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Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (DS)

Zzoram

Member
This game is awesome. It has all the best elements of Harvest Moon combined with some RPG elements (fighting monsters in caves, gaining levels, buying new armor/weapons) and a simple story. I think I've put 30+ hours into this game already :lol
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Don't we have an official thread?

The other day I went on a HM orgy and picked this, HM Boy and Girl (PSP) and Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon (PSP) all in one day. Woo.

I've yet to actually play any of 'em. Does it have that HM sense of urgency where you feel the need to max out every single day, or is it a more laid back experience?
 

Zzoram

Member
Mejilan said:
Don't we have an official thread?

The other day I went on a HM orgy and picked this, HM Boy and Girl (PSP) and Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon (PSP) all in one day. Woo.

Oh, sorry. I didn't think this game would, but I guess this is GAF and every game has an official thread :lol
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
GAF has a fairly decent-sized HM fan community, tbh. Though I think neither of the recent PSP HMs got official threads, Rune Factory is a new and welcome breed of HM.
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
The game is good, but I still love the old school farming without the caves and stuff getting the way.. but it was really cool to see them expand on the whole harvest moon idea.

btw the wii hm rocks!
 
Blackace said:
The game is good, but I still love the old school farming without the caves and stuff getting the way.. but it was really cool to see them expand on the whole harvest moon idea.

btw the wii hm rocks!

Rune Factory is an excellent compliment to HM - Rune Factory adds some much-needed innovation to the series without erasing what HM is.

So do HM Wii and HM Island do a good job of improving the HM formula?
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
A Link to the Snitch said:
Rune Factory is an excellent compliment to HM - Rune Factory adds some much-needed innovation to the series without erasing what HM is.

So do HM Wii and HM Island do a good job of improving the HM formula?

hmm... I loved RF but it doesn't really do too much to "innovate" the series. putting monsters, caves, and magic in a harvest moon game doesn't make it better. My biggest problem is the balance issues between farming and killing baddies... I felt it wasn't really fleshed out enough.

The Wii version is pretty awesome. I have not gotten animals yet. But it has taken the HM formula and has made it more slick.. plus you get to make more choices throughout the game that affects you and the town.. which was needed
 
This is a pretty nifty game, it freshens up the HM formula without going over board (A Wonderful Life im looking at you!)

So far so good, Im really liking the change up setting wise.

HM:Wii is actually good? Ever since it was first shown I kinda just figured it would be terrible.
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
mCACGj said:
Really? I was worried. How is the motion control? Does it feel like Magical Melody or Wonderful Life more?

you don't need motion control for most things I have done so far (you need it for fishhing)

feels like a new HM classic to me... I can't say the town, the people, the overall story, the overall control, shares much with any of the other HMs.. I mean you have the basics of how to farm and all that.. but it really stands alone
 
Blackace said:
you don't need motion control for most things I have done so far (you need it for fishhing)

feels like a new HM classic to me... I can't say the town, the people, the overall story, the overall control, shares much with any of the other HMs.. I mean you have the basics of how to farm and all that.. but it really stands alone

So you dont use it to: Water, Cut, Axe ect.?
 
Blackace said:
you can. I just use the button

WHEW thank god.

Anyway back on topic, the only problem im having with the game is...who to choose?!

portrait_felicity.png



OR


portrait_mist.png
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Right, so back on topic.

Mejilan said:
Does it have that HM sense of urgency where you feel the need to max out every single day, or is it a more laid back experience?
 
Mejilan said:
Right, so back on topic.


Well to me I feel like I need to do somthing everyday. Like at the end of the day if I have a bunch of enegry left, I find somthing to use it on, since almost everything you do that uses engergy can be leveled up.

But AFAIK, you can take the game as slow as you want
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
Mejilan said:
Right, so back on topic.

it is the worst of them..because you are farming, mining, making weapons, trying to get married, upgrading your house... and so on. All at the same time
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Fantastic. Love the games, and I wouldn't mind trying something new, but I need to be in a special mood in order to deal with those iterations that have limits on farming or wooing goals, etc.
 
We love this game too! It is the most played DS game since months. I'm lvl 25 and I don't want to go to the Mountain :) The monsters there scare me :(

At the moment I collect Wood and Money to expand my house so I can make better weapons.
Farming outside isn't that great, I cleared the whole field ones and the day after there was a storm.
So I started again the following day. And storm again. Now I only use the caves. I level up my crops so I can get much money from them :) Lvl 5 Green Pepper, Lvl 5 Strawberry so far :)
 

birdman

Member
Another HM Wii question if that's cool.

Is there a release date for it in the US yet? I've been waiting for it since I heard it was coming stateside.
 

Koren

Member
Mejilan said:
No Harvest Moon Wii yet in the US.
No Harvest Moon GC (Magical Melody) yet in Europe. Do you REALLY want to complain ? :lol

(by the way, it seems Magical Melody GC is still on track, officially waiting for approval, but it'll be a "Wii game", finally)
 

Cherubae

Member
birdman said:
Another HM Wii question if that's cool.

Is there a release date for it in the US yet? I've been waiting for it since I heard it was coming stateside.

Next Summer.

October - Puzzle De HM (DS)
Q1 - River King Mystic Valley (DS)
Q2 - Harvest Moon:Island of Happiness (DS)
Q2 - Harvest Moon Wii
 

ccbfan

Member
It's a good game but very unpolished. Way too unbalanced and too many stupid things that ruin the game. Also way too easy.

Spoilers

1. Farming is completely useless in terms of making money. Its very slow compared to most other methods and its better to have your monsters farm then do it yourself.

2. Mining makes way too much money. So much money that by the end of the first spring you will have all the money you'll ever need in the game.

