Barter Empire

About

Barter Empire is a single player casual role playing game. It was developed by Mayhem Games USA and was released on February 5, 2015. It received neutral reviews from players.

The king is dead, the queen is missing. The only known heir to the throne is believed dead, and the fate of an entire kingdom rests in your hands. Enter the land of war-torn Ditherra. A land of pirates, thieves, traders, smugglers, kings, queens, deities and mortals. Wealth and power control Ditherra, and the power struggle has divided the land between the East and West.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

54%

Audience ScoreBased on 28 reviews

humor2 positive mentions

grinding8 negative mentions

The game offers a vast amount of content, including crafting, farming, fishing, and questing, providing players with numerous activities to engage in.
The story has potential and features a variety of characters, with some humorous dialogue that adds charm to the experience.
For its price, the game delivers a lot of gameplay value, reminiscent of classic RPGs with a mix of exploration and resource management.

The game suffers from poor graphics and inconsistent art styles, with character portraits that clash and large enemy sprites that detract from the overall experience.
Combat mechanics are frustrating and poorly designed, with battles often feeling tedious and unbalanced, leading to a lack of challenge.
Technical issues, such as resolution problems and bugs, significantly hinder gameplay, making it difficult to enjoy the experience fully.

story
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
54%
23%
The story is generally viewed as mediocre, starting with a common trope of amnesia and featuring a mix of main and side quests that lack depth and clarity. While some players appreciate the narrative's potential, they feel it is overshadowed by gameplay issues and a lack of engaging visuals, leading to a mixed reception overall.
- “Waking up with amnesia is rarely a good beginning of a story.”
- “Many quests have dialogue choices.”
- “-the story seems to be pretty decent especially for a RPG Maker game at this price.”
- “Firstly, the story starts off rather generically: you are a girl dropped off by blue people, rescued by an old man and his dog and awake to find you've lost your memories.”
- “The story seems to be fairly okay, but the bad overall gameplay makes it difficult to really find value.”
- “Light on story, but I suspect I'm still stuck in tutorial stuff.”
graphics
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The graphics in this RPG Maker game have received significant criticism, with users noting a poor mix of generic RPG Maker assets and self-crafted visuals that clash in style. Issues such as sprite inconsistencies, mismatched character portraits, and a lack of resolution options further detract from the overall visual experience, leading to a perception of low-quality graphics.
- “The developer has tried to overcome this by mixing more realistic photographic images for some of the character pictures, and for many of the attacking enemies.”
- “Generic RM graphics are mixed with some self-crafted ones on small maps, titanic enemy sprites are effortlessly slain by tiny character sprites.”
- “Anyhow, I'd say it needs to be updated with an options menu, like most games, even the old SNES ones to some level, and that menu needs a graphic option to allow changing resolution.”
- “Though visuals are never a big issue for me, this is an RPG Maker game, and I despise that style.”
- “Generic RPG Maker graphics are mixed with some self-crafted ones on small maps; titanic enemy sprites are effortlessly slain by tiny character sprites.”
- “Worse though are the graphic mistakes concerning event sprites; if you activate a chest, button, sparkle, or whatever, there's a chance it will morph into a different part of the spriteset from which it came.”
grinding
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The grinding aspect of the game is characterized by a plethora of activities such as crafting, farming, and questing, but many players find these elements tedious and simplistic. While the game offers a variety of features, including resource gathering and combat, the execution often feels lackluster, with some players comparing it unfavorably to free mobile farming games. Overall, the grinding experience is seen as overwhelming yet unsatisfying, lacking depth and engagement.
- “All the crafting is simplistic and tedious.”
- “Features your typical grindy woodcutting and mining, but instead of having respawnable hotspots, you have to follow scripted maps to find additional resources.”
- “Crafting, farming, economy, adventuring, marriage, adoption, open-world, etc. are a few of the things this game tries to tackle and, in my opinion, doesn't do very well.”
gameplay
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
20%
60%
The gameplay is noted for its depth, but users criticize the battle mechanics as poorly designed and unbalanced, which detracts from the overall experience. While the story is considered acceptable, the significant issues with gameplay mechanics hinder players' enjoyment and value of the game.
- “The important thing is gameplay, and this game has a lot of depth.”
- “The battle mechanics seem to be poorly designed and balanced.”
- “The story seems to be fairly okay, but the bad overall gameplay makes it difficult to really find value.”
- “This seems like a serious bug and game mechanic issue; I'm not sure of the terminology, I just play and try to report if something seems off.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's replayability is rated low, with many players expressing that once completed, there is little incentive to revisit it. The lack of varied content or meaningful choices diminishes the desire for multiple playthroughs.
- “The game offers minimal replayability, as once you've completed the main story, there's little incentive to return.”
- “After finishing the game, I found that the lack of diverse endings made replaying it feel pointless.”
- “While the gameplay is enjoyable, the limited variety in missions and quests means I won't be coming back for a second playthrough.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is highlighted by witty dialogue and intriguing characters, particularly a standout zombie character that adds to the comedic elements. Overall, players find the humor engaging and a positive aspect of the game's narrative.
- “Some of the dialogue is funny.”
- “I haven't finished the game yet, but so far, the story is good and the characters (there are a lot of them) are intriguing and funny, especially that zombie.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The music in the game is generally considered bland and often overpowered by repetitive sound effects, leading some players to find it excessively loud and unmanageable, prompting them to mute their speakers entirely.
- “The music is a bit bland and is almost drowned out by the looping sound effects.”
- “The music is too loud and cannot be turned off; I had to turn off my speakers.”