Definitely an unorthodox game, but considering this games background that's to be expected. You run a blacksmithing weapon shop with your burly mentor figure, forging weapons that various people can use to complete their quests and solve their problems. Forging weapons is done through this strange rhythm minigame where you tap different parts of a molten slab to a rhythm in order to strengthen different stats, but the game really doesn't do a good job explaining how to consistently make weapons with good base stats so it felt like complete RNG as to whether or not the game said I made a dull piece of garbage or a god-slaying masterpiece. Hell, maybe it actually is RNG, who knows.
Rather than outright sell the weapons you make, the shop you run has a weird rental system. Weapons are rented out, and only once your clients clear their quest will they pay you for your services whereas if they fail they both don't give you shit AND lose the weapon you gave out to them. Since weapons level up and grow in stats the more times they are used and successfully return, you definitely want to make sure you assign the right weapons to the right clients or else you might accidentally lose something decent. The weapons are also equipped with the "Grindcast", which is a twitter-like media feed that broadcasts whatever it is that the renters are questing in real time, and it plays all throughout the game (even during the parts where you are focused on something else, which can and will lead to moments where you miss some story beats entirely due to your attention being elsewhere. Maybe if the grindcast was voiced instead of a text log it would have worked better as an in-game podcast but then the rhythm gameplay would be harder and yeah i don't think they really thought that one all the way through). Customers also come in and out of the store as they please, and it gives the game this very passive vibe. Like there's just a lot of downtime as you just kinda work on making and polishing weapons while waiting for the game to send someone in. Or sometimes the game will throw countless random unnamed NPCs at you to rent random shit while you are trying to actually make what you need to make before an actual named important client comes back looking for the weapon you promised them. The pacing is borderline nonexistent and the gameplay almost borders on idle-game territory at points.
The real point of the game though is in its writing. It's clear that the weird rental nature and Grindcast feed system are all in place as a way to keep the player involved with the world and characters despite being confined within the four walls of the weapon shop for the entire game. The game was written and directed by Yoshiyuki Hirai of the Japanese comedy group America Zarigani, so the emphasis is on the gags within the NPCs and the quirks that each of the characters have. That being said, I think that the localization team might have translated some of the gags a bit too literally because the writing felt really dry and the jokes usually tended to fall under a very particular singular sense of humor that I honestly can't even describe in words. A lot of the bits didn't really hit for me, and I honestly can't really tell if that's due to the brand of humor that Hirai has in the first place, the localization team being too direct with their translation, or some combination of both. Even the games ending is a bit that just fell flat on its face to me...
I definitely think the game runs a bit too long for its own good, especially given the downtimey gameplay and flat writing that make the game feel far longer than the roughly 10-hour runtime actually is. Unlike the other Guild games having been developed by established and esteemed developers that have intricate experience on how to make games, this game was made by an entire outsider to the industry and honestly I respect that. Since Hirai has done voicework for other Level5 games I wouldn't be surprised if he got onboard for the project by just pitching this idea for a weapon shop game he thought up some time ago (yet didn't fully think through in a gameplay mechanical sense). You don't really see experimental titles like that from complete outsiders get made very often, stuff like the Mother series, Takeshi's Challenge, Penn & Tellers Smoke and Mirrors, Otocky, etc. Just people that don't typically make games having an off-beat idea and a publisher willing to take a chance on it. Even if the end result might be something that's kinda eh to play and doesn't feel very properly thought-out, I can't hate the ambition and adore how absolutely unique games like this always turn out to be.
