Pimiko Plus

Very fun little game. Sell drugs and guns with zero intervention from local authorities and buy all the flash grenades you can spam. Do be warned that the map you see on the promotional material is the entire map and that the game isn't particularly deep. Absolutely worth the £1.69 I paid for it.

Just started and I love the style.

This is part of a series I'm planning to do on games with few/no reviews, or that have long been on my backlog, or both. If you just want pros/cons and recommendations that might help you figure if you enjoy it, skip to the section denoted with ~tildes.~

I've currently logged four hours into Pimiko Plus, got all but one of the achievements - and I'm pretty sure I know what the last, occluded one is, just now how to get it - and I think I've played enough to review this game.

You play as Ruho, a 'Plumpy mama' who is out to... Well, whatever, really. The game's objective is to collect obscene riches, but, hey, if you can't manage that, maybe you can buy lots of guns, or give your lad Mikhal/Misha headpats, or taste every delicacy the vibrant and rather cozy post-post-apocalypse can provide.

For a lot of people, I think that'll be enough to tell if you're willing to give the game a try; it's weird, like walking into somebody's homebrew pen-and-paper set with no clue about what's going on while the rest of their group watches you stumble about and occasionally chortles. Snippets from events in-game revealed Ruho has a daughter, too, and there's this weird kid named Saul impersonating said daughter? Also, we're making our lil' boy run a shop in our absence (or maybe he's just got a great work ethic?)!?

Personally, I love it.
The setting is weird, unique, and - again - kind of cozy. Even when mercilessly stealing from innocent traders.

Although the atmosphere takes obvious cues from the PC-Engine system (for those of you not in the know, imagine some of the more stylish Amiga games and you'll have a good jumping point), it's very clearly it's own thing. The game is spartan, simple, and can be run quickly - my average run speed is about five to thirty minutes.

For a lot of people, I expect the fact that the game is simple will be another strike against it, but for me, I love that too.

Simple isn't the same thing as poorly made, and Pimiko Plus oozes love. There are a lot of small differences between the classes, all sorts of strategies for maximising your sinful lucre, and the whole atmosphere is just nice. Even when you're turning raider heads into chunky salsa, or face gameover in poverty and/or captivation, Mama Ruho will just tear off her (metaphorical) manacles with her strong, yet plumpy, hands, and get back to work.

Best of all is the soundtrack - I was delighted to find the (sole?) author has a bandcamp, and the OST goes a long way to setting the tone of the game. As for the gameplay itself, it's a bit like M.U.L.E. or one of it's derivatives, in that it's about learning basic economics - though more focused on figuring out simple supply patterns than extraction, supply, and demand.

You can visit areas, keep stock of item prices, get attackedby more raiders than your average post(-post)-apocalyptic wasteland simulator of choice, and occasionally eat a funnel cake with your son.

Although the gameplay is simple, that doesn't mean that it's easy or that it gets old - for me, the fact that there's always new ways to maximise your earnings in a run, to make more money, to play around - that the game isn't quite complex enough to be 'mathed' into the 'most efficient' style, but neither is it simple enough that it feels old hits this perfect sweet spot.

Increasingly, I have less time for games. My favourites remain those with a strong narrative or sprawling adventure, but I can maybe pick one of those in a year, or when I've got a bloc of time. Pimiko Plus is the perfect game to play over lunch or before getting back to work, and I can see myself playing it for many years to come.

So, let's review the cons and pros, and see if you might enjoy it as much as I do!

~Cons~

* Interface may feel clunky to some/easy to navigate and customise for others. Inability to 'lock' windows when rebooting a session is a bit of a miss, though.
* System isn't designed to be ultra-complex; you can't bribe mercenary/trader 'cuteboys' to fix the market for you, invest in ammunition scavenging warehouses, or steal the pepperoni logs from the thief in that one event. But again, this may a be a plus to some.
* If it's your style to play a game for the achievements and put it in a pile, you probably won't get the max enjoyment from Pimiko Plus - it's meant to be returned to once in awhile.
* Recipes aren't included with any of the event texts. Also, I can't buy my children gifts of candy and severed raider heads.

~Pros~
* Boss Ruho is a great protagonist.
* The sound and visual design are incredibly nostalgic, while still being functional.
* Short playthrough time means that mistakes or bad luck feel interesting, and never frustrating. Missing a 'boom' in one town is a 'shucks' moment, not a gamebreaker.
* A set time for playthroughs - thirty turns - means that the game never drags on.
* Charming and very therapeutic as only a post(-post)-apocalyptic wasteland markets simulator can be.

