Done, done and done. I met all the Rune Factory Frontier goals I set for myself last time, so here I am for the final round up.
1. Getting married to Iris was a bigger ordeal than I’d thought. First I had to raise both girls to 10 LP. Then they inexplicably fell sick and I couldn’t figure out how to cure them. After checking several FAQs, I learned I had to wait a week for a book to show up at the library. Now, how was I supposed to know that? In fact there were a lot of “How was I supposed to know that” moments in this game, but this was probably the worst.
Long story short, I jumped through all the necessary hoops, waited almost a month to propose and got myself a lovely young wife. Lost Iris Noire in the process, which was a bit sad. But it was for the best.
Having a wife is embarrassing! But sweet. But embarrassing! Whenever I try to leave the house, she gives me a goodbye kiss! With a closeup! AAAAAAH! I can’t play that in front of anyone! >_< But she’s really cute.
2. I crafted almost everything on the crafts lists and made almost all the recipes. Apart from the ultimate hoe I also fully upgraded all my farming tools. Good times.
3. I beat both bosses. Turns out they don’t start out in hypermode unless you’ve fought them at least once before. The Snow Ruins snake was annoying, but not that hard. The Whale Island squid was a little harder, but I was sick of running and dodging by that point. I just loaded up on healing items and foods and beat the crap out of him. I’m not going to bother getting revenge on the Chicken boss, though. I doubt he’d drop anything worth my while.
4. I grew almost all the crops. The only things I didn’t get were Red Crystal Flowers and Pompom Grass. Growing almost everything was a lot of tedious time and repetitive effort, so I want to say “Never again!” but the items and weapons I made from the results served me well, so I can’t. I just wish there was some other way to get them, like a rare monster drop or a quest reward.
Final roundup (quick notes)
– Farming. A real drag. Especially since you couldn’t muster an army of monsters to do the heavy lifting. When Tides of Destiny came out and I heard the farming element had been simplified to hell, I was livid. Now I’m much more interested and ready to forgive. I’d be sad if they took farming out completely, but I don’t mind if they take the stress and tedium out of it.
– Fishing. Very useful, but not interesting at all. My fishing level was the lowest of all my stats when I finished. Maybe more varieties of fish? More fish dishes? A more interesting mini-game? Dunno.
– Fighting. No problems there, except like fishing it was a little dull. I also prefer the other RF systems where you could equip both magic and weapons and use them interchangeably. It also took me a while to figure out when an enemy was dead so I could stop slashing, but no biggie. And some of the boss battles were a little too long.
– Controls. Generally good, but bad for farm work. Every single motion takes way too long to execute. Walking or riding everywhere on such a large map was a pain. I thought I’d get a warp item/spell by the end, but I never did. Also it was annoying have to pull up a menu every time I wanted to switch the smallest item.
– Characters. The village felt a little sparse. I thought new people would move in later, since the place was so big and empty, but they never did. Apart from the Irises I didn’t like anyone very much. I also went ages without seeing most of them because my paths never took me their way. People like Danny and Turner might as well not have been in the game. Same with Brodik – what the heck was his problem?
Apart from taking useless guys like those out, I’d like future games to make it so character’s lines and reactions towards you change as their affection (both love and friendship) grows. It’s so boring how they only speak the same 2 or 3 lines day after day after year after year. How am I supposed to believe Laguna and Iris are in love when all she ever says to him is “I love tomato juice!”?
– Mail quests. Pointless. Unrewarding. No fun. I don’t see why I have to give an item to the mailman when I can hand it over in person. Plus all I got was a “thank you” for handing over a Fairy Dust it took me 3 days of farming to get. Never again.
– Dungeons. Dungeon layout was good, monster density was just right. I never felt overwhelmed by the number of enemies, but there was always something around the corner. The shortcut system was an excellent idea.
The only thing I disliked about dungeons was the unclear requirements needed to unlock them. After the Green Ruins I wandered around for days before I noticed the sprout on the Mountain Path. After finishing the flame dungeon, no one told me I was supposed to use the relic on the stone by the library until I FAQ’ed it. Once I got stuck in the Snow Ruins, I had no way of knowing I was supposed to either ride an animal or go to the side of the church – a place I never go and where nothing else ever happens – and wait for an event to trigger.
– Crafting, cooking, forging, alchemy. All good. The mini-game that lets you boost the level of the finished item was good too. No matter how many kinds of items they let me make, it would never have been enough so no complaints about the number. But there really should have been a mass-production option. They should show you in advance how much RP/HP it will consume and let you whether to proceed or not.
– Runeys. Time-consuming and inconvenient. They’re not quite as bad as I was led to believe, but even with a grass factory they’re annoying to manage. The reason I’m not too mad is because Marvelous has already seen the error of their ways and taken them out for good.
– Time management. Time moves too slowly. There should be an option that lets you skip up to 6 hours ahead in a day.
– Graphics, music. Haha, you know I never pay much attention to these things. No, actually the music was pretty good. The character designs were a bit lacking, and the town layout was rather poor. Too many places that take too long to get to and where nothing ever happens.
– Overall feeling about the game. Largely positive. It took a while to get going and the story wasn’t that interesting. And I didn’t like the characters much, didn’t like the farming either. But I still played 89 hours of it in record time, so eh. It was a little better than “just okay” but not by much. Quite a few things could have been improved, and I hope to see some of those changes reflected in Tides of Destiny.
– Where to next. Tides of Destiny and Arc Rise Fantasia are the only Wii RPGs I have left to try. I’ll start them in a couple of weeks, next time I’m back home. On the PS2 I’ve started Steambot Chronicles. On the PSP I’ve finished Story Mode in Phantasy Star Portable 2, but I can’t stop doing open missions. If/when I ever tear myself away, I plan to start Sol Trigger. That’s it for today.
