Pretty wonky as an RPG in a lot of ways. The extremely cheap full revive items and Peach's immediate access to a move that can full heal the party and cure all status ailments at the same time kind of break the game on their own. But the action commands are fun and you're regularly getting new weapons and skills with their own action commands, so that goes a long way to keep the combat engaging for most of the game. You can also mercifully dodge past a majority of enemies.

There's a greater focus on the maps and minigames, and they pack a lot of variety into these across the ~12 hour runtime. Mario runs pretty quick on the map and each room is a nice little obstacle course, so it feels very much like 'Mario but an RPG' in a way that the future Mario RPGs don't to me. Despite everyone's complaints about the isometric platforming, I've never found it to be much of a problem myself.

As time has gone on, this has somewhat surprisingly become my second favorite Squaresoft RPG on the SNES after Chrono Trigger, and probably my favorite of the Mario RPGs as well. It's just a good time from start to finish.

The level and world design is truly superb. When I think of other open-world rpgs, even rpgs as a whole, I can't recall many levels that are as fun to explore as the dungeons you find in Nehrim. Some of them are just that good. The soundtrack is great as well.
Story is cool but written awkwardly. This might be a fault of the English translation, but it generally felt that many story moments didn't make the intended impact. Compared to its sequel Enderal, the characters are not as compelling. However, the story as a whole is elevated by having interesting themes and a willingness to have fun with its setting.
Worst part of this is the constant crashing. Having played both versions, I believe this instability is more pronounced in the steam version.

Full video review: https://youtu.be/9EKIHS4j-tI
I was a bit iffy going into this one. Harvest Moon type games have always been a bit hit or miss for me, but with Rune Factory 5 coming out soon, I figured I’d give this one a shot.

Gameplay
Despite the simple graphics here - RF4S is a bit of a beast in terms of content. Not only is there the farming stuff, but you’ve got dungeon exploring, this extensive crafting system, a large map to explore, and a dating and marriage system on top of that. Up front, it seemed like I would get lost in all of this, but the game actually does a really good job easing you into it through its request system.

You start off small and eventually work your way up to this big field of crops, tamed animals taking care of it, and an arsenal of cool weapons and runes to take down dungeons with. There’s a lot of freedom too. Some days I would just completely ignore the storyline and try to maximize my farm’s space or go hunting for a certain animal to tame and some days I would work towards getting more prince points to bring a new festival to town or upgrade a local shop.

It’s something I didn’t think I would catch on to as quickly as I did and honestly, it made me kinda nostalgic for how DS games like this were designed back in the day. The overall gameplay is just incredibly relaxing and it is exactly for this type of game that I’m excited to get my Steam Deck in just a few months.

Still, I can’t deny that there is a bit of repetition involved. This is ultimately a Harvest Moon type game, so you will be doing the usual tasks over and over, especially early on before you can tame animals to do some of it for you. It can be a bit tedious, so you gotta have a bit of tolerance for it. Once I got past that point though, I found myself experimenting more with the crafting, cooking, and dating mechanics.

Story
The "Special" edition of RF4 adds a “Newlywed Mode”, which is a bonus mode that basically adds extra scenes for each character unlocked once you wed them. There’s also a mode titled “Another Episode” which acts as a sort of epilogue for each character taking place after the main story (which itself is like a 50+ hour thing on its own).

The writing may not be all that impressive, but the story elements that are there aren’t that bad either. If anything, it reminded me a lot of an Atelier game, where it can be serious at times, but it’s ultimately there to serve a more relaxed gameplay style.

PC Port
I may not have run into any crashes, fps drops, freezes, bugs, or really anything like that, but it does carry the problem of being hardlocked to 90 fps and being unplayable at that framerate because the game speed is tied to it. Fortunately you can fix this problem simply by toggling the game’s VSync option on. Beyond that, I don’t really have any other complaints.

The game runs flawlessly at 1440p 60 fps and plays fine on both controller AND keyboard and mouse. The latter actually feels good to use and is fully rebindable too - I would have no problems recommending that playstyle if you don’t have a controller.

Overall
Rune Factory 4 Special is a really easy recommendation. Fun and laidback gameplay, tons of depth, plenty of character interaction, and a nice PC port too. If you’re a fan of games like Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley - this one is definitely worth a play and I myself am already looking forward to the 5th one coming out next year.