Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny

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After finishing Rune Factory Frontier on the Wii and putting many, many hours into the game, I was looking forward to this new Rune Factory title. It's a great game that reminds me a bit of several other games like Mario Sunshine (the town you are in is like a Mediterranean beach resort), Zelda Wind Waker (since you explore the ocean and even have a sea chart), as well as Kingdom Hearts (based on the real time action fighting). Overall though, it's a difficult game to describe since there is so much to do in it. It's really a mix of a lot of elements, so if you're looking for a true JRPG or SIM, you won't get that but instead a nice hybrid. I did my best to note below the good, bad, and okay points about the game:

The Good:

Hours upon hours of exploration, side quests, character customization and development, and collecting is available. It's easy to get absorbed in the game.

Catchy music, funny dialogue, interesting and lively characters, and good voice acting (though voice acting is limited). There's no option for Japanese dialogue, though.

The main story premise is interesting and holds a bit of mystery to it.

Graphics on the PS3 are nicely done (with only occasional blurry textures) with no noticeable in game loading times.

Improvements over Rune Factory Frontier:

There's now a giant ocean to explore, and there are monster sea battles that take place.

The game gives you better direction, and there is even a request system in the inn/tavern. There are tons of requests too!

You can track where people are in town using a map.

The dungeons have maps, and you can quick warp to any level you have reached. Your warp home spell is very helpful too.

You don't collect Runeys with the harvester and have to constantly release them to keep everything in balance. It's all done much simpler now.

3 creatures can be taken with you at one time from your barn.

The fighting is greatly improved with more options of weapon types and combat moves, and you can jump (and even double jump).

Mixing items at your home is made easier. Put an item in your storage chest and it counts as being in your inventory, so you don't have to have it on your character when mixing.

Item storage is also simplified. One storage chest holds everything, so you don't need a refrigerator anymore.

Every time you upgrade a friendship level with a character, there's an amusing in-game cut scene.

The main town is more detailed and feels more alive (characters walk around with umbrellas in the rain, can be seen cleaning in the morning, etc.).

The Okay:

There are ledges that look like you might be able to jump on them but you are unable to (even with a double jump).

Sometimes if your character runs into a ledge, he will automatically jump and can even get caught in a jumping loop.

The controls are sometimes too sensitive. For example, I find myself occasionally skipping dialogue by mistake.

The farming is now done differently than the previous Rune Factory. This might be more of a "good" or more of a "bad" for some, since it frees your time for other activities.

Using the duel blades, I've encountered some slow down if I'm attacking too many enemies with a power move.

Dungeon design is better than the previous Rune Factory but nothing fancy. There's no puzzle solving except basic hitting switches and defeating monster orbs.

If you've played Rune Factory Frontier, you'll recognize 99% of the monsters already. They do look a little more detailed, though (but I am now playing on PS3 vs. Wii).

Monsters no longer just disappear when defeated. They turn dark and can still be whacked around. This can cause issues at night, because you'll spend extra time whacking a defeated enemy.

The Not So Good:

The game is in full 3D, but you can't really control the camera. You can only re-center it behind your main character which causes it to spin.

Camera control can cause problems during ocean exploration too, especially since you can't easily recenter it while riding your golem.

Sound effects and voices levels sometimes are inconsistent in volume. Sometimes you can hear the sounds fine and other times they are much lower or even louder.

Grinding in forgery, crafting, cooking, and carpentry can get a bit tedious. It would be nice if there was a way to buy a tome, for example, that would automatically upgrade you a few levels.

Unexplained skill descriptions can be confusing. For example, it's easy to understand forging, but I'm not sure what it means if I have a level 99 walking ability or sleeping ability.

As mentioned by another reviewer, when starting, you only have the option to play as the male character.

I don't want to end on a negative note, so all critiquing aside, this really is a very fun game, and the more I play it, the more I enjoy it and see its depth. I would highly recommend it for fans of Rune Factory Frontier or fans of other hybrid JRPG/SIM games.

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I really enjoy the Rune Factory series, and purchased this game as soon as it was available. The series is very easy to play, and anyone should be able to finish the game, regardless of skill level. Gamers who are looking for a challenge should really look somewhere else. This is a relaxing game with no time limits, and many options for how to spend the game days. The areas are beautiful to look at and the music is pleasant.

Let me first discuss general features for people who like RPGs but are not familiar with Rune Factory.

Battle System

The battle system in this game is entirely action based, and real time. If you need to heal, you'll need to have a sufficient time without taking damage for your character to finish eating or drinking the healing item. There is no healing spell. However, if you need to go into the menu whether to change weapons, or hold a healing item, it goes to a pause screen.

