If you need to finance a $500 purchase, you might want to rethink the purchase altogether.
No game is honestly worth $540 bucks for a general consumer. The fact is they are making a killing off that on the parts cost side of things. Look at all the 100 in 1 multi-carts and other multi-jamma pcb crap that is just as complex to make but cost a mere fraction to the consumer. The only suckers willing to pay this kinda cash though for a game are the Neo types and the obsessive collector investors with their 10,000 game collections who barely ever play anything, or vendors who plan to put it out on commission in a cab and get some money back.
I'm not defending this particular developer, but developers in general, when I say that the sheer amount of time/energy/stress put into a project is often NOT compensated by an equivalent amount of $$$.
Just refining the nuanced, small little elements (I,e. mechanics, graphics)—yes, those "finishing touches" that separate a "rough" game from a "polished" game—this can eat up an inordinate amount of time.
Razion might very well be a pretty skin on top of "generic old-skool euro pap play mechanics", but folks can't deny that a sh'tload of effort went into it, EVEN IF they recycled the game engine.
I'd still feel this way even if they produced a soccer game or mahjong title (I have zero interest in those genres).
Anyway, sadly, I think a lot of indie games published for old consoles are sold to "collector types" who rarely play the damn game. This is ironic, because, (usually) the games were clearly made to keep a console ALIVE and not simply exist as collector fodder.
I actually would have some respect (not much, but some) for a scammer who pumped out "games" (of dubious quality) that exist simply as collector's items (since the game itself is poor quality and of little value to a person who actually seeks entertainment via games). The entire motivation for this enterprise would be milking folks out of their money. Money first, collectables first....creating/distributing a decent game? Not even a passing thought.