January 15, 2011
Marwencol Showtimes At The Uptown
The Scoop On The Upcoming Rune Factory 3
Rune Factory brings together the best of two worlds. It combines the humbleness of the Harvest Moon series with the fast pace action of fantasy RPGs.
Basically, instead of just farming your life away like in HM, you have the extended opportunity to explore, fight and capture monsters. This adds more excitement for the average gamer who seeks adventure. The third version of the game, Rune Factory 3, is set to be released in North America on Nov. 9.
I don’t think I have to tell you how excited I am; if anything it’s the ability to finally play multiplayer and the creative premise that has got me eagerly anticipating this game!
RF3 gives you the ability to transform the main character, Micah, into a monster, allowing you to befriend both the human and monster communities in the game. This ties in with the main challenge which is to unite the humans of the town Sharance with the Univir camp of monsters and break their prejudices against each other.
Graham Markay, Vice President of Operations at Natsume gave us some insight into what to expect for this game:
What are the key differences between Rune Factory 3 and it’s two predecessors in terms of combat?
In his monster form, the main character, Micah, gains access to a range of hand-to-hand combat moves. He’s got a series of rapid strikes and a rolling attack that you can guide to hit multiple enemies at once. Once you’ve knocked an enemy down, you have several grapple attacks you can choose from: you can swing them around and use them to batter other enemies, throw them into another enemy, or lift the enemy up and slam them down, damaging anything nearby. It’s a fun, fast combat style that feels different from the weapon-based attacks you’ll use in human form.
Befriended villagers will now also join you in battle. Each person has a unique combat style and abilities, so it’s a lot of fun to experiment and see which villagers are best suited to your playing style.
Of course, there are also lots of refinements to gameplay, new spells, weapons, and loot to find in the game’s dungeons.
Rune Factory has been placing more focus on combat with every iteration, so what’s new and exciting with the farming elements?
There are a lot of interface improvements that help streamline the farming process. Managing pet monsters to help with your field is also a bit more involved this time. You’ve got to be careful to use monsters that will get along and work well together. Each monster is assigned a section of field, so you want to do a good job of matching up that monster’s abilities with the crops you’ve chosen to grow in that spot. It adds an interesting strategic element to farming.
Out of the 11 love interests, are any monsters? Also, in the previous Rune Factory games the monsters couldn’t talk, can they talk in RF3?
You can talk to characters in the Univir monster camp, and you can indeed marry one if you play your cards right. There is a difference between the intelligent and social monsters you’ll find in the Univir camp and the hostile beasts you’ll encounter in dungeons, though. The monsters in the dungeons are still more interested in making a meal of you than chatting.
How does the multiplayer work? What can you do and what benefits can you gain? Is it local based only or can you play online?
Locally, up to 3 players can team up to tackle a series of randomly generated dungeons. You can choose a difficulty that’s appropriate for anything from a group of level 10 characters up to level 150. These dungeons are packed with rare loot and some surprising bosses that you won’t run across in the main game. Any experience and items you gain in this multiplayer mode are carried into the single player game.
There’s also an online leaderboard where you can upload your scores in various contests and farming, and see how you compare to other players. You’ll get some very handy rewards when your score reaches certain benchmarks, so it’s a good idea to check it out.
How long is a day in Rune Factory 3 in real time?
Each hour in the game takes approximately 40 seconds in real time, so a 24 hour day is about 14 minutes long.
Does the game make any use of the touchscreen?
You can actually play the entire game with the touch screen if you want. It’s very helpful for managing your inventory and performing other interface functions.
Has Natsume released any plans/info for Rune Factory 4 yet?
At this time there have been no announcements of any additional Rune Factory titles for the Nintendo DS.
To contact the author of this post: marina.giannitsos@wildgunmen.com
I LOOOOOVE Rune Factory!!! <3
Sounds a bit like Recettear, a shopkeeping RPG with light dungeon crawling elements. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds, check it out.
Not gonna lie, pretty stoked for this! I have Rune Factory 2 and it’s a blast. Gotta finish it though…