Rune Factory 4 – Nintendo Switch

I may be a bit biased since Rune Factory 4 is one of my all-time favorite games, but Special on the Switch just took what was there and polished it so it runs completely smoothly without hiccup while being clean and simple to play even with just one screen on a TV. Upon receiving my Archival Edition I proceeded to play 67 hours in 6 days on the new Hell mode added (which I do not recommend to anyone except those who fully understand the inner workings of the game) which was an absolute blast. The core game is way too easy after you fully understand how it works, so being able to pump up the difficulty even more was like a dream come true to make my overpowered gear relevant. The Archival Edition comes with a Sound Selection CD with the game's music which is pretty much all fun and cheerful. It also comes with an art book with art from all the games in the series as well as fun additional information which was a blast to read through. I pre-ordered this product and could not be happier with what was delivered. I could probably type an entire essay, but I don't think anyone really cares about that. This game combines old-school Harvest Moon style farming with a more modern fast-paced environment and a surprising amount of depth to the farming (including soil health and quality) while also having an extremely customizable crafting system and smooth combat that just feels good to execute. The villagers are almost all enjoyable to be around and provide a fun environment to spend countless hours in as you do everything you find fun. Oh, and it's an RPG where you level up not only your character but also your skills. And there are a lot of skills. There's a skill for walking, eating, bathing, sleeping, throwing, each element of magic, each weapon type, farming, fishing, leadership, bartering, forging, crafting, cooking, every single resist, love (technically an element of magic but deserving of its own slot), and I believe a few others that are eluding me currently. One of my absolute favorite things about Rune Factory is the sheer diversity in skills to level up and approaches to gameplay. One of my friends once talked to me about things and my mind was blown by just how different he's able to play the game. The base game is more than worth 60 dollars, so 40 dollars is an absolute steal and the Archival Edition is also more than worth your money.

The Art book is definitely worth having. It is mainly Character art, just single character stance for every character from entire series. But it's nice art, and bonus descriptions of each characters likes,dislikes, birthdays,and gifts! There are also a couple of pages on background arts, original animation/drawing exclusives. It is a pretty thick small notebook size book! The Game if you haven't played: Simplest way to describe is Harvest Moon/ Stardew Valley- yet with heavy RPG elements and monster training. -Everything you do adds levels to your stats! Example: using a water pale = level up water magic element up, and mining rock adds levels to health and earth magic. Every little thing you do levels up your character and stats! -Farming- Do it yourself or train your captured Monsters to do the work for you, Certain monsters have better farming efficiencys than other. -Battle system- Hack and slash with weapons, farm equipment, magic attacks. Watering your plants every day made you amazing at water magic attacks! "NOT A 2 player game, 1 Player Only unless updated" In Game Ai Partner battle system- Bring "in game" friends to assist you on your quests, or bring your rammed monsters to help you fight. Your Monsters have unique attacks and also level up to get stronger. Plus you can ride some monsters for fun, yes ride like mount on them and travel. I would say this game is more about what you can do, and what you could do all day, when you find out what you can do lol. The Story is a little simple and short if you decide to speed run, but if that is what determines what is fun for you then yay..you beat the game fast, hurray..but can you win the fishing contest? Did you really get to know and pick the right partner to Marry? Are you satisfied with your desire to beat games and move on without having fuuuuunnnn!!!! I'm done. Thanks for Reading. Ps. This game and series is on my awesome list! I hate you speed runner. Water laser!!!!!

I played RF4 three times on the 3DS and I didn’t hesitate to play it again. There’s more story added now!! Just little things and a few small changes that filled in some gaps and answered a couple questions. I haven’t finished it yet or gotten to newly wed mode, but I just started the 2nd arc. By the way, you don’t have to play the other Rune Factory games to understand what is happening. There are callbacks and returning characters, but it’s a new story, so you don’t have to worry. If you want to play the old games though, I would suggest starting with the oldest, because the old games were more... unpolished. The controls and stuff were not as good, and if you don’t like going backwards technology wise, it’s for the best. (honestly i hated Rune Factory 1, I started with RF3 so I was used to a lot of things that were not present. But also RF1 is just harder than the other games. RF2 is super good btw.) If you’re on the fence about this game, I think you should give it a shot if you like: - collecting materials to craft your own items like weapons, armor, and you can cook too! - exploring dungeons that sometimes have little puzzles and fighting monsters (the dungeons are NOT randomly generated except for later optional dungeons, if you like or dislike that.) - raising monsters that can be used for battling, for items (milk, wool, other crafting materials), or like... If you just want to have a pet elephant or a wolf, you can do that. Side note: you can ride a wolf if you want to. You could also ride a wooly (sheep) if that’s what you want. - you can pick up birds around town and throw them at people, and this brings me great joy - general silliness. Everyone in this game is a little dumb in an endearing way. - raising friendship levels around town and seeing little events with the characters. It’s a fun game with lots to explore! I hope you like it too!!!

