Discounty review — Cozy capitalism

Let’s face it, farming games are a bit of a power trip when it comes to the role we take on and the changes we enforce in these small rural communities. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you decide literally everything, from villagers’ houses to ordinances. Heck, you can even terraform the Earth. You’re also treated as a savior of these small rural villages. In Stardew Valley, you decide whether to rebuild the community center or promote the capitalist Joja Mart. These NPCs bend to your whim, which I know is dramatic, but I hope you can see where I’m coming from. This genre is becoming more and more about how we control space and shape it to our ideal, instead of just slowing it all down and being a member of the community. With all this in mind, I booted up Discounty due to how different the beat was from what we are used to. In this game, you are the capitalist villain, and the people of Blonkest don’t shy away from calling you out for taking things too far.

Discounty has the basic premise of you moving to a new town to start a new life; in this case, you’re here to help your aunt establish a new supermarket. You’ll manage the shop and build it up so it can expand and become a glorious empire that will ‘revitalize Blonkest.’ Unfortunately, as capitalism is a tale as old as time, this doesn’t seem like an idea full of sunshine and rainbows. When you arrive at Blonkest, you’re not greeted by an overly pretty town. Instead, a lot of buildings are boarded up, there are business owners crawling around promoting their monopolies, and the forest is boarded off because of a mysterious and maybe poisonous fog. Residents are also not overly pleased by your arrival as you meddle in certain affairs. Despite this, you chuck yourself into work and get stuck in a devilishly addictive gameplay loop. Scanning items and hearing the beep boop was immensely satisfying.

Even though playing Discounty left a sour taste in my mouth as I basically made the town worse, its gameplay loop, whilst working in the supermarket, is really fun and easy to jump straight into. Basically, you’ll have to buy stock of items you’ll sell in your shop, arrange the shelves/freezers they situate in, and then calculate the costs when they come to scan their shopping. Your supermarket opens from 9 to 5, and during these hours the clock will speed up, so actually working in the shop lasts a few minutes. The rest of the day is for your own use; this can include restocking and doing quests around the town. The clock is, overall, very fast compared to a lot of games in the genre; an hour will typically last a minute, so days go by very quickly. This matched the pace of Discounty, as I found there wasn’t tons to do outside of work apart from the story. You can engage with residents in friendship-type events, but they’re completely optional; you just need to interact with the highlighted item in the overworld to trigger one.

Speaking of the residents, you’ll meet a colorful cast of characters that all have their own stories to tell. Matching the serious tone of Discounty, the characters’ plot lines are pretty down-to-earth and a bit darker than what we are used to in the genre. You have messy situations where exes are living together, and a man is dealing with mental illness. Albeit I wasn’t overly attached to any of the characters of Discounty. I didn’t experience any downtime with them, and because of Discounty’s fast pace, you never feel the need to stop and talk to them. This may not be helped by a lack of a gift system, but the character element of the game is certainly weak.

The story is separated into chapters, and while playing at a relatively normal pace, I completed Discounty in about 15 hours. It’s a very linear game with not much freedom to do much else. Once you run the credits, you can still manage your shop, but that’s about it, and I didn’t find myself needing to play any more than necessary, which is absolutely fine. Not all farming games need to be open and endless, but it’s something to consider when choosing your next farming sim game and what kind of one you’re looking for.

The story itself is refreshing yet harsh, to say the least. Like I touched on before, you’re not out to make a difference here; you’re here to expand and capitalize. The game brings up some valid topics on small towns being overrun by business chains and how it saps the lifeblood out of the community. Being from a small, poor town, I sadly related to this game a lot, and it’s a problem that keeps getting bigger. Residents will get angry with you for wanting to expand your supermarket, even going as far as to protest to shut it down, which made for an uncomfortable experience. If you’re thinking you’ll get a resolution of this issue, you kind of do and you kind of don’t. A lot of players have commented on the unsatisfying nature of the ending of Discounty, and I can definitely see why. Without spoiling, you can make two choices, and neither feels like the right one. But, in the game’s defense, I think that’s entirely the point. Discounty is a fun and somber time, and despite not being head over heels for it, I can appreciate what it's going for. Just get used to feeling like the bad guy.

By far Discounty’s best element is the layering of its gameplay. I’ve talked about what a typical day looks like, but you don’t realize how fast-paced and addictive it is to play. You’ll be constantly thinking about how to increase customer satisfaction and make a profit from your stock. This can be done through a few means, like posters and items you can buy from the hardware shop that increase the attraction of certain products. It can even come down to the layout of your supermarket, as placing items sparsely apart can slow down customers, and placing them strategically can see a dramatic increase in profit. The shop itself can be upgraded three times, and the shelves and freezers you can place have better versions that increase capacity and attraction.

However, decoration is another story; I don’t think your supermarket is supposed to be a Dream Home Decorator, so you should expect minimal freedom in customization. You can pick up items like plants and a few other items—there isn’t too much selection—from the antiques store, and you’re free to place these in your shop or in your trailer. You won’t be able to upgrade your trailer, and there’s not much space at all for decorations, which I guess is disappointing. Even if they added wall decorations, it’d feel more substantial, but as you can tell by now, Discounty isn’t here for the pleasantries.

The other core part of the gameplay is your trade deals that you can establish with other businesses in Blonkest. There are four in total, from the hideous fish sticks to cheese produced on a farm. Each trade deal can be upgraded, so you get diverse items, and there’s even a point system where if you sell a certain amount of their product, you can place these points into increasing the stock on offer or cheapening the cost of stock. Businesses will restock weekly, so it’ll be up to you to manage what stock you have and keep up to date with it, as customers can become quite angry if something’s not on sale. All of these elements come together to give the player a good time whilst playing Discounty. Some nights after work, I’d have a lot to do, but as the story was closing up, I found I had way too much spare time on my hands.

I have a few issues with Discounty that I think need a patch sooner or later, however. One of them is triggering dialogue from characters. Normally, you get the choice to engage in conversation, or they’ll hit you with a line or two of dialogue. Discounty’s cast rope throws you straight into a conversation that more often than not repeats itself when you go back to talk to characters. Having to button-mash my way through these conversations was a massive pain. Another issue is how the shutters work in your supermarket. Your supermarket shuts at 5 pm, and if there are customers left in your shop, they’ll have to end their spree and come to cash up. This means they would have to miss out on items on their list, getting an angry reaction from them. I never felt like this aspect of the game was in my control, as customers come in whenever they want. I swear to God, they have a 20-item shopping list and come in an hour before closing; of course, you’re not going to get it all done! I wish instead that you could work overtime to fit in these last customers, so it doesn’t affect your overall customer rating.