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preface
The Rune Factory series, a spin-off of the Ranch Story series developed by Marvelous, adds more combat systems than honka, transforming from a pure-bred field stream game into a fantasy world of swords and magic. The Rune Factory 4 Special, which landed on Steam on December 8, 2021, is the first time in the series that it has landed on the Steam platform.
Sword-wielding Ranch Story
"Sword-Wielding Ranch Story" – Producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto called the series in an article on IGN. Just as "Persona" is to "The Rebirth of the True Goddess", the first work of the "Rune Workshop" series released in 2006 was released as a spin-off of "Ranch Story", and its name also bears the name of the family, called "Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon", which can be seen at a glance from the suffix of this "fantasy version of Ranch Story".
Then as a derivative series, "Rune Workshop" became independent, starting from the release of "Rune Factory 2" in 2008, the new work no longer has the suffix of "Harvest Moon", which can be regarded as inadvertently avoiding the dispute between the ben family and the European and American agent Nattsume trademark agent, and does not have to have their own surname harvest Moon or STORY of SEASONS.
Now, with the latest work in the Series on May 20, 2021, "Rune Workshop 5" released on the Japanese NS platform, the series has five canons, two sequels/spin-offs and an enhanced version, and the "Rune Workshop 4 Special Edition" that landed on Steam this time is the enhanced version.
If a player goes to the Rune Workshop 4 discussion community, they may see that this slightly niche player group in the country disagrees about which work is the best. Some people think that the three generations are gods, and some people think that the fourth generation is the peak of the series, but if you want to discuss sales, then before the latest Rune Workshop 5 hit the series record with more than 100,000 physical sales in the first week, the hottest seller is undoubtedly Rune Workshop 4. Released in July 2012, the fifth anniversary of the Rune Workshop series sold 85,955 copies in its first week, setting a new record of 56,082 copies of the previous series created by the second generation, and directly exceeding the cumulative sales of the previous rune 3 at that time. In August of the same year, Rune 4 sold more than 130,000 copies to become the highest in the series' history, surpassing the total sales of the second generation of 117,600 copies. In 2015, the cumulative sales of Rune 4 exceeded 250,000, reaching a height that was unattainable in the history of the series - this figure even exceeded the cumulative sales of the 20th anniversary of the series in 2016, "Ranch Story: Precious Friends of Three Villages": 240,000. So much so that in a 2020 interview with GamesBeat, the North American publisher of the series, Xseed, used this as a basis for believing that the Rune Workshop series was the most successful series on their hands, surpassing the Well-known Isu and Trajectory that domestic players are familiar with.
However, the story after that is not so gentle. Since the launch of Rune Workshop 4 in 2012, the series has been lost in both sequels and spin-offs. It wasn't until 7 years later, in July 2019, that Rune Factory 4 Special was launched as an enhanced version of Rune 4, adding new cutscenes and new difficulties, as well as new modes and new plots such as "Newlywed Mode" after marriage, hd-definition and reset the OP.
However, the response of this cold rice after 7 years is not satisfactory, the first week of sales is only less than 38,000 copies, ranking fourth in single-week software sales, and the number is a new low in the main transmission - of course, the reset/enhanced version of this kind of fried cold rice must not be regarded as a new work, but after seven years of series resurrection, such a record is indeed the first basin of cold water.
Fortunately, although the newly released Rune 5 in 2021 has many evaluation problems, it still has a good data, and the first weekly sales of 102,853 copies mean that the probability will directly refresh the record of the cumulative sales of the series, which is a shot in the arm for the subsequent development of the series. However, compared with the two, the wind review almost fell below the bottom of the new work Olive Town, the strongest result of the series of 200,000 in the first week, and it was the first time to break through the million cumulative sales, which forced the entire IP to be raised to a grade, can only be said to be a foreign transmission or a foreign transmission, the story of Rune 4 is probably just a flash in the pan.
The landing of rune 4SP on steam after the new work Olive Town can be seen as a signal released by Xseed and Marvelous on the release strategy of the steam platform and even the PC side. Also in a 2020 interview with GamesBeat, Xseed also mentioned the difficulty of discussing the importance of the Steam platform with Marvelous — which is why most of the games that Xseed released on Steam in the early days were Falcon family barrels — and that Marvelous is finally ready now. Coupled with the fact that yasuhiro Wada, the father of Ranch Story who left in 2018, expressed his envy for the potential of the PC platform in an interview with the Tour Research Agency, it is foreseeable that Rune Workshop 5 will also come to the Steam platform after a period of time to meet with pc players.
From turnips to Japanese fantasy swords and magic
The beginning of the story is that the protagonist who intends to send something to the dragon is attacked by soldiers on the airship and loses his memory, and he is directly thrown down by the soldiers of the second stunned, and the stroke phantom dragon Selzeweed, fortunately and very human survived, broke the cute nature of Selze, and was also taught to work as a prince. Then the real prince Arthur came to the town, learned about the situation and proposed to ask the protagonist to top the bag, and the story began.