Rather than outright sell the weapons you make, the shop you run has a weird rental system. Weapons are rented out, and only once your clients clear their quest will they pay you for your services whereas if they fail they both don't give you shit AND lose the weapon you gave out to them. Since weapons level up and grow in stats the more times they are used and successfully return, you definitely want to make sure you assign the right weapons to the right clients or else you might accidentally lose something decent. The weapons are also equipped with the "Grindcast", which is a twitter-like media feed that broadcasts whatever it is that the renters are questing in real time, and it plays all throughout the game (even during the parts where you are focused on something else, which can and will lead to moments where you miss some story beats entirely due to your attention being elsewhere. Maybe if the grindcast was voiced instead of a text log it would have worked better as an in-game podcast but then the rhythm gameplay would be harder and yeah i don't think they really thought that one all the way through). Customers also come in and out of the store as they please, and it gives the game this very passive vibe. Like there's just a lot of downtime as you just kinda work on making and polishing weapons while waiting for the game to send someone in. Or sometimes the game will throw countless random unnamed NPCs at you to rent random shit while you are trying to actually make what you need to make before an actual named important client comes back looking for the weapon you promised them. The pacing is borderline nonexistent and the gameplay almost borders on idle-game territory at points.
The real point of the game though is in its writing. It's clear that the weird rental nature and Grindcast feed system are all in place as a way to keep the player involved with the world and characters despite being confined within the four walls of the weapon shop for the entire game. The game was written and directed by Yoshiyuki Hirai of the Japanese comedy group America Zarigani, so the emphasis is on the gags within the NPCs and the quirks that each of the characters have. That being said, I think that the localization team might have translated some of the gags a bit too literally because the writing felt really dry and the jokes usually tended to fall under a very particular singular sense of humor that I honestly can't even describe in words. A lot of the bits didn't really hit for me, and I honestly can't really tell if that's due to the brand of humor that Hirai has in the first place, the localization team being too direct with their translation, or some combination of both. Even the games ending is a bit that just fell flat on its face to me...
I definitely think the game runs a bit too long for its own good, especially given the downtimey gameplay and flat writing that make the game feel far longer than the roughly 10-hour runtime actually is. Unlike the other Guild games having been developed by established and esteemed developers that have intricate experience on how to make games, this game was made by an entire outsider to the industry and honestly I respect that. Since Hirai has done voicework for other Level5 games I wouldn't be surprised if he got onboard for the project by just pitching this idea for a weapon shop game he thought up some time ago (yet didn't fully think through in a gameplay mechanical sense). You don't really see experimental titles like that from complete outsiders get made very often, stuff like the Mother series, Takeshi's Challenge, Penn & Tellers Smoke and Mirrors, Otocky, etc. Just people that don't typically make games having an off-beat idea and a publisher willing to take a chance on it. Even if the end result might be something that's kinda eh to play and doesn't feel very properly thought-out, I can't hate the ambition and adore how absolutely unique games like this always turn out to be.
i started a replay of this about a month ago because i remember liking this game a lot as a kid and playing it all the way through, but maybe a little under halfway through the game i put it down when ff7 rebirth came out and i started playing that and i dont have much inclination to finish my replay. it's a very whatever game that's carried by the characters considering the gameplay is extremely repetitive and easy. i guess i don't absolutely hate the gameplay but honestly it just feels like busy work to do in a game that could probably have just been made a visual novel. the characters and story are what you should be here for, they treat the story like a sitcom by having laugh tracks thrown in when characters do certain things, and while you're working on making weapons you can read dialogue of characters going out on quests with weapons you rent them. i do think the way the story is laid out is nice and i enjoy seeing the way characters behave, but the writing is very very cheesy and tropey, and occasionally they really like to date themselves by using slang people have not said since the game's release in 2014. i personally dont mind it though because i feel like the way everything is handled, it works well and gives the game a nice cozy casual feeling, but man the gameplay just being so uninvolved really brings it down. this game has potential to be one of those eshop hidden gems like something like gunman clive or pushmo but it just doesn't quite get there
Dude come on this game is peak
I thought it was building to something but the ending was the biggest pile of nothing. Gameplay was fun but repetative, I tended to play while watching tv.
The script was funny in places (congrats to the translators for putting in a few references that made me lol) but god there's one character that's completely transphobic and put a really bad taste in my mouth.
Also, fairly sure I was playing the UK version and they used the S slur? Not flagging that up and keeping the game a 12 is literally a breach of some sort of licencing law hhhhh. I don't think much care was taken in the making of this game.
The script was funny in places (congrats to the translators for putting in a few references that made me lol) but god there's one character that's completely transphobic and put a really bad taste in my mouth.
