Forum - View topicGAME: Rune Factory 5
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Albion Hero
Posts: 96 |
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Really hoping this gets a PC version like Rune Factory 4 did. Everything about it looks so good except for that terrible performance.
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MagicPolly
 Posts: 1627 |
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This is going to be my first Rune Factory game that I spend a significant amount of time on (Couldn't get into 1-3 and I didn't want to get too deep into 4 right before 5). I even preordered the Earthmate edition, and I'm currently stalking the shipping tracking constantly.
In terms of the graphics, I guess I do have to agree judging it off the prerelease streamers. I've seen some fans compare this to Pokemon, where a previously top down 3d series is rushed to be semi open world. I'm hoping the frame rate won't bother me too much (even if there was a PC port I don't think it'd run much better on mine lol). There was a couple years between 4S on switch and other consoles, and about a year with FoMT remake, so I assume it'll take a similar amount of time for any ports of RF 5 (Olive Town had less time between ports but I heard it was outsourced) Honestly I'm just glad that this review reassures that the gameplay is good, I've been so worried by the people bringing up the performance issues that the game would be near unplayable. From what I remember in the preview review thread, someone said the game wasn't that well received in Japan despite sales so I'm hoping it doesn't kill off Rune Factory for another 10 years (or possibly forever). I'm glad same sex marriage is FINALLY a thing now! According to the Xseed localization blog, they had to push for it post-launch but I'm glad it paid off! I had gotten used to just playing as a girl in SoS games but now that the newer ones have had same sex marriage it's made the experience that much better. Cecil, here I come! Sorry for the long insane ramble, I've just been anticipating this game for so long and now it's FINALLY here! |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 650 |
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Hey, congrats on diving into Rune Factory! 
Like I mentioned, a bit of jank is to be expected in all the Story of Seasons/Rune Factory games. RF2 had a few moments where the text wasn't properly aligned with the speech bubbles, even! But none of it is ever intrusive or experience-breaking. If you're willing to take the time to get used to the camera whipping to an overhead view once you step on that one polygon too close to the farmland or having to circle around dropped lumber/stones once you spawn them, you'll be fine. The RF games are good fun, and they're a great entryway to Story of Seasons. A lot of people hold up Stardew Valley as the big farm sim and SV does take a lot of cues from SoS, and it might even have that nice quality-of-life feature where you can marry anyone (sure would make marrying Misasagi a snap, lemme date the werewolf milf I'm dying here). But SoS/RF just have a charm to their aesthetic that Stardew just doesn't have. I also saw the comment on RF5's poor performance in the thread for my preview, and it has me concerned too. But from what I've seen, RF5's fanbase is really excited for the game and XSeed and Marvelous are doing everything they can to make this a crowd pleaser. The same-sex marriage thing is amazing, and I'm intensely wow-ed that they not only fought for that for the US release but actually managed to get it. It's in the hands of fans to show Hakama that we're here for it--and if we're drawing in new blood like you, I think we'll be fine
Also, because someone asked in the preview thread and I couldn't fit it in the review: time passes if you're hanging out indoors at the shop and stuff. I confirmed it. |
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MagicPolly
Posts: 1627 |
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I actually found a fix while browsing r/runefactory, apparently you can turn off farm and auto follow for the camera in settings. I haven't seen how annoying this is yet since my copy still hasn't arrived, but glad that's an option.
Yeah, I've been a fan of HM/SoS for much longer and while I love the gameplay of SV, for some reason it just doesn't hit as well as SoS games have. Also this is just me being bitter but it pains me when people have called RF "Stardew Valley with a sword" when it was literally subtitled "A Fantasy Harvest Moon" in early entries lol. I guess the lackluster SoS entries recently have let SV eclipse it in popularity. |
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rizuchan
 Posts: 980 Location: Kansas |
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I do recall hearing complaints about this game when it came out in Japan, though I can't recall what they were (and I've been avoiding spoilers, so I haven't wanted to check again), but in regards to complaints about performance... it's just as Jean-Karlos said in his review, SOS/RF games have always been plagued with bugs and performance issues. I really think it's been so long since Rune Factory 4 came out that a lot of fans see it with rose tinted glasses and forget how laggy and buggy it was too.