Leveling happens with each weapon type individually. Types are Katana, Dual Blade, Spear, Staff, Longsword, Hammer/Axe. As you use a weapon type, you learn new abilities, which are automatically triggered in battle or add a 2nd button to the basic mash-square formula. Also, up to 3 extra abilities can be purchased or earned with quests, although only one at a time may be equipped. These Rune Abilities are used by pushing the triangle button. By the time you reach level 11 skill for each weapon type, you'll have the basic move upgrades, including sidestep, and an uber move. Weapons may also have a magical element associated with them, another skill which levels separately.

Your battle party can now include up to 3 of the monsters you have tamed. They will level separately from you.

In a dungeon, there are glowing orbs which are spawn points for monsters, called gates. The basic Rune Factory story is that monsters are only able to enter your world by means of gates, and they belong in the Forest of Beginnings. All weapons in Rune Factory games are imbued with a spell to return monsters to the Forest of Beginnings, so there is no real death. Some of the monster gates are pure white, and seem to have 2 separated components to the sphere. These spawn king monsters (previous Rune Factory fans are commonly shocked at being wiped out by Wooly Kings). King monsters can be recruited, if your character can survive the process.

Quest System

Quests are generally found by going to the Inn, and reading the bulletin board. Story related quests are marked with a gold turnip, and sidequests with a gray turnip. Only one quest may be active at once, but there is no penalty for quitting one and taking another instead.

Quests always have rewards, including recipes for various crafting. It is a good idea to take sidequests if your equipment seems out of date, as there is no place to buy particularly good equipment. You need to make it yourself.

Crafting

From the beginning of the game, you have access to a Basic Forge, Kitchen, Pharmacy, and accessory Crafting table. These basic systems are found in the Blacksmith shop, Inn, Church, and Mansion respectively. You may make items with up to 2 ingredients at these basic facilities. You do also have a skill level in these areas, and certain recipes may be beyond you because of needing too many ingredients or a higher skill level. The only way to increase your skill level is to practice making items you can manage. If you fail to make a Kitchen recipe, your ingredients are destroyed. However, none of the other crafting types destroy the ingredients, so you have more incentive to practice techniques way outside your skill level. You can try to make anything up to 20 skill levels above your current level.

When you can afford it, you may expand your house (twice). This gives access to crafting areas which can handle up to 6 ingredients, and another new crafting type Furniture. Each crafting area must be purchased separately. This can feel quite expensive, but there are a few recipes available that offer more cash for the finished item than you would have put into the ingredients.

Friendship

Making friends with the villagers is a necessary part of this game/series. Many quests will not trigger until you reach a certain friendship level. Friendship is increased by talking to the villagers once every day, and giving them gifts that they like. If you give a gift they dislike, it will actually reduce the friendship level.

Changes For Series Fans

Here are some changes, both good and bad.

-Each friendship point triggers a cutscene.

These cutscenes make it feel more memorable to increase friend points. Not every happening is entirely positive, but it certainly does show that you are getting to know the villagers better.

-Friendship Cap

It seems that friend points only go up to 6 in this game. After that, they turn to Love Points and are for dating. However, you can't date until completing the main storyline and separating your characters. Even then, you can only date the available people of the opposite gender so you won't see the additional content without 2 save files. And non-eligible people just don't have any more content.

-Save Slots

FINALLY you can choose a save slot and have multiple slots for one game. No more getting stuck with a spouse you hate.

-No riding on monsters

-Baths are free

-Some cameos from Frontier characters, none of them are residents here though.

-No Shipping Box

Although some may miss the shipping box, this does at least mean that you don't have to wait for your pay. You are limited to shop hours, but the Inn is generally open in the evenings, so it's not too bad. You can sell any item at any shop. You can even Haggle to get a better price...if you succeed.

-Playing as Sonja

After beating the game, you may permanently choose to play as the Girl. It is a little unfortunate that you can't from the beginning, and you have to spend probably a minimum of 40 hours finishing the storyline, but at least the option is here.

-Farming is easier

This may be either a plus, or a minus, for you individually. There is no watering, as your monsters will handle the crop growing. Scythes are practically useless unless you want to clear one crop and plant another. You cannot directly choose what crops will grow your monsters choose, based mostly on their friendship level with you. Each monster can plant up to 4 crops. Harvesting monsters are available.

-Mining changes

One of your 4 seasonal "farms", WInter Island, doesn't grow plants. It grows rocks. You'll find certain monsters create rocks. There are no mining monsters, so you have to collect ores.

-Lumber

In order to use your new Furniture crafting area, you need to befriend monsters which grow trees. You need to cut them down and harvest the lumber personally.

-Quest Items

You can't lose your quest items. If you accidentally give one away, Joe will "find" it for you when fishing.

