STONKS-98000 Stock Market Simulator is a Stock Market Game developed by single employee developer Ternox Games, from Ukraine. The games casts you as a Japanese stock broker in the 1980s trying to grow their wealth and business. They are assisted by an advisor named Amy. The game includes Life Simulation Game elements that where you have to maintain your relationship with your contacts and Amy, manage your stress levels, and navigate from bad deals.
The game was released for Early Access on Steam on July 2023.
Their website is posted here
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Amy makes an appearance as a Guest Fighter in Legend of Himari, an arcade game also developed by Ternox Games.
This page contains the following tropes:
- Combat and Support: Downplayed. You the Boss execute the plans for gaining money, while Amy assists you with advice and showing information about your stocks.
- Deal with the Devil: On top of making underhanded and corrupt deals, you could also work with the Yakuza to bolster your bottom line even further, at least for so long as you pay your dues and don't piss them off.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: While Amy is far from rude, depending on your interactions with her, she becomes more willing to drop her professional facade. Eventually, this can lead to her being more intimate during and out of work.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Amy refers to you as Boss.
- Exposition Fairy: Your advisor Amy acts as the player's assistant. She helps give you advice about any bad deals and keep track of the stocks, in addition to giving good conversation.
- Featureless Protagonist: Your player character, The Boss, is never visually seen.
- Girl Friday: Your assistant Amy helps you with the stocks, finances, and being a contact whom you can spend time with.
- It Will Never Catch On: Downplayed. Among the various available stocks you start out with in 1980 are those for budding video game companies, which were still seen as relative novelties in Japan at the time, with penny stock valuation to match. Their worth, however, can rise up dramatically over time, depending on performance.
- Just Before the End: After a fashion. The game starts off at the height of Japan's economic boom in The '80s, with all its excesses. Then the bubble bursts...
- Meaningful Name: Amy's name is a French name meaning "beloved" or "well-loved". Fitting for a character who you come to appreciate as an assistant, and someone you can form a friendship and possible love relationship in story mode.
- Non-Player Companion: Amy, as your advisor, is your constant companion amongst the other employees.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Once you reach the early 1990s, things become more difficult as the effects of the bubble burst become progressively more pronounced.
- Rags to Riches: You can go from being just barely above a struggling salaryman working from a shady apartment, to being one of Japan's top business magnates. Depending on your actions, however, all that power and fortune can evaporate very quickly.
- Relationship Values: The game tracks your relationship values with your various contacts and Amy.
- Retraux: The game's UI and overall presentation call to mind old NES and PC Engine titles, befitting the time period portrayed.
- Sanity Meter: In addition to finances and ethical standing, there's also a stress meter that has to be managed well.
- Shout-Out: In addition to various nods to '80s Japanese pop culture, you can collect figurines of characters from the RPG game Ringlorn Saga.
- Sexy Secretary: Amy is pretty attractive, with short hair, earrings, and glasses. She can also be be given different outfits, some of which further play up this trope.
- Shrines and Temples: You can visit the shine with one of your contacts, such as Amy.
- Subordinate Excuse: As time goes on, depending on your relationship with Amy, those professional ties can potentially become romantic.
- Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: All of your stock market action takes place in Tokyo during the 1980s period. Also where you have to deal with the bubble burst in the 90s.
- Video Game Caring Potential: While you could just get your hands dirty on the way to the top, you could also donate to charity and purposefully choose more ethical deals, which will benefit you somewhere down the line.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: If you go overboard in getting dirty, it'll come back to bite you hard, whether through rival businessmen, the Yakuza, or the authorities going after you.
