Your Favorite Shops/Stores WITHIN a Game?

[Ascending Wordsmith]

Even in video games, protagonists must have some funds in order to afford whatever items they may come across upon entering a shop, or meeting up with a merchant. It's all the same whether you're buying some oatmeal cookies from Metro Bakery in River City Ransom, or purchasing an AK-47 from Ammu-Nation in San Andreas. The shops have the goods and your protagonist has the cash, so it's business as usual.

Here's a few memorable shops I've come across in games.

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn68/PC_Kwajalein/merc.jpg

In MERCS for the Genesis, this lovely lady offers to sell your team of mercenaries everything from high explosives, weapon upgrades, and medical kits all the way to a roast chicken dinner. I usually get the BBQ pork roast with a side of napalm. :-P


http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn68/PC_Kwajalein/Besaid.jpg

This little shop in FFX's Besaid Village is probably the closest I'll ever come to doing any shopping in Tahiti. It's a humble, little tent in the tropics next to a stand of palm trees. Since I suck at RPGs, I spent a fortune on health potions at this shop. ^^;


Are there any memorable shops, stores, or merchants you've come across in any games you played be it classic OR modern? Tell us YOUR shopping experience. :)

[ryborg]

http://gamerrelated.com/images/86193-75351/skate_or_die.jpg

[guitargary75]

River city ransom and Earthbound.

[Sailorneorune]

Tomato Mart (Shenmue). :)

[Ed Oscuro]

Well now, I really would just list all the shops-with-girls I can think of:

Phantasy Star II's weapons store
The store from Forgotten Worlds (woot, the girl appears in one of those tag team fightery things later on too)
Lords of Thunder's store

And a bonus: The stores from BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception are nifty as I recall...the small arms store has a friendly chap who gives a fairly detailed (for the late 80s) account of what happens when you use this, that, or the other on human infantry... ;)

Also, "I'M OK" (the Jack Thompson parody game) has Bill in the store...nice.

@ ryborg: That pic is priceless. Appropriating for spam purposes now.

[Sudo]

Does Wall Market from FF VII count? It's not technically one store, but I just liked that whole area.

[Koleman-GameOn]

Any of the shops in A Bard's Tale for the PlayStation 2 or Xbox.

[ThoughtBomb]

Good ol Merch from RE4. By the way,here's what he's been doing since RE4. Pretty tough out there in the real world, huh Merch? (http://youtube.com/watch?v=7oXx0qwe0wc)

[MrRoboto19XX]

For me I like either the Tomato Mart (In the docks) of Shenmue, or The You Game Arcade within the same game.

Both just seemed like places that seemed real.

[JSoup]

Any shop in any of the GameBoy Zelda games. They all had such a welcoming feel.

[InsaneDavid]

Underwater shop near the end of Popful Mail on the Sega CD...

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/SCD-PopfulMail-001.jpg

[Ed Oscuro]

Oh, that reminds me, Legend of Makai has a decent shop in terms of fanservice...well, taken alongside the rest of the game, that is.

[robotriot]

Super Nashwan Power!!!!!1111

http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/42/Xenon%202%20Megablast_2.png

[PentiumMMX]

I'd have to go with the Junk Shop from Mega Man Legends.

[EX-Soldier]

Tomato Mart (Shenmue). :)

Damn beaten to the punch!!!

Looks like i'm gonna have to go with that little weapon shop in the first village in the legend of zelda(4got the whole name) for the gameboy, if u picked up a weapon and circled the cashier fast enough you can make out with the loot!!!

...of course you'd get lazered to hell if you were foolish enough to walk back in 4 a visit at any point in the game =(

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

1st in on ALL of STAN's shops from the Monkey Island series!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c1/Stan.gif

[diskoboy]

Maramasa's shop in Ninja Gaiden/Black/Sigma or Gaiden 2.

[Trebuken]

Any of the shops in A Bard's Tale for the PlayStation 2 or Xbox.

I liked the one's in the original Bard's Tale series. Every item you sold could be bought back and didn't disappear (if I remember correctly).

[NickmasterX]

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i154/nickmasterx/18.gif

and the all the shops in Earthbound. Hamburgers $14...lol

[Cryomancer]

Game is unreleased, but...

Weaponalds!
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/1838/spacefzsve8.png

[modest9797]

Coulumbian Roastmasters in Dead Rising. Infinite Orange Juice owns.

[SpaceHarrier]

I liked pretty much any shop in FFXII.. The only shops that actually looked like real functioning shops. Weapons/armor/scrolls/items on display, other shoppers looking around. They actually had the size and scale and believability of real stores. Not just a guy at a counter with a helmet on a shelf behind him.

The shop that Alex's rotund friend ends up owning in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. Only shop I know where you actually have a repoire with the owner.

I also second the Ninja Gaiden Black shops.

My least favorite "shop" was O'aka XXIII from FFX. Annoying.

[Nebagram]

I'll probably throw in another vote for the Tomato Mart. If markets were allowed though, Oblivion's Imperial Market District is pretty friggin' awesome- especially (how nerdy am I) the book stores.

Surprised no-one gone for Ammu-Nation yet, either. :)

Though, as our friends Gabe and Tycho remind us, there are times when a shop is simply... illogical.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2005/20050114h.jpg

[Cryomancer]

Actually if we are going to include market areas, I'd say the market in Secret of Evermore.

The stores in Shenmue are indeed cool too, and holy crap how did i forget Yazuka? it has freakin Don Quijote with the themesong playing!

[exit]

The music for the drug store in Earthbound always makes me smile, also gotta love the small stand in Happy Happy Village that's left unattended.

[j_factor]

I like the traveling saleswoman in Albert Odyssey.

[Drixxel]

The Magic of Scheherazade with it's desperate/unstable shopkeep.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/9412/scher01er6.jpghttp://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7120/scher02tu8.jpghttp://img340.imageshack.us/img340/981/scher03as5.jpg

[ryborg]

Can't forget about this helpful fellow from Milon's Secret Castle:

http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/useless/feather1.gif

[Coldguy]

Tie between Hipono's place in Barell volcano (Super Mario RPG) and the mall in Fourside (Earthbound). Aw yea I got everything pimped out, now lets go...ah shit! :angry:

[Sniderman]

Mammago's in Beyond Good and Evil. Love the Rasta muzak system while you shop/cvisit.

[Nirvana]

"what Are Ya Buyin'?"

[OMF2097]

Dengeki Big Bang!/Clash at Demonhead's Shop Call: "Have you met my daughter Sally?"

Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari/River City Ransom's: Merv Burger!

[Gapporin]

The dwarf's shop in Shadowrun (SNES).

"Yar har har, let's set our hair on fire!"

[MrSparkle]

The Magic of Scheherazade with it's desperate/unstable shopkeep.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/9412/scher01er6.jpghttp://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7120/scher02tu8.jpghttp://img340.imageshack.us/img340/981/scher03as5.jpg

Damn i was totally gonna go with that i love the shop keepers face. And how he robs you of 10 rupees if you piss him off. (note the fact that my avatar is the cover art to this game haha)

[mailman187666]

I think the gay shopkeepers from the shadowhearts series is hilarious. What exactly are they doing to your characters in the first one that makes it so painful to gain new abilities? but doesn't seem to bother any female characters??? hmmmmmmmmm ha ha ha.