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The Officially Late Rune Factory Thread

The M.O.B

Member
RFbanner.jpg


Boxart
255px-Runefactorycover.jpg


STORY
Cardia is a city on the eastern tip of the Adonia continent. The place is surrounded by fertile green land and has small streets where cheerful people live.

A lone traveler drifts into Cardia. His name is Ragna.

He has lost his memory and came to this city at the end of his wanderings. A girl named Mist helps him, and he begins to live on and cultivate a piece of farmland near the city.

Gameplay

Farm with the Stylus
You can do farm work such as sowing seeds and field maintenance with the stylus. For example, if you touch the field with the hoe equipped, you can quickly till that spot. (Of course, you can still use the conventional controls if you prefer.)

Meet Wild Monsters

If you befriend monsters, they will help you on your farm. Strong monsters whom you befriend will become reliable allies. After finding a monster in a dungeon, you can befriend it by equipping the glove tool, but be careful, because you're defenseless while wearing the glove. Once you have monsters, you can talk to monsters in the barn and become closer friends with them. You can get them to help you by harvesting your crops from the field or you can go adventuring with them. Monsters like Buffamo, Mokko Mokko, and Cokehohho aren't very helpful workers, but you can sell the milk, wool, and eggs you get from them.

Get a Fishing Rod

Once you get a pole in the game, you can fish. Become a man of the sea.

Grow Crops in a Dungeon
Monsters build nests in the dangerous dungeons. After repeated adventures, you can plant crops in there. It's a bit different from the normal field....

Touchpen Control
When you use the stylus to touch the equipment icon in the lower-right corner of the screen, the function of the stylus changes. For example, if you have the hoe equipped and touch the field, you will till that spot, but if you use it without selecting an icon, you can harvest vegetables by touching them.

Screens
04.jpg

09.jpg

12.jpg


Ign Review
http://ds.ign.com/articles/813/813633p1.html

Help
Go here if you need any help on anything in the game.


-------------------------------------------------
This will also be an FC exchange thread.
Post your FC,and ill add it to the OP
Here is mine

The M.O.B-----3995-4010-8384
Aponi----------0688-2810-5707
Lord Helmet---5369 8014 2933

-------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Keep the hate out of here

Keep the love in here
------------------------------

Thx to cyllya for list of details
 

TekunoRobby

Tag of Excellence
I was wondering why a thread wasn't made for this game.

I took NeoForte to GameStop yesterday to pick it up so I'll remind him to post his impressions in this thread.
 

jon bones

hot hot hanuman-on-man action
Just got this; been playing for a few hours. If you like Harvest Moon/Animal Crossing, you'll love Rune Factory. The graphics are really well done, fun little sprites on well made pre-rendered backgrounds. Gameplay is fun so far and controls are tight (though I've only used conventional controls thus far.) I haven't visted any caves so I'm not sure how the fighting system will work out over the course of the game but the brief battle tutorial in the beginning feels like it'll be a fun diversion (if a bit shallow.)

I can see myself getting addicted and putting a little bit of time in everyday to work on the farm.


I'll post my FC in due time. :D
 

The M.O.B

Member
My impressions so far

*Starting out is hard like every Harvest moon game, crappy hoe,axe,water can and such. After you upgrade you tools,they take less energy and are much stronger.

*Going through the caves is challenging. You have to plan out what your gonna do and have before going in. Combat is the norm for a dungeon crawler.

* Getting friends is hard, Im on Spring 19 and I just have 1 friends point on everyone and 1 love point on Tabitha. It's gonna take a while.

*Growing food and such is very similiar to Harvest moon except you can walk over your plants even when they are fully grown,this makes you able to always get that middle one.

* Running out of RP's sucks. I have collapsed 3 times now. After your rp runs out,then your hp starts going down.

* Breeding monsters is simple. Some act like normal HM animals while others help you fight in the caves. So far there it a cow look-alike and a sheep-lookalike,both give milk and wool.

*No pet dog.:(

Very happy with the game so far and I recommend anyone who likes Dungeon Crawlers or Harvest Moon to buy this now. And for everyone,you will definitely want to try this out soon.
 

TekunoRobby

Tag of Excellence
It's like a mutant match made in heaven for me. Too bad I'm going to hold on to it until early next month to play it. Need stuff for my trip.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Playing it non-stop since Thursday. I'll say a few things.

