Hoo, boy. Even nearly two decades after the fact, we’re still witnessing stragglers adjusting to HD -- a growing pain undoubtedly facilitated by Nintendo’s commitment to standard definition. Not that this was a Nintendo-exclusive thing, mind – Kingdom Hearts III’s numerous delays couldn’t mask its PlayStation 2-styled environments – but even years after the Wii’s exit, Japanese developers are still discovering that, yes, high-definition gaming is more than just saturated bloom and detailed graphics. In a way, it’s interesting how this has all translated into the hubbub surrounding the underpowered Switch console; really, I can’t say I’m a graphically-inclined individual, yet the likes of Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Game Freak’s Pokémon offerings remain stunning gaps in quality among peers and predecessors alike – blocky polygons and fuzzy, stitched-together environments inducing all the cringe of an amateur 3ds Max experiment rather than the immaculately-polished products you’d expect from gaming’s biggest properties.
Of course, gameplay remains king, yet Rune Factory 5 is a sober reminder of how such stumbling blocks bleed and pervade throughout the proverbial fabric. It’s one thing to note how the graphics are only a marginal improvement over the series’ 3D debut in 2008’s Rune Factory Frontier, with its GameCube-era visuals a ghastly mesh of muddy textures and blocky compositions that rarely tap into Rune Factory’s brand of lush, pastel fantasy. Yet it’s the lethargy laced in it all – from the sluggish combat to the oversized environments to the clunky room decoration (“what do you mean the chairs have to be three feet from my dinner table?”) – that render Rune Factory 5 a frustrating exercise in dated familiarity; an uninspired facsimile of its handheld legacy’s cozy compactness.
(Heck, even the American release can’t mask all the glitches from the game’s messy Japanese launch. Character animations fidget and sputter, their heads stammering like worn-down automatons rather than the living, breathing townsfolk we’re supposed to marry.)
It's a darn shame, too, given there’s a good game underneath it all. The feedback loop so inherently addictive in Rune Factory rings true here, and the prudent farmer will quickly exploit crops and materials to hoard wealth and supplies alike. In this never-ending cycle of pastoral capitalism – one the game frequently peppers with dungeon-crawling, monster-taming, and institutional conspiracies -- do we meet Rune Factory 5’s lovable cast, their individual foibles endearing us little by little as we settle down and perhaps even sprout the seeds for love. (Lucy, an athletic go-getter who masks her perceived inadequacy with perfectionism, was my bachelorette of choice.)
Yet when thinking back to the stellar ingenuity of Rune Factory 4 Special – its fertile soil rich and plenty with abundance, yielding an impenetrable depth of options and features – the half-baked harvest of Rune Factory 5 imprints a disappointment not even the vindication of married life can banish. It’s not that it doesn’t want to tap into the malleable whimsy of, say, rolling around on an apple-shaped pet just because – it’s that it can’t, and while it never breeds overt contempt, the static direction of a turning point entry such as this raises concerns all the same. Perhaps the implications of a spin-off title might be the soul-searching Rune Factory needs?
(By the way, does the festival music have to be this obnoxious in every game? Thank goodness for Switch’s portability – I can’t imagine subjecting others to that unending cacophony.)
Of course, gameplay remains king, yet Rune Factory 5 is a sober reminder of how such stumbling blocks bleed and pervade throughout the proverbial fabric. It’s one thing to note how the graphics are only a marginal improvement over the series’ 3D debut in 2008’s Rune Factory Frontier, with its GameCube-era visuals a ghastly mesh of muddy textures and blocky compositions that rarely tap into Rune Factory’s brand of lush, pastel fantasy. Yet it’s the lethargy laced in it all – from the sluggish combat to the oversized environments to the clunky room decoration (“what do you mean the chairs have to be three feet from my dinner table?”) – that render Rune Factory 5 a frustrating exercise in dated familiarity; an uninspired facsimile of its handheld legacy’s cozy compactness.
(Heck, even the American release can’t mask all the glitches from the game’s messy Japanese launch. Character animations fidget and sputter, their heads stammering like worn-down automatons rather than the living, breathing townsfolk we’re supposed to marry.)
It's a darn shame, too, given there’s a good game underneath it all. The feedback loop so inherently addictive in Rune Factory rings true here, and the prudent farmer will quickly exploit crops and materials to hoard wealth and supplies alike. In this never-ending cycle of pastoral capitalism – one the game frequently peppers with dungeon-crawling, monster-taming, and institutional conspiracies -- do we meet Rune Factory 5’s lovable cast, their individual foibles endearing us little by little as we settle down and perhaps even sprout the seeds for love. (Lucy, an athletic go-getter who masks her perceived inadequacy with perfectionism, was my bachelorette of choice.)
Yet when thinking back to the stellar ingenuity of Rune Factory 4 Special – its fertile soil rich and plenty with abundance, yielding an impenetrable depth of options and features – the half-baked harvest of Rune Factory 5 imprints a disappointment not even the vindication of married life can banish. It’s not that it doesn’t want to tap into the malleable whimsy of, say, rolling around on an apple-shaped pet just because – it’s that it can’t, and while it never breeds overt contempt, the static direction of a turning point entry such as this raises concerns all the same. Perhaps the implications of a spin-off title might be the soul-searching Rune Factory needs?
(By the way, does the festival music have to be this obnoxious in every game? Thank goodness for Switch’s portability – I can’t imagine subjecting others to that unending cacophony.)
Reviewed on Apr 06, 2023