Rune Factory 5 & Rune Factory 4 Special Edition announced

[Rapier]

https://www.polygon.com/2019/2/13/18224005/rune-factory-4-remastered-special-5-switch

 

Those are excelent news for me, besides being for the Switch, which is a console I really don't care about. Rune Factory is one of my favorite series and it's great to see it's back even after their previous company went bankrupt and closed.

[Shadow Mir]

That reminds me, in light of their previous company closing, who's developing them now?

[Acacia Sgt]

11 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

That reminds me, in light of their previous company closing, who's developing them now?

Well, at the end of their presentation, it showed Marvelous. Looking up, it seems the Neverland staff had moved in with them almost as soon after Neverland got bankrupt. So yeah, it's the same people, just different company now.

[Rapier]

Neverland's staff moved to Marvelous. They made another game whose name I forgot (Lord of Magna?) and... Yeah, RF is back now.

[B.Leu]

Well I'd be damned, Rune Factory is back ! That's good news, good news indeed !

Now the bad news is, for me, that it'll be on Switch, which I don't have nor want to buy. And if RF4 get more thingy than the 3DS version, I'll be even more salty.
RF4 was one of the best game of the 3DS IMO, definitly recomend it.

[Rapier]

Man, if Rune Factory 5 has better graphics than the Wii Rune Factory games, I'll be sold on the whole "get a Switch just to play three games" deal.

[Dandy Druid]

Yes Ventus has heard our prayers.

RF5 HYPE

[Tactician Robin]

I thought this day would never come, but here we are. I immensely enjoyed Rune Factory 4 on the 3DS and I cannot wait to get my hands on Rune Factory 5! My only question would be what dragon would be featured in the game as if I remember correctly, the first four Rune Factories built off the lore from the first game, which mentioned four dragons.

But all in all, I am glad it is the same development team as after what happened to Harvest Moon, I don't want Rune Factory to dive down in that same hole.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Tactician Robin said:

I thought this day would never come, but here we are. I immensely enjoyed Rune Factory 4 on the 3DS and I cannot wait to get my hands on Rune Factory 5! My only question would be what dragon would be featured in the game as if I remember correctly, the first four Rune Factories built off the lore from the first game, which mentioned four dragons.

Well the first game only had Fire, Water, Wind and Earth as elements outside of neutral, there was no room for Light, Dark, and Love. So they could just spin these other three elements into a dragon trinity apart from the classical elemental quartet.

Honestly, I want a intraseries crossover along the lines of Super Robot Taisen: Original Generations.

 

This said, I've a terrible record of not finishing any RF outside of the original and Frontier, so I think despite owing every title but 4, I'll skip on 4. Maybe I'd get it on sale, and maybe 5 could reinvigorate me. I just wish the action RPG gameplay was a bit deeper, for from what I recall of 3 and ToD, it is shallow.

[Armagon]

I really enjoyed Rune Factory 4 on 3DS but the fact that it's on 3DS has basically kept me from replaying the game. So i'll definitely pick up the Special version. Hopefully the Special version fixes some flaws the original had though, such as the very small amount of untranslated lines.

As for Rune Factory 5, that was probably the most pleasant surprise of the Direct. Never mind RF4S, i never thought Rune Factory 5 would even happen. Considering that RF4S is supposed to come out later this year while we just got a logo for RF5, i predict this game will release in 2020.

In the meantime, maybe i should play one of the pre-RF4 games. Rune Factory 4 is currently my only experience with the series.

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, Armagon said:

In the meantime, maybe i should play one of the pre-RF4 games. Rune Factory 4 is currently my only experience with the series.

My advice, if you wish to have it:

