Last time, I failed. I mean, I really quite catastrophically failed to hit the 80,000 pix I needed for my third payment, and as a result I’ve been sent back to the very first week.

I don’t think it would be worthwhile fully Let’s Play-ising the bit where I just charge through the game until I’m back up to where I was, so let me just summarise the events of the first couple of weeks (take two):

• While redoing the dungeons with Louie, I discover that he actually has two special attacks: the spin I knew about and a sort of charged projectile wave. We clear first the Hall of Trials, then the Jade Way (all fifteen of its floors in one go, because I’m badass, although I actually think that I might not have needed to re-do all the floors because my times from before seem to have been retained).
• Caillou actually comes in on the very first day of selling this time, perhaps because his appearance is triggered by my Merchant Level and not what day it is. We actually have everything he needs straight away, which prompts him to blurt this beautiful line:

• Suffice to say, Caillou’s very impressed with how great our store is, though he still won’t believe that Recette’s anything more than a ‘counter-jockey’. We get 11,400pix from him for the three items, which means that on the very first day I’ve already got enough to meet the first week’s payment!
• Reginald again buys the Very Odd Pot we get from beating Charme, meaning that within three or four days I’ve already got 40 grand. It’s a good start, but I know that things will only get harder, so I’m not taking it for granted.
• I hit Level 9, allowing me to change the carpet.
• For most of the rest of the first week, I focus on the buy-from-Reg-sell-to-customers cycle, but I do make an effort to pop out and check to see if there are any possible interactions in town each day.
• I also make time to take Charme through the Jade Way, learning as I do that she also has a second special attack: a flame charge. I’m getting more used to her limited range, which I think is what threw me off with her before. While we’re down there, I stumble across an item called a Breaker Sword which, besides looking a lot like the Buster Sword, is worth 14 grand, so I guess I got lucky! The other interesting thing I learn is that Charme no longer appears as a boss if I’m playing as her (or possibly just once I’ve unlocked her).
• A little girl comes in and buys (well, doesn’t have enough money, but tries) a book called Booze of the World.
• The guy who never buys anything over 100 pix takes the Breaker Sword for 17 grand! I think I must have done something to lower his willingness to spend on my first run…
• By the end of day 6, I’ve hit Merchant Level 10 and built up a cool 78 grand. I don’t know what I’m doing differently, but I seem to be thriving this time around!
• Since I’m so far ahead, I take Charme to the Amber Garden on day 7. It’s much more trouble than I’d like to admit, and when I run into a whole load of enemies and traps on a floor where enemy attack power is doubled, I’m screwed. I think maybe I should just stick with old Louie until we get somebody else. Sorry, Charme; I’m just not good with her!
• Speaking of Louie, we run into him in the pub. He’s trying to get a bit of cash by doing the quests people have put on the board, but they’re all ridiculous. He’s hot-headed enough to say he’ll just go and do them anyway, prompting Recette to muse that he reminds her a bit of her dad. (You know, the one who left his young daughter to pay back a massive debt alone and vanished fighting a dragon. It’s a compliment.)
• Caillou gives us his adventurer’s card on the grounds that he’s heard there are lots of magical items down in the dungeons lately and he wants to… acquire them. He claims to have a bit of firepower behind him, so perhaps he’ll lend a bit of black magic?
• At the end of day 8 we make our first repayment of 10 grand, and still have 77K left over! The next morning, we’re reintroduced to Alouette.
• I take Caillou for a quick run through the Jade Way and find that I rather like him. He’s got pretty rubbish HP and defence, but he comes equipped with three (four if you count his standard staff bash) decent attacks that have enough range to be able to keep enemies off him. His SP is also very high, which comes in handy for his spells, and he can recover SP through melee attacks. Basically, he’s slow and fragile but he can hit hard enough that he’s probably worth investing some time into. I think I had less trouble getting used to him than I did Charme, at any rate.
• Unfortunately, I still can’t actually control Caillou well enough to beat the Crowned Slime. He’s just not fast enough to get the adds before King Blob can absorb them, making the fight very tricky indeed.
• I hit 80K by the end of day 10, though I’ll have to pay 30 of it to Tear before long. I’m still feeling pretty good about this, but I can’t help but suspect that week 4 might be very difficult even if I do make it past week 3 this time.
• On day 11, we meet Elan again and spend a good 50K on some of the more expensive stuff we’ve now unlocked for purchase on account of our high Merchant Level. I manage to make the whole lot back on the same day, driving my capital up to 100K, as well as buying some beef from a woman who claims to have found it while cleaning out the basement. Yummy.
• I meet this charming woman on day 12:

• She’s trying to sell off cheap junk at ridiculous prices; I think the lesson is that we need to avoid doing that, or we’ll have a terrible reputation.
• Also on day 12, Reg lets me expand the store for 10 grand, so I now have more shelf space! Wahoo! Behold my beautiful new outlet!

• The con-woman (Euria) shows up not long after and tries to sell me some stuff at… waaaaaaay too much money.

• She’s going to be a problem, isn’t she?
• A nice lady sells me a cherry which her grandfather apparently used before he died…
• I get Charme some better equipment, then run her through the Amber Garden. It seems only fair that I give her another chance, since she was the one to tell us about the place. We meet Spear Girl again (for the first time this playthrough) and pick up some worthless junk; we also make it as far as the boss of the fifth floor:

• Like the Crowned Slime and Reginald Drisby before him, he’s got adds in the form of smaller eyebat things. He packs a bit of a punch himself, too, but the challenge is keeping up with him as he floats around while also avoiding the attacks of the many little bats (I can’t take them out quick enough to eliminate their presence entirely, so I suspect they’re coded to keep their numbers around four or five on the field at all times.)
• I do, however, manage to defeat him! Finally, I’ve actually done something in the Amber Garden!

• After hitting level 13, I discover that I can now purchase vending machines at the market, though I can’t yet put them in the shop. I’m guessing I must be able to put stuff in them once I hit a higher level, and I’m not just supposed to buy a vending machine and then sell it!
• We decide to take Charme down to the next lot of floors in the Amber Garden, but it’s creepy and I don’t like it! We get ambushed by weird jumping pumpkins, freaked out by the music, all sorts.

• Somehow (it’s touch-and-go on multiple occasions, trust me) we make it to the boss: a giant wiggly insect. He’s actually not that hard; he just sort of wanders after us, occasionally rolling to do some pretty hefty damage, but it’s easily avoided. Suffice to say: he goes DOWN. I almost toy with the idea of just going straight to the next set of floors, but decide against it.
• At the end of day 15, we make that 30 grand repayment!

I think that pretty much gets us back to where I wanted to be; this week is the one where I started to falter, so we’ll pick up with a fully Let’s Play-ified version of that next time. Hopefully it’ll go better than the last one!