Picked up Rune Factory Frontier last night. Had to sell a couple old games (something I swore I wouldn't do this gen), but it was a good decision. The game is excellent. It's everything that was good in the DS version plus a little more, with better combat (though still not great). So far I think the most interesting thing I've noticed is the more and more I play the less like Harvest Moon it feels. The farming aspect is still there (not quite to a true Harvest Moon level of depth), but they've stacked so much more onto this. There's combat, smithing, crafting, cooking, socializing, and monster training. And while most of those things have existed in the series they've been given an extra level of depth so that they feel genuinally important instead of just side projects.
In the previous Rune Factories farming still felt llike the main job. In fact in the first one, all you could do in the first weeks of the game was farm (everything else was introduced later). Now it just feels like one more part of the game. It's still important mind you, but it's getting pushed further and further from the center. In fact, the game is really starting to feel more like Legend of Mana now minus the world creation feature with all the directions you're able to take the character.
For the next month(s) this is likely all I'll be playing with a few minutes over We Ski and Snowboard to break things up. I shall reach GamingGeek/HotD: Overkill proportions of annoyance with the updates as well so please prepare yourselves.
Funny story: I thought getting to the floating Whale Island was going to be something you would have to achieve near the END of the game...
...within an hour I had watered the beanstalk and up I went!
I've sold a few thousand in Turnips already and purchased a Sword and some defensive equipment. If I have energy left at the end of the day, I expend it, swinging my sword to build my attack strength... My farming days are almost at an end! I am training, and I plan on becoming an adventurer any moment now!
BTW, Good News: The next game in the series has already been announced!
It is now officially called "Poon Factory" and your farm will be exclusively run by the Vulva creatures depicted here:
Just WAIT to see what you get to do with the Wii-Mote in THAT game!
I hate you.
If I were you'd I'd head to the Island and practice your sword there and see if you can't kill a few monsters at the same time to start leveling your character up. Plus you'll be able to start gathering materials for weapon and armor forging, as well as do a little mining to get some iron for the first round of forging as well.
Rune Factory's opening video (and yes this is for the NA version): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTAtKCXiSHM
First time I saw this I was absolutely horrified. The music was (and still is) just so freaking wrong for the game. It sounds like it could have been for Katamari Damacy. Fortunately the in-game music is much more subdued and appropriate. Most of it's pretty forgetable truth be told but in the dungeons there is some excellent work. One song is so good I'd swear came out of Chrono Trigger and that's about as good of a compliment as I can give any game.
http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=3851
You know those cute little glowing floaty guys you've seen in Rune Factory Frontier screenshots? Late last week, I got my hands on a tool that can suck them up into my inventory, so I can go trade them in—effectively, turning them into currency—for "Rune Wonders" such as a rainy week, more fruit on trees, or little stones that are actually required in dungeons. I ran around sucking them out of the sky for an in-game day or two and seeing what I could do... and found out that I had become Death, destroyer of Runey ecosystems.
You see, there are four types of Runeys: water, rock, tree, and grass. They exist in a food chain whereby water eats rock and so on (nobody eats water, strangely.) I'm still exploring the system, but it seems that growing crops spawns more grass Runeys and several areas of the map are prime real estate for certain types of Runey, meaning their numbers will naturally increase, given no external action......
More at the link
I suspected that something like this was possible. I picked up the Runey vaccum a while back and sucked up a few of them, but was loathe to do too much in case in had a negative impact on the land. I'm not familiar with how quickly they repopulate so I'm only capturing a minimal ammount of them. Besides I like seeing the little glowing blobs floating around. They're cute.