This story can be said to be very two-dimensional, and after that, there will even be classic routines such as playing boss burst girls, one body double soul and so on. However, the Amnesia Terrier is not only a classic bridge of the second dimension, but also the traditional artistic ability of the Rune Workshop series, a few months ago Marvelous made an official vote for the fifteenth anniversary of the Rune Workshop series, and the first question was what do you think represented the Rune Workshop - the final result of the Amnesia Terrier ranked second, only after the iconic crop turnip of the whole series. When appreciating the results of the illustration contest in the basement, I will also receive the official complaint that "most of the protagonists present have lost their memory".
I have to say that compared to the new olive town next door that only puts a standing painting in the picture book, and the dialogue does not put only a 3D model in the behavior, this work can be said to be very two-dimensional, very Japanese fantasy. Not only is there a beautiful vertical painting and difference in the dialogue, but also a large number of voice actors' voice actors, there are animation OP not to say, but there are even debut animations when the raider characters first appear, with this two-dimensional standard plot, it is really a familiar taste - this is Japanese fantasy, this is the sword and magic.
If there is any regret, it is that the same sex marriage has to wait until rune 5 and olive town to join, so this game wants to attack the girl can only choose the male protagonist, Lily can not do it.
Of course, no matter how two-dimensional, aside from animation and standing painting, as an old game that has a history of 10 years in essence, the screen of this work is full of the sense of the times even after high definition, and it is undoubtedly unrealistic to have expectations for its modeling, special effects and stickers, and it is incomparable with the olive town next door. However, this game does not intend to win with the picture, as a classic work, its gameplay is not outdated even today.
Since it is "Sword-Wielding Ranch Story" and "Fantasy Ranch Story", the content of this game is basically the content of Ranch Story plus magic battles, but the farming part is undoubtedly more simplified in comparison - although there are more closely integrated domesticated monsters and drop runes with the combat system, which also leads to some changes in the farming system, such as extremely giant crops (laughs). But in general, it is still the same square field as the family, weeding and gravel, cutting wood stakes, turning the soil to water and bury the seeds, and then considering factors such as fertilizer, harvest failure, etc. The crops grown can be shipped and sold for money, or they can be made into food to improve their attributes. Recipes can be obtained by eating bread sold by gourmets in limited quantities every day, which can be unlocked if the skill level is sufficient - the same is true for crafting equipment and trinkets.
And because the passage of time in the rune workshop is linked to real time like the home, daily watering is very time-consuming, and the family can solve this problem by developing a shower, but this is the fantasy world .jpg. Compared to the family's unremarkable animal husbandry, the Rune Workshop series breeds monsters, and even bosses can be caught - as long as the corresponding props are made. Farmed warcraft will not only produce corresponding products, but also take them out to fight and ride, and players can even ask and their own highly favorable beasts to take care of part of the farmland.
In addition, the game also has other systems such as fishing and festivals. However, since it is a world of swords and magic, the combat system naturally cannot be skipped. The battle in this game can team up with NPCs and carry breeding warcraft, essentially teaming up with people/animals with good relationships. There are many types of weapons, one-handed swords, two-handed swords, spears, wand gloves... There are also a lot of magic, but unlike many JRPGs that stink and grow in the maze, the same is a Japanese RPG, this game has a very convenient one-click teleportation magic, which can be directly teleported to the previous archived diary point, and even press it directly back to the house. After obtaining the airboat license, the player can also directly teleport to the dungeon door through the empty boat, eliminating the worry of running the map, which can be said to be very humane.
However, as a farming game, this game is still self-sufficient on the bottom. The prince point system of this game is equivalent to the trust value obtained after completing the mission, and the player can issue orders through this point, including expanding backpacks, chests, monster huts, etc., obtaining industry licenses such as cooking, forging, and empty boats, purchasing forging tables, cooking stations, and starting festivals... And so on is done through this system. The disadvantage is that it will be a little complicated for newcomers, and the degree of freedom may be too high, but this game is very intimate to provide a large number of novice tasks, at least there is no problem in completing the initial guidance.
Perhaps for most players, the most important thing is not these. Also in the voting for the 15th anniversary, nearly half of the players who voted chose to be "in love" for what to do in the game. As mentioned above, this series is still quite two-dimensional, and playing as GAL or Otome can be said to be quite mainstream gameplay, not to mention that you can also form a team. Fall in love with your favorite piece of paper, get married, have children... What a beautiful thing.
epilogue
Rune Workshop 4SP is a Japanese fantasy ARPG with good gameplay, a combination of farming and combat. As an old game, although the graphics are a bit outdated, the kernel is still very interesting and worth trying. I'm also looking forward to experiencing the latest Rune 5 on PC one day.