Also, fairly sure I was playing the UK version and they used the S slur? Not flagging that up and keeping the game a 12 is literally a breach of some sort of licencing law hhhhh. I don't think much care was taken in the making of this game.
Durante un par de horas el bucle jugable es entretenido y las conversaciones de los personajes son divertidas. El problema es que ese par de horas no son ni 1/3 de la duración del juego.
Después de eso no introduce ningún elemento nuevo al bucle y la repetición comienza a acarrear un tedio importante.
Después de eso no introduce ningún elemento nuevo al bucle y la repetición comienza a acarrear un tedio importante.
Cute premise with excellent writing & music, terrible ending.
Ele tem uma proposta realmente interessante, mas meio que o jogo em si não consegue se destacar com realmente nada, sabe? No final das contas, ele é só uma colagem de mecânicas meio chata.
i picked this up years ago and its one of my favorite obscure games, here's to the very specific and very small tumblr fandom this game had when it was new
friedel is my boy
friedel is my boy
You could make a great twitter out of context account posting random dialogue snippets from this game, especially the ones from the faceless NPCs.
The characters are pretty likeable too but the game is way too long to stay invested the whole way through, especially when the gameplay is such an afterthought.
The characters are pretty likeable too but the game is way too long to stay invested the whole way through, especially when the gameplay is such an afterthought.
El gameplay es aburrido y con poco que hacer, la historia no tiene ningún llamativo y es demasiado largo para lo que ofrece, así que te tiras horas y horas sin nada nuevo, repitiendo lo mismo. Por si fuera poco el final es malo, nivele como si no les apeteciera trabajar en algo mejor (que era fácil). La verdad, no lo recomiendo.
among the releases of established (well, at the time) portable gaming franchises such as professor layton, yokai watch and inazuma eleven, videogame developer level-5 snuck in a tiny little innocent game by the name of weapon shop de omasse. the game is part of a compilation of small games developed by level-5 in collaboration with several artists of the gaming industry, or not, titled guild01. this game in particular was born and written by an outsider of the industry, comedian yoshiyuki hirai. it is the realization of one of the many realizations that come to a player's mind when playing through one’s typical role-playing game, that is: 'what if i played as the xxx npc?', where xxx in this case refers to 'blacksmith'. the project develops from this basic premise into trying to become a full-fledged game. it doesn't truly reach that status.
the game could be neatly divided into three parts: a shop management system, where you have to sustain your smithing efforts through purchasing the necessary materials; then a smithing rhythm minigame, where weapons are created in order to be rented by rhytmically molding a slab of iron until it achieves the desired shape; and lastly a tangential role-playing game, that you assist in by renting appropriate weapons to the various characters that need them, who you only observe from a distance through the grindcast, a vague technological device embedded into all forged weapons that captures the dialogue spoken by characters during their quests, showing it in text form in a way reminiscing social media feeds.
what bugs me the most is how disconnected the three feel from each other. the items that go into the forging process are frankly unimportant and count exactly as much as the odd fodder trinkets in role-playing games. the grindcast is the kind of solution a designer would come up with in a brainstorming session i would assume. it is one of those extremely natural, and extremely boring, solutions that somehow ended up as a main game feature because nobody found anything else more interesting to develop. first because the game does not have the balls to go all in on being a blacksmith-based videogame. second because the grindcast feed is continuously updated but only shows messages as a list and continues to be updated for the most part live, thus even during parts of the game where your concentration is required elsewhere, such as during smithing(!), you are likely to miss parts of it, defeating its purpose.
i cannot avoid thinking how these game must have garnered 2 or 3 very enthusiastic meetings among the main representatives of the development process, and then anything past that was followed by a complete deflation of ideas. hirai's writing aims at comedy by playing on common role-playing game tropes. some it tries to play straight and some it tries to subvert, and frankly all of them were unimpressive. one thing seemingly impressed me in the overall storytelling was how most stories seemed to revolve around this magical item, i think it was called the revival herb, which was tied to the evil lord. well, that whole multifaceted narrative goes simply nowhere. in line with the lack of creativity theory, one of the most bizzarre developments in the game for me was how at roughly halfway through the game we are introduced to elemental weaknesses. there was absolutely no need for this. there is already a rock-paper-scissor mechanic through certain weapon characteristics, stacking another weakness mechanic (along with status effects!) so long into the game on top of it all is devastating, and a key proof i got that the team ran out of ideas early.
