Merchant for Android is a medieval type roleplaying simulation game in which you play the role of a merchant. You make weapons, craft things to sell, and send heroes out on quests. While the game isn’t very complicated, you have to understand how the game works in order to understand how to play.

Besides the simple tutorials, you aren’t given much direction. In truth, a lot of the game requires waiting around which makes it the sort of game to pick up and play for a few seconds, and then set down to come back to later. Which is a fine thing, but definitely a specific thing.

The game works in a cyclical motion with you sending out heroes to get loot, and then with that loot you can craft items for your hero, or sell those items, or sell the original materials directly. You want to keep making more gold to get more heroes and continue on the cycle. It’s a fun process that actually has sped-up gameplay the more you play, and the more heroes you have going out to retrieve loot.

Besides collecting loot and crafting, you also need to purchase recipes in order to craft better items. Everything in the game costs gold! But surprisingly, microtransactions and ads are nowhere to be found. You’d think there would be ways to speed up processes or use currency to buy items, but I couldn’t find any such ways. That is appealing in some ways.

Merchant is a very specific time-based game (everything in the game takes time, from selling items, to crafting, to doing missions) that is successful because of its charming visuals, medieval music, and cyclical nature that provides a good sense of progression and replay value. For those who don’t like casual waiting based games, stay clear.