Rune Factory 4 Special

I am going to be honest, this game has a very interesting story, and a unique cast, but overall it feels very clunky, managing your items, getting stuff done, moving forward, everything should be overhauled basically from combat to farming. I will try to get used to it for maybe another 5 hours atleast, but it's honestly the type of game that I want to love so much, but I can't cause the gameplay mechanics programmed very poorly, like you can't even cycle between tools with the mouse wheel, there's not even a quick heal button during fights, even with tools you have to Press R, search the water can for example and you not only select it, you additionally have to press a "yes" button after the game ask "you sure want to equip this?" basically. It just tries to be so much, and it is clear that this game probably has 100+ hours of content on end, and every dialogue is different, I'm especially touched how Segami's voice actor voices Amber, but I just can't enjoy the game, cause it feels like everything that you want to do has unnecessary steps that you have to do everytime to get to the actual thing you want. The story is the only thing that keeps me here, and the lifesim part of th…

The definitive Rune Factory game, but probably not the best. Rune Factory 4 originally was the last of its series, as developer Neverland went under soon after its release in america. It shows that it was meant to be a send-off for the series as it's packed with new features and references to the rest of the series throughout, as well as just packed in general. The references don't get in the way if you're new, and the length and new features were great in 2013 when it looked like this was the end of the line, but sitting here many years later with the (admittedly sub-par) Rune Factory 5 and Guardians of Azuma behind us, and more coming, a more focused experience would have been better. Rune Factory has from the start been a light farming sim/RPG hybrid, originally having the tag-line "A Fantasy Harvest Moon". Being in part an RPG, the farming has always been a bit crunchier than Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley. You have farming and watering level, your plants have a level, your soil has several stats that can level up (or down). A lot of it isn't that complex, you can run a successful farm without any of this, but if you want to become the turnip king, then you'd have to think a …

Graphics: not the best but acceptable Gameplay: kinda fun if you like farming and doing crafting Story Dialogue: fairly creative, kind of funny (early 2000s-2010 humor) Found myself getting immersed in trying to build a self-sustaining enterprise: farm plants, make products, sell products, buy seed and so on - plus a side of exploration, monster taming and story You can keep playing for a long while - great for casual farming and taking your time to explore and build your skills

male love interests suck. you cant be gay. you cant change your characters ugly outfit. i dont care about any of the stories or characters. pets arent cute.

The original version of this game and the last Marvelous farming sim I played, Friends of Mineral town, were released 9 years apart (2003 to 2012). And man, 9 years used to be such a long time in gaming, because these games are on different planes of existence. It's like they have completely opposite design philosophies. I thought Rune Factory was Harvest Moon but with some ARPG combat and dungeon crawling, like maybe a little more complex than the combat in Stardew Valley, but it's so much more. Random example: Weather is not the same the entire day. I know, it sounds like such a small thing, but it's the ONLY farming sim I've played that has this. I think it has a chance to change every 4 hours. Oh, and rain doesn't instantly water your crops, it actually takes time for each plot. The farming system itself is by far the most complex I've seen. Crops don't actually need to be in a specific season to grow, they just have good and bad seasons that affect their speed and level. Your soil has all these properties like health and grow speed that encourage you to group and rotate crops. Crops can be from level 1 to 10 and by harvesting and destroying full grown crops you get seeds…

Very good if you like harvest moon or story of seasons with fantasy setting. Complex crafting system with many item that can influence the stats of the item.