HomeTown Story

Genre: Management Simulation / RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

HomeTown Story, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2013, is a Management Simulation where players manage a town’s shop, stocking items and setting prices while managing their time and conversing with the local townsfolk.

The presentation here is quaint, but appealing, making use of simple, colorful 3D visuals with an anime aesthetic, and a decency but somewhat forgettable relaxed RPG-style soundtrack. There’s very little about it that’s impressive or memorable, but it works for the sort of game this is.

Unfortunately, the gameplay itself is sloppy and poorly-refined. Players are only given the bare basic instruction on how to operate their shop, but very little beyond that What’s more, the game doesn’t really indicate to players how to best go about doing that – you can talk to the various townspeople to try to deduce what they might want, but their comments often don’t do much to inform you of their buying habits, and there’s not really a good way to figure out the best way to set prices.

Even more nebulous than this is the use of exploring the town around the shop itself. The town is fairly large and sprawling, meaning that traversing it takes some time (time that could be spent manning your shop), and while you’ll get an opportunity to buy products from various townsfolk, without any indication what sort of profit you can expect to make from these purchases,

it all feels like so much noise – why but a slice of cake instead of a fish? Why buy a fish instead of an apple? Studious players can try to deduce the sales potential for these items to maximize their earning potential, but if I need to organize a spreadsheet for my cutesy Management Simulation just to keep track of everything, to me that’s a sign of a poorly-made Management Simulation.

If you’re really looking for a Shop Management Simulation in Nintendo 3DS, you have other options. HomeTown Story clearly intended to be an ambitious expansion of the idea, with players exploring their entire town to strike the best deals to make their shop a success. Unfortunately, it’s so poorly-executed that players are better off going with a simpler, less-ambitious entry in the genre.

tl;dr – HomeTown Story is a shop Management Simulation where players choose what items to stock and how to price them, and strike deals with townsfolk on products to stock to make their shop a success. Unfortunately, the execution here is so poor that the game just isn’t fun to play, and players will be left wondering what the point is when they have to figure everything out for themselves. Here’s the most important thing to figure out – go with a different game instead.

Grade: D

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