This game is great. If you enjoyed any of the Harvest Moon incarnations (they're all the same anyway), you would enjoy Rune Factory. It takes everything that made Harvest Moon awesome, and added some (MMO)RPG elements to keep things fresh. The music, while not as good as that of HM64 is still very catchy. Though the visuals are completely prerendered (save for the character models) the game is a visual improvement over its predecessors. There is a full fledged cooking system, whereby you can purchase kitchen tools and cookbooks to make multitudes of dishes. There is also a forge upgrade and a pharmacy upgrade with which you can craft your own armor or mix your own potions. The town plays a much more active role in your life and thanks to the longer days, you have much more freedom in what you do.

That said, there are some issues with this game.

1)The characters feel sort of flat. There's the main plot, but it's not very pronounced. If you're looking for a full Harvest Moon experience, you might be a little disappointed because adventuring is vital to improve your character. Likewise, you can't expect a full blown RPG because the game does not really extend beyond your town (to my knowledge).

2) Despite the 1+ years it took Natsume to bring this over, it feels like the game is still unpolished. The controls are sort of clunky and needs a little practice before you can effectively switch out your tools/spells/items. The menu is cluttered with far too much information you really don't need. Even though you have much more bagspace than you did in other Harvest Moon games, the item slots fill up quickly and you have to wait to purchase storage.

3) Because Rune Factory is a significant shift from the traditional Harvest Moon formula, there are problems with game balance. For example, I just entered summer and realized that I can make more money doing a few days of mining (smashing rocks with your hammer in caves) than I can make with an entire month of farming. I still farm, I keep some monsters around to water the crops for me, but most of my income comes from selling high level gems and ores for unbelievably high prices. The housing upgrade is 200,000g and 2000 wood, I'm already at ~170,000g and 1000 wood. I could stop farming altogether, and never have to worry about being out of money. But I don't, because what's the fun in that?

4) The girls. With Friends of Mineral Town, you had 7 girls, and each showed a distinct identity that appealed to different kinds of people. In Rune Factory, you also have 7, but another extra 2 that require some special conditions to be met before you can court them. They're all more realistic but, as a side effect, are more bland than the selection of girls you could woo in the other games. Also, there are no longer Heart Scenes, a much missed aspect of the marriage system that made Harvest Moon such a fulfilling experience.

Buy this game.
 
Halycon said:
Playing it non-stop since Thursday. I'll say a few things.

This game is great. If you enjoyed any of the Harvest Moon incarnations (they're all the same anyway), you would enjoy Rune Factory. It takes everything that made Harvest Moon awesome, and added some (MMO)RPG elements to keep things fresh. The music, while not as good as that of HM64 is still very catchy. Though the visuals are completely prerendered (save for the character models) the game is a visual improvement over its predecessors. There is a full fledged cooking system, whereby you can purchase kitchen tools and cookbooks to make multitudes of dishes. There is also a forge upgrade and a pharmacy upgrade with which you can craft your own armor or mix your own potions. The town plays a much more active role in your life and thanks to the longer days, you have much more freedom in what you do.

That said, there are some issues with this game.

1)The characters feel sort of flat. There's the main plot, but it's not very pronounced. If you're looking for a full Harvest Moon experience, you might be a little disappointed because adventuring is vital to improve your character. Likewise, you can't expect a full blown RPG because the game does not really extend beyond your town (to my knowledge).

2) Despite the 1+ years it took Natsume to bring this over, it feels like the game is still unpolished. The controls are sort of clunky and needs a little practice before you can effectively switch out your tools/spells/items. The menu is cluttered with far too much information you really don't need. Even though you have much more bagspace than you did in other Harvest Moon games, the item slots fill up quickly and you have to wait to purchase storage.

3) Because Rune Factory is a significant shift from the traditional Harvest Moon formula, there are problems with game balance. For example, I just entered summer and realized that I can make more money doing a few days of mining (smashing rocks with your hammer in caves) than I can make with an entire month of farming. I still farm, I keep some monsters around to water the crops for me, but most of my income comes from selling high level gems and ores for unbelievably high prices. The housing upgrade is 200,000g and 2000 wood, I'm already at ~170,000g and 1000 wood. I could stop farming altogether, and never have to worry about being out of money. But I don't, because what's the fun in that?

