Review - Discounty

L. Sahara McGirt
Oct 7
3 min read

Developer: Crinkle Cut Games

Publisher: PQube

Available on: PC (Steam)

I love a good shopkeeping simulation game and life sim. Especially if it has a cute art style, so when Discounty came across my feeds, I was immediately interested. I thought it would be a nice, cozy, and simple shopkeeping game where you get to know and grow with a community in a small town.

Oh, how I was so wrong about what was to be experienced.

Let's Put the Gross in Grocery Store Management

Before I talk about the game's story overall, let's get the technicals out of the way, starting with gameplay. Discounty has a pretty simple gameplay loop. Wake up in the morning, prep for a day of chain grocery store management in the small town of Blomkest, open the store at 9am and work work work until 6 pm, then get off and explore, chat with Blomkest locals, and gather those contacts for local goods to sell in your store, Discounty.

It's a pretty simple-seeming loop. To the point where it might also be kind of boring in how routine it becomes. As you explore and get to know the locals in your off time, however, the illusion of a simple routine of grocery store management begins to unravel.

More about that Later

Aesthetically speaking, Discounty is nice to look at and fits into the cozy and pixelated subgenre quite neatly. It's nice to look at, even with all the rundown parts of Blomkest. Even when things get hazy or the developers are setting the tone with a red-tinted screen, the game is still quite pretty. The soundtrack is a great touch, and overall, I'm quite pleased with the style of it.

That said, we have a lot to talk about when it comes to the plot of Discounty.

Am I the Bad Guy?

I'll be honest, like any simple business/shopkeeping management, life sim genre game, I was expecting something cute and fun, and to love the townspeople. Was I wrong about what to expect. Within the first couple of days in the game, Discounty had me questioning as I played along, "Am I the bad guy?" Which subsequently sent me into a mini-crisis because while I love TV and Movie villains, I play games to be the good guy. I actually have a really difficult time doing things that can harm the lives of the NPCs, and I like to make their lives better, not worse. There even came a point where I wanted so badly to stop playing because I just could not come to terms with being the bad guy.

I just couldn't stop playing, however. As each day passed and I toiled away at managing my grocery store, events got progressively worse for the people of Blomkest. I made shady deals, encouraged impulse buys through clever ad placements, and even did a bit of sabotage to get my way. I kept playing because of a sick sense of curiosity. How much worse can it get before my little character begins to realize they and their aunt, who invited them out to manage Discounty, are the baddies?

That said, I couldn't help but wonder as I continued to play at some of the plotlines. There's plenty of story potential that sometimes felt like it wasn't expanded on satisfactorily, and the completion of some quests had me questioning the intention of the narrative design. There are a lot of loose ends that purportedly will be updated with more later, but for a 'completed' game to drop and have such loose ends feels weird.

Some Minor Hiccups

Alright, let's get down to the problems. Discounty does experience some stuttering. Controls on a controller can be wonky. I'm not a fan of the way controls are set up for keying in prices, and turning objects to scan on the scanner is not as straightforward as it should be. The game froze on me twice. Which is fine, I'm sure that will be fixed in a future patch. Outside of those issues, the game ran well on PC.

Ultimately, what's my verdict on Discounty? While I like some of the story, there are enough loose ends that I gotta lower my rating a bit. I also was not a big fan of the "surprise, I'm the baddie!" plot, and the gameplay loop does get boring. That said, at a $20 price tag for what we get, I give it: