Interactions between characters are always a pleasure, and often enough downright hilarious. Rune Factory 4 shines in its development of memorable townsfolk, who will also supply their own requests, such as the blacksmith who’s always out to make a quick dollar, or the brave female knight who’s duty-bound to protect the town but is absolutely scared to death of ghosts. Some requests will come from the numerous townsfolk as well. Rewards for completing tasks are new tools, new seed types, and new items to help boost the output of the farm. To guide players through the deeper gameplay elements, there is a friendly mailbox in town that provides daily tasks such as “harvest 10 turnips” or “raise the friendship level of everyone in town”.
#RUNE FACTORY 4 SERIES#
All of these elements are very well done as one would expect from the fourth entry of a series that was built upon the successes of the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons franchises. As in most farming sim games, there are crops to grow, fish to catch, and local NPCs to befriend and date.
Much more likely to stick in players’ heads are the farming and social sim elements of Rune Factory 4. Meet Eliza, the snarky talking mailbox that wears a hat. This isn’t to say that the story is bad, but after completing the game and moving on to other titles, players likely won’t dwell too long upon the impact they made on the land of Selphia. All of these problems seem important at the time they arise, but when players realize they can take a season to develop their level 10 turnip before progressing, even the more impactful story beats fade into the realm of forgettable. During the first two arcs, players are tasked with a stereotypical RPG progression of saving their friends, the town, the country, and finally the world, before the post-game arc brings the story back to more local concerns. The game contains three main story arcs, though the third primarily serves as the post-game. With such freedom to advance, the story itself doesn’t always have the emotional impact that it could. With no deadline in place, it’s perfectly acceptable to bounce between those two tactics or to find one’s own blend of gameplay management. Those new to the series likely will find themselves farming and focusing on the social sim elements until they feel the need to adventure out for new materials, or alternatively rushing into battling monsters and progressing the story until they feel they need to farm, cook, and craft better equipment and gear. For the most part, players are left to progress at their own pace, with only a few key characters and crafting materials locked behind story progression. Initially mistaken as a prince or princess, a situation that quickly resolves itself, players are given the tasks of managing a large farm at the center of a rural town and investigating local phenomena involving monsters in the surrounding areas. Players begin the game as an amnesiac, fresh off a fall from an airship. The nature of the gameplay allows for multiple play styles simultaneously giving tasks to complete to push the main story ahead, but allowing causal players the freedom to take as long as they would like to do so. The story of Rune Factory 4 is somewhat typical JRPG fare, with interesting and forgettable bits in equal measures. With Rune Factory 5 announced to be in development, a remastered Rune Factory 4 Special was ported to the Switch this year, and with it came everything that’s always made this beautiful blend of farming sim and action RPG special. At that time I figured I’d be fully enamored with Rune Factory 6 or 7 by the year 2020, but corporate events brought about a small dark age in the series, with no new titles since 2013. Something Special is Produced in this Factoryīack in the heyday of 3DS gaming, the original Rune Factory 4 grabbed my attention away from all other titles I was interested in for a good few months and led me on a wonderful adventure in the land of Selphia.
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