Discounty puts you at the helm of a supermarket franchise expanding into a new town

A month doesn’t pass by without some twist on retail simulation or slice of life city-to-town life releasing. Discounty takes you away from the big city, to a job in a town that’s been left behind by the world.

Ah, that moment as you first arrive, full of hope, at a new town — one brimming with opportunity. It’s something that most of us are used to now; That fresh start: The empty unit or the rundown farm. However, Discounty proudly steps away from the tropes, with a the all-too-familiar chatty driver taking you to the town quickly being followed up by a snappy, sarcastic comment from your aunt — and, later, news that the company has gone out of business. Discounty is incredibly aware of its contemporaries, and actively takes you in a different direction.

Your aunt Tellar, you see, isn’t a little old lady on her deathbed. She’s not passing you total control of the small shop that she’s run for most of her life, and she’s definitely not offering up best wishes toward helping rebuild the community that surrounds it. No. She’s just sold up her shop into a franchise, and she’s full of contempt for the citizens and want for expansive ambition. You’re simply the new manager of her store, and she’s the puppet master.

There’s perhaps no surprise about the direction that the plot goes in. You are, after all, the big city corporate villain to the dusty old town. However, you’re not along in this endeavour. In many ways the town is tearing itself apart through either nostalgia, fear to move on, or other forms of greed or business. It’s a fascinating twist on Stardew Valley’s anti-corporate push, and even genre progenitor Harvest Moon’s rural living.

As such, I’m done talking about the story. It’s a great part of Discounty, and it shouldn’t be spoiled (predictable or not), however I will mention that it all ends abruptly — and with lots of loose ends and unfinished plot points — which is a shame and left me crying out for more story.

Mechanically, Discounty is both fun to play and hits most, if not all, of the beats that make most slice of life games incredibly moerish. The main thing here is that, as far as I’m aware, it’s not actually possible to miss a day of work — aside from scheduled Sundays off — which means that your day is almost always divided into three sections: Pre-work, Work and Post-Work. This is an immediate cramp on the more freeform Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, freeform style, but… if I’m honest, the work element is actually the most robust part of it all.

Your store is divided into two sections: The storeroom and the store. In the storeroom you’ll dump down crates (or, in my case, very carefully lay out your extra stock in optimal order and with enough overstock that you never need to order anything during the day. In the store you’ll lay out your store with fridges, decorations and shelves, and you’ll likely try to do so in a way to optimise customer flow, drive impulse buys and upsell local products (which have decent margin, but also advance your relationship with business partners). In many ways it’s the dream for those who have dabbled in retail middle-management, with more than enough variables at play that you can tweak your customer journey, and optimise your shelf-restocking work.

Even working the till is quite fun, with a classic till and price catalogue replaced with a fun product-type barcode scanning minigame after you’ve upgraded your shop. Combine that with the rewards you get from completing certain tasks during the day (from Discounty HQ) and there’s plenty of things to help keep Discounty‘s hooks firmly planted in you.

Outside of the store experience it gets a little bit weaker, with those previously mentioned loose-ends compounded with the locals often repeating themselves or talking out of order — introducing early-game information as and when you find them in the right place. It’s forgivable though, because everything else here feels incredibly easy to understand and incredibly refined. The story, as well, which features local drama scaling to full-on protest levels, is something that I won’t forget for a long time.

I can’t wait for more Discounty to come, there’s something deeply satisfying about running a day’s shift in my little shop — however, now that the local drama has all died down there’s less of a reason to keep returning. Discounty‘s biggest weakness is that it has an ending that doesn’t quite feel like an ending, and doesn’t give you a reason to keep going… but, if you love it after an hour then you’ll love it right up until the credits roll.

Discounty is available now for PlayStation, Xbox One, Switch and PC.

Interested in playing more slice of life games? Try our list of Farming and Gardening games.