It’s been almost 14 years since the original release of Rune Factory 3 for the Nintendo DS, but finally, fluffy golden farmers have returned in a well crafted remaster, letting fans of the series return to Sharance or visit it for their first time. So, how’s the ol’ farm holdin’ up?
Presentation
Naturally, the first thing that comes to attention is the updated graphics. Each character model has received a dramatic facelift, and are certainly a lot more readable than they were on the DS. Though with a bird’s eye view, you’re generally not getting a great look at them outside the menus. Backgrounds are also generally nice, faithfully brought over from the original DS game, but in a lot of cases it does look like they were somewhat carelessly upscaled and details can get muddied. Fortunately, the big, pretty CG scenes are as gorgeous as ever, as is the new introduction movie.
The new translation is also much improved over the original, as is expected with the post 2012 track record for Rune Factory and Story of Seasons so far. Though certain aspects, like familiar character names, were retained. The new voice acting also feels more natural, with plenty of fully spoken scenes worth listening to. You can also swap to Japanese audio and English, French, German, and Spanish text to suit your needs.
One oddity that really stuck out to me on the Switch version is the lack of touchscreen support. The menus can be quite cumbersome at times, so being able to use touch screen navigation would help a lot. Feels strange that a remaster of a DS game won’t even let me tap my way through the opening titles without using the controller.
Gameplay
As one would expect of the marriage between the original farming sim and action RPGs, the core design pillars of Rune Factory have a lofty goal of being engaging for fans seeking either one of those things at a given moment. While it does manage to provide a good experience for both, I do generally feel that gameplay may be too easy for either to really shine.
While focusing on farming, making money is fast and simple no matter what I’m doing. Though there are interesting systems, including one where soil quality degrades from overuse, which leads to something that feels like crop rotation, the basics are the same as they ever were. Sow seeds, water, repeat until profit. Cooking allows you to make your crops go even further and get rich even quicker. With how easy it is to amass a small fortune, it won’t be long before you’re able to purchase most of the upgrades available to you, with perhaps the bigger challenge being finding the lumber required.
The only things that really stood out in making my life as a farmer difficult are that fishing has very little feedback and storms are surprisingly brutal! An entire field can be completely wiped out, erasing all your hard work and asking you to start again. Fortunately, while cleaning the field of debris, you’re almost guaranteed to find enough seeds to get going again without actually buying new seeds. It’ll also provide you with a nice amount of lumber, helping mitigate that problem as well.
Meanwhile, on the combat side of the gameplay, it is also light and breezy. Even if you go into a situation largely unprepared, without any potions or status effect cures, you can probably just slam your way through each screen. At least until you hit the boss’s room, which might require a little bit of planning if you’re under-leveled and under-geared. Once you have a decent set of equipment though, either by crafting it or buying it outright with all the cash you make by farming, even Hell Difficulty won’t be much of a challenge.
If you do need some help though, you can always use special seeds that grow into allies or recruit local townsfolk. Even if the combat’s too simple, it can be fun to level up all your favorite characters and give them gear that lets them keep up with you while your axe mercilessly cleaves through dungeons.
For folks seeking a challenge, this might all sound a little disappointing, but there’s some to be found via in-game achievements. Not only are annual festivals capable of asking for more luck or skill than the rest of the game, but there are plenty of challenges throughout the year to keep your attention, with repeated themes like “fishing” still varying the ruleset to keep things interesting.
Story, Characters, and Newlywed Mode
There will be some spoilers in this section.
The people of Sharance are as memorable as they ever were, and the improved localization will no doubt be a treat whether you’re meeting them again or for the first time. Each character, whether they’re a romantic candidate or not, wears their heart on their sleeve and talking to them in town or running errands for them will give you some fun dialog.
The overarching story of Rune Factory 3 is kind of weak though. None of the things it’s trying to tackle, whether as simple as the past of Micah, the protagonist, or the extremely difficult task of addressing a concept as heavy as racism, really pans out in a satisfying way. Once the old folks are pleased, everything is dusted under the rug and we’ll just casually ignore all of the non-human inhabitants who have already been living in town, like a mermaid and dwarf, with neither seemingly being a secret or anything. If the problem was solely with the Univir, it would’ve been nice if they were explored more in-depth to actually give some weight to the conflict besides what basically amounts to “we had differences a long time ago.”
That decade-old cold take aside, I was glad to finally dig into the new content once I unlocked Newlywed Mode. In spite of the entire new localization that preceded it, the tone and style were surprisingly distinct. It sure was odd seeing the portraits I had gotten used to animating in that distinctive Live 2D way. Micah truly becomes the wiggliest wooly you’ve ever seen.
I played through the mode with Raven and Kuruna, the candidates I married during my time in the main game, and though they essentially took the form of an expanded Request, the scenes were really cute and managed to endear me even more to the characters than I had been before. Definitely worth checking out.
Conclusion
Though Rune Factory 3 might not be quite as amazing as other games in the series, like 4 or Frontier, “Special” does an admirable job in bringing the classic game to modern platforms and is easily the new, ideal way to play. The simplicity of its systems may also even make it a good entry point for newcomers to the series, as it’s easy to pick up and play without having much demand of you, but has plenty to work towards. Whatever you’re after, your stay in Sharance will likely be a pleasant time.
Review codes provided to Ranch Story staff by XSEED and Marvelous Europe.
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