Developer: UGC90
Publisher: Gamersky Games, UGC90
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Gacha Capsule Shop Simulator – Akihabara – Preview
From tabletop games to trading cards and even model kits: If a geeky hobby exists, there is a good chance that a matching shop simulator game has made its way into existence recently. There is perhaps something ironic about these virtual stores competing with one another to get sales in, but the simple truth of the matter is that Steam has become flooded with them. Simply searching for ‘shop simulator’ yields nearly 250 results on the store. For any simulator to stand out in this saturated marketplace, it needs a good hook. Enter Gacha Capsule Shop Simulator – Akihabara, an Early Access title hoping to make its mark on Steam’s virtual shopping street. The inclusion of Tokyo’s famous hub of otaku culture in its title is sure to draw attention, but can the game deliver a worthy shopkeeping experience?
Contrary to what you might think based on the game’s title and setting, GCSS isn’t a Japanese game. Instead, developer UGC90 is based in Istanbul, Turkey. The reason we mention this is because GCSS doesn’t come across as authentic. Instead, the game’s version of Akihabara, and by extension Japanese culture, comes across as caricatural. GCSS is the embodiment of what most people in the West think Japan is like, complete with neon-saturated streets, advertising boards, maid promoters, cosplayers, local anime fans, tourists, JDM tuning cars, “truck-kun” appearances, and stray cats. Human characters appearing in the game look like they were taken directly from the pages of those popular How to Draw Manga books from the early 2000s.
Beneath GCSS’s otaku exterior, you’ll find a gameplay loop that delivers what you’d expect from this kind of game, for the most part at least. You start out with a nearly empty shop and a starting budget, and from there, you try to turn your humble business into a gacha capsule emporium. This involves purchasing toy licenses, ordering capsule packs, placing and maintaining interactive gachapon machines, and cleaning up the shop. When customers buy items, you’ll have to manually calculate and dole out change in yen at the register. Making a profit allows you to expand your shop with more machines, decorations, and other accoutrements that make the shopping experience more pleasant for your clientele.
There are a couple of elements here with which GCSS tries to set itself apart from other shop simulators. The game features chaotic daytime random events: Yakuza members and Sumo wrestlers could show up to smash your machines, for example. When this happens, it’s up to you to chase these intruders out with conveniently placed baseball bats. A more positive event is when K-Pop stars pay your shop a visit, boosting traffic. Yes, K-Pop. Not J-Pop. K-Pop is more popular of course, and we’ve already established that GCSS isn’t necessarily going for authenticity. At night, you can visit a hidden parking lot arena to participate in the Robot Fight Club. This underground layer allows you to place strategic bets on boxing matches between robots to generate additional revenue. Finally, you can also feed and bond with local stray cats. Doing so rewards you with Maneki-neko figures, which can be leveled up to increase the drop rates of rare items from capsules.
Speaking of capsules, GCSS expects you to get hooked on your own supply. A central hook is that you can insert coins into your machines to open the capsule toys yourself. Popping Rare individual items you find in this way can then be displayed and sold for massive profits up to hundreds of thousands of yen for a Legendary figure, which directly funds further shop expansion. The good thing is that doing this in GCSS doesn’t cost you any real-life money, but you still get that dopamine hit. The bad news is that pull rates can be abysmal, so even if you’re not gambling away your life savings, you might just bankrupt your virtual store instead.
It’s important to keep in mind that GCSS is still in Early Access, so there are definitely still rough edges, aside from the uneven visuals. Customers frequently stutter or take bizarre paths, such as grabbing an item from a table, walking to the door, returning to the table, and then heading to the counter. Pacing is off too, with the early game feeling sluggish, and a requirement to reach level 10 before you can hand over basic tasks to automated workers. There are some UI quirks, with inventory management in particular being fussy. A quick access menu would’ve been very welcome, if only so that you can keep a bat on you at all times for when a rowdy sumo wrestler shows up again.
That said, GCSS’s core experience does feel nearly complete at this point. There are 24 distinct capsule pack licenses present already, adding up to thousands of collectible figures to log. The day-and-night gameplay loop feels complete, and there aren’t any mechanics that we feel the game is still missing. Quite the opposite, in fact, we occasionally felt like there was too much going on. Looking forward, UGC90 has already said they’ll focus on implementing smarter automation tools and improved overall store management systems. We assume they’ll also look at customer pathfinding and further fine-tuning based on player feedback. Our impression is that this Early Access build gives a very good idea of what the final game will end up being.
Conclusion
Don’t go in expecting a true-to-life shop simulator experience. If you can look past the exaggerated depiction of Akihabara, then you’ll find a shop simulator that successfully breaks the mold of a saturated genre, thanks to things like Robot Fight Club and having to chase away hooligans from your store. If that sounds like a good time to you, then there’s little point in waiting for the full game. Instead, you can confidently set up shop in Early Access.
No Comments