Early on many of them are passive and don’t attack often, but heading into dungeons will lead to bigger threats. Step outside the lovely little town and adventurers are met with a world filled with monsters around every corner. Of course, the biggest pull of Rune Factory is moving away from just farming in order to explore the world and take on monsters. Aside from watering every day, players can also increase crop production with various fertilizers and vitamins in addition to getting higher leveled crops by using a sickle as it improves. Along with simple crops other goods such as flowers and eventually even trees can be grown along the way. There’s only a small number of available crops to start which slowly increases through various quests from villagers challenging the player to try new things and learn new mechanics. After picking a few weeds a humble farm can be started, and after completing a few quests the farm can be completely cleared out in order to start making a living. At first the farm will be an utterly cluttered mess filled with weeds, branches and rocks. Like many entries into the Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons series, the first main focus of Rune Factory is building up a farm. Thus begins the adventurers time as acting royal who sets out to improve their farm, adventure the land and uncover the truth about themselves and mysterious goings on around them. After being given a room and a farm to manage, the true prince appears but decides it’s in his best interest to keep playing along in order to keep himself hidden and enjoy a little free time. In the unfortunate series of events the adventurer has forgotten everything but their name, and the dragon along with her subjects assume them to be royalty who had planned a visit. In a kerfuffle of conversations, the young adventurer is launched overboard and sent hurtling towards the ground on top of a dragon in a grand building.

Unfortunately for them, their flight is cut short by soldiers who appear from their hiding place demanding the package is handed over or their life lost.

The tale begins aboard an airship where a young adventurer is in the midst of trying to deliver an important package. Rune Factory 4 was originally released for the 3DS some years ago and is back once again on the Switch with a brand new HD coat of paint in the Special edition. No longer were players simply just farming, but also fighting and taming monsters with a much grander story behind it. One of the most unique spin-offs the series saw was that of Rune Factory, which took the farming happy town approach and dressed it up in a fantasy world with the added inclusion of RPG elements. Since its debut on the SNES, the Harvest Moon style of gameplay has continued to gain popularity over the years seeing many entries and a variety of heavily-inspired titles to follow it.

Rune factory 4 characters