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I really do appreciate the graphics of the game in that sense.Another thing is that the devs put some thought behind controls. The otherwise excellent controls help, because there are a lot to do in the game.The game has a lot of chores that your character can do for reward. The game really skips on little details at times. For one, there are a few good ideas in combat. Maybe it's to the weak writing that is to blame.
I wasn't too far off, the game is basically about farming, raising money and raising family, like most Harvest Moon related games. This interface is very handy when fighting monsters, because it's fast and easy to change equipment as needed on the fly. I can look at the character's Health or stamina, which is represented by two bars, and know how close I am pushing it before my character faints. I recommend buying it when it falls into 10~20 dollar ranges. There is a save spot every 5 or 6 games, so if really urgent, I have been able to save a game progress in less than a minute. Obviously, the game was enjoyable enough for me to not mind writing out this long script.
For me the game felt like a mix of Princess Maker 2 and Diablo, but for children instead of adults. The game plays in a simple manner. It's easy to sell and buy stuff; all you have to sell is to move items from your character's inventories to the merchant's inventory, and to buy, you take the merchant's items from her/his inventory and move it to your inventory. It's so spot on that if I need to rush through dungeons, I can navigate just by looking at the map and not the actual screen. All those factors made me feel that it's a better game than HM games that I played, despite that RF2 requires patience and a seperate piece of memo paper, and I just wish that the developers didn't make the game so obvious and rough around the edges. The game is divided into two "generations" where half of the game is blocked the first few tens of hours.
The bright box caught me, and I ended up buying the game right when it came out. To switch to another magic/item/tool in inventoryhold L and the corresponding face button. So much in fact that they make the shortcoming of RF2 more obvious. I mean, to me, it it looks like a total waste to put something in the game that can't be done by you. Those traits all make a great basis of a good game - good interface, good controls and addictive play.
It's clear which patch of water can be used for fishing. Some enemies can attack while being hit, they can paralyze you, and silence you. Unlike the Harvest Moon games, though, this game, Rune Factory 2, is structured fairly well, easy to control, and there are a lot of things to do with plenty of free time. This is good way to spend time when your typical mining/fishing/farming routine is done, and helps the game become less boring, which IMO is one of the biggest flaws of other HM games. The only oddball control in the game is that to run, you press R shoulder button once and your character stays in "run mode" where s/he will run all the time until R button is pressed again(then, s/he would just walk all the time). For instance, there's a road that CLEARLY leads to some other places that is blocked off with a fence or stone statues. I bought the game early when there wasn't really a guide available and this resulted in a lot of trial and error process for me that I felt wasn't necessary.Oh, that leaves to a few final minor complaint for me.
It also isn't very cunning. As far as basic controls go, all of four face buttons are assigned to an action of a kind; X is for controlling your pet monster, Y is for magic attack, B is the item, and A is for whatever tool or weapon you have equipped. If I had chosen the "wrong" lesson to learn at the wrong time, the game would freeze mid-lesson. They're all blushing all the time, I mean this game is Japanese and all, but that's really distracting.Thanks for reading my review.
By that, I mean that it's very neatly organized. Right now, late June 2009, is a few months since then. The map on top DS screen puts your character exactly where your character is, on scale. Plus, there are shields for you that you can't really use to block anything, it just reduces damages.
Guess what you can't do. After quests are done, it's easy to permanently save progress, as a portable games should be. Problem is that a lot of them is done to you by the monsters and you can't do the same thing back to them. I'll now move onto the things that test patience. The reward is either small money, an item, or simply friendship boost. I'm going to explain why I felt that later on.Starting from the stuff I liked - the game is well structured. The enemies can gang up and do these crazy combos on you, and they can also knock you into the walls, leaving you dizzy. From playing the SNES Harvest Moon, and PS2 Save the Homeland(and by the way I didn't like either of them) - and this is my first RF game, I thought I kind of had an idea of what to come for Rune Factory 2.
Townsfolks actually do tell you most of the things needed to progress, it's just that after a while they stop, and the player is screwed at that point. In RF2 this is also a primary way of moving forward in the story. I think you may have noticed, but the story is really really lame. So much, that without a piece of paper to note, the only other option for a player to take is to cheat and use a guide. Now that I am almost towards the end of the storyline part of the game, I feel I can make a good heads up for everyone else. When you try to examine it, RF2 will tell you "I can't pass", or "I can't read the words on the statues." I mean, that kinda kills the mood, don't you think.
It's really, really obvious where those area are. Eventually I got to learn all the things Mana and Barrett teaches, but it's still annoying.Another thing is that there are a lot of things to memorize. It's not exactly a secret that Marvelous Entertainment's games are usually glitchy.
Rune Factory 2 runs better than most other games from that dev, but so far I have to be careful especially when Mana was teaching cooking receipes in second generation. Graphics are very clear - it's very clear which patch of land is meant for farming and not. The characters are kind of interesting though, so it luckily evens out in the end.By the way, speaking of the characters, most people if they're like me, will have some hard time adjusting to the character portraits.
The quests are more rewarding than what you can do with townsfolks from HM games, I think this was why the game was more addictive. IMO the game could have been a lot better, but I can tell that it was rushed. The game's not really good at all at pleasantly surprising the player.
It's very off beat compared to a lot of other RPGs out there, and while it's not the best of its kind I think it's worth playing.
The game was half price when I bought this. Give this one a try for sure, especially if you like harvest moon and animal crossing. I like it, and I have not complaints. I have not played it much yet, but my roommate is addicted to it (he has his own copy). They are all very very similar. Thank you seller.
I would recommend this game for 7 and up. I think this game is really fun. I haven't gotten past the first generation yet, but it is really awesome. It takes a little bit of reading, but it is fun. Totally get this game.
Here's a few samples of the typoes that I can recall off the top of my head. It's like super slow-motion. Seriously, if you can play for even 1 hour without running into a typo, grammatical error, or text glitch, you are very lucky. I second what others have said about the typoes. In short, if the lag doesn't bother you too badly, it's a nice game. If 4 or more characters/monsters are on the screen at one time, the game slows to a crawl.
Several items are referred to by multiple names (Ex: Sweet Potatoes and Yams).The "my game slows down when I'm in my barn or on the docks" glitch is graphical lag.
When you buy a Recovery Potion from the Hospital (for 3 Herbs and 300g), after the potion is mixed up, the game tells you that you got an Insect Skin (instead of a Recovery Potion).
Mayhap the graphics engine could have done with a bit more debugging.That being said, there are good parts, too.
They are legion.
The whole game lags noticably compared to Rune Factory 1 (which runs very fast), but when you get multiple characters in the same screen, the game grinds nearly to a halt.
When you give a Sweet Potato to Rosalind, she calls you Aaron (even though your name is Kyle).
Apparently the translation team had trouble agreeing on what to call some of the items.
There is more story and text, the ability to choose your gender in the 2nd part of the game, the monster AI has been seriously upgraded, the game is more challenging (which is nice for those of us who beat RF1 in less than a year of game time), the scene backdrops are amazing, and the opening song is very nicely sung and animated.
It could have used more polishing and debugging before being released, though.Signed, Pamela T.
I like the second generation that this game offers. This game is a nice follow up from the first Rune Factory. It has some of the same characters, so it ties into the first game. multiple stories to follow this way. Something oddly soothing about farming electronically.
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