A good change of pace for Harvest Moon
But enough about that on to the review. The basic premise of the harvest moon games of past is still here. Building up an old run down farm and living a successful life through marrying and having a child. You accomplish this by growing crops and raising animals to make money, improving your house through expansion and the purchase of furniture and items, and interacting with the local citizens in town. The core elements are the same but it doesn't take long before you start seeing that this "ain't ya mama's Harvest Moon."
Of course obviously Rune Factory is set in a fantasy setting meaning some of the features of other harvest moon games (which have traditionally been set in modern times) are not available. No electricity means no TV for seeing the weather and no phone for ordering seeds/buying items from a shopping channel. Also the other major change is that this game has RPG elements. Instead of the game being entirely devoted to simply making a better life for yourself there is a decent skill and leveling system that has been implemented. There is a storyline in the game that by comparison is much deeper than previous titles. The story progresses as you defeat boss monsters from the many games and as you move through the game your character becomes stronger. You can also devote some time to the crafting system in the game that allows you to create weapons, food, accessories, etc that can't be bought at the stores in town. Making these items raise your crafting skills allowing you to make progressively more advanced items. In fact to level you tools up past a certain point you have to raise your crafting skills and make them yourself. Items you make can then be traded with others over Wi-Fi.
These changes make the game feel fresh and new and not simply another harvest moon game. Even the harvest moon mechanics that have been brought over from previous titles have a little twist to them. Not only can you farm your own land but you can also farm in the caves which can actually can work into the strategy of beating a cave. Crops produce runes which refill your Rune Points which is essentially like your fatigue in other Harvest Moon games. You use your RP to cast spells perform work related tasks and if you run out of RP you start losing health when you perform these tasks. Runes are the easiest way of recharging you RP. Most of the spouse choices require you to perform special tasks in order to marry them. These tasks are usually related to the character's back story and give the girls a little bit character development. With the animal system you actually befriend/capture the monsters in the caves. Some monsters are used for producing the standard milk,eggs, and wool while others can water/harvest crops. If you so desire you can even team up with one of your monsters and delve into the caves together. In this case if your monster is critically injured it doesn't die but simply returns to your barn.
However even with the good things that this game brings to the table it is not without its faults. It is a very easy game to play, perhaps too easy. You can make money in a flash and once you have bought the house upgrade, items for the house, and all the barns the money you have seems pretty useless. Buying all this stuff doesn't take long and you might find yourself wishing that you had more building upgrades to use all that excess wood and money on. Days are longer than in other harvest moon games which can be good and bad. It gives you plenty of time to explore caves, talk to people, and farm but at some points in the game you might find yourself putting your DS wait for the hot spring to open for example or going to bed extremely early with nothing to do with the extra time. The dialogue of the characters can get old and while the small amount of voice acting is by majority good it can get dry at times. The game has quite a few minor glitches, for example when you marry Melody the hot spring becomes useless ( I married Melody first and was very disappointed).
Despite these negatives though I still find myself spending endless hours on it. The incredibly fresh new components combined with the tradition game play of the harvest moon make this an extremely addictive addition to your DS library. The faults while very noticeable at times are never enough for me to put down the game. All in all Rune Factory is a game that, at least for this fan, brought new, much needed life to the genre. It is definitely a good start in a new direction for harvest moon and I sincerely hope to see many more harvest moon games follow in this same fashion so long as the developers continue to make improvements. This is a definite pick up for old harvest moon fans and those new to the series.