Each type of seed takes a certain amount of days to fully grow. Next up you must buy some seeds and plant them and then every day make sure to go out there and water the plants.

To do so you must first clear the land of debris, then use your hoe to till the soil. Right outside your bedroom is a field where you can plant seeds and grow flowers, vegetables, and fruit. It’s not the story that’s important here, it’s the gameplay loops, and there are a ton of them. Sure it’s a little light on story and to be honest most of the story beats throughout the game aren’t that spectacular, but there are a few twists and turns along the way. Of course, this being a Japanese RPG you have now lost all of your memories and for now the dragon insists you must be the new prince (or princess) and instructs you to meet all of the people around town and start making it a better place. A brawl breaks out and you end up getting pushed off the side of the ship and plummet to the ground, where you fall is broken by a green dragon named Ventuswill. You begin the game by selecting your gender and then the adventure opens up atop an airship where you are captured by some bad dudes who want something you have acquired. Minutes turned into hours and hours into days and before I knew it I had sunk 50 hours into my save file, and I’m still logging in every day to play more! Much to my surprise and delight I absolutely fell in love with the game. So when I took on the review of Rune Factory 4 Special I really didn’t know how much I’d like it, but went in with an open mind. I had heard the Rune Factory series was a good blend of the farming and character relationship building of the Harvest Moon games and a sort of action/adventure element. This could simply be due to me playing other games at the time, but whatever the case it’s a game I wanted to fall in love with but didn’t (although I’m open to booting it back up and trying again).

When it comes to the Switch I dabbled for a few hours in Stardew Valley and while I loved the 16-bit graphics and amazing soundtrack, it failed to fully capture my attention. Really the only series that has captivated me that is even somewhat close to this genre has been Animal Crossing, and that only has shades of shared gameplay ideas, like fishing and planting trees and flowers. While I had a decent time with it, I wasn’t won over by gameplay mechanics. I guess that might not totally be true because I did review Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns for the 3DS almost three years ago to this day, which as many know is actually Harvest Moon with a different title. Because of this, to this day I have never played a Harvest Moon game. I’m not much into farming simulators of any sort, as the concept never really excited me in a video game setting.

Rune factory 2 forging