven hours before.
There are also unique scenes players can witness that reveal a little bit more about the struggles some face, but nothing here has any notable impact other than showing some of the struggles these people are facing out in this town and providing some emotional connection to them. This is partially thanks to the fact that the game’s main storyline can be completed in twelve hours with almost complete completion and most of that time will be spent within the Discounty and the fact that despite the colorful and interesting designed locations in Blomkest it is incredibly dull, especially once players see most side-character scenes. In fact, while we won’t spoil what happens here, the most predictable of events happens when a newfound business grows at a rapid pace and an incredibly ambitious owner with little care for the town itself, and while there are plenty of mysteries that seem to be afoot, it all falls flat. Perhaps it is my fault for expecting a bit more of the storyline and the various aspects it was hinting at and mysterious characters, but Discounty settles on sticking with a “cozy” no punishment way of life even as the credits role and give players access to the endless epilogue mode where ironically some final character moments are hidden away.
Gameplay
An average day in Discounty will involve the player waking up in their trailer (that they can purchase extra flooring and wall colors for as well as minor furniture, all of which can be used in the shop as well) at 6 AM and have three hours of free time to either run around the town and clean up litter that has been discarded by their own shoppers, interact with other residents that are out and about or talking to one of the four business partners that players will eventually be able to sign with and buying exclusive items from them, and of course heading to the shop itself to restock any missing items or ordering new stock all before the opening at 9 AM and the mob descends.
Managing the actual shop itself is kept fairly basic as players only need to worry about making sure to order items when they start to get low on them, keeping the stock boxes in the storage while placing the items out in either different types of shelving or refrigeration units. Players cannot adjust the prices of these items in any way, trying to increase sales of one over another nor are there any “trends” to follow where shoppers may want vegetables more than fish or anything like that. Each shopper comes in already knowing what they want, but attractive shelves and special “items” obtained from the shop or business partner can entice some “impulse” buys as well. Every day players will be given a couple of small “missions” they can try to accomplish as well, be it checking out 5 happy customers, selling a certain amount of household items or drinks, or even ordering crates. These missions reward players with points that can then be used to unlock additional items to sell in the store, fancier posters that players can print out and attract more customers, and even a bar scanner to completely change the way checkout works.
Initially when players take on their role as an all hands on manager, stocker, and cashier in Discounty they will find that they only have a standard register to work with and a log book showing the price of each item that will need to be entered manually. If a customer is buying a tube of toothpaste it’ll be 17 dollars or an apple then it’ll be 5. If they are buying multiple of the same item it is nice to note that players can simply enter the proper price of the multiples without having to use the “multiplication” feature of the register, though it is useful for when some characters purchase strange multiples of a few of the more oddly priced items.
There are a few problems here though, one being that managing the buttons is a bit hit and miss using the analog stick on the controller, especially having to hold LT whenever a 0 is needed and another is that there is no real “fail” state when ringing up a customer. Inputting the wrong number simply resets the amount until the right one is entered, giving players no way to upcharge or discount something. In fact the only “fail” that can happen is if a customer gets annoyed enough waiting around they will simply leave and dump their items in the return bin, but that’ll happen almost entirely because of another reason. Once players unlock the aforementioned bar scanner the register will move far faster as players no longer need to worry about value or amount, but simply need to rotate the item to where that type’s barcode would be located, making it far faster and more efficient.
Players gain extra money and customer “visitation” depending on how happy they keep their customers and there is even a mission at one point that requires players to keep it above a certain percentage for a number of days and, thankfully, this mission happens before the incredibly annoying final expansion that adds an incredibly annoying issue that plagues the game from this point on, NPC navigation. While players can easily manage “dirt” left behind on the floors randomly that can slow down customers and lower the appeal of items nearby, one thing that is not manageable are the ways NPCs get stuck standing in a corner or wall in the final upgraded location. This happens randomly and the best way to avoid it happening is simply to avoid placing anything near or in the freezers in that location. Should an NPC get stuck there can be some luck mashing A on them to get them to move but more than likely they will remain in place until the store closes and forces them to checkout or they grow angry enough to storm off and leave. This is an annoying bug that is completely impossible to control at the moment and hopefully will be fixed. Similarly, it is entirely possible for shoppers to arrive a few short minutes before closing and either leave instantly angrily when the store closes or checkout with only a single item on their long list, leaving them angry as well, another aspect players cannot control and while, again, there is no punishment for this, it is annoying.
As mentioned before, once the store is closed players can spend time however they wish, be it restocking shelves and ordering items players are low on, completing the few side-missions or story missions that can be given to them such as figuring out what’s up with the rats, but unfortunately that is really all there is to it. Discounty doesn’t offer the type of fluff that usually comes with the genre such as extra activities outside of the main job, players simply interact with the townspeople as much as they can until their short stories come to a close and that’s it, no extra events, romance, fishing, or even designing since, as mentioned before, players only live in a trailer and furniture is slim pickings. While this is good for those who want a no frills store management sim with a cute side, Discounty might be a bit lacking for those expecting something a little more.
Audio & Visuals
The colorful and cute design of Blomquest looks lovely as players explore the city, leaving plenty of mysteries left untold even as they pass-by buildings boarded up showing that the town was once a bustling hub of activity and colorful sprites for the townsfolk. It is worth noting that character customization can be done at any time but unfortunately the customization options themselves are quite bad when it comes to the hairstyles and hats on offer.
There is no voice work in Discounty outside some minor sound effects when characters are speaking or mice run away. Instead all text is presented in dialogue bubbles above a character’s head and even here some of them had misspellings. The soundtrack features a great collection of simple but very fitting retro style tracks that range from ominous when exploring a creepy location or having something mysterious happen to standard shopping music while managing the Discounty or exploring the town.
Overall
Discounty is a fun and “cozy” type of game that presents a nightmare of a retail experience in an addictive little colorful package. When it comes to managing the store, players will quickly find themselves feeling the flow but unfortunately the story lacks the depth that it hinted at and at twelve hours with a full completion minus a single likely bugged achievement, it also feels like it could have had more to offer to the point that, when the credits rolled initially i couldn’t believe that was actually it, even with the epilogue content. That being said, Discounty will delight those looking for a new type of life-sim game but those looking for a bit more depth should look elsewhere.
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