I recently acquired a copy of Rune Factory 1 and 3 and I've been playing through them, comparing it to my first Rune Factory game, which was 4, and I want to share my thoughts with you guys. I haven't completed Rune Factory 1 yet, so some information is subject to change.
Thoughts: show
Rune Factory 1 is slow and clunky, both framerate and action-wise, but it's understandable since it's the first in the series. Town is also not that great, it's basically a town crammed into a couple downtown city blocks, not to mention there is two farm shops which could've easily been cut down to one. Each bachelorette (of which there are 11) has their own unique marriage proposal instead of just basically giving them a ring, which is pretty neat. The relationship system is a bit convoluted since friendship and love are two separate stats that increase doing different things, which is more realistic in a way but less in others. One thing I do like about this game is that there children in the town, besides the one you have if you marry. I think that adds a lot of depth to the town residents. I like the look of the protagonist the best out of the games so far, even though the graphics aren't as good as the later games. His default name is pretty cool too (Raguna), though I always rename him to be me so I can connect with the characters more. The overall interface for the game takes a while to get used to, but I think it has a charm to it. The dungeons are a pain, you basically have to go through and kill every enemy spawner in a particular portion to advance, and they respawn if you exit. You're given a sleeping bag to restore your health a certain number of times, but overall they're just tedious and uninteresting. Plus you can't freely go to them, you have to get a pass from the mayor by doing something or other.
Rune Factory 3's town is my favorite. It has a nice, thought-out design and it feels very home-y and welcoming. Game speed is improved considerably, though there is still some slowdown when there are 5+ NPCs in an area at once. The marriage system is not quite as unique as RF1's but it's not random like RF4's. Basically you just complete all your chosen girl's requests and max out your relationship, then ask her on a date and propose. Boom. However, there is an extra bit of detail not present in the other games (to my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong). It's pretty spoiler-ish so I don't detail it, but I'll just say that you don't get immediately married, there's something plot-relevant that you have to do first, however it doesn't happen until you propose. I will say it was very motivating, though I had quite a bit of difficulty on my first playthrough because I wasn't properly prepared. There are eleven total bachelorettes, same as Rune Factory 1, so there's plenty of variety to pick from. I think overall I like the RF3 characters better, though my favorite waifu is still from RF4. Even though I like the look of Raguna better, I think I like Micah (protagonist of this game) better overall. After all, who wouldn't want to transform into a deceptively cute-looking monster that can fight like a beast? The interface was improved significantly from RF1, and the crafting system is fairly realistic and intuitive. The dungeons (if you'd call them that) are way better and much more elaborate, though RF4 improves even more.
Rune Factory 4 was my first game of the series, so it will always hold a special place in my heart. The town seems a little uptight with the whole prince thing and living in a castle with butlers, but it has a charm to it. The town's overall layout isn't the best though, considering it's basically a square. It's better than Rune Factory 1 because it isn't cramped together, but RF3 wins out ultimately on town layout. The one major complaint about this game though is the random marriage events. You can only marry once you complete an event that happens at random once certain conditions are met. Fortunately these always happen at the start of the day, so you can manipulate it by saving, resting, and then resetting if you don't get the event you wanted. One nice detail about this game is that you have the choice between a male or female protagonist. Personally I've never played through as a girl yet for obvious reasons, but I may do so in the future just to satisfy my curiosity. Anyway, there is one thing that bugs me about them: their names. Lest is the default male name, and Frey is the default female name. To me, those don't sound like names at all. At least Raguna sounds similar to Laguna, which is an actual name, as well as Micah. But Lest?! It's a relatively minor detail since I rename the character after me anyway, but it still bugs me. Frey is also a bit strange, though I don't have as much of an issue with it as Lest. The downside to having a female protagonist option is that there are less marriage choices. There are 12 total marriage-able residents, but it's cut halfway due to gender choice, so there's technically only 6 choices in the game. Even with less choices though, my favorite waifu is still in this game (Clorica <3). Obviously RF4 wins in the graphics and performance department due to being on superior hardware, saving and loading are at least twice as fast, if not more. It also wins out in general menu navigation, it's much more fluid and fleshed out. However the crafting system was revamped a bit, which I have mixed feelings about. Fortunately one nice thing about this game is that when you eat a recipe bread to learn a new crafting recipe, if you don't learn anything new you get it back, so it's not wasted; that's one of my complaints about RF3, recipe bread is wasted if you don't learn anything. Lastly, the story in RF4 is the strongest of the games. There is a lot of character development, plus a total of three story arcs. The third is optional and not really required to do, but if you decide to do it prepare to grind a lot; the arc 3 dungeons are insane. Overall the dungeons themselves are even better than RF3's, though I do feel the arc 3 dungeons are too grindy.
