Rune Factory 4

[NeoCracker]

Well, on normal, I managed to kill the games first boss day 1 where it let you run around freely.

I'm somewhat worried you won't be able to do that much with your home, yet the game is pretty awesome. The Prince Points are a great Idea, though i guess we'll have to wait and see how well done they actually end up being.

Well, time to get back to farming!

[Skyblade]

Gyah! I missed this somehow.

I'm enjoying it so far. The Request system has been really overhauled. While I'm quite happy with some of the more difficult/complicated ones, the restriction of only one at a time does make that rather frustrating. I'm also a bit sad that the personal mailbox requests are gone, because in RF3 each character, especially the bachelorettes, had their own quest line for you.

I mean, sure, I've gotten Forte up to 3 Love already (just find who you want to romance and take them with you wherever you go, easily doubles the points you'd get if you just talked), but she hasn't really had any personal interactions with me. Which is very sad, as the personal character stories were easily the best part of RF3.

I've already got my forge. After you beat the first dungeon, there is an drop down point to a new cave dungeon you can find in the first dungeon's second room. Taking it takes you to a new room with a new save point. Don't go too far, or the enemies will one hit KO you (on Hard, at least), but inside when I first got there were two chests, one of which had 3500 or so gold in it. I'm still getting used to the new forging system, though I've succeeded in my myself some double blades (best weapons in the game) and a new staff.

I like most of the new systems, but I really, really wish they'd unlock a bit faster. I keep discovering new Prince Powers, but not at a rate that doesn't keep me from having pretty much everything all the time. Except festivals, where I only have the one I got at the start going so far, but even it (the bean catching festival) is two days away! Prince Points are not going to be a resource I have to wind up managing unless they really up the ante on how many you have available.

Money does seem a bit slower to come in than in other RF games, but I think a lot of that is that I'm saving most items so that I'll have them when I have to forge with them later.

Still, it's a great game and I can't wait to get further into it. I just hope the character interactions get a bit deeper.

[NeoCracker]

As you do more requests eventually you'll be able to do additional requests. Right now I can do three a day. This is in addition to requests you get from people randomly.

Also, I don't like the house customizing. It's nice you can place everything anywhere, but there really isn't any flavor to the house itself. Again compare it to the detail and uniqueness of the RF 3 house, which looks wonderful.

Yeah, it's really hard not to compare this to RF 3.

Regardless, I'm digging it still.

[Skyblade]

As you do more requests eventually you'll be able to do additional requests. Right now I can do three a day. This is in addition to requests you get from people randomly.

Yeah, I'm on three a day as well, and I just started getting the random "bring me 7 Medicinal Herbs" type quests. But I'm still not seeing the personal, character-story driven ones. I'm hoping they'll unlock either with friendship or with story completion.

EDIT: The problem is "3 a day" doesn't mean "3 at a time". When you have objectives like "Harvest 3 different types of flowers", you either need to hold off on picking it up until you're ready to complete it, or hang around with just one quest in your log the entire time until they bloom. With quests that long, some more flexibility with the quest log would be welcome.

Also, I don't like the house customizing. It's nice you can place everything anywhere, but there really isn't any flavor to the house itself. Again compare it to the detail and uniqueness of the RF 3 house, which looks wonderful.

Well, the RF3 house was a tree. It had a certain unique charm just from that. But there are Orders to expand the home, so hopefully it'll get better as we go.

Yeah, it's really hard not to compare this to RF 3.

Regardless, I'm digging it still.

Same here.

I wish I could find a recipe guide, though. They totally revamped the way crafting works, and it is really kind of confusing.

Failures from lack of skill are still around, combining this time with increasingly high RP loss, which continues to go up until you guarantee to fail the item. Thus, watching the RP cost will let you know your chance of success. Unfortunately, forging failure now steals your ingredients, giving you a scrap metal.

[NeoCracker]

I actually like that about forging, always thought it was silly somehow you didn't lose material.

[Skyblade]

I actually like that about forging, always thought it was silly somehow you didn't lose material.

I agree. It makes it more realistic. It's also a bit of a pain in the butt, and discourages experimentation. Recipe breads are definitely going to be more popular than they were in RF3.

