Goodness do people dislike this game. In the whole genre of Story of Seasons, and Harvest Moon, this iteration fits very well right above RF:F, and under RF4 for me. The fact that this game went through severe difficulties during development really shows in its graphics. While the main city avenue is beautiful, it all falls flat the moment you venture further. The frame rate is all over the place, the mechanics as breakable as ever. Yet I absolutely adore it.
The story, while not as impactful as RF4, kept me on my toes. It was nothing spectacular, but I appreciate how goofy the implementation of fields in this game has become. We went from a cosy cottage to a water giant to a noble courtyard to fucking dragons. The progression was a little to easy for my taste, and some more juice in the post-game would have been greatly appreciated. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the themes surrounding the Sechs aftermath, a flawed police institution, and how it ties into the established dragon lore. What I was missing was more information on the environment we were in. As much as I liked the setting, I barely got to understand what the history of Rigbarth is.
I loved the characters, and hope they will go even further with more mature characters to date, such as my beloved Lucas. Young characters like in past iterations have always been a major problem for me, and I hope that with the next two games coming up, the cast will become rich and mature. I did enjoy the character concepts, and the traditional gift loop that all the games have remains fun. I hope they improve on the gift-back mechanic, and make you genuinely think about what characters love. Gifting a smith ore is not getting more fun when it's in every game. The slow development of every character is intriguing, and the events are cool, but limited by the visual dissonance.
I think the mechanics are pure fun, and where the game shines the most. As ever, I feel like the game should tone it down with the many systems it tries to tie together.I enjoyed just choosing how I want to spend my time with the game. It's neat, and I never got a moment where I didn't know what to do. It felt way slower compared to RF4 where I got through my day pretty much until 8pm max. This may be a bad thing for some, but a good thing for me. I still believe that the soil mechanics are by far the strongest in the whole farming sim genre, which is why I wish it to be way more transparent and accessible. What I throughly disliked was the furniture system which is just such a shame because of how clunky and unappealing everything is. Where my home looked like an empty mess, I couldn't leave my eyes off of the monster and character models. Genuinely fun to look at, and exploring the drops of every boss and critter was very engaging to me. I went in very deep into the grind, and taming those bosses is a peak Rune Factory experience to me now. I do miss all of my monster living on an island like in ToD, though. There is so much to explore.
Genuinely fun game if you can brush over the terrible frame rate when you leave your house or when 10 mages cast a spell at the same time. The music is nice, the characters are delightful, the mechanics as rich as you want them to be. I hope that the studio can find footing with their two new releases, and really tune the experience they want to create.
The story, while not as impactful as RF4, kept me on my toes. It was nothing spectacular, but I appreciate how goofy the implementation of fields in this game has become. We went from a cosy cottage to a water giant to a noble courtyard to fucking dragons. The progression was a little to easy for my taste, and some more juice in the post-game would have been greatly appreciated. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the themes surrounding the Sechs aftermath, a flawed police institution, and how it ties into the established dragon lore. What I was missing was more information on the environment we were in. As much as I liked the setting, I barely got to understand what the history of Rigbarth is.
I loved the characters, and hope they will go even further with more mature characters to date, such as my beloved Lucas. Young characters like in past iterations have always been a major problem for me, and I hope that with the next two games coming up, the cast will become rich and mature. I did enjoy the character concepts, and the traditional gift loop that all the games have remains fun. I hope they improve on the gift-back mechanic, and make you genuinely think about what characters love. Gifting a smith ore is not getting more fun when it's in every game. The slow development of every character is intriguing, and the events are cool, but limited by the visual dissonance.
I think the mechanics are pure fun, and where the game shines the most. As ever, I feel like the game should tone it down with the many systems it tries to tie together.I enjoyed just choosing how I want to spend my time with the game. It's neat, and I never got a moment where I didn't know what to do. It felt way slower compared to RF4 where I got through my day pretty much until 8pm max. This may be a bad thing for some, but a good thing for me. I still believe that the soil mechanics are by far the strongest in the whole farming sim genre, which is why I wish it to be way more transparent and accessible. What I throughly disliked was the furniture system which is just such a shame because of how clunky and unappealing everything is. Where my home looked like an empty mess, I couldn't leave my eyes off of the monster and character models. Genuinely fun to look at, and exploring the drops of every boss and critter was very engaging to me. I went in very deep into the grind, and taming those bosses is a peak Rune Factory experience to me now. I do miss all of my monster living on an island like in ToD, though. There is so much to explore.
Genuinely fun game if you can brush over the terrible frame rate when you leave your house or when 10 mages cast a spell at the same time. The music is nice, the characters are delightful, the mechanics as rich as you want them to be. I hope that the studio can find footing with their two new releases, and really tune the experience they want to create.