Yes, this is my first two parter and it's a game that well deserves this treatment. I;ve talked a lot about Rune Factory, so let me finally explain why I like ti so much. This first part will explain farming, combat, story. Without further adieu, Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny!
So Rune Factory starts off with your guy Aiden (you can custom name him) waking up and having amnesia about where he's from and how he got here. You realize your friend whos a girl (im sorry i have to say that) is inside you! Her soul is trapped inside your body, but she can still talk to you and other villages...someway. "Here" I mentioned previously is the island of Fenith, where a humble group of village folk reside, carrying out their daily lives, whether it be blacksmithing, bartering, running a church or just plain exploring. Odette, the village innkeeper, welcomes you to th island and gives you a place to stay. You learn the basics of living your life, when suddenly a rock golem sprouts from the side of the isalnd, and is now your companion, who you can ride the seas with and explore other islands. You defeat some dungeons, find out these orb..things, the local dragon on the finally leaves, lays an egg, it hatches, you name it, you defeat all 4 deungeons, you fight the big boss, the girl inside you leaves, you name her, games over. Yeah, as you can tell the over-arching story is kinda weak and I didn't really care for it. But whatever, noone really cares about that stuff anyways, lets get to the good part, living out your life!
The great thing about Rune Factory is you can do whatever you like and live out your life freely. Want to explore dungeons, level uo your weapons and advance the story? Sure can! Want to simply farm, cook and interact with villagers all day? You can do that too! It gives you a great amount of choice in this aspect, so some days you can chill out, while others can be spent fighting and leveling up. Which brings me to the 3 main aspects of Rune Factory: Farming, Dungeon Crawling, Sea Exploring, and Village Interaction. I'll talk about the first three in this part.
Farming is what it sounds like-you farm. Your golem has a teleporter to bring you to the special farm-islands. Here you can use a spirit wand to plant sprouts in certain plots. Here your monsters (which I will explain in a sec) will grow those plants, and eventually they will grow into fruits, vegetabkesm or even trees, depending on which monster you have out, as certain monsters only plant certain things. In past Rune Factory games, farming as a lot more direct, having you water each plant directly and harvest them yourself. Now the monsters do literally everything, and all you have to do is pick up your plants in the mailbox on each island. Plants and harvest is used as the main source of income in the game, as well as sources for ingredients for cooking. Overall, I liked this aspect. It was a lot less direct, which made it a bit less satisfying, but the money I got was fantastic and I eventually had over $200,000, which is about 100,000 more than id ever need. This allowed me to explore other aspects of the game I wouldn't have, due to the fact taht i'd be focused on farming. It's alright, but a lot of fans didn't like this focus away from the farming.
Combat has a huge focus in this game. Not only is it the only way too progress the story, minus certain instances, but it also got the most attention in development and has been the thing fleshed out the most from previous Rune Factory games. It's a lot more dynamic and up close, featuring combos, many different weapons to speak of and 4 dungeons, but each being incredibly long, with a tough boss fight at the end. You can get high level weapons by crafting them, or gaining them through special quests. Sometimes the items through quests can be absolutely DEVASTATING, and some rods I got early on I used throughout the entire game. The dungeons usually contain mini-puzzles for each floor, and you can warp to any floor from the dungeon entrance, which is nice. Monsters can be recruited for the farming I mentioned earlier, and since each monster has it's own special ability, experimentation is required. Overall combat feels fun and satsfying, and it's dissappointing that it's probably never going to be this fleshed out again.
Amd finally, Sea Exploration. Using your golem, you can travel around a humonour sea, and lift up islands out from the bottom of the ocean. Some islands have special story purposes, but others are merely there as mob spanwers for grinding, and maybe a hidden treasure chest or two. This is actually a really cool concept, as you can easily get lost finding the huge amounts of islands scattered across a vast ocean. It does give a very literal feeling of adverturing aqnd exploring uncharted territory. You can even fight with your golems in awesome sea battles with sea monsters. Overall it provides a great way to explore it's world, while simultaneously creating a new story aspect and an easy way to acess your farms and monster barn.
So what did I like about these aspects? Well, a lot actually. First off the graphics in this game are excellent. Loading times have been drastically reduced, so it all feels very smooth and fluid. Environments, while not terribly detailed, are great to look at and the changes between seasons is very nice to look at. Character designs are also great, getting a mix of cute and perky girls, to rough and tough fishermen. It does tend to lag a bit in dungeons when multiple enemies are on at one time, but attacks are really flashy and full of visual flare, so it makes up for it in the long run. The vastness of the sea ia also a spectacle, and makes you feel very small, as you should.
I reall enjoyed the farming, dungeon crawling, and exploring. Each one I feel were improved and fleshed out for the better (maybe not the farming) and are aspects I hope Yoshifumi (creator of series) keeps in mind when creating the next Rune Factory Games. Theres also cooking, crafting and forging, all skills that can be leveled up in yoiur house by use of various apliances. This adds a whole nother level of depth to the game and just adds replayability. Mini features like being able to see where people are on the map and being able to jumpo GREATLY add to the experience, and overall there's never really a dull moment in Tides. There's always something to do, and I love it for it.
Check bak in Part where I talk about eh good stuff, dating aspects! Juicy!
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