Phew, where do I begin? Because Rune Factory 3 is not a bad game at all, by any means, but there’s all these little and not-so-little things that made me wonder, why do it this way? Why do that? Why didn’t they do this instead? Anyway, let’s get down to the flaws, from major to minor.
1. Story: The story is whack. I don’t want to spoil, but they trotted out the same old same old “I have…amnesia!” story again. It was fun the first time. It was nostalgic the second time. Now it’s just old. But that’s not the worst part, the worst part is that you find out what your past is all about and it’s shallow, nearly-nonexistent and laaaaaame.
Okay fine, I’ll spoil it: [SPOILERS FOLLOW, avert gaze!]
[SPOILERS FOLLOW, avert gaze!]
[SPOILERS FOLLOW, avert gaze!]
See, there’s these monster creatures and they’re at odds with humans. Luckily enough, Mais is half monster so a powerful being wipes out his memory and tosses him into a village to try and make peace. This will somehow make some magical tree bloom and magically save the land from destruction. Gee.
Seems the monsters and the humans had a huge falling out years ago, and, like, nobody remembers what it was about but they’re all still mad anyway. Then Mais shows up and he’s like “Let’s have a party!!” (no, srsly) and then they have a party and everyone’s happy. So anyway that was the boss’s plan and somehow he knew you could do it even without your memories, and whoopee, it all worked out, congratulations! See? I told you it was whack.
2. Transformation: The woolly transformation gimmick…wait, let me explain that. Since 
you’re half-monster you can turn into a woolly using a magical belt…wait, what kind of sick woman would have a baby with a sheep?! Ewww!? And if you’re half-woolly, why do you need a belt to transform? The whole thing is silly and useless. It was marketed as a cool option where you could get the girls to tell you secret things they wouldn’t tell your human self, etc etc. Puh-lease, we should be so lucky. They just make throwaway comments about what a cute woolly you are, and it plays a role in a few of the (lamer) quests, but it doesn’t add anything to the game. If anything it takes away from it. And the big reveal, when the townsfolk find out the cuddly golden woolly and Mais are one and the same? They’re all like, meh, cool, whatever, so what. Whaaat? That’s it!? I just told you guys my ultimate secret on which the whoooole game hinges! React a little, dammit!
3. Recipes: The system for learning new recipes SUCKS. It suckssssss!!!! First you buy “bread” from a store – it doesn’t fill you up but it’s still called bread. Cooking recipe bread, pharmacy recipe bread, forgery recipe bread, accessory recipe bread. Fine. But after you waste your money on this bread, you’re not guaranteed to learn a recipe. Nope, it’s all about your current level in that skill. Not high enough? Tough cookies, you just spent 2000-5000 on empty air. See you tomorrow.
4. Rune Points: You know how in previous games, after you run out of Rune Points your skills/magic start using up your HP? And take it little by little? This time once you run out of Rune points, the very next move you make takes up HALF your HP. Next move you make, you pass out on the spot. I mean, eventually you learn your lesson and watch your RP like a hawk, but it’s an unreasonable and inconvenient system nonetheless, especially in the beginning before you get the hang of it.
5. Crop system: The soil in your garden has fertility levels. The more you grow something on the same spot, the lower the fertility gets. Lower fertility = greater chance of your crops dying. The theory is that you need to use fertilizers and practice crop rotation to keep optimum fertility. The theory is good. The practice is not. And that practice is, unless you pour buckets of fertilizer on your crops every round, they’re going to be dying left and right. Either you analyze every single square before you plant on it or you make fertilizers by the ton. Either way it’s tedious and unproductive. This is the second-fastest I’ve ever giving up on growing crops in a Harvest Moon game, next to Island of Happiness
6. The dungeons are really small and simplistic. Maybe if I went back and compared the previous games I’d realize they aren’t so small, but I doubt it. The dungeons are small and boring, the enemy variety is very low (almost all recycled from previous games) and the bosses are all pushovers, including the final one. Get in, do whatever quests and errands it takes to get the boss to appear, fight the boss, move to next dungeon. Rinse, repeat. Oh, and try to stay awak….z…zzzz…
So there you have it, the minor and not so minor things that made Rune Factory 3 a bit of a disappointment for me. I think what bothered me most of all was the weakness of the story though. Everything else I could live with, but when you battle, forge and woo your way through a game for a silly denouement – lol you were carrying out my plan all along, enjoy the lack of a proper backstory or afterstory – I can’t help being a leeetle bit peeved. Maybe they rushed this one out a little too fast. Take your time with the next one, Marvelous, and remember: an RPG is nothing without a good story.
Peace out.
Hey, first off, can I just say that I love this blog? I check it every time you post something new. Please don’t ever stop writing in it, your posts are so humorous but informative at the same time, which is something you don’t see very often in other game reviews.
I was just wondering what you thought of Rune Factory 3, in terms of beginner players. I haven’t played the first or the second (even though I wanted to) because by the time I thought about getting around to playing the first, the second one was already out, and I was searching it up, I saw advertisements for the third one, etc. etc. so essentially I’ve been procrastinating buying one and NOW IS FINALLY THE TIME.
I was just a little worried whether it would be alright to start with the third one, like if I would understand how to play it and the difficulty would be okay. Because for certain games, you sort of need to play the prequels in order to understand the way things work, but I feel like in the Harvest Moon franchise that’s totally not necessary, so I was wondering if it was the same for Rune Factory?
Hi Mina, thanks for reading!
Each Rune Factory game stands on its own, so you can start wherever you want. RF3 got the best reviews of the series so far, so if you can play only one, get that one. I played them order liked RF1 best, followed by RF3, followed by RF2, but it’s more because of a “First cut is the deepest” thing than because 1 was better than its successors.
The farming may be lacking and the story may be kinda weak, but in terms of graphics, design, characters, character interaction and gameplay variety, RF3 is tops. It’s so far advanced, in fact, that the others might seem a little primitive after playing it, but you can cross that bridge if/when you come to it.
I enjoyed playing it the graphics are better and more improved , but i didn’t care for the zombie unusual children that just ruins it for me. I would rather that you can get a choice to play either child at least let them interact with other characters they were zombie like children or children of the corn .
??? What zombie children?
It’s the way they act. I throw toys at them in the tree they sit there all day long.
I see. I quit the game right after I got married to Toona (Raven in the English version?) and never had kids so I had no idea they were so creepy. That’s kinda scary. I mean, kids are useless in most other Harvest Moon/RF games, but at least they don’t just sit around catatonic.
Rune factory 3