Carpe Fulgur Announces Recettear’s First Month Sales

I think it’s time for capitalistic celebrations and a Yayperoni Pizza, folks. Over on the Carpe Fulgur’s main page, they’ve finally made their big announcement as to how Recettear has fared in the market.

According to Andrew “SpaceDrake” Dice, Project Director at Carpe Fulgur, Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale has sold over 26,000 copies through the various distribution channels set up to sell the game. That’s quite an impressive amount of sales for an indie game, to be sure.

I really like this portion of the announcement (well, most of the body actually) from Dice, so I’ll just quote it here:

Everyone at Carpe Fulgur is… humbled? Amazed? It’s difficult to put a name to what we feel. Recettear has done what we had barely dared to hope it would do: in a month it has secured the future of Carpe Fulgur by allowing all of its members to make wages comparable to “proper” jobs in the industry for an entire year, and has provided EasyGameStation with a massive new stream of revenue that they did not previously have access to.

The reviews of Recettear have been near-universal in their praise. Talk about the game all over the internet has been positive. The Recettear project is an unqualified success at this juncture – everything Carpe Fulgur set out to do has been accomplished. Recettear is available in English, people enjoy the localization and the game itself, and we’ve made enough money to continue with other projects with very little concern for the immediate future.

I, personally, feel the need to thank every single person who reviewed the game, talked about it in various places across the Internet, downloaded the demo, and most importantly bought the game. There are tens of thousands of you out there, from all across the planet. You made this possible. You fulfilled our dream – our dream of making a living from bringing the best indie games Japan has to offer to the English-speaking world.

I even want to thank the pirates, really – I know some of you have been “demoing” the game and then purchasing it, and I thank you for that. From our data via Steam and whatnot, our official demo-to-full conversion rate is somewhere between 25 and 30%… a number that I suspect is inflated in part by former pirates deciding to support us.

Dice also noted that due to the success of Recettear, we can expect some more news on future projects soon.

Congratulations once again to the team at Carpe Fulgur! They’ve definitely seized the lightning here.

Bargain Alert! Everquest II: Sentinel’s Fate at 88% off

If you’ve heard good things about Everquest 2, but don’t have a subscription, there’s an offer on Direct2Drive that is perfect for you.

They’re selling Everquest 2: Sentinel’s Fate for $4.95. That’s around 88% off the original price, and it also means that you can download the full game and play the subscription version for 30 days if you’ve never made an account.

It’s certainly a lovely bit of discounted goodness, so feel free to check Direct2Drive’s sale on the game for more information.

Source: Big Download

FFXIV Updates: Market Wards to get Changes

Market Wards Revealed

Some new news from the Lodestone, folks!

Square Enix’s development and management teams for FFXIV gave folks an update regarding what  to expect for the Market system that’s currently in place for the game. To put it simply though, they’ll be implementing a system that allows folks to get more money for selling specific goods in particular market wards that specialize in given item types.

Sell a lance in the Battlecraft ward, for example, and you’ll pay fewer taxes, resulting in more income. Sounds good, no?

From the Lodestone news article:

We have continued to receive copious amounts of feedback regarding changes that players would like to see made to the market system. As a result, we are planning a number of revisions and additions to the system, the first of which are scheduled to be implemented in the next one to two weeks.

Specifically, market wards will be organized according to specific item types, making it easier to consolidate similar items in the same area. Further, if an item sold within a ward corresponds to that wards’ item type, the tax incurred will be reduced. Items not of that ward’s category may still be sold, but the tax imposed will remain the same as it has up until now.

I currently have no idea how the market system works in FFXIV, so you’ll have to forgive me for my lack of practical knowledge. What I am guessing though is that they’ll keep the market system intact and find ways to give incentives for players to make the system work rather than overhauling the system altogether. While it probably isn’t what folks might want, addressing current ineffeciency in the Market system is a step in the right direction.

The Emotion of Sound: An Alternative Reason for Wanting to Play Final Fantasy XIV

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UODCxAtyDo]

It all started with Final Fantasy VII. Aerith died, the music played, and the realization that video games could evoke emotions like sadness dawned on me. It was a single moment, punctuated with music that struck the heart, and it steered me towards an appreciation for gaming.

