Puzzle Pirates vs Shop Heroes
Puzzle Pirates
Puzzle Pirates is a kid-friendly, MMO adventure-puzzle game where players get to not only play as swashbuckling pirates but also explore a world filled with tons of fun mini-games as they try to build up their own pirate's reputation. The game features plenty of fun avatar customization as well, allowing you to dress your virtual self up whichever way you like.To complement this, the game even has a very robust crafting and trading system in place where you can place your order for a new peg leg (for example) at various shops or you can simply craft one yourself, provided that you have everything you need. You can also sell any extra crafted items you have to other players and set up a small little business for yourself in the game.
Being an MMO, Puzzle Pirates provide players with a ton of cooperative gameplay opportunities. For instance, when you're out at sea, players on the same voyage will need to switch jobs according to the circumstances and need of the crew as a whole. There's also a fun tetris-like game, which simulate swordfights, that you can play alongside your fellow pirates whenever your ship is being boarded by a rival pirate crew.
Although the game hasn't gotten as much attention as say... Pirate 101, Puzzle Pirates is still among the best pirate-themed MMO games out there that is incredibly fun to play and is perfect for the entire family. This game is pretty much timeless!
Most parts of the game are free-to-play, though there are some that will require a subscription.
Shop Heroes
Shop Heroes is an incredibly fun and addictive, medieval/fantasy shop simulation that has some RPG elements. In this game, you play as a shopkeeper with a newly established shop that provides various types of RPG adventurers with their weapons, armor, and accessories. As opposed to only selling them, you will also need to hire crafters to craft the said items, and each crafter has their own sets of skills while each item will require certain sets of skills to craft. Thankfully, you can hire more than one crafter (eventually) and hence, you will be able to produce more than a few selected categories of items later down the road.These items can then be sold to the RPG adventurers who approach you at your shop. Selling to them, however, usually means that you'll be selling at market price, though you are given the option to lower your prices to earn Hearts or use Hearts to inflate your prices. Since most adventurers would want a very specific item to buy, which you may not have available, you can also use Hearts to change their minds. Naturally, trying to suggest a closer alternative to buy would cost you fewer Hearts.
The game also has RPG elements where you can recruit and send adventurers into various dungeons to earn special crafting materials that these dungeons only provide. There's PvP as well, where you can assemble a team of 5 to battle a randomly selected player's team of your bracket. Not to mention, you can even group up with other shopkeepers via guilds and work together on weekly challenges to win freebies, in addition to cooperatively building up the guild facilities so as to obtain a better guild-wide buff.
Shop Heroes is a game that is one of its kind because it not only managed to flawlessly merge both shop simulation and RPG into a fun and exciting package, but also to provide its game completely free. You can advance, albeit at a slower pace, in this game without spending a single cent if you like, but of course, if you enjoyed playing the game, you might want to spend some cash just to show your support.