My Rune Factory journey began with RF1 back in the 2000s (almost 20 years!). This game has improved leaps and bounds in mechanics for farming, romance, character building, monster fighting, and so much more. If you're looking to play a game similar to Harvest Moon (Story of Seasons) or Stardew Valley, this game is for you if you enjoy having many things to do, instead of focusing primarily on farming. The images and "anime"-style may turn many people away, but do keep an open mind and try it out. Once you get started and play at least 5+ hours, I hope you see the same magic I did. This is a game where I poured 400+ hours in the 3DS version and 150+ in the switch version. PROS: - light learning curve: each action in the game is relatively intuitive. I've put this game down for a few months at a time and can pick it right back up and start playing again, even if I forgot the controls. - villager relationships: there's a new dialogue for every single day for each villager; that's crazy! There are character events so you can learn more about the villagers as well. - establish your playing pace: there's no real urgency to finish the game quickly unless you want to challenge yourself. CONS: - grinding: you'll have to grind your crafting ability (among others) if you want to survive in the dungeons later in the game, especially in your on hell mode. It might take 3-5 hours of numbing work. Hot tip: craft broadswords and "improve" them with iron until you reach level 99. Rune Factory 4S is another great addition and adds much more to an already amazing game. I highly recommend getting it whether or not you've played an RF game before!

I've been a fan of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons/Rune Factory games for two decades and the Rune Factory games just add a whole new element to it. I never finished this game on the 3DS and bought this version because Rune Factory 5 is coming out soon; despite how much time I spent on the previous game, I was able to pick this one and start over and enjoy it again. The graphics look a little underwhelming given that this was originally designed for a 3DS and I play it on a large television (so this might not be as noticeable if you aren't playing with the Switch in the dock) but even saying that, the graphics don't bother me. The art is nice, the voice acting is nice, and the characters are unique enough that it feels interesting to get to know them and interact with them. It's a game you can grind without it feeling too repetitive, and I appreciate the huge array of things you can choose to do to pass the time. If you're a fan of the series or new to it, I think this is a good game! It stays fun and engaging even when you have repetitive IC tasks to complete on your farm.

First off, I don’t regret my purchase despite deciding the game isn’t quite right for me. I’m a huge art book fan and the one that came with it delivered. Stardew Valley has been my main foray into farming sims, although I did play Rune Factory 3 years ago. So, I expected it to be quite different to those experiences, and I was partially right. Note: I have played a few hours so far. RF4 is very clunky in terms of inventory management. I haven’t found any quick button combinations yet, so I have to enter a menu, click two buttons, click equip, and exit the menu just to hold a sword or watering can, hoe or seeds. During farming this happens all the time! Menus also take a while to load. These are my main complaints with this game, and they drag the experience down a lot, to the point where I’d rather play Stardew Valley for relaxation and fun. That is not good. Combat is no more refined than what I remembered from RF3. Which is perfectly serviceable. I played on hard and died to the first boss, so difficulty seems alright. The writing is not great, but it leans into its own cheesiness. Cliches are lampshaded. Characters are quite memorable. There is fan service both ways. The plot is terribly contrived, but that’s fairly common in games as a whole, so I won’t knock it too hard for that. There are little quirks of personality you can pick up while playing. I’m still not sure what they do, but it was a nice surprise to find one. Overall, my experience has been rather mixed. I find myself thinking about other games while playing this one, but sometimes I find something that makes me consider sticking it out.

One of the best purchase I have made. Love the series. I have played it 4 times and currently on the 4th play. I recommend this, Rune Factory 3 Special, Rune Factory 5, and Rune Factory Guardians of Azuma (its a spinoff game in the same series) and eventually 6 which they announced with GoA but no updates since.

