#rune factory? no its shara factory

[peachjooce]

my rf3 art from 2018-2019 (oops! all shara edition)

[melodybottles]

ok happy wip wmonday this is mostly rune factory ft. one (1) romijuli. most of these did not escape the sketch phase (and the two that did... did not get far, as pictured) but they're all things i had intent to complete at some point.

commentary is below the cut if anyone is curious about my thoughts on anything i've drawn here

for piece commentary..... well first off i also had a shara/sofia sketch that got corrupted bc sai loves doing that at random and it's part of why i want to move away from using it :-( second off

(drops to my knees) PLEASEP PLEASE PLEASE.... CONSIDER PIA/RAVEN..... PLEEEEEEEASE oh the things i could say about those two regarding their own isolation / alienation due to being nonhuman and how despite the fact they've both found a place for themselves they still feel Othered and Lonely at the core. i think they could work on that together once raven gets out of her shell a little bit. the meeting of sea and sky. fire and water. please understand. (the one w raven in bird form is actually even based on the caelum et ocean story set from love nikki bc it made me think of them LOL)

dolce/forte is also like... please consider them. there's something really funny about the knight who's afraid of ghosts and the ghost whisperer. but i also think they have really compatible personalities and forte's generally headstrong nature could go well with dolce's quieter way of doing things. i think dolce would find flustering her funny. but not in like... a harassing way. just in a way where she knows how to make her blush a little bit. i like them

romijuli..... well you see (i open my mouth and begin screaming) (i do not stop screaming) (if you listen closely enough you can detect a garbled string of sounds that loosely translates to 'READ PERFORMANCE')

for the 5 doodles.... priscilla ended up being my favourite rf5 girl to my immense surprise LOL so i developed a habit of sketching her a lot in 2022. fat priscilla. please understand. reblog. i also really liked priscilla/lucy at first bc they're like... obvious, and while my interest in them waned for various reasons (one being a lamentation that they'd become The One Femslash Pairing^tm of the game where people don't really consider anything else bc they have that one...) i still like that doodle.

and lastly. ray and alicia r my favourite sibling steup in all of rf and i think they're both transgender. i hope this helps. (idk solidly what direction i see ray as trans in but whatever the case. ray is not cis to me. love and light)

[thunderberryart]

Star's Rune Factory 3 Special 1st Playthrough, Part 3: It's... already nearly over?

So, going into Rune Factory 3 Special, I knew that the main story was going to be a fairly quick affair. That was one of the big things I heard about RF3; it's a good game, but it's not the longest. And I thought to myself "Well, I played RF5 and I'm pretty sure I finished the main story by early autumn of year 1 in my one playthrough. Surely, it can't be as quick or quicker than THAT."

It is, in fact, early autumn of Year 1 and I am just about to rescue Micah's fiancee AKA Shara from Aquaticus.

Knowing that I am very close to the end of the plot, I feel like it is a good opportunity to talk about the story. When I think about RF3's story... it's weird. Vishnal's marriage event comes to mind because the flaws of that event, I feel, encompasses a lot of the issues I have with RF3's plot. I have an older post going over my experience watching Vishnal's marriage event via YT, but to explain its biggest issue; it's short. I don't know if it's THE shortest of all the marriage events (I've still haven't gotten around to watching Forte's, Margaret's, Clorica's, Doug's, and Dylas'), but it is the shortest of the ones I have seen so far. And because it is so short, everything in that event comes in rapid fire--the plot, the emotions, Vishnal's proposal, the resolution--and so for what is there, it never feels like there's enough time to enjoy a scene and let it set in before the next thing happens.

That is essentially what happens with Rune Factory 3. The game has an incredibly good plot in concept, but because it's so short and things happen so quickly, it's difficult to appreciate what's there when it's there. For instance, compared to the likes of Frey/Lest and Alice/Ares, there is a lot less mystery with Micah; he starts recovering his memories immediately after defeating the first boss and it's always a sort of "Oh, that happened" kind of deal whenever he discovers an orb that triggers a recollection, even though him regaining his memories should really be that much bigger of a deal (the most emotional memory recovery scene was, I feel, the third where he remembered that he was the one tasked with defeating the monsters causing problems around Sharance, since it plays into the intro to the Death Wall fight later.)

There is also the matter of the Human-Univir conflict, which is its own problem. It's bad enough that it is resolved fairly easily, but the fact that the conflict isn't rationalized very well beyond "The Univir were exiled from Sharance at some point in the past--no one knows why, but the humans of Sharance and the Univir have hated each other since" is kind of... sad. In what I've experienced so far of the series, Rune Factory plots aren't anything to write home about, but... I don't know. I can't say whether RF3's plot turns out to be forgettable, but I can't say anything from the game's main story sticks out other than getting Kuruna to stop being so prejudiced against humans by giving her a handmade bouquet from the residents of Sharance.