~In closing~

Although the obvious comparison is with PC-Engine games, Pimiko Plus reminds me most of Mac shareware, specifically this amazing sci-fi rogulike I once played that featured hand-drawn imovable sprites on a featureless graph paper background. Your ship had crashed, and the demo let you explore it and a bit of the alien world beyond; every square had at least a paragraph of text, and occasionally fully-drawn pop-up art for events. It was so cool, and I wonder if it was ever released -

But that's the feel I get from Pimiko Plus. It's possible I've seen all of the events in game, but the 'feel' of it is such, is so good-natured that I wouldn't be surprised if something new and unusual was right around the horizon. I've done my best to describe why this game is so enjoyable to me, while still pointing out how it might be kind of niche for other players.

Credit to Delmunsoft (which is one of the best studio titles I've seen in a long while!) for creating something nostalgic and functional; once again, I'm not sure quite how I found Pimiko Plus - I'm gonna take a stab at 'Roguelike' somehow leading to economics, because - but I'm truly glad I did.

Simple, fun, and addicting. Not much else needs to be said. Pimiko Plus is a fairly basic market simulation, with a pleasant art style--and its not hard to get into the rhythm of gameplay. That being said, it feels a little bit like a proof-of-concept, rather than a full-fledged game, although it is priced quite reasonably for what it is. While the game may not provide hours upon hours of entertainment, If you have $5 lying around, and some time to spare, I'd say it's worth checking out.

I decided not to inform myself very much on the game itself before my first play. And yes, while you jump in without not much any explanation, I got intrigued by the game, just by the UI and the music alone.

One by one you explore every menu, trying to find out what they do and what you can do with them. You buy and sell items, you are willingfully exploiting the little economical system in the game even, to get better weapons and to gain more power. Buy for cheap, sell for expensive. Not much more to it, but you are excited when the numbers rapidly add up more and more.

Really, the only aim this game has, is whatever you make of it, as of right now. Future versions of the game might have objectives added, though. The Game might be very bare bones right now, but the little world and the UI is just so charming, you keep coming back just to see if you can keep the numbers rolling.

And see if you can survive the travel from one town to another. Or if you are gonna get raided and gunshot'd. And your little plumpy character might not see the next chance to gain another absurd of money. Of course you don't just buy wares for trading but also you need weapons and health kits to get baddies gunshot'd in a simple RPG style battle system. If you're dead then it's back to 0. Start trading again and try not to die immediately this time. Also have I mentioned the cute UI yet? It's cute. The style is really selling it to me.

Gameplay still needs to be expanded on for it to be a long-time thrilling experience, at this time it lacks incentive to continue, but I sure will fire it up every now and then and adore what we already have at this moment.

This is a game that really makes me wish there was an ambivalent recommendation option, rather than just a straight out "yes" or "no".

Pimiko Plus is a simple part market sim part RPG game. It's the kind of game that lends itself to short, 15-ish minute sessions of play. The problems surrounding the game, though, arise from the simplicity of its core gameplay.

The market sim aspect is very barebones. It's what you'd expect- buy low, sell high- but there's not much more to it than that. The game flow is nothing more than just buying whatever's for cheap, and bumbling around any of the 8 locations in total to see where the price has skyrocketed to an absurd level so you can sell your goods. In only a few turns you might already see yourself with the best equipment and hauling around the more expensive goods.

I'm not sure if I'm asking too much, but the game is just so painfully simple. I know that's part of the point of the game, but there's so much potential for something more. You follow the prices from whatever location you're in, it's rigid and there's no room for things like haggling; you just buy and sell. There's no rammification from what goods you decide to deal in, either- it's all basically random when it comes to the prices of items in any particular location no matter how much you buy or sell (though this is to be remedied in a new "realism" mode the developer is planning to put in). All of the locations are pretty much- no, rather- completely the same, with the equipment shops all dealing the same weapons and combat items, and there's no difference in what events or encounters that will occur no matter how far apart they are from another when you choose to travel from one place to another. There is a message at the end of your 30 turn session which discerns the implications of your (probably illicit) trading activities on the quality of life of the people in the game world, but that's about the extent of it, and I have never managed to get anything more than "nothing changed but at least you're richer".

The RPG systems in this game are also very sparse. As I said earlier, you'll find yourself bleeding cash, so in only a few turns you'll already be buying the best equipment. At this point, the random encounters with raiders will be completely inconsequential because you'll be able to deal with a group of three in combat with no problem. It just boils down to clicking the "fire" button because all of the other options in battle, such as throwing items, sweet talking, throwing sand in their eyes, even running away from battle itself are just suboptimal compared to just shooting them. It's nice that different options are there, but they don't hold much of a candle just to mindlessly blasting them until they're dead or flee. The fact that having a weapon weighs you down and that you pretty much want to be overencumbered with trade goods in order to get the most out of the market just exacerbates the idea that you should just be gunning everyone down.

