Synopsis
After the passing of your grandmother, your character returns to the town she/he grew up. Upon meeting a magic creature that now lives at Nana's shop, the protagonist is suddenly recruited into running the shop and restoring the town population. In the game your character forages or buys stock from locals or traveling merchants, arranges the shop layout, stocks shelves adn sets the price for products. Customers come in and buy items, make suggestions as to their favorite products and so on. There is a social aspect where the protagonist is able to woo and marry one of the villagers.
Virtues:
Non-violent: Like most games in the HM series, HMS takes on the tradition of a non-violent storyline.
Good Graphics: The characters are visually appealing and the color scheme is very relaxing.
Customized Avatar: You're able to create your avatar and change their look at the beginning of the game. You can play as either a male or female protagonist.
Vices
Lack of Concrete Goals: The game taught only the most basic of controls. The storyline was not very motivating nor the goal clear. Was the town dying? Were people leaving en masse? No, from the in-game dialog it's almost a kidnapping. The protagonist answers a letter and a strange creature basically tells you that you now must own and run the shop.
Unintuitive Gameplay: In my gameplay, I was able to figure out stocking and setting the price easy enough. I was able to ring people up without a fuss. However, for the longest time I could not figure out where to get new products. In my mind, I had to man the shop from open to close, but here's the thing, the store actually does NOT close until the protagonist goes to bed. What I did not realize until I read a walkthrough was that you are able to leave the shop at ANY time to collect new materials and talk with townsfolk. This simply did not make sense to me. A store has business hours. After business hours, the owner can do other things. Or the owner has the power to close the shop for a period of time.
Boring: Perhaps it is the slow start, the uniteresting dialog and descriptions, or the traces of a plot. There is not much to motivate me to play this game. The pacing is very slow, the work is tedious. Now I've play shop simulation games that I enjoyed. HOwever, the style of gameplay was different. (Both had annoying floating sidekicks but the other at least had RPG elements that drive the shop.)
Disorienting Camera: The camera changes angles on its own in every location. It becomes disorienting moving between screens. The layout of the town is quite empty and tricky to navigate. Luckily the map is very good. It also weirds me out that everywhere you go, the floating mouse thing follows. And speaking about the floating mouse thing...
The Pet thing: The little "guide" is some kind of magic floating creature that after the tutorial seems to have no real purpose. The model often gets in the way when trying to place items on shelves. It would make more sense IF the pet thing could be sent to collect for forest items while the owner stays in the shop. OR to man the register while the owner is out.
Uninteresting Characters: The 2D graphics and character designs look very plain and uninteresting. The visual style of the characters lacks something distinct.