what starts off as a fun-to-funny experience in the first hour is then followed by an average of 9 hours of constant repetition of that same initial gameloop, ad infinitum. in fact, the game seems to achieve some level of self-consciousness when, after you beat the final boss with every single ‘hero’ at disposal, you are thrust into an infinite final boss mode! so hey, if you are into this game, then you can play it to your heart’s content. i mentioned at the beginning that this game was 'innocent'. well, yes. if this game ever crosses your path, you look at it, smile, and then walk away, forgetting ever after that you even had the encounter in the first place.
the game could be neatly divided into three parts: a shop management system, where you have to sustain your smithing efforts through purchasing the necessary materials; then a smithing rhythm minigame, where weapons are created in order to be rented by rhytmically molding a slab of iron until it achieves the desired shape; and lastly a tangential role-playing game, that you assist in by renting appropriate weapons to the various characters that need them, who you only observe from a distance through the grindcast, a vague technological device embedded into all forged weapons that captures the dialogue spoken by characters during their quests, showing it in text form in a way reminiscing social media feeds.
what bugs me the most is how disconnected the three feel from each other. the items that go into the forging process are frankly unimportant and count exactly as much as the odd fodder trinkets in role-playing games. the grindcast is the kind of solution a designer would come up with in a brainstorming session i would assume. it is one of those extremely natural, and extremely boring, solutions that somehow ended up as a main game feature because nobody found anything else more interesting to develop. first because the game does not have the balls to go all in on being a blacksmith-based videogame. second because the grindcast feed is continuously updated but only shows messages as a list and continues to be updated for the most part live, thus even during parts of the game where your concentration is required elsewhere, such as during smithing(!), you are likely to miss parts of it, defeating its purpose.
i cannot avoid thinking how these game must have garnered 2 or 3 very enthusiastic meetings among the main representatives of the development process, and then anything past that was followed by a complete deflation of ideas. hirai's writing aims at comedy by playing on common role-playing game tropes. some it tries to play straight and some it tries to subvert, and frankly all of them were unimpressive. one thing seemingly impressed me in the overall storytelling was how most stories seemed to revolve around this magical item, i think it was called the revival herb, which was tied to the evil lord. well, that whole multifaceted narrative goes simply nowhere. in line with the lack of creativity theory, one of the most bizzarre developments in the game for me was how at roughly halfway through the game we are introduced to elemental weaknesses. there was absolutely no need for this. there is already a rock-paper-scissor mechanic through certain weapon characteristics, stacking another weakness mechanic (along with status effects!) so long into the game on top of it all is devastating, and a key proof i got that the team ran out of ideas early.
what starts off as a fun-to-funny experience in the first hour is then followed by an average of 9 hours of constant repetition of that same initial gameloop, ad infinitum. in fact, the game seems to achieve some level of self-consciousness when, after you beat the final boss with every single ‘hero’ at disposal, you are thrust into an infinite final boss mode! so hey, if you are into this game, then you can play it to your heart’s content. i mentioned at the beginning that this game was 'innocent'. well, yes. if this game ever crosses your path, you look at it, smile, and then walk away, forgetting ever after that you even had the encounter in the first place.
A cute premise that just doesn't have enough going on to justify the length. I reached the halfway point and was just waiting for some kind of new mechanic to kick in.
the guild01 game that time forgot because Who Da Hell Gonna Trans Late Fifty Billion Words. yes the smithing is a bit blockish yes this game doesn't just have no replay value but perhaps NEGATIVE replay value but its absolutely brimming with personality and up until that last stretch i had zero qualms blazing through it and i would jump in front of an oncoming vehicle for grandma snow. i get why its got a 1.8/5 at time of writing but it deserves far better, just a really affectionate love letter to the rpgs of yore from an unexplored perspective. cute!