-Perma Death

There is no permanent death in this game, like Frontier and unlike at least some of the DS games.

-Traveling by Golem

This is interesting, but nobody mentions that you can STOP traveling by golem by pushing up on the D pad. You'll want to know this on the PS3 version. I don't know the Wii button).

Some Minor Gripes

-Although thankfully the Give button is no longer mapped to the Drop button, it is still mapped to the Jump button. So when you mean to talk to someone/hand them an item, you'll jump instead. Frequently.

-Monsters

If you have all of your dungeons, you can have up to 30 monsters. But since monsters do all your farming, this is really pretty restrictive. You really need to pick and choose which ones are the best/most important.

-Graphics are pretty, but not really very detailed. For instance, a dragon watches over the town. For some time in the story, she will transport you and your golem to permanent islands. When you pay for that option, it shows a cutscene of the dragon, Talynn, flying. You can see that the legs are totally immobile and stiff, which looks very odd. Overall, I have no problem with slight lack of graphic intensity though.

-Finishing Quests

Common dungeon hunting quests involve going to an island and triggering a Lock sequence you are blocked from moving on by a force field until you destroy the monster gates. Sometimes it's very hard to trigger. If you destroy the gates first, and then trigger the lock, the gates respawn. It can also be difficult to tell whether you have finished a quest. Certain story quests are very easy to complete, and misled me when I tried to complete other story quests. I ended up stuck a few times, and asking for help from other players.

-Sonja

Many Rune Factory players want to be able to play as either a girl or boy. Because of story, Sonja isn't available until you beat the main storyline. This is not ideal. Also, until then, she adds helpful comments randomly. It can get tiring. She comments on what time it is at noon, 3 pm, 6 pm, and midnight probably so you realize that you can shop/bathe/go to bed.

I got especially tired of her yelling "Monsters!" when I was in a dungeon. Even, stupidly enough, halfway through a boss fight. It will be entirely personal whether you love or hate her by the time you may choose to play as her.

Buy Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny Now

I'm a big fan of the Harvest Moon series to as far back as the SNES days. Since it doesn't look like Natsume is putting a next-generation Harvest Moon game out anytime soon, I discovered this as a recommendation. Shocked that it was coming out on PS3, I pre-ordered without reading anything about it. Maybe someone else is like me out there. This is a review given as a Harvest Moon fan, not a Rune Factory fan.

The game has much more of a story with anime segments thrown into the mix. You play as two characters (male & female) in the same body who are in some sort of alternate universe from where they lived before. Long story short, you have a house, you have a town full of people you've never met but want to be friends with, and you have chores to do.

The similarities are striking. It's a farming and social game with an added mix: dungeon crawling. However, unlike Harvest Moon, you're not waking up at the crack of dawn to water plants and plow fields. Instead, you have an island (explained later) that you grow veggies on. Instead of buying seed, planting, and all the Harvest Moon stuff you'd do, you use a magic stick to plant on soil. There's not a lot to it. The way you get seeds are to go to different islands and pet a monster until he becomes your slave. They'll tend your garden but you have to pick the plants to sell or make stuff with.

At first, I was kind of bummed out that I wasn't doing the HM style of gardening. It didn't make much sense at first. The more I played, the more I figured out why they did it this way. If you spent half your day actually farming, you're missing out on so much more of the game. I guess they could have just expanded the in-game clock but I like my days to fly by just like real life!

The town is full of HM life, or in other words, they're going to say the same junk to you over and over again unless you become better friends. I'm not knocking that part of the game. I like it like that. It's just like Harvest Moon in that sense. A cool addition to the genericness of conversation is that after a certain friendship level, you get to experience a special cinematic of that person hanging out with you. Everything else though is straight out of the Harvest Moon handbook. Gift giving, talking to them, ignoring the Mayor... all of it.

The town is a decent size. It's smaller than some of the HM titles, but big enough where you won't get lost. There's two things they added which really improve the flow of the game. One, your map shows where characters are at all time or if they're moving. No matter keeping a schedule of people to find them! Another thing is the double click of your analog sticks teleports you back home no matter where you are in town. I've saved so much time using this feature and I really appreciate it. Remember: this is more of a fantasy HM so ignore that it's unrealistic.

Remember the red/yellow/blue/whatever elves that helped you farm? They're kinda back. There's spirits that you find in logs on islands (again, I'm getting to that). You use those guys to retore your farming island so your monster slaves have more work to do. Before using them, you'll only be able to farm on a small patch of land.