I got my Airship License (after moving up from Apprentice Prince). Which lets you quick travel to the dungeons accessible from the forest, so no more trekking through the forest maze unnecessarily. It also lets you buy gold for Play Coins, something which some people might like to lessen their economic woes, but which I'm not intending to really use.

While the game may not meet the brilliant luster of its predecessor, it's still a Rune Factory game. I still find myself just playing through, day after day, trying to do as much as possible, find every recipe and item, make friends with everyone, and keep my farm going.

[Madame Adequate]

Do one of you want to explain what this game is actually about and stuff?

[NeoCracker]

Well, as will all Rune Factory Games, you wake up in a town having lost your memory, and someone important decides arbitrarily you live somewhere and now run a farm, basically against your will.

As time goes on you end up doing story quests into some Action RPG style dungeons and slowly uncover what it is you were doing here in the first place.

You build relationships with the townsfolk, who are pretty bizzare by most games standards, and can eventually get married (The social aspect is like that of a much better written Harvest Moon title).

Pretty much everything levels up as you do it more. There are skills for each type of weapon, getting hit, different types of magic, farming, smithing, crafting, fishing, cooking, and even walking, bathing, eating and sleeping.

This is pretty much the premise of a Rune Factory game in a nutshell.

In 4, as you clear dungeons the final boss's seem to transform into a human after defeating them, and the central story revolves around why these monsters have turned into people, your connection to all this, and what the Divine Dragon who watches over the land has to do with it all (She is in the castle you currently live in, and is pretty awesome to talk too.)

That is what the game is.

Edit: The Description of the Wooly is priceless.

"During Winter, it pleads you not to cut off its fur with big, watery eyes. You do it any way... because that's how you roll. You monster."

[Skyblade]

As Neo covered the basics fairly thoroughly, I'll cover the mechanics in some more detail. Also, although he failed to note it, the Rune Factory series is itself a spinoff of Harvest Moon. Just, as he said, with better writing and gameplay. I did not mean for this post to be as long as it is. I just really like this series (and this game), and love talking about it.

Unlike the main series though, the farm is only about half of your life in Rune Factory. There are also dungeons scattered around town. Typically, each one is tied to its own season, and has its own plots of farmland inside (though RF4 seems to have reduced the number of in-dungeon farm plots), which allows you to farm seasonal crops year-round, as long as you grow them in the correct dungeon, making them an alternative to Harvest Moon's greenhouse. Each dungeon is also tied to the story, and you unlock them by defeating the bosses, progressing the story, and occasionally by doing things around town.

With the second focus of dungeon exploring and fighting monsters, comes a host of RPG elements that help you with that. You can forge new weapons and armor, or craft medicine, in addition to having an extremely in-depth cooking system that allows you to turn crops and such into items that restore health and give you buffs. Each of these systems have to be unlocked in each of the games through purchasing the forge, kitchen pieces, or pharmacy, but you can unlock them fairly early. These mechanics also tie back into the farming core system, allowing you to use the Forge to upgrade or build new farm tools, use the food to directly restore your health and stamina as you're farming, or use some of the items you craft at your pharmacy to fertilize or otherwise boost your crops.

These mechanics have also caused the series to introduce a host of new resources. In the dungeons you can farm for various types of metal ores, and occasional gemstones. Monsters drop a huge variety of items, from claws and fangs to more esoteric things like demon blood, mushroom spores, or plant vines, depending on the enemy (and the enemy variety is similarly huge). Fishing now gives you a huge variety of fish to choose from, all of which cook differently and restore different amounts of health or give different buffs. Some crops which you can't grow (like Apples and Oranges, which grow on trees that have far too long of a lifespan for the Harvest Moon style cultivating) are available in dungeons, either as drops or from set-location, fruit-bearing trees.

The RPG elements also do have some rather excellent repercussions on the main farming/romance system that is at the core of Harvest Moon. The ability to actually track your stamina is a very welcome change to the series. The ability to take townsfolk with you into dungeons gives the game a variety of new date systems and mechanics, as well as expands the gift system somewhat. While each person has their own favorite gifts, you can also give them improved weapons, armor, or accessories. So you not only earn their trust and friendship, you make them better outfitted to venture into the depths of monster infested caves with you.

