When I started writing this post on March 6th, I’d reached level 35-ish, around 36 hours sunk in, roaming Lava Ruins B4, where I seemed to be stuck. I wasn’t having too much fun and was even thinking of quitting. Then I decided to play a little more before continuing to blog and here I am 6 days later. Level 65, 66 hours, Snow Ruins B3, top of Whale Island. Where did the time go?!

In the process I worked through most of my frustrations with the game, especially the farming system, so I can’t complain about the stuff I was going to complain about any more. Runeys, for example. As a matter of fact, I delayed playing Rune Factory Frontier for so long because I’d heard about how hard they were to manage and how much they detracted from the playing experience. Luckily the earlier guinea pigs/test players had already found the “Grass Factory” solution to runeys, so I got almost all areas to prosperity in no time at all and now I largely ignore runeys.

If I’d written earlier I would have whined about how much time watering and harvesting consume day and after day, but not only is it Winter in my game right now but I also have a tamed monster to deal with just about all the mundane tasks and I have the second-best farming tools, so there’s no problem there.

I would also have gone on and on about how all the girls either suck or are recycled from RF1, but now I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m not getting married in this game, and I’m cool with that. Because seriously, the girls just aren’t appealing. Take Mist, for example. Well, somebody please take her ‘cos I sure as hell won’t. She’s been throwing herself at me since the first game and I don’t know how to make it any clearer to her that I’m not interested. Where I am in the story right now she’s gotten herself kidnapped. I am seriously and sorely tempted to leave her there forever and just not finish the game.

Melody and Rosetta and Lara, I like them all but not enough to marry them back in Rune Factory 1. Nothing has changed now. Bianca and Tabatha I married on my two playthroughs of the first game (hallo mai waifus). Anette looks too kiddy. Cinnamon looks stoned out of her mind. I have yet to have an interesting conversation with Eunice. Plus she looks pregnant. Nothing wrong with that, but if there’s no place in her oven for Raguna’s bun then there’s no point, amirite? Iris Blanche and Noire would have been my ladies of choice, but they’re way too far away to be worth the daily trek. In short there’s something wrong with all the girls in this game so screw them all. Well, somebody screw them anyway.

Apart from the initially slow (oh, so slow) farming system, the slightly irritating Runey system and the lackluster selection of girls, I’m having a really good time with Rune Factory Frontier. I’d forgotten how much fun these games could be, since it’s been… what, 3 years already since I finished Rune Factory 3?! It’s been too long. I love the Rune Factory games. Run, fight, plant, mine, dodge. Hack, slash, hack, slash, farm ingredients, grind up forging and craft levels, upgrade weapons, upgrade armor, hack, slash, hack! So much fun! I’ve been hard pressed tearing myself away from the Wii these past couple of days.

In fact I’d still be in front of the TV right now if disaster hadn’t struck in the form of the “Item Duplication” glitch. Now I must defend myself a little bit here: I almost never do that sort of thing. No, honest. The last time I wittingly took advantage of an in-game glitch was with the JP scroll glitch in the original Final Fantasy Tactics, over 10 years ago. This time, though, I got tired of constantly mixing up batches of Energy Drink X to take with me, especially with my lab skill already at 99 and white grasses being so rare and all. I decided to listen to the evil promptings and turn my 68 EDXs into 136 in one short battle.

Only because I’m so naive and unused to cheating (*cough* no, really) I forgot the last vital step in the process and POOF! all my EDXs were lost forever. And I didn’t notice, so I warped back home and saved, went to the Snow Ruins and then started looking around for my stuff. What, huh, NOOOOOOO!!!! URgghh… they’re not irreplaceable, but when I think of the work and time involved, urgghh…

Gonna take a break for a while and consider my options. Crime doesn’t pay, kids.

Related posts:

Rune Factory Frontier – Progress Report 2 Rune Factory Frontier – Progress Report 3 (finished) Rune Factory Tides of Destiny (Progress Report 1) Rune Factory Tides of Destiny (Progress Report 3) – Done and dusted