4) The girls. With Friends of Mineral Town, you had 7 girls, and each showed a distinct identity that appealed to different kinds of people. In Rune Factory, you also have 7, but another extra 2 that require some special conditions to be met before you can court them. They're all more realistic but, as a side effect, are more bland than the selection of girls you could woo in the other games. Also, there are no longer Heart Scenes, a much missed aspect of the marriage system that made Harvest Moon such a fulfilling experience.

Buy this game.
Sounds good but I might just wait for the sequel.
 

The M.O.B

Member
B.K. said:
Does this one have a year limit like some of the others or can you play it forever?

I believe you beat the game after going through all the dungeons, which will take a good 2-3 years. You are still able to keep playing after that though.
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
Bozon's review sold me. I think it was Craig Harris that was pretty pessimistic about Rune Factory due to the way it was handled.

I haven't really bothered with Harvest Moon seriously since the original on SNES (bar a dabbling in the GC version which sucked more wang than a Friday night regular) so it'll be nice to take on something entirely new.
 

Cherubae

Member
Deku said:
What are the online features?

- Trade items
- Exchange screen shots (which you can doodle on from inside your house)
- Text chat

Trading items allows you to level them up each time the item exchanges DS consoles. For weapons, higher levels means more damage per attack. You can also sell higher level items for more money (level x original sell price = profit).

Mei requires you to use the Wifi system to exchange an item to a specific minimum level before she'll marry you.

There are 11 bachelorettes.
 

Aponi

Member
I picked up the game on Tuesday and other than getting confused about what the green circle with an "x" through it meant as a status affect (it basically prevents you from casting spells and charging up your items) I've been having fun with it.

I just started summer and have most of the towns people at 3-4 friendship hearts and 2 love hearts with I think 4 different girls? I'm not sure if there are mini-heart events or not... I went in to speak with Tabitha one day and
she started talking about how thanks to me she thought humans and dwarves could live together in peace, which eventually led to her telling my character that she was an elf
. I haven't gotten anything similar from other girls yet though and I talk to them more than Tabitha, so that may be more main-plot related than heart-event related.

I've been frustrated by 2 things... the first being the fact that you start out with NO kitchen and unless the salesman offers it the first week you're stuck with no kitchen for a full season. The second was that until you beat the first cave (something that took me about 20 days to do with taking it relatively slow and growing crops inside it) you can't upgrade any of your items. The addition of fighting seems to help keep my interest up in the game. I don't go in them every day, but if I've got energy left over I'll run in to water crops and get experience and some minerals before going back out to chat up the villagers. Even with 3 distinct portions to my day (farming, fighting, visiting) I still end up going to sleep around 2pm a lot. If I had the patience to wait around another minute I suppose I could have a 4th "fishing" phase, but the money seems to come in easily enough to make that unnecessary.

Definitely much better than HM:DS (which I played for all of about an hour total) and may be my second HM behind Magical Melodies so far (I never really played the N64 version, though I did go buy a cartridge after trying it on an emulator ;)).

Not too sure how the online features will work... Who's going to sit there and pass back and forth a vegetable 95 times or whatever just to make it valuable? Seems like that would essentially "break" the game if you can sell Turnips for 20k a piece.
 

Juice

Member
Is this out already?

I'm really slacking on my HM mastery. I just couldn't get into Innocent Life. You move way the fuck too slowly.
 

Juice

Member
ninj4junpei said:
How is this game for someone who has never played Harvest Moon before?

Go buy a SNES and play the original cart in a dark room. You'll crygasm by the end of your first winter.
 

The M.O.B

Member
ninj4junpei said:
How is this game for someone who has never played Harvest Moon before?

You will probably get frustrated very early at how fast you fp drains, after you upgrade to lighter and stronger tools that require less fp you will have time for other things. In the beginning it will be frustrating but after you get your stuff upgraded, you will have a lot more time for the ladies.:D
 

Deeku

Member
The M.O.B said:
What exactly did you like about it? I didn't play that one so I want to know how it was.


Well, it's the best portable Harvest Moon game I've ever played. It was basically a portable version of the GC version if you ever played that, but was much more fast paced. It had the same old HM gameplay but things moved along quickly and there was really never a dull momment unlike in recent HM portable games.

