Rune Factory

Rune Factory
Rune Factory logo
Genres	Simulation game Role-playing video game Action role-playing game
Developers	Neverland Co., Ltd.
Publishers	Marvelous Entertainment, Natsume, Rising Star Games, Xseed Games
Platforms	Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, PlayStation 3
Official website	natsume.com/games/RuneFactory

Rune Factory (ルーンファクトリー, Rūn Fakutorī) is a role-playing video game series developed by Neverland Co., Ltd. for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii and the PlayStation 3 video game consoles and a spin-off of the Harvest Moon video game series. It is described by Yoshifumi Hashimoto, producer of the Harvest Moon series, as "Harvest Moon where you wield a sword."

Common gameplay elements

The gameplay of the Rune Factory series is similar to that of Harvest Moon. For every 10 seconds, ten in-game minutes pass. The player can grow crops, using upgradeable farm equipment. However, the Harvest Moon game mechanic of purchasing animals has been replaced by defeating and befriending monsters in dungeons. If a monster is tamed, they help the player in battle, provide sellable goods, or help to tend the crops. The game's combat is in the Action role-playing game style.

Like most Harvest Moon games, the player is given a limited amount of stamina, in the form of "Rune Points". Rune Points get depleted as the player performs tasks at the farm or fights using a weapon or magic. The player is given hit points as well. The player can attack with no RP by sacrificing HP. The player can replenish RP by using Runes created by fully-grown crops or potions, while HP can be restored using medicine or healing spells. The town bathhouse restores both HP and RP. If the player runs out of HP while working on their farm, they will collapse and be rescued, however, in Rune Factory and Rune Factory 2, dying outside the town causes game over. In Rune Factory Frontier and Rune Factory 3, you will not die while fighting in the caves or ruins.

Crops can be planted in different areas to sell for gold; other activities include mining for metal and minerals, fishing, or collecting food such as milk and eggs from befriended monsters. The player can then spend money and material to buy a variety of upgrades for their house, weapons, and tools.

In addition to their open-ended gameplay, the games possess a linear storyline, which can be furthered by exploring dungeons and defeating certain monsters. Just like in the Harvest Moon series, the main character's relationship with the other villagers increase by talking to them or performing actions that please them, like giving items they like as presents for example, and some of them can even be asked in marriage if their relationship improves enough. Some games of the series requires the protagonist to get married as part of its storyline.

Games

Title	Platform				Release date
	3DS	NDS	PS3	Wii	Japan	North America	Europe	Australia
Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon	No	Yes	No	No	August 24, 2006	August 14, 2007	February 13, 2009	March 12, 2009
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon	No	Yes	No	No	January 3, 2008	November 18, 2008	October 8, 2010
Rune Factory Frontier	No	No	No	Yes	November 27, 2008	March 17, 2009	April 1, 2010
Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon	No	Yes	No	No	October 22, 2009	November 9, 2010	September 30, 2011
Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny	No	No	Yes	Yes	February 24, 2011	October 7, 2011
Rune Factory 4	Yes	No	No	No	Q2 2012

Development

According to Marvelous's managing director and Harvest Moon's creator, Yasuhiro Wada, Rune Factory 2 does not borrow the Harvest Moon name for the Japanese release. This was done in order to grow Rune Factory as an independent series and Marvelous will continue to do this with all future installments including Rune Factory Frontier. Despite this, Natsume applied the subtitle A Fantasy Harvest Moon to Rune Factory 2" and Rune Factory 3.

Rune Factory Frontier was announced during an interview between Cubed3 and Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of Harvest Moon, on June 6, 2007. A year later, the game was fully revealed on June 4, 2008 in the Japanese magazine Famitsu. On July 11, 2008, Marvelous Entertainment USA and Xseed Games announced that they were both bringing Rune Factory Frontier to North America, with a date of March 17, 2009. Frontier was the only game so far in the Rune Factory series not to be brought to North America by Natsume, who published all three Nintendo DS titles and Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny for both PlayStation 3 and Wii.

Media

Rune Factory 2 has had multiple manga series to help promote the game, in such magazines as Dengeki Nintendo DS, Monthly Wings, Dragon Age, and Dengeki Maoh. If players pre-ordered the game in Japan, they would receive a free CD with three mini-dramas as well as an 18-page art book. Sometime after the release of the game in Japan, a CD with all the background music, three mini-dramas, and the two theme songs was released with a novel based on the game following sometime after. The American pre-order bonus was a plush Chipp—a monster in the series similar in appearance to a squirrel—that was included in the box when ordered from participating websites.

Reception

Aggregate review scores

Game	GameRankings	Metacritic
Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon	79%	78%
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon	81%	77%
Rune Factory Frontier	82%	79%

The Rune Factory series has been well-received.

Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon received an 8.4 rating from IGN's Mark Bozon. Bozon commented that the art style was "amazing", and that it was "the Harvest Moon you've been waiting for". 91/100 from Gamebrink, 7.0/10 from Nintendo Power, and 4/5 from X-Play.

IGN rated Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon at 8.4/10, commenting on its similarity to the original, and Game Rankings has given it an aggregated score of 80.58%.

References

http://normye2.blog.jeuxvideo.com/

External links

• Official site (Japanese)