Granted, I haven't had the chance to play my game yet, so I'm making assumptions - for all I know it is a lot worse than RF4. I just remember the same complaints when Pioneers of Olive Town came out, and while that game has plenty of issues outside of being laggy and buggy, so many people called it "unplayable", when it probably doesn't even make the top 5 list of buggiest Harvest Moon games. That's not to say they aren't valid complaints, it's just long been apparent to me that Marvelous doesn't prioritize QA for these titles, and at some point you just gotta be okay with that. Also I agree 100% on SoS/RF having a charm that SV doesn't have. I think for me, SV is almost too close to real life. I live in Kansas, it's a 30 minute drive to a town that, minus the ocean, is just like Stardew Valley, and there's a reason no one wants to live there. SoS has more of a homey, cottagecore (as they call it these days) vibe where I can pretend that having a vegetable garden and a couple cows is enough to make an honest living.
I hate to say it, but I think SV's success has far less to do with the low quality of SoS games, and more to do with it not having anime art. I think there is a large audience that SoS's gameplay appeals to that are automatically put off by anime. It also doesn't hurt that SV costs a tiny fraction of what an SoS game costs, and originally came out on PC, when at the time there had never been an SoS game released for PC. It really hit an untapped market for farming/life sims. |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2272 |
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I’ve been waiting for this review; so relieved to hear it’s solid! Honestly, I’m usually pretty okay with SoS jank, and I’m willing to put up with some chugging for a really good farming sim (you tried so hard, Olive Town. I still appreciate what you were trying to do!) This’ll also be my first Rune Factory, and I’m super jazzed about the fantasy theme!
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MagicPolly
Posts: 1627 |
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Yeah, you're probably right. I know a lot of people who are into Stardew who would probably also enjoy SoS but aren't into anime so it'd turn them away. I wonder if this is why the boxart and steam listings for Olive Town use chibi art rather than anime style. And it's a lot easier to say "Hey, you can get this game for $15!", not to mention it nowbhas co-op. Anyways sorry for the tangent |
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ZelosZoidberg
 Posts: 740 |
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^ I for one Enjoyed your rants and tangents!
I must be the only one who didn't enjoyed Stardew Valley because I've been playing the Story of Seasons games since N64 and from what I've seen the average Stardew player has ether not played the Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon(s) games or only played one of the earlier entries and not seen how far the Farming Life Sim genre has come. Don't get me wrong it's a good game but a overrated as hell one. |
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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I'd say SV just feel really polished compared to SoS/HM and especially earlier rune factory (I can't speak about 5), although I got into SV late so maybe at release it was a lot worse. The couple of SoS/HM game I played I always hit the "what do I do now?" point really early while SV does a good job of slowly introducing new activity and area. The town and inhabitant also always felt more like real people than SoS/HM ever did, with they're cookie cutter anime quirky anime character. Rune factory all felt like they're trying to do a bit of everything but all of the elements are "complex but shallow", like SV combat/mine is super simplistic at first glance compared to RF game but the two of them are ultimately just as complex, RF just throws a lot of pointless banality at you that ultimately don't matter. |
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wolf10
 Posts: 930 |
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There's an old adage that goes, "Never ask an N64 kid about the framerate." With that disclosure out of the way, I've just made it through the tutorial and character intros, and I'm not seeing much in the way of performance drops. Some stuttering when leaving buildings, but that's fairly ordinary. This might be the 1.0.1 patch at work, if the game was reviewed based off of version 1.0.0. Cutscenes and such are a smooth 60FPS, standard gameplay looks to average around 30, with some frame droppage outdoors that fortunately doesn't affect handling or game speed. So, basically it's a Switch game, but you knew that already.