3. Wifi trading has two points. One is to straight out cheat to give you infinite money and have you over powered the first day by leveling weapons, the other is the get an item required to marry a chick (the only way to marry this chick too).

4. There will be a cave that only opens up in the winter. Its the fifth cave. The reason why this is a problem is that you can finish all the caves before it during spring which leaves you summer and fall with nothing to do.

5. If you actually do decide to do stuff during that time like collect item for crafting, cooking, decoration. You will become so extremely over powered.

6. The game is easy to start with. I have some strange habit where I do not buy new weapons until I lose a fight in any rpg I play. Lets just say I beat the game with the first sword.

7. Some of the girls are ridiculesly hard to get them to like you. I had one point in the game where every girl had 10 love points but one only had 2.

8. Heal magic is way too over powered.

9. There really needs to be a time acceleration button. One of the girls you can only level up her LP by using her bath after 3:00 pm which is 9 hours after you wake up. Its especially boring since you can finish all your chores by 10:00 AM and you can do nothing else since 1.The stupid Misty Bloom doesn't open until winter and its still summer 10 and 2. IF you go item hunting you'll get to level 99 and ruin the rest of the game.

It's a fun game though and gives me hope that the sequel will be much better.
 
It's alright, I not my favorite harvest moon....it could be cleaned up a little, seems kinda clumped up.

portrait_sharron.png

Correct answer.

or

portrait_rosetta.png



portrait_mist.png

Also acceptable.
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
1. Farming is completely useless in terms of making money. Its very slow compared to most other methods and its better to have your monsters farm then do it yourself.

2. Mining makes way too much money. So much money that by the end of the first spring you will have all the money you'll ever need in the game.

Yes and yes!!!

I farm for cooking...
 

Xristot

Member
haha, I just started this game yesterday as my first HM game and I'm really surprised by how many choices in mates we have.

It's a pretty addictive game though. I had trouble putting it down even though I was exhausted from work. I'm looking forward to getting deeper into since I'm only on my third day.
 

Juice

Member
I rather liked my time with it. But I think Harvest Moon has become as Zelda to me. Fourteen games in and I think I've had enough of the formula. I get it. I want some new, compelling reason to be playing the same game next time.

Rune Factory is neat and a tweaked experience, but the monster stuff wasn't enough to tickle my fancy.
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
Juice said:
I rather liked my time with it. But I think Harvest Moon has become as Zelda to me. Fourteen games in and I think I've had enough of the formula. I get it. I want some new, compelling reason to be playing the same game next time.

Rune Factory is neat and a tweaked experience, but the monster stuff wasn't enough to tickle my fancy.

I would love to see them make the interactions with the town people much deeper... they seem to trying to do that a bit in the Wii version.. but not as deep as I'd like to see it.. so far.
 

GilloD

Banned
Bump because I have no idea how much wood I have. How do I tell? It's senseless to continue without a Monster Hut and I've been chopping wood since day 3, but even with an uograded Axe, I can't chop stumps. Ugh.
 

jarrod

Banned
Koren said:
No Harvest Moon GC (Magical Melody) yet in Europe. Do you REALLY want to complain ? :lol

(by the way, it seems Magical Melody GC is still on track, officially waiting for approval, but it'll be a "Wii game", finally)
As an aside, Harvest Moon now joins the strange ranks of Gran Turismo, Nintendogs, Sonic the Hedgehog and Time Crisis, in that it's a JP made franchise who's biggest market is Europe. Yasuhiro Wada recently noted in a Gamasutra interview that HMDS sold a whopping 500k in Europe so far (likely thanks in part to the series co-publishing deal with NOE).

Also noteworthy is that MMV plans to open a US office in the next 2 years (though they'll probably leave HM/RK to Natsume USA).
 
GilloD said:
Bump because I have no idea how much wood I have. How do I tell? It's senseless to continue without a Monster Hut and I've been chopping wood since day 3, but even with an uograded Axe, I can't chop stumps. Ugh.

The amount of wood you have (as well as feed and gold and such) is displayed on the top screen in one of the pause menus.

I think you have to upgrade your axe twice to start chopping up stumps. If you don't charge your hits, I believe it takes 12 whacks to cut up a stump (when you're finally capable of cutting the stumps at all).

The hammer is the same way. Until you've got a silver hammer, you can't do anything to the large boulders on your field.
 

Tailzo

Member
I've been playing it alot too. I have recently been married to Sharron in the game. She was one of the few that looked like a grown up, so that's why. Awesome game.
 
I've been playing it a lot over the holiday period. What a great game. I love the variety. When you want to thump heads, you can head to the caves and do that. If you're just in the mood to relax, tend to your animals and farm your crops, you can do that too.

I seem to be one of the few who prefers Lara as a marriage candidate. Got to love that mothering, "take care of yourself out there or I'll box your ears!" attitude!

portrait_lara.png
 

Danj

Member
Oh wow, so many cute girls in this game.. but from what you guys are saying it seems like it's more Harvest Moon than RPG?

Also, wtf, it's not out in Europe till 25th January 2008?

European boxart:
DS1248_box.jpg
 
Danj said:
Oh wow, so many cute girls in this game.. but from what you guys are saying it seems like it's more Harvest Moon than RPG?

This is my first foray into the Harvest Moon franchise, so take my response with a grain of salt. To my mind, it seems to be a very nice blend of both. It is definitely an ARPG with the cave exploration, real time battle, stat increases, equipment enhancements. You can also capture monsters to fight alongside you (one at a time) and help on your field. But the farming is very much a part of it as well, and you can actually gain Rune Points (energy) through fully grown crops.

I'm enjoying the farming so much that I'll be picking up a standard HM just to give that a go as well. Rune Factory is definitely one of my favorite titles on the DS.
 
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