Harvest Moon for a New Generation

Rune Factory was an interesting take on the popular Harvest Moon series. It took a game that at its core was farming and added combat and other RPG elements while still keeping the things that made the Harvest Moon games great. The result is hundreds of hours of play time while being less repetitive than the usual Harvest Moon game. The English release of the game has been pushed back to November 18 but we've played around with the Japanese version that has been available for some time now. There may be some minor differences between the English and Japanese versions.

With the release of Rune Factory 2, the creators wish to differentiate the Rune Factory series from the Harvest Moon series. This is a wise decision because the two series vary greatly aside from the farming aspect.

Story

The story centers around a boy named Kyle (you may name him whatever you want), who lives in Alvarna village. When the game starts, he is met by a girl named Mana who tells him of approaching danger. It is up to Kyle to solve the mystery behind the premonition without slacking in the care of his own farm.

The basic mechanics from the first remain unchanged: your main source of income is running the farm. One of the first things you will learn is to grow crops. Different crops grow in different seasons. For instance, in spring, you can grow crops such as turnips, whereas in summer you can grow corn or sweet potatoes. To plant the crops, you need to first rid the area you want to sow of weeds, rocks, stumps and other irregularities. Then plow the area with a hoe and plant the seeds. Each plot falls in a 3x3 square, so you have to be sure you are standing in the middle of the area you just plowed. After you have planted the seeds, you only have to water them every day until they are ready to be harvested.

Farming is sooooo 90s

Another way to care for your farm is to capture monsters while you are in the caves and raise them as your own. Monsters have multiple benefits. Some allow you to harvest certain products from them. For example, you can shear wool from a sheep to sell or make yarn from, or milk a cow creature for milk which you can sell or use to make different foods when you have a kitchen.

Other monsters will lend a hand working on your farm, harvesting or watering crops, greatly enhancing your efficiency and thus the speed of work. In turn, this gives you more time to talk to the townspeople, make friends, go shopping and explore caves. You can even bring along a monster sidekick to fight by your side.

Besides the farm, you can make a bit of extra cash by fighting in the caves and collecting spoils dropped by monsters to sell. The main point of the caves is to level up and become stronger combat-wise, however. You also need to go through all the caves to complete the story of the game.

House Upgrades

You can upgrade your house with a number of different items, like a kitchen to make food products or a forge to make and upgrade weapons and tools. Perhaps the most profitable upgrade for your house is the seed-maker. When planting a crop, you can apply a 'greenifier', which is like a fertilizer that can increase the level of your crops. Higher-level crops yield more money per level. When you put the leveled-up crops in the seed-maker you get seeds of that level.

These features were all present in the original game, however, Rune Factory 2 adds more on top of this. Instead of having to go to the pause menu to equip things, there are tabs in the bottom of the screen that will let you equip items using the stylus. Another feature not in the first game is the ability for the townspeople to give you quests besides the main storyline. The game also takes place in two parts. After getting married and having child, you can continue to play the game as that child.

Looking Forward

Overall, Rune Factory 2 plays pretty solidly, with the new additions making the game even better than the first. The English release has been delayed a few times already, but hopefully the November 18th date sticks and the game is released before the holidays.