But you know what they say; a mediocre story can be saved by good characters! And while I was initially overwhelmed by RF3's cast as mentioned in my first post, I've grown somewhat used to the eccentricities of Sharance by now and if there's anything memorable about the writing, it's how bonkers everyone is while still managing to convey some genuinely heartfelt storytelling. (And according to people on Reddit, XSEED's new translation for Special is apparently toned down from Natsume's original. Geez, I wonder how I would have reacted if this had been the original DS version.)

My favorites are the same as last time and... goddamn, I really do love Shara. Initially I figured I'd be marrying her purely to see if she was as bad as the fanbase makes her out to be and then in my second playthrough move on to a bachelorette I actually feel has genuine chemistry with Micah, but I really do like these two together. Granted, she doesn't have the most emotionally intensive plot associated with her requests (It's more about helping her younger sister, Monica, come out of her shell than any issues that Shara herself has), but she's so sweet and kind, cares for her family, and she loves flowers! I love flowers! And not gonna lie, her manner of teasing Micah and occasional bluntness do remind me of Frey, so that might have something to do with why she hits just right for me.

Girl, plz. You're killing poor boy.

That said, even though I made the firm decision this playthrough to marry her (and we would have had the wedding by now if Aquaticus didn't * grumbles *), there are other bachelorettes that I am considering marrying in subsequent playthroughs, which is pretty shocking considering my track record with RF4S. And by track record, I mean Arthur is the entire record.

Of the other bachelorettes, I've done a fair chunk of Sakuya's requests and I still like her a lot; besides having one of the more "normal" personalities, her love of travel and commerce reminds me a lot of Arthur (even though she's not a workaholic and is genuinely concerned with profits) and I'm liking the progress of her character development through her events. She also has a cute character design, but that's only ever a nice bonus and not something that determines whether I like a character or not.

The bachelorettes I was most skeptical of were Raven and Pia, and this is because I was aware of the fandom's opinions on those characters going in. Long story short: I figured this was going to be another Leon and Dylas situation for me, and by that, you know, I don't dislike either of them, they're pretty neat and I get why they hit close to home for some people, but it got annoying to see them constantly treated as objectively The Best when hey, their writing is not perfect, there's a reason why not everyone romances them; I'm certainly among those people. And at first, I was disappointed. Pia's personality was too airheaded for my tastes, and Raven... I liked her guest appearance in RF4S, but here, she's a straight up tsundere and tsunderes are one of those hit-or-miss kind of characters for me.

In Raven's case, I think I've done at least half her requests by now and by god, I feel bad for judging her so fast. Despite being a tsundere, she actually has an incredibly valid reason for telling Micah to stay away from her; according to her, anyone who becomes close to her disappears and she's afraid of the same thing happening to him. That... that hit hard and even if she doesn't end up being my favorite ship choice for Micah, I do want her to be happy.

Pia, I think, was just an instance of finding her initial personality overwhelming like many others in Sharance. I can't give any opinions on her character arc because I have only done one or two of her requests, but she is very cute. She is often lost in her own little world and tends to blatantly ignore things Micah says, but I do really love her happy-go-lucky approach to life and I unironically find her personal vendetta against squid hilarious. (She and Margaret would be friends.)

That is definitely the benefit of the romance system in RF3S. I'm sad there isn't a true dating phase and you can just go right to marriage once you've gotten the Engagement Ring recipe from Wells and Marjorie, but knowing that I can help these girls with their personal issues without having to turn down a heartwarming proposal at the end of their last request does make me feel a bit better about "hareming" all these bachelorettes. (And I say that as someone who detests harems and prefers a single dedicated romance in any narrative.)

My next post will presumably be my last for this first playthrough given how fast this has gone. I'm still incredibly attached to Selphia and RF4S is still my favorite game of the RFs I have played, but there really is a lot to love about RF3S despite its imperfections and I am already looking forward to my next playthrough. Cheers, everyone! I'll see you next time!

[pitter-patt-art]

Day 4 - April Showers (@rfweeks)

I'm late but it was worth it to get this one finished, it turned out waaayy better than it should have lol.

Is it bad if I still havent gotten to the unity fest in my save but I ship them already anyway? Oops

[sharance-maze]

Illustrations by Rune Factory comic artist Mariko Kawazoe commemorating the release of Rune Factory 4 Best Collection

[nervouslywaitingforlife]

Hey! Heres the current version of the iceberg, theres still more enteries that need to be added but heres a quick update

Some things are worded weirdly or are a bit vague so I'll explain what I'm talking about. Remember that if theres a topic you want to see let me know and I'll add it:

Layer 2:

Luminata's missing hat: Luminatas ingame model dosent have a hat though she still has a blue flower I her hair.

