Finally, mid December 2014, the last Rune Factory games was released in Europe. An event that came and went rather quietly, not much media attention was given to the eShop only release. Even NintendoLife only picked up on it one week before the release. A release that happened a 14 months after the U.S. release, and a year after developer Neverland had been forced to shut its doors, due to financial troubles that resulted in bankruptcy. Neverland was founded in 1993 and is best known for the long-running Lufia series, and of course by developing Marvelous ALQ’s Rune Factory series. Rune Factory 4 for the 3DS turned out to be the fastest-selling title in the Rune Factory franchise, successful enough to merit a 5th game. Due to the fact that Neverland ceased to exist, that of course is uncertain.
Did you like Fantasy Life? And have you never tried a Rune Factory game because you don’t like Harvest Moon? Then I’d urge you to take another good look at Rune Factory. I know it has elements that Harvest Moon is well known for. You have to plow your fields if you want to earn any money. With the money you can buy a forge to better your weapons, and a stove to make food to sustain you in battle. Yes, Rune Factory does have a dating element too, but you can spend a minimal amount of socializing if you don’t like doing that. I’m not one to go around town speaking to every character every day, but I make good progress nonetheless. And should it be necessary to marry one of the bachelors or bachelorettes to progress the storyline, then look upon it as another part of the quest, leveling up friendship as you would level up your attack or defense stats.
Today for some reason I remembered the huge fun I had playing Rune Factory Frontier on the Wii in 2009. (has it really been that long?) One of the Wii games that I played quite a lot, which is special. As you might already know I’m more of a handheld gamer. The game had such a magical quality, the perfect combination between farming, making items and cooking, using magic and dungeon crawling. For some reason I felt really immersed in another world, playing it, much like a good book can do.
Tell me, have you ever played a Rune Factory game? And what did you think, is it just a Harvest Moon spin-off or a very nice RPG in its own right?
Excellent RPG in it’s own right. I absolutely love Rune Factory 4 and I hoping one comes out for the WiiU because I really need more WiiU games… ^-^’
I hear you, I really need more WiiU games to my liking too. There is a fine catalogue of games already, but not exactly the kinds I want!
Agreed! I am relly enjoying Hyrule Warriors and Mario Kart, but I would have been really excited to see the new Monster Hunter come out for WiiU. Oh well, maybe the new Star Fox will satisfy.
I first ran into Rune Factory after exhausting myself on Harvest Moons without being fully satisfied. I played Rune Factory Frontier and loved it, except for the tedious spirit-catching and spreading thing. After that I played Rune Factory Oceans which was okay. I hope they make another for consoles some day. Thanks for raising awareness of this obscure game series. Frontier especially, in my opinion, deserves more limelight.
It’s a pity that the studio that made the RF games has gone bankrupt, it’s one of the series I enjoyed most. All entries are great in my opinion, though Oceans was never released to the Wii here in Europe.
Oh I’m doubly sorry to discover that. I didn’t know they went bankrupt. At least Oceans wasn’t the best in the series. Frontier was much better, in my opinion at least.