With that appreciation for gaming comes a longing, however. There are times when, like a personal orchestra, a song will play in your head and won’t disappear: the soundtrack of your life, some folks call it. It comes and goes and the song changes, but when that song plays, you can’t help but remember things, pieces of memories or adventures you’ve had in the real world or in your mind, and you feel things you ever thought you would feel (or would have to feel again).

Read more

FFXIV Magic Skill Glitch Confirmed, Abusers to be Punished

I had heard a rumor about a magic skill glitch that allowed someone to boost his skill gains when using magic, but I didn’t think it was newsworthy as it wasn’t confirmed at the time. Of course, a few hours after reading about the glitch, Square Enix acknowledged it, so we should expect the historic first wave of suspensions coming in pretty soon.

Here’s the official word from Square Enix:

We have confirmed an issue where players may obtain abnormal amount of skill points by casting enhancing or healing magic to the party member. The issue is currently being addressed.

Also we would like to remind that repeating this method intentionally to obtain abnormal amount of skill point is considered as fraudulent behavior. With players who have abused this method, an investigation shall be made and their account may receive penalty including account suspension in case we determine it to be malignant. The investigation is expected to take a while until the completion. For those of you who have abused this method, please report yourself through GM Call. By reporting yourself in, GM will correct the amount of skill point and skill rank you have gained and the penalty to your account will be exempted.

If you’re wondering who would even think of abusing a glitch to get ahead… well, a name did pop up earlier on my radar, thanks to Sankaku Complex (warning: NSFW ads).

Feel free to verify Ryoko Antihaijin of the Figaro Server on the Lodestone, or see the above picture I took as an example.

EDIT: And it’s been patched, folks.

Moral Quandaries and Dead Rising 2

I’m not finished with Dead Rising 2 yet, but I think I’ve played enough (possibly halfway through the story) to write about Dead Rising 2. I purchased it for the PS3 with the intent of killing some time and some brain cells mindlessly beating the stuffing out of zombies. Instead, I ended up thinking deeply about certain aspects of the game that struck me personally.

If you’re wondering what the story is in Dead Rising 2, it’s like this: Chuck Greene and his daughter Katey came to Fortune City, Nevada as part of a zombie-slaying reality game show called Terror is Reality. During their stay in Fortune City, someone released the zombies out into the wild, infecting the general populace and making a mess out of just about everything save for the Safe House that Chuck, Katey and a host of other survivors managed to find. Sadly, Chuck’s been falsely accused of releasing the zombies, so he has to clear his name in three days before a pickup arrives and arrests him.

There’s a second wrinkle to this story though: Katey was bitten by her mother during a previous outbreak of zombification. The reason they’re in Fortune City is because Terror is Reality pays Chuck enough to purchase Zombrex, an zombification inhibitor drug, for his daughter. With the city gone to hell and his name tarnished, Chuck Greene has to scour Fortune City, not only for clues to who framed him, but also for Zombrex to keep his daughter from turning undead.

The gameplay itself doesn’t feel terribly deep (mash the B button with an equipped weapon to kill zombies or punch them, rescue survivors, create custom weapons to do more damage to zombies, level up, and repeat process with a new weapon.), but there are certain aspects to the gameplay that, when coupled with the story, make it very difficult to put down.

First, there is the time management aspect of the game. Every moment not spent on pause is time ticking away on the main quests and storyline of the game. To add a wrinkle in the process, one of the main characters sends you information on things happening in the city, and you can choose to aid people or not when this information is given up till a certain time. If it’s your initial set of playthroughs, you probably won’t have the strength to do everything or the firepower to cut through swathes of enemies, sadly. In other words, you cannot save everyone.

In my case, I went to an area knowing that there was a non-storyline boss character there, and I didn’t have the strength to defeat it. So upon reloading a save, I had to choose between using my time more wisely and saving other people or focusing on beating that one enemy to get to the person trapped by the bad guy. Reluctantly, and with much regret, I chose to let someone die.

Related to this is general scarcity of Zombrex. To find Zombrex, you must acquire it in the city through exploration, buy it from looters who’ve set up shop, or earn it from rescued survivors or slain enemies. Now, finding enough Zombrex for Katey is hard enough, but some survivor quests actually pose to you a survivor who’s been bitten by a zombie. The question is: do you give the Zombrex you’ve saved for that single survivor, or do you leave him be?

