Save Room: The Merchant

About

Save Room: The Merchant is a single player casual puzzle game. It was developed by Fractal Projects and was released on July 14, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

"Save Room: The Merchant" is a casual, single-player game that offers a unique gameplay experience centered around organization and inventory management. To advance through 40 handcrafted levels, players must strategically sell treasures to a merchant and purchase necessary items using earned pesetas. Successful level completion requires careful arrangement of items and logical financial planning, all set to a backdrop of relaxing music and sound effects. The game is grinding-intensive, requiring players to repeatedly sell and buy items to progress.

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Play Modes

Single-Player

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74%

Audience ScoreBased on 192 reviews

gameplay16 positive mentions

grinding22 negative mentions

The game retains the nostalgic inventory management gameplay from Resident Evil 4, providing a fun and engaging experience.
The addition of the merchant introduces new mechanics that can enhance the puzzle-solving aspect, making it a unique sequel.
Despite some flaws, the game offers a chill atmosphere and enjoyable puzzles for fans of the genre.

The new gameplay mechanics add unnecessary tedium, making the experience feel more like busy work than enjoyable puzzle-solving.
The user interface is cumbersome and poorly designed, leading to frustrating navigation and frequent resets of progress.
Many players feel that this sequel does not live up to the original, citing it as less satisfying and more tedious overall.

gameplay
78 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
71%
8%
The gameplay in this sequel introduces new mechanics, such as a merchant system for buying and selling items, which some players find adds depth while others feel it detracts from the overall experience by introducing tedium and bloating the gameplay. While the initial levels are praised for their fun and engaging puzzles, many reviewers note that the later levels become tedious due to the added mechanics, leading to a less satisfying experience compared to the original game. Overall, the game retains its puzzle roots but struggles with pacing and quality of life improvements, leaving mixed feelings among players.
- “A nice sequel to the organization puzzle, it still retains the Resident Evil 4 inventory management gameplay but you can now buy and sell from the merchant unlike the previous game.”
- “A very fun and relaxing game like the first one with some new mechanics added.”
- “The first chunk of levels in this game are great, the merchant adding a genuinely nice new layer to the original's gameplay and any item can be one the level wants kept or sold.”
- “The new gameplay adds nothing but tedium.”
- “They added more game mechanics while ignoring quality of life mechanics, which completely ruins the pacing of the game.”
- “I get what the dev tried to do, but by adding more and more gameplay elements, the whole game becomes bloated and loses its original appeal, even though the added mechanics come straight from RE4.”
grinding
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious, with many criticizing the cumbersome controls, repetitive tasks, and inefficient UI that detract from the experience. While some appreciate the ability to select multiple items for transactions, the added merchant mechanics and level organization requirements are often seen as frustrating and time-consuming. Many reviewers feel that these issues overshadow the game's improvements over its predecessor, leading to a tiring gameplay experience.
- “Just not as good as the first game, way more tedious having to make sure to sell certain things in a specific way else you have to restart the whole level, and it's really annoying having to organize the treasures to sell at the beginning of every level. It's just way too time-consuming, and on top of that, going into the options menu restarts the level, so that's dumb.”
- “If I had to give it a one-word review, it would be 'tedious.' Very tiring to play, cumbersome controls for both control schemes, way too much menuing, and it too often relies on repetition instead of actual puzzling.”
- “If the purpose of this sequel was to be an infuriating, beyond tedious game, then it succeeded.”
story
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
37%
38%
The game's story is considered mediocre, offering a simplistic narrative reminiscent of Resident Evil 4, with a humorous tone that accompanies the gameplay. Players find the achievements easily attainable through the story, which is primarily a backdrop for the inventory management mechanics. Overall, the story serves as a light and somewhat entertaining element rather than a compelling driving force.
- “A little game of organizing an inventory, very inspired by Resident Evil 4, and a mocking story that goes with the levels.”
- “All of the achievements of the game are fairly easy to obtain through the story and natural gameplay.”
- “In-between levels, you get a budget version of Resident Evil 4's story.”
- “A little game of organizing an inventory, very inspired by RE 4 and a mocking story that goes with the levels.”
- “The game has some story; it's just okay.”
humor
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is generally considered lacking compared to its predecessor, with many players finding the jokes and cutscenes unengaging and skippable. While there are a few lighthearted moments, such as quips from a female merchant, they do not significantly enhance the overall comedic experience.
- “Female merchant: (chuckling) 'not bad for an old codger.'”
- “Female merchant: (laughing) 'gotcha!'”
music
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
25%
25%
The music and sound effects in the game are generally praised as stellar, enhancing the overall experience. However, some players find the music to be somewhat tedious and not particularly engaging over time.
- “Voice acting gets old, but the music and sound effects are stellar.”
- “Not bad but kind of tedious after a while and the music isn't terribly interesting.”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game is praised for its classic Resident Evil 4 atmosphere, creating an engaging environment that enhances the experience of solving puzzles and immerses players for extended periods.
- “The game has a great atmosphere, perfect for relaxing and solving puzzles for hours.”
- “Well, for starters, it's got that classic Resident Evil 4 atmosphere.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has been reported to have significant stability issues, including numerous bugs and a user interface that is not optimized for the Steam Deck, leading to problems with cursor functionality and input methods. Overall, players find it to be buggier than its predecessor.
- “The game is pretty buggy, maybe more so than the other save room game before it, strangely enough.”
- “Not yet optimized for Steam Deck; the UI is not fitted in the game, and the cursor freezes while using the D-pad, with the mouse not working.”
- “The game is pretty buggy, maybe more so than the other save room game before it, strangely enough.”
graphics
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The graphics received positive feedback, with users appreciating their quality and the enjoyable experience of customizing weapons. Overall, the visual presentation enhances the gameplay experience.
- “The graphics were nice and putting the weapons on there was fun.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's optimization is criticized for exacerbating existing issues, such as a tedious user interface and controls that could benefit from streamlining to reduce repetitive tasks. Additionally, the color scheme poses accessibility challenges for colorblind players, further highlighting the need for improved optimization.
- “All this bloat highlights the original game's negative parts, which are now even worse: the UI and controls are tedious and could have been optimized to minimize repetitive and useless tasks. The whole red/green/yellow color scheme is a nightmare for colorblind players, to name a few.”

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