What's more, the villager interactions have also taken on an additional form as quests. While talking and gift giving all day are still an option, quests are a new system whereby a villager will make a request for you to complete. Some of these are tutorial type (especially in RF4), teaching you new mechanics or showing you things that you might not have seen before. Others are personal requests where you learn more about the villagers, or get to know your love interest better. And, of course, you have the standard fetch items or kill monster quests.

Monsters themselves have an additional use besides simply killing them for drops. They now take the place of your livestock. Build a monster barn and you can store various monsters, which you feed with fodder. Most simply have the ability to help you on the farm (you can order them to clear fields, sow seeds, water crops, etcetera), but some also tie to special items. Catch a Wooly, and you can get fur from it or trim its fur. Catch a Cluckadoodle, and you can get eggs. Buffamoos get you milk, and there's also a bee/wasp type I can't remember the name of from which you can get Honey. And those items are really useful! You can knit the wool into various hats or scarves at your accessory table, or cook the eggs, milk, and honey in your kitchen.

There's also magic, in addition to the weapons you can craft. You start the game with the Escape spell, which is a free teleportation spell that escapes a dungeon. After RF1, they combined it with Teleport, so you can use it to leave a dungeon, go home, or (if you use it while in your home) teleport back to the dungeon entrances. This makes getting around town much easier. You can have two magic slots ready, and Escape is always one of them for me. Other than that you have recovery magic, status-ailment curing magic, or, of course, attack magic. Fireballs, water lasers, void spheres, earth spikes, wind slashes, light shields. There's a huge variety, and each element has its own skill level to improve, and usually there are also higher level magic spells of the basic ones you first find.

So... I should probably stop now. As I said, I could discuss this for hours, but I've given you a basic introduction to most of the mechanics, so we'll go from there.

[NeoCracker]

So, the 'Get it together Trio' is a thing...

That was a bizarre little series of events.

[Madame Adequate]

Okay this all sounds pretty interesting, thanks for the info guys! Might give this a look if I do spring for a 3DS after all.

[Skyblade]

So, the 'Get it together Trio' is a thing...

That was a bizarre little series of events.

There are several of those. They're apparently triggered semi-randomly once the friendship requirements are met. They're called "Town Events". When one is going on, you can track the event from your main diary, below the Save option. It will tell you the event's name, and who participates. And anyone currently participating in one can't be asked out as a party member, so it's a good thing to know. I've had a few of them, and they're one of the most enjoyable character moments in the game.

Also, take Forte to the third dungeon. Trust me, it's awesome.

Plus, it seems the game is only just beginning. After the third dungeon, you really start the plot (actually, according to the series designer, the plot doesn't really begin until after the forth dungeon, but you can tell what it's going to be about after number 3). You can also learn to run your own shop, which lets you sell things for substantially more (a Pickled Radish sold at over double base price), at an additional time investment. It adds a Recettear-like minigame to the mechanics, and actually works fairly well. You also get Bartering skill way faster from selling at your shop than Shipping, and Bartering will unlock new ways to sell things to customers.

Okay this all sounds pretty interesting, thanks for the info guys! Might give this a look if I do spring for a 3DS after all.

Do so. Then get yourself this and Fire Emblem Awakening.

[NeoCracker]

Yeah, I cleared the first three dungeons, the three sub dungeons of those, the one after it, and now I'm on to another one. When Silver was teh highest level Ore I had found I figured something was up.

Pro-Tip: If you are like me, you will miss this and wonder why the smurf there is no story events happening. One event it triggered by leaving the south gate, and I'd only left town anymore by warping to the place I was going to at that point.

Edit: And I'm Level 72, my character level far outshines my equipments level, as I've JUST made my level 30 Earth Gloves.

[Skyblade]

Yeah, I cleared the first three dungeons, the three sub dungeons of those, the one after it, and now I'm on to another one. When Silver was teh highest level Ore I had found I figured something was up.

Wait, you cleared the Lava Cave? Seriously? HOW?!

Recommended Level "30" my butt. I'm currently level 61, and I'm barely making any headway at all. I can be killed in like five fireballs. The place is huge, there are so many traps in it. There are scorpions that poison you, fire elementals with spells that can't be blocked and the ability to summon fire pillars that you'll walk into if you try to melee them, and several rooms absolutely designed to make you hate the level designer. I mean, a single room the length of three rooms, with an enemy generator at the end, and three rows of fire traps in between? Screw whoever built this dungeon. Oh, and these are all chained together with only a single mid way save point on a five floor level.