• Skip the very first, it's very lacking. About as fun as playing FE Awakening/Fates and then going back to FE1, it established the skeleton of the franchise, but there is no meat on the bones. Combat is clunky, characters are thinner than a marriage veil. Though Mr. Evil Sechs with the blue hair (?) did make an appearance only in the original game before RF4.
• RF2- Definitely much better, they fleshed out the characters more and the combat is better too. The 1st Gen is limiting in gameplay, but if you pick your girl quickly and do whatever it takes to get her fast, you can finish the 1st Gen by the end of your first Summer I think. No marriage in the second being only a kid, but here is where the meat of the gameplay is with forging and full access to the dungeons. Money, monsters, and skill levels all carry over to Gen 2.
• Frontier- The better game with Raguna (the protag of RF1 and thus the original MC of RF). Characters are maybe a little behind RF2 actually, but nowhere near RF1 bad. Combat is also still on the slower side, again perhaps more than RF2 but less than 1. Also, if you actually want to farm a lot, you'll have to deal with the chore called Runeys at some point. (Fishing as an alternative income source is very feasible.)
• RF3- Combat becomes fast here, skill levels and forging explode in a good way. The characters in RF2 and Frontier could be compared kinda with pre-Awakening FE characters, and RF3's with Awakening/Fates characters. By this, I mean the characters in RF3 are bursting with zany personality, while those beforehand, though still having shticks oftentimes, weren't so exuberantly into them. I do not cast judgement on any character when I say this. Farming is a bit undercut in this game, which is one of the only faults. The other being Micah is a pretty badly designed protagonist visually speaking. Overall for someone who has only played 4, 3 is still very playable with few issues.
• Tides of Destiny- Combat is still good and fast like 3, though I recall enemies being able to sometimes hit like a pile of bricks. Characters aren't so quirky as 3, and marriage to anyone is restricted until after the plot is over and you've I believe 6 FP with all marriage candidates male and female. Traversing the ocean is a bit of time waster, but I believe the dragon shrine you can use sometimes as a pay-to-warp, and you can set the Golem to move to a pinpoint destination with time moving at an accelerated pace. The farming here is quite hands off, and this is the first game to get rid of plots of farmland in dungeons. And dungeons aren't quite as pretty visually like in the other games. Seeing how this game was on the PS3 and Wii, it might be the one most accessible for you in regards to consoles.

 

So overall, I'd say 3 over ToD which is a little better than 2 over Frontier overrrrrrrrrrrrr RF1.

The opening movie for RF1 is long and sorta pretty though, might be worth watching once on YouTube.

 

Also, Japanese teaser website for RF5 with nothing on it save for a 2020 release date. https://www.marv.jp/special/game/runefactory5/

Edited February 17, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Rapier]

RF3 is very similar to RF4 in gameplay, characters and overall mood. RF2 is more like RF1 but more polished, I'd recommend playing it after you already have the hang of Rune Factory games because it simply throws you in the wilderness and expects you to pick things up by trial and failure. I only played the others a little bit, RF1 didn't attract me much and I second that it's like you go back to playing FE1.

[B.Leu]

3 hours ago, Rapier said:

RF3 is very similar to RF4 in gameplay, characters and overall mood. RF2 is more like RF1 but more polished, I'd recommend playing it after you already have the hang of Rune Factory games because it simply throws you in the wilderness and expects you to pick things up by trial and failure. I only played the others a little bit, RF1 didn't attract me much and I second that it's like you go back to playing FE1.

I second that, especially the last sentence. RF1 is slow as heck, the battle system is a torture (hellooooo Rune Points...), and the Harvest Moon elements are not non-existent, no NPC events. RF2 is like RF1, but better, but they could still be better, and yeah, I also got the sense of being thrown in there and be like, wait what ? I know it's because of that gimmick spoiler, but geez.
Oh, and I find the town badly designed. So many times I got lost. :/

I only played RF4 years later because I've heard it was a really good game from somes video games sites, and I was like, 'did it change that much', I was impressed by what I saw, got it, played, adored it, the battle system is fixed, the harvest moon element are actually there and of good quality, there could be more events, but I'm not complaining, it's such a good game.
I'm gonna sounds weird, but it reminds me of Secret of Mana. Probably the forest and the music. I dunno.

Oh and I recently played RF3, and yup, it's at this game that they stepped up their games, big time. Lot of things you see in RF4, you see it in RF3. Like our Observer said, weapons and forge, became super good.

On 15/02/2019 at 1:33 AM, Dandy Druid said:

Yes Ventus has heard our prayers.

RF5 HYPE

If Ventus had heard my prayers, I would be able to marry her, as she seemingly wanted to. :p
Well, I should be thankfull, if she was, I would have to choose between her Margaret.

Speaking of pairing, isn't RF4 the only RF that doesn't have a 'canon' pairing ? As in, a kinda sorta forced one ? I dunno about RF3.

Edited February 17, 2019 by B.Leu

[Dandy Druid]

7 hours ago, B.Leu said:

If Ventus had heard my prayers, I would be able to marry her, as she seemingly wanted to. :p

Well, I should be thankfull, if she was, I would have to choose between her Margaret.

Speaking of pairing, isn't RF4 the only RF that doesn't have a 'canon' pairing ? As in, a kinda sorta forced one ? I dunno about RF3.

If Human!Ventus looked a bit older I would go for her too. She has a cool design though. I tend to like the silver-haired characters from RF.