Overall I like Rune Factory 3 better, though it does have a lot of room for improvement.
My waifu list:
Rune Factory 3's town is my favorite. It has a nice, thought-out design and it feels very home-y and welcoming. Game speed is improved considerably, though there is still some slowdown when there are 5+ NPCs in an area at once. The marriage system is not quite as unique as RF1's but it's not random like RF4's. Basically you just complete all your chosen girl's requests and max out your relationship, then ask her on a date and propose. Boom. However, there is an extra bit of detail not present in the other games (to my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong). It's pretty spoiler-ish so I don't detail it, but I'll just say that you don't get immediately married, there's something plot-relevant that you have to do first, however it doesn't happen until you propose. I will say it was very motivating, though I had quite a bit of difficulty on my first playthrough because I wasn't properly prepared. There are eleven total bachelorettes, same as Rune Factory 1, so there's plenty of variety to pick from. I think overall I like the RF3 characters better, though my favorite waifu is still from RF4. Even though I like the look of Raguna better, I think I like Micah (protagonist of this game) better overall. After all, who wouldn't want to transform into a deceptively cute-looking monster that can fight like a beast? The interface was improved significantly from RF1, and the crafting system is fairly realistic and intuitive. The dungeons (if you'd call them that) are way better and much more elaborate, though RF4 improves even more.
Rune Factory 4 was my first game of the series, so it will always hold a special place in my heart. The town seems a little uptight with the whole prince thing and living in a castle with butlers, but it has a charm to it. The town's overall layout isn't the best though, considering it's basically a square. It's better than Rune Factory 1 because it isn't cramped together, but RF3 wins out ultimately on town layout. The one major complaint about this game though is the random marriage events. You can only marry once you complete an event that happens at random once certain conditions are met. Fortunately these always happen at the start of the day, so you can manipulate it by saving, resting, and then resetting if you don't get the event you wanted. One nice detail about this game is that you have the choice between a male or female protagonist. Personally I've never played through as a girl yet for obvious reasons, but I may do so in the future just to satisfy my curiosity. Anyway, there is one thing that bugs me about them: their names. Lest is the default male name, and Frey is the default female name. To me, those don't sound like names at all. At least Raguna sounds similar to Laguna, which is an actual name, as well as Micah. But Lest?! It's a relatively minor detail since I rename the character after me anyway, but it still bugs me. Frey is also a bit strange, though I don't have as much of an issue with it as Lest. The downside to having a female protagonist option is that there are less marriage choices. There are 12 total marriage-able residents, but it's cut halfway due to gender choice, so there's technically only 6 choices in the game. Even with less choices though, my favorite waifu is still in this game (Clorica <3). Obviously RF4 wins in the graphics and performance department due to being on superior hardware, saving and loading are at least twice as fast, if not more. It also wins out in general menu navigation, it's much more fluid and fleshed out. However the crafting system was revamped a bit, which I have mixed feelings about. Fortunately one nice thing about this game is that when you eat a recipe bread to learn a new crafting recipe, if you don't learn anything new you get it back, so it's not wasted; that's one of my complaints about RF3, recipe bread is wasted if you don't learn anything. Lastly, the story in RF4 is the strongest of the games. There is a lot of character development, plus a total of three story arcs. The third is optional and not really required to do, but if you decide to do it prepare to grind a lot; the arc 3 dungeons are insane. Overall the dungeons themselves are even better than RF3's, though I do feel the arc 3 dungeons are too grindy.