Granted, I'm going at it at Hard, but some quick Google searches shows that this level is a problem for a lot of players (with the Normal level being recommended at 45 or above by players). What's worse, there isn't a lot you can do to make it easier. You don't get Rubies until inside the cave, and without them, you can't craft Fire Resist gear (good luck finding some and getting out) even if you have the skill for it. Gearing up won't reduce the damage from any of the main sources. Elemental spells work off of resistance, not defense, and the traps work similarly. And Poison takes off HP at a very alarming rate (like 3 times what it was in previous games), and can't be mitigated, only cured. I mean, bring a lot of antidotes, health potions, and RP recovery items is pretty much the only advice you can give. Or level up. I suppose if you can make it to, say, level 125 you'll probably be able to cakewalk the place. The place "designed" for level 30 adventurers.

This is perhaps made worse by the fact that it is one of the least interesting dungeons in the game.

~Series Notes = For anyone new to Rune Factory~
Dungeons in the series come in two basic formats. The first are typically found in the main story. They tend to have large open rooms, special objectives, and are designed as places you're meant to dwell in. They'll have farm locations, fruit trees, mineral rooms, etcetera. You're meant to revisit these over and over to take advantage of the contents over and over as part of your regular life, just as you visit your farm and talk to villagers.

The others are usually reserved to hidden or optional dungeons. They're almost always caves, and they consist of extremely small, one-screen rooms which link up by connections on any of the four cardinal compass points. Each room is minimalistic, but they chain together to form impressive gauntlets and labyrinths. They are typically meant for things like superbosses, and other optional challenging content, meant to be there for players who want to take advantage of it, but not meant to be the main engagement for the majority of the game.
~Note ends~

The problem with this dungeon is that, as Neo mentioned, it's a "sub dungeon", not a main dungeon. This means it follows the second form of level design. The huge, gorgeous rooms that make up the main dungeons, with impressive backgrounds and waterfalls, and hidden staircases. Yeah, they're all gone. It's just a brown cave surrounded by red lava. And I've been looking at it for well over an hour, because I can't move on with the story until I beat it.

Pro-Tip: If you are like me, you will miss this and wonder why the smurf there is no story events happening. One event it triggered by leaving the south gate, and I'd only left town anymore by warping to the place I was going to at that point.

Good to know, I'll keep an eye out for it. I've stopped warping now in favor of the Airship, which is frelling awesome. Instant transportation to dungeons, out of town farmland, good fishing spots, mining spots, etcetera? Best airship ever, even if you never get to see it fly.

Edit: And I'm Level 72, my character level far outshines my equipments level, as I've JUST made my level 30 Earth Gloves.

Your level will advance faster than your crafting levels, even if you go for max crafting. Between grinding time to get mats and the simple fact that mats are gated by dungeons and therefore story progression, you'll always be higher ahead in level than you are in gear. But don't worry too much. If RF3 is any indication, crafting maxes at 99, while level doesn't max until well over 9000 (I don't know if it goes five digits, but it might).

Personally I'm a crafting maniac, so I'm always outfitted in pretty much the best gear I can get. The problem is that gear is so heavily gated by content that I can't find the mats to make better stuff. There are only two pieces of Armor you can craft with Silver, did you know that? Oh, and the ability to craft multiple items at once (and skip the loading-bar-esque Crafting bar) is a huge boon to crafting, it lets you skill up so much faster with the thousands of Iron and Bronze you'll have.

[NeoCracker]

Anytime I go through a room with Fire spirits I run the smurf out. If it's a room I have to kill them I'd simply take the fight very slowly, only getting in like, 2-3 hits (I use gloves mostly) before moving again.

Anything there is pretty damn easy to deal with so long as it doesn't get supported by 2-3 of those fire spirits, so any time they are there make them your priority to fight.

That's how to beat the fire cave.

It wasn't until after that I started taking in an ally, and right now that ally is Dolce.

She's pretty decked out in armor right now, though here soon I'm upgrading her to the newest staff, I forget what it was called, but it needs a diamond to make.