PRODUCT: The product arrived the same day I ordered it, much earlier than expected! They put it right at the front door and sent a photo of it, which was above and beyond service to me. As for the product itself, it came just as intended. Perfectly new and shrink-wrapped. The cover art is absolutely gorgeous as well as the fully-colored instruction manual. OVERALL: As for the game, I am addicted already and I've only had it for about a week. I play it every day! If you've played Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, then you'd probably like this game. It has a mixture of farming, cooking, fighting monsters, crafting, socializing, dating, fishing, and even marriage (which I haven't gotten to, yet)! On top of that, there is an overarching story that is separated into 3 arcs. Not to mention there are multiple side stories with the townsfolk. There's hundreds of hours of content in this game, it just amazes me. In my opinion, for $30, it has much more value than some $60 games I have bought. STORY: As I mentioned, there are three arcs to this game's story. Without spoilers, I'll just say that you begin as a character who lost their memory. After being mistaken for a prince/princess, you must live in a town called Selphia and get to know the townspeople and develop the town. There is no rush at all to complete the main story. You can go at your own pace and ignore the story just to farm and whatnot. I usually take breaks in between the story to do the other things and level my character up. As of now, I am in arc 2 and the story is pretty interesting so far! Nothing outstandingly inspiring, but interesting nonetheless. I love the concept of the world of Rune Factory. There are references to past games (some of which I probably missed since this is my first Rune Factory game). You don't have to know any of the other games to play this, as it's a completely new storyline. GAMEPLAY: The game allows you to choose between a male or female character (Lest or Frey). There are no options to customize your character, but that is fine with me. I kept the name of the main character the same and just enjoyed following their story. The story setup and beginning tutorial take a while. That is understandable since the game has a lot to offer, so to play the game smoothly, you have to know how everything works! Don't be overwhelmed in the beginning. You'll get used to it and start your routine! The gameplay shines when it comes to interacting with the other characters. There is so much dialogue in this game, it is crazy. That is one of the things I thought Stardew Valley lacked. I am already on Summer Year 2 in this game, and I am still getting new dialogue. It has repeated a few things, but if your friendship levels go up, if there's a festival, or if you progress the story, there will be a lot of new dialogue. There is even some hidden dialogue you could miss if you don't take along other characters on your mission because they will also react to what is happening. Farming and combat is not extremely in-depth or groundbreaking. I think they are fairly simple, but that doesn't mean it's not fun! It's very addicting to farm and fight monsters. However, if you are looking for in-depth fighting or farming mechanics, this game doesn't do much of that. It is very good at blending everything together into one game though. For combat, you can take up to 2 characters or monsters along with you to fight. All aspects of the game depend on one another so you'll have to do a little bit of everything to progress. You can get away with not farming or not crafting, but it would make progression more challenging. CHARACTERS: The characters are all so loveable! I didn't care for a couple of the characters' designs at first, but they grew on me with their interactions with me! They all open up to the main character as you grow your friendship and take care of the town. Some characters will tell you about other characters and sometimes you can drop in on the characters having conversations with each other. This game does romance very well in comparison with Stardew Valley (sorry, I'm comparing them but I've never played HM/SoS). The development of your relationships seem very natural and there are several times where I said "AWWW" out loud. ART/GRAPHICS: Keep in mind, this is a 9-year-old game and it was made for a weaker handheld system, the 3DS. The graphics are not the best, but it doesn't affect the gameplay. At least not for me. You can see the sharp edges on the 3D models and they are not smooth. The character art and anime cutscenes are stunning. The art looks HD for this version compared to the 3DS of course! One of the things that made me fall in love with Rune Factory was the art! MUSIC/SOUND: Not much to say here! The music is all very nice! Especially during the emotional parts of the story. There is only one track that I cannot stand and that is the festival day music. It is too repetitive and annoying, so sometimes on festival days, I go to bed much earlier than a normal day just because of the music. The Japanese voice acting is so good! I haven't tried the English voices yet, but I like hearing how the creators intended the voices to sound (I can also practice listening to Japanese). This is a feature they added in Rune Factory 4 Special. CONCLUSION: I have enjoyed every minute of this game and it made me feel relaxed during a stressful time in my life! I have something to look forward to each day. I definitely don't regret buying this game and I plan on pre-ordering Rune Factory 5 when it is released for North America!

No se ha jugado. Aún por que es un regalo de cumpleaños

Je n'avais pas d'attente comme il s'agissait d'un jeu que j'avais très peu entendu parler , s'avère que c'est un jeu de 3ds qui a été remasterisé et ça en vaut le coup . Ce jeu rend rapidement accro , une histoire intéressante et une mécanique de jeu vraiment amusante , j'ai fais l'acquisition de ce jeu il y a 3 semaines et je n'arrive pas à décrocher et à accumuler plus de 65h de jeu déjà et loin d'être terminé. Les personnages sont super attachant aussi

Product safely arrived and i enjoyed the game.

Jogo muito bom

I never write reviews but I simply MUST for this game. Having played all the Rune Factory games to date, Rune Factory 4 is by far the best one in the series. It is my absolute favorite game of all time, and I was beyond thrilled to hear that it was coming out on the Switch in 2020. (I waited six years for this, you guys. SIX YEARS!!) The newly updated HD art looks stunning, and they included a lot of new content to an already MASSIVE game. I’ve bought (and subsequently regretted buying) games with less than half the content for a much higher price. This game is a dream for anyone interested in farming simulation, surprisingly intense JRPG combat (especially with the new Hell mode), building relationships with interesting and well-written characters, following a good storyline, and enjoying (literally) endless gameplay.