You ever play Harvest Moon? That’s the game where your little guy wakes up in the morning, leaves his farmhouse and waters his crops, checks on his animals, and woos the local lady-folk. If you preorder it, you’re likely to get a stuffed cow or chicken or something as a bonus. You ever play that one?

Yeah, me neither. I was a little surprised that I became interested in Rune Factory Frontier, the Wii version of Rune Factory - A Fantasy Harvest Moon. See, it’s a lot like Harvest Moon, only in addition to all that stuff, you get to go kill monsters and take their stuff.

In Rune Factory, while you’re outside of a building, time progresses at a rate of about 1 minute of gametime per second. That means that a 24hr period in-game takes 24 mins of your time. Indoors, gametime stops, and you have to sleep somewhere in there so figure that a gameday typically won’t take more than about a half-hour to complete. Some wind up much shorter than that.

Here’s a typical day:

6am: Woke up. Watered the cabbages. Picked the ripe turnips. My captured squirrel-monster picks wild plants from my field, giving me a couple of bamboo shoots.

8am: Visited my neighbor, Mist. I gave her some turnips some turnips which she likes entirely too much. She may be mentally challenged, but she’s cute so I give her a couple turnips. I put the rest in my pickup box. The lady from the general store in town will be by at 5pm to pick them up.

9am: Went to the ruined underground research complex inexplicably located in Mist’s front yard. Watered the strawberries I planted near the entrance, then went to the rock outcropping to mine for iron. Afterwards, I took my claymore and slaughtered a bunch of monsters for experience and because I’m collecting insect jaws to make katanas to sell. I stopped in the middle and ate breakfast, some fried trout I cooked up last night.

3pm: Went home and checked mail. The owner of the bathhouse in town wanted me to fill out a survey about the water temperature. I said it was just right, because I’m flirting with her too. She totally wants me. I checked the animals in my barn. They had plenty of food, so I brushed their coats which increases their loyalty to me. I collected milk from the cow-like monsters. Later, I’ll make ice cream with it.

And so on….

The long-term draw of the game comes from the multiple systems that interconnect: You turn vegetables and fish into food you eat in a dungeon to replenish health and stamina. In the dungeon, you kill monsters and mine to get materials to make better weapons and armor, but also improved farm tools that let you save time farming. As you play, you find crafting recipes for better food and weapons, and you can also make magical trinkets which boost your combat stats AND make great gifts for the ladies. You’ll also be keeping an eye on your income, so that you can upgrade your house with better facilities, including kitchen tools and stations for making adventuring equipment.

There’s a certain amount of grinding in Rune Factory, but for the most part there’s always something interesting to do. The notable exception is that there is an overall story about the floating island over your town, but unfortunately story progress is based on fairly specific triggers that aren’t obvious or intuitive: From time to time you’ll need some Internet searching skills to figure out how to keep things moving. Still, the game’s held my interest longer than many have, so I have to recommend it.

Posted on December 27th, 2009 by Nathan
Filed under: Commentary