QoL improvements I've noticed already: -Pressing B repeatedly moves you forward to do the current farming action on the next tile, without needing to reposition. So for tilling, planting and watering, even before tool upgrades, you'll still get through your daily chores quite fast. -Hold A while walking to repeatedly pick up more of the current held item. And yes, it does the same comical item stacking as RF4. -Target-lock on the shipping crate, for throwing in items. -Press B to bring out your weapon and attack. This sounds obvious, but basically I mean there's no need to manually equip your weapon if you wind up in combat. -Hold R to lock furniture placement to the camera. No grid snap, but the camera itself likes to line up perpendicular to the walls. My current impression is that this is a game that will move very quickly in the hands of an experienced player. That was probably the right call to make from an optimization perspective, as well as for game longevity. If I'm expected to play for a few hundred hours, let me get the chores done quickly so I have more time to explore. (I might need to play for bachelor bingo after all...) |
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Villain-chan
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Anything else u'd like to say about it both bad and good? Thanks for the review and any possible reply. P.s. I'm glad u mentioned the same sex marriage, I want to play as a girl and get married to a girl in game, that was something 4 teased with the girls flirting with u but never let u marry them, but it sucks to hear like in the other reviewer I mentioned that the chars are one dimensional and boring, and it sucks worse for the girls from what u said so that stinks... Last thing I want to mention, while i haven't followed this game THAT closely, the fact that JP people and a lot of reviewers have harped on RF5 and said neg things about it does not give me or inspire much hope in the game... oh and to end on a pos note, just so u know the same sex marriage was added to the OG JP game to via an update, this happened I think in Jan of this year. Haven't heard more than that though so dunno how that was received in JP. |
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FeelMyBlade
Posts: 155 |
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I remember the announcement had comments of frustration that they chose to prioritize that rather than gameplay fixes, performance fixes, or other new content like making more existing NPCs like Livia, Elche and Hina datable. Other comments seemed to be happy for it. I think it's more of a marketing feature for the west though since I see it talked about anytime the game is brought up in the English community and seems to be the main selling point of the game here. I sold the game before 1.1 came out so I haven't played it myself and probably never will, but I'm curious what they did. Did they write all new scenes for the romances or did they just take all the existing conversations from the opposite-sex player romance and change the pronouns to fit the player character gender? I also wonder what they did with the friendship lines between same-sex characters and if they're still in the game or they removed them since they're datable now I think the main concern is the game clearly wasn't made with same-sex marriage in mind. I hope if they do implement it in future titles, assuming there are future titles since this game didn't sell that amazing in Japan, they make it so everyone has their own designated sexuality. That generally leads to better variety and more personalized writing and lets you still have more flexible scenes like the guys/girls night out events in RF4 which wouldn't really work otherwise. |
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wolf10
Posts: 930 |
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Japanese doesn't use gendered language as heavily as English does, so it was mostly a non-issue. (Mostly.). As far as implementation, same-sex characters stay in the friend zone until you confess, at which point they flip into the romance zone, at least according to the JP patch notes. There are some new scenes to account for the childcare aspects of married life, but other than that nothing was removed. Friendship events were entirely untouched (and it's silly to suggest that the possibility of romance would make friendship impossible).
I'm personally not a fan of "designating" sexualities for life-sim game characters. I've heard the argument before that it makes the writing "better," but usually what ends up happening is you get a few straight guys, one or maybe two token "gay" characters (alternatively one bisexual male), and several dozen bisexual women so the straight dudes aren't locked out of any female romance options (that should rightfully be theirs or whatever). Making six guys and six girls and not making a big deal about which way they swing allows for far more freedom, and far less gatekeeping. That's the route the core series has been taking lately, so adding it to Rune Factory is really just for parity. I do acknowledge that not beiong able to date Misasagi is a crime, though, and I don't even swing that way.  Don't date Hina, though. She's a literal child.
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OtomeGay
 Posts: 141 |
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I grew up on the Rune Factory series, and have many fond memories of RF4, so I'm very excited to finally play this! I still remember flipping out when RF5 was announced
Very cool of XSeed to push for same-sex marriage, I'm so glad I can finally play as a character like me!
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MagicPolly
Posts: 1627 |
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My copy finally arrived this morning after being delayed by Amazon yesterday, and while I was only able to get in around 2 and a half hours of gameplay before I had to leave for class spoiler[I got to saving Misa]. I have to say this game is EXCELLENT so far! The performance issues are definitely there, but I'm able to ignore it since I'm used to games not running the best on my PC. Gameplay so far has been great, and I can't wait to get further into the game!
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