Furries are replacing Dwarfs: in the most recent rf game there are 3 "furries" though no dwarfs.

Title image meaning: this refers to the image that can be seen in the logo of rf games like the dragon in the rf4 logo and the lotus in the rf5 one.

Layer 3:

True bachelorettes: in rf 1 - 3 theres one bachelorette which is included more than others, for rf1 its Mist, rf2 Mana and rf3 Shara. These guys are usually more plot relevant than others and are in the openings more than others (rf3's 2nd op I'm looking at you)

Layer 4:

Rf3 Lemons: in the 2 rf3 openings Lemons are seen alot with Micah and other characters holding them. Though they make no appearance ingame, so maybe its symbolism or you could grow them. Idk this is a personal thing as this has bothered me since I was a kid.

Layer 5:

Tokyo Games show 2007: A Rune factory 2 Demo / trial was available at TGS 07, this version came out a year before the game came out so there is a good chance that this version of rf2 is different from the one that we got in 2008.

Bottom layer:

Is Micah a Earthmate: Theres actually a lot of info to say that Micah isn't a earthmate. Firstly he is never referred to as a Earthmate, only as a Half Monster Half Human, Secondly, He is never seen directly interacting with rune unless you want to count that an unbalance of runes in a half monsters body forcing a transformation counts (like in one of Marian's quests).

Kyle's past: so I dont know if I'm being a idiot with this one (aside havent played rf2) but from what I can find, it is never mentioned what Kyle's past was / where hes from. Its mentioned that he was on a mission to take down Feirsome but that's it.

Lil' : Lil' is the singer of the op for Rune factory 1 though no other information can be found about them. The image for this layer is a supposed album that they have which probably includes the song Rune (Rf1's op), though this is all the info about her, no real name, no face nothing.

Lillyland: Yue mentions this location in rf3 though it's not a location we have seen yet.

[lem-argentum]

FORGOT TO FINISH UP THE RF5COUNTDOWN QUESTIONS BEFORE RELEASE SO HERE THEY ARE <3 ITS A LONG ONE. HAPPY BELATED LAUNCH DAY

31. what’s your highest skill in rf4?

i maxed out forging for rune prana so it’d be that :]!!! <3

30. favorite plot twist in the series?

i’m trying to think of things that would qualify as plot twists n i don’t know…. maybe the whole thing with ethelwill counts because that shocks me on every rf4 playthrough EHENDBN

29. favorite flower crop?

inclined to say toyherb but as a pink enjoyer, pink cats too <33!!!!! if i knew my favorite characters’ favorite flowers it would be those <3

28. if you could have any rf4 monster as a pet, what would it be?

SNOWY……… but it might melt. so a pomme pomme :>

27. favorite season?

WINTER <333 i love whenever it snows in selphia <3 both my anniversaries w/ marian and doug happened to be in winter which is a complete LEMMY WIN

22. will you mostly wear outfits on your in-game model, or stick to the original?

i don’t think rf5 has the color alts that rf4 (and 3?) had but i’ve always liked changing em :) in rf4 i like the red and black outfits on lest!!!

21. favorite part monster/wereanimal character from the series?

dylas comes to mind first.. fishing idiot <3

16. if you could cosplay any character from the series, who would you choose?

IT IS MY *DREAM* TO LOOK LIKE MARIAN there’s this one person i’ve seen cosplay marian and ohh i need to reblog those pictures sometime. otherwise it would be lest :> <3

15. do you think there’s a “canon” love interest for the protagonist in each game?

logically speaking there definitely is, mist/mana/shara my beloveds <3 but i’ve never considered it for the others. though i’ve heard doug and meg are considered the canon ones for rf4 which i find hilarious because they’re my favorites HEHEHDJ <3 in my mind dolce is frey’s love interest and doug is lest’s <3

14. in future games, would you want to have character customization?

i think there’d be benefits to it because your character could actually look like you (and rf lacks lots of diversity/representation that it could potentially add) but having a set character to play as is nice too? maybe they could do a pokemon type thing where the design is mostly set but you pick skin/hair tones??

13. how do you name your monsters?

LOVE THIS QUESTION I JUST PICK THE FIRST WORD I THINK OF. in every game i have a monster named cringe and a monster named gay. so sorry to them

12. any tips for new rune factory players?

INCREASE YOUR MINING SKILL AS YOU GO…. IF YOU CARE ABOUT EVENTUALLY BEING GAMER AT THE GAMES THEN MINING EARLY WILL MAKE IT SO MUCH EASIER ….. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKEZ…..

11. favorite rune factory memory?

