Review by: James Fudge

As doujin games (a Japanese indie game, basically) go, Chantelise takes an uncomplicated, minimalist approach to everything. From the controls to the magic system, the game presents a series of simple elements to accomplish everything. A minimalist approach to game elements does not, however, mean that the gameplay itself is simplistic or unsophisticated.

Chantelise deemphasizes the need to level up, instead focusing on commerce and acquiring treasure as a measure of growth. The concept should be familiar to anyone that has played a game like Zelda, where collecting heart pieces in a dungeon or finding a sword in a graveyard is the norm, alongside buying bombs or arrows from some strange merchant barricaded within a cave. The game takes that scavenger hunt approach and throws in some supply and demand consumerism for good measure to give players the tools they need to grow. Basically, everything you need is either in the store or hidden in a level.

While most games demand that you grind out levels, choose skills, and collect money to buy things, Chantelise simply forces you to grind your way to financial success. Instead of earning experience points, you will be collecting Pix (the game's currency) from defeated enemies to buy the latest shiny bauble or selling exotic treasure that can earn you a tidy profit. All roads lead back to the shops.

Since all of your stats are derived from the items you wear anyway, there's no need to concern yourself with any kind of stat building. In the beginning of the game you can only equip two items, but by the end you have the ability to wear five at a time – and you can use any combination that you want. It's a scaled back approach to progression but it works very well, and -- depending on how you spend your money – it is not that difficult to get ahead quickly with very little effort.

Chantelise also borrows some supply and demand elements from Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale. There are only a handful of item shops in the game and they are all connected by market fluctuations that you inevitably cause when you buy and sell things. For example, if you resell 25 statues at the item shop, the value of that particular item decreases with every sale. The same price fluctuation occurs when you buy an item. If you buy a wooden shield for 1200 Pix, the next time you go back to buy another that same item the price increases substantially. All of this market shifting and price fluctuation can certainly be confusing the first time it happens because you see a pricier version of an item you already possess and think it offers better stats. This is simply not the case and provides an occasion to foolishly spend money that you will need later on for more important items.

A savvy player will almost always avoid spending money in the shops for everything but the rarest of items such as elemental crystals (which add some nice enhancements to your attacks) and Ferromin (which permanently increases your hit points -- Ferromin is the only item in the game that permanently alters a stat). This is mostly due to the fact that each level offers a hidden and often rare treasure. With a bit of effort, some exploration, and some environmental experimentation (attacking trees and breaking barrels, for example), you will find all the gear you will ever need.