#maybe i don't remember enough about the rune factory games but

[tomato-farming]

Hello! I don’t remember following you but I’m glad you’re back lol

Have you played rf5 yet? If so, do you have any thoughts?

I'm not surprised, it's been years lol

I have played RF5! and as with my record with Rune Factory games, I haven't beaten it yet, but I do have thoughts

My strongest opinion is also like the most petty thing but I don't like how the town is decorated. Like one of the big things that's stood out to me in pervious RF games was how beautiful the background environments are, especially in the DS and 3DS games, those super detailed pixel art backgrounds and towns are just SO nice to look at and Rigbarth feels so empty comparatively, I want more clutter and the houses and businesses are too far apart, there's too much space in Rigbarth. This is such a small thing to be so passionate about but there's just too much empty areas in the town, and it's like just the town, the rest of the areas look great or adequate but the town needs more detail imo

The other thing is I think the farm dragons are confusing, I like the concept but I don't think it worked as well as I thought it would? I mostly used the farm on the ground and the first dragon even though there's so many dragons, I feel like maybe I just didn't understand how they worked well enough, I don't know but I want to pet the dragons, or talk to them, I want to be friends with the dragons and get to see their faces more, I know I can feed them but I want more

I wish Terry was romanceable

Heinz scares me

I like the way the event system works, I can easily tell where an event can happen and so I can choose which one I'm going to do, love that

I wish decorating my home was easier

oh yeah, I really like the farming system, improving the individual plots rather then improving the plants being grown is really unique and fun, it's complicated and confusing too but idk I like it. It's a bit sad for me though that we can't farm in the dungeons anymore, that was like a big stable of the series but I never did it much anyway, just a little sad thing

I absolutely want to play more RF5 now lol, it's been a good while since I last played it so sorry if any of my rambling is inaccurate, it's all from memory

[tinylantern]

Star's Rune Factory 3 Special 1st Playthrough, Part 1: First Impressions!

Welp, the day has finally come for fans of the Rune Factory series. Preorder copies of Rune Factory 3 Special are already arriving in people's mailboxes and it's not even the official release date yet. I was fortunate enough to be among those who got their copy a few days early and needless to say, I am extremely excited to finally play what is widely considered the best game in the series.

My copy was the Golden Memories Edition from XSEED's store that includes the Golden Wooly keychain. The keychain itself is extremely soft and adorable, and the other goodies included in the Golden Memories box are lovely as well. My favorite is the acrylic standee that features Micah, Frey, Lest, Alice, and Ares--while it's nothing particularly special as far as merch goes, the fact it features the protagonists of the Rune Factory games that have been released since the series was revived is, to me, pretty meaningful. Maybe one day we'll get a similar standee but with the protagonists of RF1/Frontier, RF2, and Tides of Destiny.

But we're not here to highlight what's included in the LE. We're here to talk about my first playthrough of RF3S, which at this point is only just getting started.

I've only played a few days in game so far and I have to say, while I don't dislike it, compared to RF4S and RF5, I am feeling VERY overwhelmed in the early game. A large part is muscle memory; I went into RF3S expecting it to play similarly to RF4S and while that is true in a lot of ways, there are enough differences in the UI that I occasionally find myself tripping up and hitting the wrong button when trying to equip a tool or weapon. There is also the matter of the controls themselves; Micah, at least to me, doesn't move as precisely as Frey/Lest or Alice/Ares, and so I find myself missing a lot when trying to water crops or till the fields. But from what I remember of my one playthrough of RF5, there was a somewhat similar problem with Alice/Ares during the farming segments, and those issues were ultimately fixed once I got around to upgrading the tools, so I imagine something similar might happen down the road with Micah.

I think another factor in what's making me feel overwhelmed is the cast. It's not that the cast is larger than Selphia's--from what I can tell, the population of Sharance about the same as before you rescue all of the Guardians during Act 1--but the personalities are definitely a lot louder and more prone to relying on one or two major character quirks. Collette is a glutton, Raven is a tsundere, Sofia and Sherman speak in opposites, etc. This is a double edged sword because if the quirk is something I can tolerate, than yeah, I'm all right with it. But if the quirk is something I personally find obnoxious, then I'm most likely not gonna be a fan of the character. Of the characters I've met so far, Shara, Sakuya, Carmen, Gaius, Blaise, Marjorie, Hazel, Evelyn, and Shino all have personalities that I genuinely like, but Marian, Karina, Pia, Sofia, Raven, and Sherman? All already getting on my nerves. (Especially Karina. She reminds me way too much of Bado and Elsje, and I didn't like those two either.)

But hey, it's really early in the game, and if RF4 taught me anything, it's never to judge a book by its cover. I mean believe it or not, I used to dislike Xiao Pai because I found her clumsy shtick annoying, but now she's probably my favorite of the bachelorettes. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing ends up happening here with some of the characters who I currently find aggravating.

Beyond that, I mean... jeez, this game is pretty. RF3S clearly had a bigger budget compared to RF4S between the brand new character/monster models and the new intro. I'm still disappointed there's no female player option and/or datable bachelors, but prettied up or not, RF3S, like RF4S, is a port. I guess if there's anything I would have changed up, it's the portraits. Rune Factory has long suffered from a case of giving the majority of its characters massive baby faces even when they're supposed to be adults and I find it even more glaring here than in RF4S. Like c'mon guys, it's possible to give a character softer, youthful features without making them look like a literal child.

That's all for now! I'll come back with a new post once I've talked to the villagers more and dealt with the tanuki monster everyone keeps blabbering about...

[shadowoftheharvestmoon]

Just wondering how powerful the Dragon Priestesses in RF: Oceans are... Aside from the Elder Dragons and stuff like that (obviously), I think they might be the most powerful people in the rune factory world (at least that show up in the games). The guardians in RF4 could or are probably very powerful but they get their power from runes and are trying to support Ventuswill so... they are way more easily weakened. On the other hand, the Dragon Priestesses don’t need to use their powers to support others so they... get a lot more of it? And they... they literally use their powers to separate Sonja’s soul from Aden’s body... and when they do that, you get the option of who you want to play as and it says “whoever you pick will get all the powers” SO THAT MEANS THAT IF YOU PICK SONJA, SHE LITERALLY GETS ADEN’S EARTHMATE POWERS??? That’s crazy. I didn’t think you’d be able to transfer powers like that, so the Dragon Priestesses must be just crazy powerful. Also I really want to know if that means if you pick Aden, does he get some of Sonja’s powers?