I crossed off another title on my wish list last Thursday when I finally picked up Rune Factory 4 at Data Blitz, Harbor Point. I've never played the previous Rune Factory titles for the NDS but now that I've drowned myself with the series' latest outing I'm sure I missed out a lot from the past three titles.
Background
In Rune Factory 4 you either play as Lest (Male) or Frey (Female) depending on your reaction to being up high in the sky riding an airship. After a forced humorous scenario you find yourself falling from the sky and into a Native Dragon (oh, goody). But lucky for you the dragon, Ventuswill, is a kind and benevolent dragon who has the voice of a pre-school girl. Then again, your character is struck with amnesia and now you're the acting Prince/Princess of the town of Selphia. What a start to an amazing game.
Rune Factory 4 doesn't waste any time in getting you involved with the story, the characters and the mechanics in the game. If you're a Harvest Moon/Rune Factory veteran already then the intro might get a little slow, but for someone like me who's new to the world of Rune Factory, everything is an absolute wonder. Even the Hoe -> Seed -> Water -> Harvest procedure of farming turnips and other crops was highly addicting. It doesn't stop there though, as the prince/princess of the town of Selphia you have the duty of improving the economy of the town through shipping crops and materials and by increasing the number of tourists through Festivals.
asks and request so it's best to keep a steady pace in plot progression and improving your character, the town and interacting with the game's abundant and unique characters. I'm pretty sure you can have a relationship with just about anyone in the game.
Materials earned throughout the game are either useful when sold or when they are actually used. So far with my current game play there are three ways of earning money: 1. Ship materials, 2. Reward from some requests, and 3. Finding treasure chests outside of the town. The first method being the most effective since not all requests have money for reward and treasure chests containing gold are rare. But there's no point in being in a hurry to buy the essential tools for certain tasks since almost all of these materials are given as rewards or freebies when taking on and completing requests.
Aside from being an RPG, Rune Factory is also a dating sim where it's possible to have a girlfriend/boyfriend as you go along with the game. There are four female (excluding Ventuswill) characters and four male characters upon introduction. The number grows (maybe?) as the story progress but your main character can interact with them as soon as day 1, heck you can even say "I love you" in your first conversation.
But like progressing the story, there's no pressure in getting a girlfriend because in this game you don't age and you can't die (very unlike real life!).
Outside of the town, where you can befriend and tame, or fight monsters is where the slippery combat happens. It's possible to take someone with you in an adventure or go alone and explore by yourself. The story's progression depends on your exploration but most of the time you can just go out of town and fight monsters leveling up your character and his skills as well as earning Runes. Combat within the game plays like that of YS7 but it's a bit slippery and off the mark in most cases. Using Runes doesn't take much from your character's RP but the basic Runes earned early in the game don't really deal much damage anyway, but they are helpful for long range attacks.
Taking a companion in an adventure either increases their love or friendship level which helps a lot if you have a character that you want to start a relationship with. Ideally, Forte is the best character to have as a companion in the morning and early afternoon, in the evening she's on the night watch so you cant take her out. I've still yet to try other characters but her combat prowess is incredible, also Forte is the one who gives you the Claymore so maybe it's a sublime invitation to go out hunting?
Monsters found in the game can be befriended by giving them food or items, if they liked it an HP bar will appear above them signaling that they are now your companion. It's possible to bring them along as travel companions or give them chores at the farm while you're away. There is definitely not a dull moment in the game, even if most of the time you're doing tasks repeatedly, the outcome yields different and interesting results.
Technical Parts
Also, am I the only one who noticed the similarity between Forte and Fate/Apocrypha's Ruler (Joan of Arc):
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| Joan of Arc (left) from Type-Moon's Fate/Apocrypha and Forte (right) from Rune Factory 4 |
In-game music fits the ambiance of the town. Character voices are cute and actually pretty good despite being dubbed, although some don't really fit in (such as Ventuswill's voice), all the voices fit well with their characters especially Amber's.
I haven't come across any part in the game where it introduces an in-game mechanic where it makes use of the 3DS's wireless capabilities. So for now, I think Rune Factory 4 doesn't support multiplayer game play.
Pros
>Highly addicting and you're most likely to play it for long hours without changing game cards
>There's no time pressure
>Doing tasks and completing requests are incredibly rewarding
>It's an adventurous dating sim! I finally have another virtual girlfriend!
>The game itself has a sense of humor
Cons
>Slippery combat
>The game starts of slow and earning a lot of gold takes a long time
>In-game items are quite expensive
>The games overabundance in characters makes it tiring to interact with all of them
Overall: 9/10
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