Fortune Seller VIDEO Review
Organize or Die
HIGH A satisfying blend of inventory management, score chasing, and uneasy horror atmosphere.
LOW It could be a grind to see all available options.
WTF All the deformed rats.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.
There is a satisfaction in running an organized shop — everything in a neat and efficient order, and exactly where I need it to be when customers ask. Fortune Seller takes that feeling and also makes it a tense puzzle, knowing my life will be forfeit if I’m not as efficient as possible in selling to those who come to my shop…
In this roguelike shopkeeping simulator, players have a set of items they can sell to every customer who comes through their door. Customers have limited storage space, so players must fit items into their inventories as best they can. The goal is to sell enough to cover the debt for the landlord of this shop, which increases each day — but fail to make enough cash, and the landlord will take flesh instead.
It’s not all about organization though, as the types of items sold will be important as well. Items have different classifications — organic, antique, and junk, to name just a few. For each customer, there will be spots in their storage which give increased value to an item if it matches the desired item type. An antique item could sell for 100 dollars on its own, but will earn an increased 200 dollars if placed on a marked “antique” spot in the customer’s storage. Items can also have different qualities that affect item value. A Flame item will increase the value of everything above or below it in storage, while a Wave item will increase the value of everything to the left and right of it. Players need to leverage all of these descriptors efficiently in order to earn enough that day.
Between days players will buy items and tools to help out with the ever-increasing debt — more items for the shop, magic spells, or tarot cards. Magic spells can give items attributes, create new items, or destroy unwanted items. Tarot cards work similar to Joker cards in Balatro, each one having a unique effect depending on how it’s used. One tarot gives bonus money for each item sold to a customer, while the reverse gives a bonus only if they fill the customer’s storage perfectly.
There’s a lot going on in Fortune Seller, but there are plenty of reminders for each individual attribute and visual indicators for how it affects a customer’s storage. However, it does a smart thing by not telling the player exactly how much their items will sell for. Each item has a base price, but the increases earned from any of modifiers applied remains unknown, which gives a level of tension and excitement — the player never knows how much money will be earned until the sale is final.
While Fortune Seller is a gripping shopkeeping experience, I do have a few small gripes, though.
For example, there are some instances that refer to a “item stack”, but I have yet to find anywhere the term is appropriately explained. It hasn’t stopped me from completing multiple runs, but I have to wonder if I’d get further in Endless mode if I knew what it meant.
Another issue is how grindy it can be. From the start, players have one set of starting items, and more will unlock through the course of play. After eight hours put into it and multiple completed runs I’ve only unlocked two additional starting item sets out of the possible twelve. Compared to other, similar games, these unlocks are coming at a ridiculously slow pace.
In the end, Fortune Seller‘s strange atmosphere kept me engrossed and organizing items was more satisfying than I would have expected. I’m still going to keep working at this shop for a while even after finishing several runs, but it’s always a challenge to avoid paying my rent in flesh to a shadowy landlord.
For me, Fortune Seller gets 8 perfectly-filled storage boxes out of 10.
Buy Fortune Seller – Steam
Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Kiwick. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 8 hours of play were spent playing the game, and multiple runs were completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, Fortune Seller is rated T and contains Blood and Mild Violence. While nothing is specifically gruesome on screen, it does reference the landlord killing the player with statements like “I guess your flesh will have to do.” There is a Tarot effect called “bloody” that will give a card a dripping red glow on it. The blood is more implied here than in other games, but it’s still maybe not for the younger audience.
Colorblind Modes: Colorblind Modes are not present.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles, but subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. There are no relevant audio cues needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable controls: Controls are not remappable, and there is no control scheme. I used mouse for everything — selecting and rotating items, confirming sales, making selections, etc. Shift is used if players need more info on specific items (reviewing attributes for example). Controller is supported — A selects whatever the player is hovering over (or confirming in menus), B cancels selection or goes back in menus, X will sell items in storage, Y will reroll inventory or sell items, Right bumper/left bumper changes tabs in menus or rotates selected items, Right trigger gives more info on items.
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