As for canon pairings, RF4 is the only one to really give equal treatment to their marriage candidates. It's probably because the player can choose their gender, so Ventuswill and Volkanon took over the introduction duties the 'canon' girl would normally perform. Although there is a 'main' girl in an non-canon manga series. Human!Ventus is also present. Be warned though, the mangaka added a lot more ecchi elements that wasn't in the original game.

Thinking on it now, RF4 changed a bit regarding their marriage candidates

• No 'canon' girl
• More bachelors than ever before (beating Tides of Destiny, who had 4)
• Inversely, less bachelorettes than ever before. (6 girls. The last was RF2 with 7)
• No De Saint-Coquille marriage candidate.
• Marriage candidates are more interwoven with the story and events taking place around town.

RF3 had Shara, but compared to past games, they really didn't push her too much. She did the intro, but she was out of your hair after that. None of the dialogue afterwards tried to persuade the player "pick this girl" like it did for Mist and Mana. Shara was promoted in the game's intro and the box art, but I don't remember her maintaining relevance like other 'canon' girls before her.

The only other game that didn't really push for a particular girl was Tides of Destiny, mainly because Sonya and Odette both held that position. They were both the 'canon' girls and were pushed more than the other bachelorettes. Oceans was weird in general, but they definitely seemed to promote certain girls in the storyline. It was like

Odette/Sonya>Violet>Lily>Everyone Else

[Rapier]

14 hours ago, Dandy Druid said:

RF3 had Shara, but compared to past games, they really didn't push her too much. She did the intro, but she was out of your hair after that. None of the dialogue afterwards tried to persuade the player "pick this girl" like it did for Mist and Mana. Shara was promoted in the game's intro and the box art, but I don't remember her maintaining relevance like other 'canon' girls before her.

More or less. The game didn't push you through events, but her dialogue felt like the writers were trying too hard to make her the OTP, which is actually what made me stay away from her, as I found her extreme attitude very creepy. I went with Raven because do I even need to explain.

On hindsight, I wish the characters weren't a bundle of anime tropes. I can't remember if RF4 is better in that regard - my memories say yes but I remember little about the actual game.

[Dandy Druid]

9 hours ago, Rapier said:

More or less. The game didn't push you through events, but her dialogue felt like the writers were trying too hard to make her the OTP, which is actually what made me stay away from her, as I found her extreme attitude very creepy. I went with Raven because do I even need to explain.

On hindsight, I wish the characters weren't a bundle of anime tropes. I can't remember if RF4 is better in that regard - my memories say yes but I remember little about the actual game.

RF4 characters still followed anime/romance tropes, but the addition of town events and characters having more presence in the main story made really helped their development. Pretty much the whole town followed some sort of trope, but they were developed in a way where you did get a sense of community. It also helps that there was 6 bachelorettes and 6 bachelors as opposed to the usual 10+ bachelorettes. This allowed them to rest some of the tropes they've been reusing for a while (No De Saint-Coquille candidate, no sibling obsessed candidate, no airhead, etc.)

It's hard to escape tropes, but I do like the direction they're going in. They're still tropey, but do feel like they're a part of the community and develop better than past games.

[Lyn]

One of my favourite series, so I'm very excited. (Buying a Switch for those games, and Animal Crossing.)

[Interdimensional Observer]

They've revealed the limited edition of Rune Factory 4 Special available in Japan. 8800 Yen (78.99 USD):

https://www.siliconera.com/2019/04/03/rune-factory-4-special-reveals-limited-edition-for-japan-rune-factory-5-info-coming-april-4/

It includes the following items:

• Special box with illustration by Minako Iwasaki
• Rune Factory Memorial Book 2006-2019
• Kyun♪ Secret Private CD
• Download code for additional event “Everyone in Swimsuits”
• Nintendo Switch software for Rune Factory 4 Special

 

I like the Memorial Book, has every hero and lead heroine on it is cover. It looks like they really had to squeeze Sonja on it though. And I'm not sure I like Kyle's expression (although most of them look flustered here), nor the prominence of Mist and Raguna over everybody else. And it lacks Aaron and Aria, and the Irises. But nonetheless I do really like it.

Although uh... what is on the Secret Private CDs? Hopefully just the OST, but it sounds and looks more like embarrassing confessions of the bachelors and bachelorettes.

 

And it you'll receive some sort of unexplained bonus if you have RF4S save data when you start playing RF5.

Edited April 4, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Interdimensional Observer]

Well Rune Factory 4 Special has released in Japan today.

