Rune Factory

Has anyone here ever played Rune Factory? It is an adorable series that is often described as Harvest Moon but with combat. Here is a brief summary courtesy of its wikipedia article:

Rune Factory (ルーンファクトリー Rūn Fakutorī?) is a role-playing simulation 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."

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It's a game where you're tasked to take care of your farm and go through the story, which is heavily focused on combat and dungeons. I've only played Rune Factory 4 due to recommendations and finding the artwork adorable but it hooked me for a long time - it's now my second-most played game clocked at around 190-200 hours. The story is quite long, especially for someone who is playing through it for the first time.


Discuss, whether you've played just the first, second, third, fourth, or a mixture of more than one!

Ah yes, I loved every bit of Rune Factory 3, marrying Daria. <3 I also wanted to marry Mia and Raven on another file(s), but, never got around to it. Yet. Anyways, are you guys playing Rune Factory 4? I think I'm close to beating it! I've married Margaret and still inching to find good weapons. :3

Raven is an adorable character! Though I'm a bit surprised it took me this long to truly look into Rune Factory. The name of the series didn't exactly give me the vibe that it was such a pretty game, in all honesty, so I never bothered. But this is a series I hope to stick with for a long time. :)

I recently beat the final arc in RF4 and found a really amazing 11,500 damage hammer in the field dungeon. Dominatin' everything now!

Played them all except for the fourth. I normally chose Marian as my bride but recently I have been going with Carmen. Yeah you can basically level your self by farming to the point where all bosses are a OHKO.



I know Rune Factory 2 is the worst in the series because of it's plotline and how long it takes and restrictions in the first gen. Rune Factory 3 was really good though the default bride, Shara is a massive jerk who only cares about her sister and plus she likes flowers too much. I liked the story of 3 and I loved the townsfolk.

I love the series. Only one I haven't played is 4, as my 3DS is borked. I know I'm an odd one out, but I absolutely loved Tides of Destiny. The whole travelling the ocean on your golem thing was pretty fun, and the game was absolutely gorgeous. I really can't go back to the handheld series after Frontiers/ToD and despite the bankruptcy of the developers, I want a Wii U game.

I've played all of them except ToD, which I just got.

As you can probably tell from my avatar and signature, I'm a fan of RF4's Forte.

Looks like we have some dedicated fans here! That is so great. I've only played 4 so I'm definitely not the same as you guys but boy did I wish I started it sooner. Such a fun series, especially the most recent game.

Has anyone ran into any bugs/glitches in their RF games? RF4 seems riddled with them at times, from Vishnal saying "thanks for giving this to me for my birthday" on every day to the potential visual glitches that can occur during the second arc final boss fight. The latter got me good three times on my third playthrough before I finally caved and turned off portraits & sent my party members home as suggested. >.<

Yeah I heard about RF4 having some game destroying bug during or after a boss fight. I remember that I dropped my cartridge and when I put it in, I had odd numbers with some of the townsfolk like 7 hearts or 9 when they were fairly low. Might have been a faulty game who knows.

Oh that definitely sounds strange. I encountered absolutely no glitches in my first two playthroughs but when I got to the final boss of the second arc in my third and beat him (after a grueling 20-minute fight) the portraits started glitching out. Had to redo with portraits off twice and it still kept doing that so I sent my party members home too. The fight took 10 minutes longer with me on my own but luckily it worked and stopped freezing during the credits!

Yes! I started with 3 and thought it was a lot like Harvest Moon and Final Fantasy lol. I married Raven. I've also played Rune Factory 4 since my friend told me to get it (no objections from me XD). Married Xiao Pai. I've beaten every floor in Sharance Maze, and after a while, I got to the last boss of the last floor of the last maze.... And I lost. After a week of grinding, I'm done, I'm not going back to that. XD

It should be noted that my friend and I are extremely over-protective of our daughters. XD Forget Ventuswill, I'M this town's god. No boy will mess with my daughter.

It was only time till the raven lovers invaded :p. I'm not the biggest fan of raven liked I married her in one playthrough but normally it's Marian or Carmen. I dislike 2 the most because of the long story and the whole first part is monotonous.

What compells you to play such a game? I never very much got into Harvest Moon. I like the concept but I just don't care when it comes to actually playing, and I don't know why.

I've heard of it, but I've never touched any of the games. I don't care for Harvest Moon, though, so...

I've only played the first and 3rd games. I was a big fan of Harvest Moon: A Magical Melody at the time and that automatically drew me in. I didn't too much care for the 3rd and I sadly never finished the first game (although I still have the game, I no longer have a ds). The last thing I remember is getting stuck on the 3rd dungeon.

Sorry Sheepy, but never played Rune Factory before. Are the games fun? I've palyed a little of Harvest Moon and a lot of Animal Crossing. I enjoy games like this in my free time and they help me relax. I played ACCF the most. :)

I've tried getting into the first three Rune Factory games but to be honest, it kind of makes my eyes bleed. xD

I'll give it another go soon. RF4 looks promising, though. :3