There is also an class system, with the class you pick enhancing a particular style of play, but not by much. You unlock these (as well as skins for Ruho) with tokens you get after a session, depending on how much money you make. The Junker is the best simply because you can save a lot of hassle by letting you see where items are the cheapest, thus netting you more money, which leads to encounters being a complete non-issue. The Raider can punch harder and can negotiate better with enemy raiders and the Doctor can use up a First Aid to get out of a battle for free, but why bother with any of that when you can just shoot everything to death, you know?

All I've been doing so far is harking on the game, so you're probably wondering why I recommend it. It's simple; I'm a sucker for this shit. Ruho is a super cute "plumpy mama" (game's words, not mine, I SWEAR!) and the doujinsoft style of it just drew me in. The UI is very simple and easy to grasp, and you can move it in the game space however you like, an enhance the overall sim feeling of the game. The pixel art, though not prominent, is really great, which I've come to expect from this developer based on their work on Amihailu. The soundtrack is absolutely killer. The short, coffee break nature of a single session speaks to me because I barely have enough time to sit down and really enjoy a full game of pretty much anything else. Though there's a great lack of variation in encounters and event types, the writing more than makes up for it. I really do like the world that's been put on display, and its a shame that there isn't much in the way of flavour text for the goods you're selling, the locations you're visiting and dialogue/descriptions for the equipment dealers or for Ruho herself, because I'd just eat it all up.

The developer is also actively working to iron out the kinks and plans on making major updates on the game, too. To me, the game was worth the five dollars I spent on it. A lot of it just hits the right strings, at least, for me. If anything sticks out to you about this game, it might be well worth the pick-up for you. I definitely look forward to this game's future.

Really is fun coffee break trader game~
it's good to play one run while waiting some irl boring stuff

Also, I love the plumpy girl i want MOAR <3<3<3

With some little tweaks , can have more replay value

After watching the dev keep updating this game for a long time and considering the amount of content in the game, I'm more confident in giving this game a yes.
It's cheap and it's fun, it looks pretty neat too!
I still wouldn't say it's for everyone but it's worth a shot regardless, especially if you're looking for a small game where you don't have to worry about having lots of hours available to play.

Introduction
So, where to begin with this. It's a nice idea. I've been itching for a market simulator without the city management aspect or what-have-you. But there are many, many flaws with this game that just makes it... meh.

The Negatives

The Price
This game is normally priced at $4.99. Four. Ninety. Nine. Even with the 15% off sale going on right now, it is nowhere near worth that price in its current state, if it's state were to even change at this point. If you can manage to get it at a price of $1.29 - $1.99, I would say it's a decent price, with $2.49 even pushing it. It is simply not worth the price.

The Market System
Think of the market system in this game not like a gamble, but like a boulder at the top of a hill. You don't even have to know what you're doing and you will likely make over 2 million RMD, or whatever the currency is, without even trying. Once the boulder starts rolling, there is no stopping it. With nearly zero risk and near infinite reward, this isn't a market you really want to get involved in.

The Encounters
The encounters are fairly straight forward. You shoot things. Things die. Things flee. You flee. You know, the usual stuff. Expecting to find varying encounters of increasing difficulty? Don't. In my 1.5 hours spent on this game, I have only seen three types of encounters, all of which were the same enemies either solo, pairs, or triplets.

The Token System
Surprise! This game has replay value (kind of) in the form of a Token Shop. You earn tokens based on your performance in the run, which you can use to unlock three classes along with three unique skins which serve no purpose besides changing how your character looks. Considering how gameplay is mostly the same for all classes, I really see no real reason to play as the other classes. I personally would just stick with the Junker class.

The Shop System
Considering how simple it is to purchase the best weapon in the game, alongside the fact that every town in this game sells the same items in the equipment shop, the shop is only used to gain back health, seducing, or robbing mid-late game. I have seen no need to purchase any of the equipment items from the shop, or Mercenaries and Travellers as well. Once you get the best Rifle from the shop and keep taking the Shopkeeper out to lunch, you are basically invincible.

But don't worry, the game isn't all that bad. There are some prevailing factors that keep this title from entering into the depths of Gaming Hell.

The Positives

The UI
I like the ability to move around the windows and such, but refocusing on the window prior to interracting with them, combined with the fact that the Player Stats screen resets the position you set it to after every encounter is keeping this attribute from being well done.

The Art Style
Simple and clean 2D Pixel Art. Nothing too spectacular about it, but it's at least nice to look at.

The Sountrack
It's okay. I never felt as though I wanted to mute the music and play my own through my 1.5 hours.

Summary
Overall, it's a semi-decent title with a rediculous price tag. Don't expect much out of it at its current state, but with updates and some changes, it can become a decent title worthy of a price tag like that. If you want a semi-fun/interesting title, this is a must... when more content comes and the price changes.

A fleshed out Drugwars, if it was set in a post-apocalyptic setting and was made for the PC-98. Great music.