Overall I like Rune Factory 3 better, though it does have a lot of room for improvement.
My waifu list:
- Rune Factory 1 -
1. Rosetta: I like how she pretty much immediately states possible attraction. I also like her voice, it's fairly soft and not too high-pitched. Plus she's just overall cute, and I like the whole competition with Lukas thing.
2. Mist: I am indebted to Mist because of her story element, but she just isn't my first pick as of now. Things could change later though, as I haven't beaten RF1 yet. I just prefer Rosetta's voice and overall demeanor over Mist's. - Rune Factory 3 -
1. Marian: I like her playfulness and how she doesn't give up even after so many of her experiments have failed. Plus I just like how she looks and her interaction with pretty much all the townsfolk, particularly Colette.
2. Shara: Shara used to be my favorite, though after a second playthrough I grew more attached to Marian. I feel a little bad not marrying Shara because I'm indebted to her since she takes you in at the beginning of the game, but there's just something about Marian I like better.
3. Sakuya: Because who doesn't like foreign girls? She looks cute and her events are pretty hilarious. - Rune Factory 4 -
1. Clorica: Oh man, where do I even start with this one. RF4 was my first game, so naturally I would be attached to this game because it was my entry to the series. But that's not all. If I had the pick of any bachelorette in the Rune Factory series, I would pick Clorica in a heartbeat. I love her soft personality, her voice, her somewhat prim yet humble demeanor... Heck, I even like how she constantly falls asleep, there's a charm to it. I also like her hairstyle; I have a thing for twintails (or pigtails, whichever term you want to use). I guess it's more like long braids than twintails but it still looks similar. I also really like her marriage event. I could go on for longer, but I'll just leave it at that.
2. Forte: It's funny, I never thought she would be on my list. Until just recently, I didn't have any particular feelings about her. I guess I'm just not a big tomboy guy. But after I decided to start dating her just out of curiosity and to experience marrying her, that's when she started slowly climbing my list, ending up at this number two spot. She doesn't top Clorica (nobody can), but she's close second. I like how even though she acts like a tomboy, she's actually really cute and girly once you peel back a few layers. It's adorable how nervous and embarrassed she becomes around the topic of love and her interactions with Bado and Leon are hilarious.
3: Amber: Cuteness overload. Those two words pretty much sum up Amber for me. I like how optimistic and playful she is all the time. The best part about Amber though is her character development when you date her. At first she doesn't really understand what love is, but at the end she comes to the realization of it. Her confession cutscene is my absolute favorite in the entire game; that's the one thing she has over Clorica. She sounds so mature and the artists drew her very well during it. Just listening to it almost melts my heart every time. I would quote it, but it's somewhat spoiler-y for her marriage event, so I'll just let you experience it.
4.Xiao Pai/Dolce: These two are tied for fourth place. There are some things I like about both of them, and some things that I don't really. For example, I like Xiao's determination, how she keeps working hard even though she messes up things constantly. Reminds me of Marian in a way, heh. However, one of the main things I dislike about Xiao is her marriage event; it's actually kind of depressing. I'm not going to spoil it, but that's honestly how I feel. I do like how it ends with the only female reverse proposal, I'll give it that. Now for Dolce. I like her interactions with Pico and, to quote one of the tourists, how "quiet and mysterious she is". She also has the whole twintails thing, which is a nice plus. But the one big thing that drags her down is, like Xiao, her marriage event. It's not depressing like Xiao's, but it's just boring. I swear the event takes over a week of days where you have a single conversation with Dolce and can't progress until the next day. Boooooring.
^ tl;dr go find a copy of Rune Factory 3, if you can't then get 4, they're both good
If you've played the series, what do you think? Personally I love it.