And they released a teaser trailer showing absolutely nothing but the old games' box art, some updated monster models, some new monster designs, and silhouettes of the new hero and heroine.:

Hats, that's something we know now.

RF4 Special save data causes two characters from the game to appear in RF5. Who and in what capacity is unsaid, but it'll probably be minor, like all the other prior character cameos in RF.

The purple color in the 5 in RF5's logo will have some sort of tie to the game's theme.

 

And since I didn't post about it before, for those who don't know, Rune Factory 4 Special's "Another Episode" was revealed back in June. It's 13 voice dramas- also called CD/radio dramas- which are events relayed through voice acting and some new illustrations. Each individual dramas belongs to a bachelor or bachelorette, and Ventuswill has the 13th.

Ventuswill's voice drama is free, the rest of the voice dramas are free for the first month after the game's release, but you have spend 700 ($6.50 USD) Yen to download them all if you buy the game later.

This is NOT the Married Life mode. That was not revealed at that time.

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And they released a teaser trailer showing absolutely nothing but the old games' box art, some updated monster models, some new monster designs, and silhouettes of the new hero and heroine.:

Hats, that's something we know now.

Yeah, when i found out that there was a Rune Factory 5 teaser, i quickly went to watch it only to be baited by there being nothing new aside from the silhouettes. And the 2020 release, which was a given.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And since I didn't post about it before, for those who don't know, Rune Factory 4 Special's "Another Episode" was revealed back in June. It's 13 voice dramas- also called CD/radio dramas- which are events relayed through voice acting and some new illustrations. Each individual dramas belongs to a bachelor or bachelorette, and Ventuswill has the 13th.

Ventuswill's voice drama is free, the rest of the voice dramas are free for the first month after the game's release, but you have spend 700 ($6.50 USD) Yen to download them all if you buy the game later.

This is NOT the Married Life mode. That was not revealed at that time.

Ok, that's good to know. I was confused and thought Another Episode and the Newlywed Mode were the same thing. Thanks for clarification.

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

Ok, that's good to know. I was confused and thought Another Episode and the Newlywed Mode were the same thing. Thanks for clarification.

...On second thought, looking up

Another Episode

Newlywed Mode (picture taken from months ago)

Please let this just be similar menus!

I'm sorry if I got any actual hopes up and I shouldn't have!

 

I also managed to find elsewhere that each voice drama is about 7 minutes long. So 91 minutes of voice drama total.

Looking at FE voice dramas, the Blazing Blade and Radiant Dawn ones went for 1800 Yen each ($16.50 USD). The Shadows of Valentia one went for 3500 Yen ($32.20 USD). Not sure how long those were, but being sold apart from an actual game unlike these might have made them pricer I speculate.

 

One minor positive from the bleh nothing trailer, the 3D monster models give us the tiniest view of the art direction and graphics of the RF5. That is good, since it should be looking massively different from the 3DS port of RF4. And if the prior console RFs was anything to go by, Tides of Destiny (I prefer the simpler Japanese title "Oceans" actually), it'll ditch the top-down view for from-behind the protagonist perspective.

Just to provide a an image each for what the prior console graphics looked like:

Spoiler

Released on Wii.

Released on PS3 as the controls here show, and Wii.

Not exactly the prettiest, but Marvelous doesn't have a AAA budget. And the nature-oriented nature of RF games helps a little aesthetically, so it was when I played them.

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer
Forgot Frontier was fixed camera at an angle. Not quite as top-down as the portable titles, but a fair compromise.

[Armagon]

12 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

...On second thought, looking up

Another Episode

Newlywed Mode (picture taken from months ago)

Please let this just be similar menus!

It definitely looks to be similar menus. The big difference between the two is that the characters in Newlywed Mode are all in their wedding outfits while the ones in Another Episodes are just in their normal outfit. But also, the positions of the characters are different. Also the lack of Ventuswill on the Newlywed Mode menu.

It's worth noting, and this is likely because of how the recent RF streams have been Japan only, but there's no mention of Another Episode on the NoA page for Rune Factory 4 Special.

20 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And if the prior two console RFs were anything to go by, Frontier and Tides of Destiny (I prefer the simpler Japanese title "Oceans" actually), it'll ditch the top-down view for from-behind the protagonist perspective.

I'd take either option really. Even though RF4 is the only one i've played, i think both styles would work. I'd lean more towards the top-down view though if only because it gives you a bigger field of view for when you're in your farm and stuff.

[Rapier]

I think the 3D from-behind perspective would be nice for this sort of game, since it's more immersive, but I'd prefer if we could have a top-down view of the farm, at least.