During my playthrough I encountered this once, and chose to give the only piece of Zombrex I had to the survivor. After escorting him to the Safe House, I basically had to worry about where I could get another one for my daughter. Luckily, one of the looter shops was selling Zombrex for the ridiculous price of $25,000 (with the next dose of Zombrex from him requiring $50,000, bloody pushers). With an only a small fraction of time left before Katey needed her Zombrex injection, I bought the meds, ran as fast as I could back to Katey, and got her the Zombrex shot in time.

Lastly, one aspect of the game that really hits the sadness lever on my heart are the psychopaths. Psychopaths are a blanket term gamers have used for the minibosses that appear in the Dead Rising series. There are many heart-wrenching stories of people who’ve been pushed over the edge by the zombie outbreak, from the chef turned cannibal cook to the roller-skating guy in a mascot costume who lost his mascot’s significant other. Their stories are all caused by the outbreak and while they may have been unhinged prior to the release of the zombies, the outbreak becomes the final straw that breaks their minds.

The one some of them blame? Chuck Greene, sadly.

I want to keep playing this game just so I can find out the reason behind why Fortune City became a hellhole, as well as keep Chuck’s daughter from turning into a zombie. While I do not know if Chuck can keep getting Zombrex for his daughter after the course of the game’s events, seeing him fight to keep her alive makes this game quite worth it.

Double Hyper Video Cast Off: Fallout’s Orange Colored Sky

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfVYZTx6AAI]
If you’re wondering what the background track is, it’s Orange Colored Sky, popularized by Nat King Cole in the 1950s. If I’m correct, the below video should be the best version to compare the Fallout’s Orange Colored Sky to.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdi97HHYJew]

Viewing FFXIV’s Credits may Force you to Reinstall

Some more news from FFXIV Lodestone, everyone. This time, it’s pretty important, so read on!

The credits of FFXIV are currently bugged for some reason, and viewing them may result in getting an error so bad that you may need to reinstall and repatch the game.

Here’s the quote from the Lodestone:

-If a player has viewed the credits, the game may display the error message ” An update error has occurred. Error 20524″ and fail to update properly.
*We apologize for the inconvenience, but if this error occurs we ask that you please reinstall FINAL FANTASY XIV.

Since I’m not playing the game yet, I can’t really tell if this is referring to the opening cinematic, or a credits option available on the starting menu. Feel free to just take the safe route and not view either or confirm it by checking with Square Enix.

A Recettear Contest Link and More Interview Goodness

This was originally supposed be titled “A Contest for my Capitalism Hoes and More Interview Goodness,” but that would have been inappropriate.

Anyway, I don’t normally link contests, but I got a kick out of reading the entries for this one. As such, I decided to advertise it with the hope of getting even better material from contestants. TK Nation is basically giving away one copy of the game to a person who can do Yayifications one better.

Quoting TK Nation now:

Leave a comment with your own capitalism-based catchphrase, ala Recette’s “Capitalism, ho!” For example, if you’re feeling especially cutthroat, you could chime in with “Monopolization, ho!”

Alternately, leave a comment with a play on Recette’s gleeful exhortation “Yayifications!” For example, “Yayspialidocious!”

Limited to one entry per person.

Contest ends at 12:00 PM Malaysian time (4AM GMT) on the 27th of September. When the contest ends, we’ll pick one of the commenters and send them the redemption code, redeemable using the Steam client. Make sure you are connected to the Internet and capable of running Steam on your computer!

—–

In other news, Siliconera has a nice write-up on what the future may have in store for Recettear. Most notable is Andrew Dice’s (Founder of Carpe Fulgur, if you’ve forgotten my earlier post) admission that they already have plans for localizing another game, provided tahat Recettear gives them the funding for it:

Says Dice, “We do have a few other titles lined up as being pretty sure bets for localization, assuming that Recettear  makes us enough money to actually live on, and current estimates place this somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 to 12,000 sales in roughly six months.”

In a nutshell, this basically means that if you want Carpe Fulgur to succeed and become an established game localization company, you’re going to want to either spread the word about Recettear or buy the game! Capitalism, ho!