The actual map of this game is huge. It reminds me of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker because of how big the water area is. Instead of boating to a new area, you ride a giant plant golem throughout the sea and you "raise islands". When raised, you'll have new areas to visit for combat or enslavement. You'll also uncover sea monsters to fight much like those seen in Godzilla.

Now, more about this slavery thing. Inside your golem, you store several monsters with different abilities. Some are for farming, some for mining, and some for just sleeping inside your golem like a barn. While you can still farm, you'll still be collecting eggs and milk from creatures. It's just an alternative verson of Harvest Moon with more stuff to do than just farm.

Crafting and combat come to mind. Crafting comes from obtaining metals and clothing that are dropped from monsters you fight. You can craft tons of stuff too. Upgrade weapons and equipment yourself instead of relying on old blacksmiths. The combat is the weakest part of the game. It's not horrible, but it's very repetitive (two buttons control all of the combat). I guess it's light on combat since it's an E10 rated game. There's at least a ton of weapons to choose from and tons of monsters to fight, which keeps things fun.

You can still upgrade your house too. You obtain a house from Odette, an owner of the Three Sister's Inn. I wish real life was that generous but whatever. There's a lot to upgrade too. Originally, in Harvest Moon, you would buy upgrades from the lumberyard and then for a few days, you'd have those guys bustin' butt on your house. You could watch them, which was fun. This time, houses are instantly upgraded. The trade-off is that there's TONS of upgrades to your house. I haven't even finished getting them all.

A few things have been removed from the series, better or worst. No more pets. I know, I know... I miss looking for my useless dog in my field of trash just as much as you, but Ol' Dog is no where to be found. Or your horse. You just have a golem now and some monster slaves. You also no longer have to clean a field of trash before you begin. My first three nights in any HM game was spent cleaning. I miss it. But it's gone and nothing will bring it back.

Really, this game feels like an action-JRPG that was thrown into the HM world. It works. It works really well. While I still long for a HM game, I welcome Rune Factory with open arms and hope to see more of it. Also, trophies aren't hard at all to obtain.

Read Best Reviews of Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny Here

Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny had major improvements over the previous Rune Factory games. There is more of a focus on action, choice, and rewards.

Skill levels are tracked for a wide variety of activities such as walking, jumping, greeting villagers, fighting with a sword, etc. You get a prompt and an RP bonus any time you rank up a skill level, which happens frequently due to the high number of activities being tracked. This makes you feel rewarded regardless of what activities you choose to do.

Time pressure (managed in Rune Factory games by both RP and the game clock) is greatly lessened by having more ways to mitigate the cost (get RP back as you advance) and by reducing the time it takes to do things (farming is done by pets, mechanic to allow you to quickly teleport to dungeons).

Improvements have been made to the combat system, making weapons feel more powerful and more unique by type.

Relationship building feels rewarding, even with villagers that aren't romantic interests. Part of this is due to the new request board. Villagers will only offer certain requests once you are a certain friendship level with them. Requests can give you good items and open up new content.

The one improvement I'd like to see in the future is having the friendship rank-up events evolve a bit more. If they were more like social links in Persona 3 or 4, that would be awesome. As it is, only a few of the villagers have compelling stories, with the mojaority being inane time-killers. Still, I think this is a fantastic title. Finally, the series has that blending of harvest moon and animal crossing, with action rpg combat, that I was wanting at the beginning.

Want Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny Discount?

The first and foremost about this game is you have to have played or be a fan of the series, if you're a more hardcore fighting bloody RPG gamer who likes are more toward the side of games like Elder Scrolls and the like then this game might not be as fun for you then. The first big plus is that the controls are pretty easy to master so no worries about having to learn a hundred button combos or anything to defeat the monsters, also if you've played the game Rue Factory frontier and were annoyed with the Runey system then you're in luck as that part has been cast away from this game. The fighting abilities of your player have been enhanced from the previous mentioned RF game as you can now have two weapon melee fights as well as the ability to jump which wasn't added with the previous mentioned game. The character and background designs are pretty reminiscent of the Rune factory games and while the video graphics quality is very good don't expect stunning character or background details like with games Heavenly Sword or The Uncharted series. Also except for some small cutscenes in the game or during a certain situation there isn't any voice acting in the game as it's mostly in text form with the standard eek or grunt put in which is kind of sad but with this game series kind of expected as well. Someone asked if you can choose to play the character as the male or as the female character, while I only started the game at the beginning the game only gives you the option of playing the male character at this time with the female character residing within the male character giving advice and sometimes gaining control of the body to so small chores but again in the early part of the game you only play as the male character. The soundtrack fits the game very nicely again very reminiscent of the Rune Factory Frontier soundtrack. So for fans of the series here's the next great release of the series and for fans looking for a more light-hearted though still with action RPG game here's a very good choice to try out....