When comparing Star Traders RPG Elite vs Merchant, the Slant community recommends Merchant for most people. In the question“What are the best Android games without in-app purchases/paywalls?” Merchant is ranked 94th while Star Traders RPG Elite is ranked 155th. The most important reason people chose Merchant is:
The game has a nice retro pixel art style. From the menus to the dungeons or shop there is a very familiar aesthetic to the overall design that would have fit in quite well on consoles in the 80's.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Actively supported with frequent updates
The Trese Brothers studio is known for constant improvements and content additions to all their titles.
Pro Extreme freedom in play style
Star Traders follows the sandbox RPG philosophy. There are a few motivating factors -- keeping your ship fueled, crewed, in one piece, and still yours -- but there are many ways to satisfy those needs, and there are mechanics in place for the player to indulge in any number of personal goals.
Pro Pixel art
The game has a nice retro pixel art style. From the menus to the dungeons or shop there is a very familiar aesthetic to the overall design that would have fit in quite well on consoles in the 80's.
Pro Fun resource management mechanic
The player can sell their loot (gathered from a dungeon) for in game money, to then be spent on needed equipment or can equip their loot to try harder dungeons to get better loot to sell for new equipment. Each action is a gamble and may or may not pay off for the player.
Pro In active development
Merchant is still in a very active development phase, which means there will be plenty of bug fixes and new features and tweaks to the gameplay added.
Pro Dedicated subreddit
Merchant has a dedicated subreddit page where users can discuss the game, strategies and bugs.
Pro Completely free and zero permissions
Merchant is a completely free game that also has zero permissions.
Cons
Con Much of the interface is text-based, with only decorative graphics
The bulk of gameplay could be mistaken for web pages from the 1990s.
Con Current version has both ads and in-app purchases
Con Wait times
There are wait times in the game for both crafting and adventuring. This makes it impossible to sit and play for any length of time and makes the user have to come back to the game often in order to make any significant progress.
Con Lag/delay of action
When pressing buttons in the menus there is a noticeable delay until the requested action actually takes place.