IMO, not nearly as bad as some people would like to tell you it is but almost certainly the definition of "Early Access". I enjoy the Blegends Blarceus-esque gameplay, I like the Pal designs I've encountered, some much more than comparable creatures from That other series, and Zoe is an absolute baddie...

...but it's very technically shaky and clearly missing a lot of the meat on the bones, so I have to put it on pause for now 'til release, since I'm not the biggest fan of Ark and its' ilk, even if I enjoy how Palworld specifically handles it. For the people that LOVE those kinds of games and can work through their technical issues and set their own crazy goals I see them getting hooked on this shit.

All that said, isn't it kind of crazy this is the only Blokemon game that actually has natures and personality traits that make each individual Pal a little more unique like the original series???

Do you want combat with your farming sim? Oh- no? What about a fantastic story and complex characters? Yes? Then what are you waiting for?! Go play this game! You'll live with the combat, I swear you will, just play on easy mode, it's fine, everything's fine--

Okay, the combat is actually a lot of fun. I'm just not an rpg kind of person. But- you know what I am? A farmer! (A virtual one, anyway.) And after a certain point- you kinda want some combat to break up the monotony, y'know? It's actually... really fun! And you really feel a sense of accomplishment like you would upgrading your farm.

But this review isn't going to focus on the combat. Not even the farming. No. Where Rune Factory 4 shines- is its characters. Its story.

This is probably the best farming sim you're ever going to play. And it's because of the characters. The sheer amount of dialogue and events the developers put into this game far exceeds what you'd typically see in a farming sim. Quite literally, years would pass in the game and I always ran into some new event or a new dialogue I'd never seen before. The townspeople of RF4S feel more like actual people rather than NPCs.

I wish more farming sims put as much care and love into their characters as much as RF4S has. This game has spoiled me rotten and I can't help but feel disappointed a little when I'm playing a farming sim that isn't this one.

It's well loved for a reason. If you've never played a Rune Factory game before- this is the one to start with. The best of the best the franchise has offered.

I love Rune Factory. Let's put it this way, the first time I tried playing, I didn't pay too much attention nor understand what was going on.
I gave it another shot, a fairer one, and I can say for sure, Rune Factory is amazing. I cried so much, I felt so deeply for all the characters, the mechanics are so fun, the grind doesn't feel too grindy, the dungeons are exciting! The bachelors and bachelorettes are so amazing!

Rune Factory 4 is the best of all rune factories, and it set a precedent for me to play all past (and future) games of the series.

As someone who has never played a Rune Factory game before, this was quite the challenge for me. This game is filled with so many things to do and not everything is explained to you.

In the last few years I really grew tired of farming sims. Not because I do not like the genre anymore, but because most of them are bland, boring and without innovation. Often I find myself not even using the full in-game day, cause I am done with every task I wanted to get done by noon. In this game I found myself not sleeping at all multiple times. There. is. so. much. to. do.

The characters are cute, the dialogue is well written and everyone has so much to say. The story is nothing special, but it has heart and you care for the characters involved. The gameplay is insanely addicting, with a great mix of farming, crafting, fighting and exploring. I finished the main story, which consists of 3 acts. While I don't have the time or energy to explore all the end game content, there is a really high level jump later on, which keeps you wanting to craft the best gear and beat the hell out of some powerful monsters. You can easily spend 200+ hours with this.

After ~60 hours I can say this game is absolutely worth it if you like farming sims but you want a good balance between cozy and challenging. I am ready to move on to other games as soon as I've married whoever I want to marry, but I will certainly come back to this game in the future.

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.