Rune Factory, from what I've read, seems to be a much bigger game than FoMT which kinda worries me because it goes beyond farming... that's probably a good thing in most people's eyes but I just like farming. There just seems to be too much to do for its own good...just my opinion. But I'm still going to buy it regardless:D
 

NeoForte

Member
ok just to start I am a newb to Harvest Moon series so going in I didn't know what to expect. My impressions are very early as I have only played a little bit. Farming is very easy to get into and I like the atmosphere of the game. The artwork is nice, I really like it (very different from what I pictured a harvest moon to look like). The people in the town are interesting and I like running around everyday seeing what new they have to say. I haven't gone into a cave yet so I dunnno how fighting would be like. But I think I will like this game a lot. Though I should beat Star Force before I continue with this game since it seems it will be consuming more time.
 

TekunoRobby

Tag of Excellence
Thanks for the impressions NeoForte. I'm really looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts as you get farther into the game.

Star Force sucks
 

SumGamer

Member
I've spent considerate amount of time on this game and I like it a lot.

Before I express my impression any further, letme clarify this. I'm a fan to the series. Notahard coreone but I'd still pick up almost every one in the serie. However I dont really like how HMDS looks for a DS game.


Anyway, the graphical element in this game really satisfy me, stylish yet simple.

The control is some how still awkward in the menu where you have to use the stylus to access the submenu item(I dont like holding stylus while using both hands to play the game.) The way you can change the tools, items, or spell without having to access the menu is great, however the game wont stop while doing this. Fight the monster using sword feel really good, the others not so much. As a whole the control is good and satisfying.

The Friend/Love system still exists, good as usual. Monster is a pleasing addition, replacing pet though.

Equipment elements. Now you have weapon to use to fight the monsters with an extra slot for protector(shield). The rest of equipment slo still exist, ie, two accessories. Did I mention a slot for magic? You can use magic in this one as well.

Crawling Dungeon. I feel this is a major part in this game. It feels good but repetitive inside dungeon. However beat up lots and lots of monster and gaining experience is an excellent way to kill the time. Especially when you cant afford to have tons of harvest early in the game.

Housing, Thank god you dont need to gather the stone anymore. All you need is woods, lots and lots of them. You need woods to build everything by everyting I mean animals barn and house extension. Decorating house and collecting monsters should keep you busy for a while, at least until you're broke since the grass will not regrow and the thing cost 100G each if you buy it.

The game as a whole is great. I see a lot of changes to the previous title that I like yet still has the feeling of HM. Walking around town and ruins is relaxing although you wont be meeting a lot of people in this one. I think dungeon crawling will help newcomer getting into the game without geeting bored early in the game. Item crafting and monster collecting is a great addition for anyone who like to collecting stuff. I might still be early in the game but I think I prefer this over the previous titles.

Down side: Weird introduction, just plain weird. Ridiculous cost of living(2000 pcs of wood to expand the house?!). Annoyingly too often seal status. Pets monster replacing lazy dwarfs. Unnoticable skill effect.

The notable pleasure: You can now walk on the crop to care the one in the middle(Took them long enough). Fighting Monster with weapon and magic. Seasonal cave for harvesting crop.


P.S. The graphic in this game makes me wanting Chrono Trigger on DS =(
 
I'm buying this with my first paycheck, along with Etrian Odyssey, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Wii Points for Super Metroid, Classic Controller, and Phoenix Wright 3, with about $60.00 left.

What should I get, I'm thinking Theme Park DS and a cheap Wii game.
 
OMG is this out? Totally off my radar, and im a huge HM fan. Guess I might pick it up soon.

Would have been a great summer game, instead of a first starting day of class game. :ugh:
 

The M.O.B

Member
SumGamer said:
What bug? I haven't encountered any bug so far, so I'm not sure.

I remember reading about some of them. I don't believe any were major though.


Anyways, here is my FC, to find your own Friend Code, go to the Friend List and click on the Add button at the top of your list that is displayed on the lower screen of your DS. Your own code will appear on the top screen after pressing Add.