WAUGH when i was super depressed n opened up rf4 to all the characters being kind to me n telling me they were there for me. i am emotional over selphia

10. are you playing as ares or alice in rf5?

i picked ares already :>!! for pronoun purposes. he’s growing on me but i might switch sprites over to alice once i unlock it!! <33

9. do you plan to finish the main story asap or take it slow?

probably take it slow, no point in rushing for me! i am taking my time trying to figure out martin’s favorite gifts <3

7. do you like to name the protagonist after yourself or use a different name?

i like sticking to the default names (since i prefer playing a character over playing myself! <3) but otherwise i go with cos or lem :]

5. if you could be best friends with any rf character, who would you pick?

CAN I SAY ALL OF THEM? doug, meg, marian, zaid, gaius, micah, arthur, martin, violet….

3. do you have rf4 special data to get doug and margaret in rigbarth?

i didn’t get it *for* them (i think they were revealed to be the cameos after i got the switch ver?) but it was a WONDERFUL coincidence those are my best friends <3

2. are you getting the game on launch day or waiting?

ITS PAST LAUNCH NOW but i had it preordered :) i spent too much on video games this month remind me to not do that for the rest of the year

1. are you doing anything special on launch day?

NO I DIDNT BUT IM ON VACATION SO THAT COUNTS PROBABLY. LOOK AT THESE TREES

[thunderberryart]

Star's Rune Factory 3 Special 1st Playthrough, Part 2: Quality of Life

Hello, everyone! Back at it again with blogging my first run of Rune Factory 3 Special and I have a lot to talk about since my last post.

So I've already beaten the second boss AKA Skelefang and the seasons are just about to change from spring to summer. As far as the cast goes, I've already got some characters that I love, some that I despise, and some who my opinions have shifted over time for better or for worse. Definitely the two that stand out for me are Shara and Gaius. Gaius, had he been a datable bachelor, would have been my first choice among the single boys in this game. I'm one of the fandom's resident Arthur simps, I married Martin during my one playthrough of RF5, and "dwarf blacksmith who loves forging so much he forgets to sell his weapons and falls asleep if he lets go of his hammer" meets all the standards that those two have set as some of the franchise's resident workaholics. (Why does this keep happening? Seriously?)

As for Shara, I'm very well aware of all the hate she got in the past for having been pushed as the game's canon candidate and with what I've seen so far... I absolutely love her. Of the available bachelorettes, her personality is by far the least quirky and most down to earth of the girls, and she is just so sweet and kind that one of the only other girls I do find myself interested in romancing is Sakuya. Sakuya is slightly more quirky, but compared to some of her fellow bachelorettes, her personality is probably the most "normal" outside her capitalist tendencies and lack of cooking skills.

And that is the big thing with RF3's cast for me. While RF4 certainly had its quirkier cast members like Porcoline and Illuminata, there are even more of them in RF3 and most in game days I find myself feeling very overwhelmed because many of the villagers are so out there. Even if I don't actually dislike their personality, there are some characters I talk to very sparingly because they're literally too much for me. Prime examples include Marian, Carmen, Sofia, Sherman, and Carlos. Of those, the one I like most is Carmen, but I still find myself not talking to her that much simply because I can't handle how loud she is, which sucks since she seems nice otherwise. (As an aside, I also like Kuruna, but the second I heard that she and Ondorus were childhood friends, my brain went in Directions because I am a sucker for Childhood Friends to Lovers LMAO)

Speaking of comparisons between RF3 and RF4, I do feel awful. I have a fair number of criticisms of RF3S from a gameplay standpoint, but pretty much all of them relate to missing Quality of Life features that were addressed later on in RF4. Stuff like depositing items in the shipping bin, crafting multiples of the same item, the request system, the lack of a fertilizer bin; RF4 ultimately fixed all those minor yet aggravating problems, so claiming that RF3 is the inferior game just because it's lacking those important QoL features, to me, feels very unfair, even if it is affecting my play experience. RF3S, outside those missing QoL features, plays very similarly to RF4S and has a lot of the same features, and whether the story and cast appeal to you is a matter of personal opinion. Overall, it's a solid game and I would recommend it to people who are curious as to how the older Rune Factory games played!

All that said, the biggest thing that has already killed RF3S for a lot of people is the representation; many people have chosen not to buy RF3S because there is no female protagonist option, no datable bachelors, and no same sex marriage, and you know what? It's a perfectly valid reason. As a straight cis woman, my biggest gripe with RF3S is not being able to play as a girl and I'm pretty sure the only reason I'm able to put up with it is because I'm painfully used to it as someone who grew up in an era where the vast majority of game protagonists were straight men. It does help that Micah, much like Frey/Lest and Alice/Ares, has an actual personality and so I don't need to come up with one for him just to enjoy his story or any of his potential romances. He's just a friendly sheep boy trying to put up with the insanity that is the town of Sharance and I 100% vibe with that.

All right, next area is the windy river place. Unfortunately, I have a lot of skills I need to work on, facilities to upgrade, and items to gather. I'm probably going to be grinding for quite a while...

[thunderberryart]

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...