3995-4010-8384

Add me and leave you FC so we can level up our tools.:D
 

Fio

Member
A Link to the Snitch said:
I'm buying this with my first paycheck, along with Etrian Odyssey, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Wii Points for Super Metroid, Classic Controller, and Phoenix Wright 3, with about $60.00 left.

What should I get, I'm thinking Theme Park DS and a cheap Wii game.

Picross, awesome puzzle.
 

The M.O.B

Member
My Spring Month progress

I have a 3 Friends Points on everybody except the little boy and girl

I have 1 Love points on all the girls except Mei,2 on Melody

I just completed the 2nd cave, and now midway through 3rd.

40,000 monies already,500 wood,0 feed,6 monster pets

I'm hoping to get the house extension by the end of summer but I really can only find logs and stumps deep in the caves so it might take a while.

I'm really enjoying this game, more than the majority of Harvest Moon games.
 

Aponi

Member
Ok, friend code...

User: Impirius (it's his DS) but my char's name is Ragnus, not sure which it'll show
FC: 0688-2810-5707

Added The M.O.B.
 

Saitou

Banned
I've been playing this a bit. Halfway through the first Spring so far.

It's a good game, but it isn't Harvest Moon. As previously stated numerous times, farming could have been left out of this game completely, and instead Marvelous could have focused on polishing up a few other things (like character interaction, for one).

I think I'll put it aside for now, and return to Magical Melody (should make a LTTP for that...), and come back to it maybe next year, approaching it not as a Harvest Moon, but as a new game entirely.
 

NeoForte

Member
Ah crud. I finally go into the first cave to explore a bit and see if I can find anything useful and I saved with like 10% health, poisoned and silenced.....basically I cannot exit the dungeon alive and thus must restart the game :/ sucks cause I was starting to get really into it.
 

leehom

Member
Halycon said:
Playing it non-stop since Thursday. I'll say a few things.

Buy this game.
How do you get the monsters to help you water the farm? I only captured one so far but he's been useless.
 

The M.O.B

Member
Added Aponi's Fc to the OP.

leehom said:
How do you get the monsters to help you water the farm? I only captured one so far but he's been useless.

The monster will come out at a certain point in the day. At the beginning he will only be able to do 18 squares a day.

You should brush him everyday to get higher friend points on him, he then will be able to do a lot more. Currently mine does about 24 squares a day.

He will start at the very first square on your farm and work his way down until he gets too tired and quits. Your monster will only do EVERY plowed spot, so make sure you don't have too many empty plowed spots.

Most important thing is to make sure your monster is a WATERING type.
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
Game came earlier today much to my surprise, haven't really sunk my teeth into it as I have to head to work but so far enjoying it. When I saw videos and such it seemed like control and the graphics looked a bit shoddy but playing it in person makes it seem much more fluid. So far I've only got the basics for inventory and planted some seeds but I'll do a bigger game-run later tonight.
 

Cherubae

Member
The M.O.B said:
He will start at the very first square on your farm and work his way down until he gets too tired and quits.

Monsters only water for a maximum of an hour and 40 minutes, then they will go inside. The more friendship a monster has, the more work it can do during that time period. If you have a second monster scheduled to work it will start on the hour mark after the previous one returns to the barn.
 

Octagon

Member
Hey guys,

been playing this game for a whole in-game week yesterday and i really like it so far.
While the background music from the intro sucks (a lot), the in-game voice acting is still alright. Graphics are fine and the game manages to set you in the right mood.
Hell, i haven't felt like a real part of a fantasy world in a long time.

For fast money i do a lot of finishing, so i'd recommend it to anybody who just started the game. I also take care of my crops, talk to villagers each day and do a bit of cave exploring.

What really helps the game is that it doesn't feel as slow paced as some of its predecessors. The tasks are still somewhat repetitive but this is harvest moon we are talking about.

Overall I am content with the game so far and am pretty curious about the things i'll be able to discover in this small secluded fantasy world.
 

Aponi

Member
Yeah, I'm about a week into Fall of year 1 and I haven't started to get bored at all yet. I like how there seems to be more plot to the characters in town. The things they say seems to do a better job of implying that they have a life outside of "my job is to run the store for you to buy stuff" that some of the other games made me feel. Of course, I pretty strongly disliked the AWL universe, so maybe I'm just happy to see new faces who maintain the fantasy feel.
 
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