...--BUT--
My barn has 7 Monsters in it. One gathering Stone, One gathering Wood, One gathering Wild Vegetables; There are two that regularly accompany me into the dungeons, and two more that I haven't gotten to trust me enough yet to do much of anything!
I have upgraded my Farm Equipment (myself) to Water 3 Plants at once, using only one Unit of Water; Sickle 3 Fodder at once, Chop Wood, Smash Small Rocks and Hoe 3 spots at once...
I am currently trying to gather enough Wood to build a better Forge in my home. I can only Forge two items at once right now, so I have only produced an Earth Sword, Scimitar, Fire Rod, Fire Sword and Wind Sword, weapon-wise, so far... I have a Seed Maker and Lab, as well as my Barn and Forge.
I haven't gotten quite close to anyone women yet... I guess if they let two guys hook up in the game, the whole child rearing portion of the game would be lost... Oh well...
Still, an AMAZING GAME ! ! !
phantom_leo said:The unbelievable depth and charm of this game has had me captivated for days out of this last week. Step aside Deadly Creatures, Mad World and House of the Dead, The Wii has a new reigning champion as Best Game so far this year!
I refuse to believe it!
I've gone off Deadly creatures, not for any particular reason, but like Okami I'm having an indefinite break.
Loving Madworld and single player HOTD is fun everytime.
phantom_leo said:I have been focusing on Adventuring and Forging this week. I have fought the Boss in the Dungeon in front of Mist's house twice so far, and have, subsequently been killed by him twice so far...
--BUT--
My barn has 7 Monsters in it. One gathering Stone, One gathering Wood, One gathering Wild Vegetables; There are two that regularly accompany me into the dungeons, and two more that I haven't gotten to trust me enough yet to do much of anything!
I have upgraded my Farm Equipment (myself) to Water 3 Plants at once, using only one Unit of Water; Sickle 3 Fodder at once, Chop Wood, Smash Small Rocks and Hoe 3 spots at once...
I am currently trying to gather enough Wood to build a better Forge in my home. I can only Forge two items at once right now, so I have only produced an Earth Sword, Scimitar, Fire Rod, Fire Sword and Wind Sword, weapon-wise, so far... I have a Seed Maker and Lab, as well as my Barn and Forge.
I haven't gotten quite close to anyone women yet... I guess if they let two guys hook up in the game, the whole child rearing portion of the game would be lost... Oh well...
Still, an AMAZING GAME ! ! !
Sounds good. Tell me about farming, can you keep animals? What are your upgrades like? Barns? Churners? Bigger house? Kids?
gamingeek said:Sounds good. Tell me about farming, can you keep animals? What are your upgrades like? Barns? Churners? Bigger house? Kids?
Ummm... To answer your questions: Yes.
All of the above, plus a butt-load more!
phantom_leo said:gamingeek said:Sounds good. Tell me about farming, can you keep animals? What are your upgrades like? Barns? Churners? Bigger house? Kids?Ummm... To answer your questions: Yes.
All of the above, plus a butt-load more!
What about breeding cows and selling milk. Harvest moon type stuff. Is there grass to cut with a scytche?
Is there any kind of story in this game? What is the point of that boat? There is fishing? Are there islands? How do you mine? Is there a cave? Is it laborious?
(Well, any of them can accompany you... and you do find all of them in the dungeons and then befriend them there --BUT-- who would your rather accompany you: a monster sized Mushroom creature that stuns his enemies and has HP and Defense higher than yours, or a cute, little horned squirrel?)
You can pretty much upgrade everything: Your farm equipment, your weapons, your home, your rooms, your facilities, your furniture, your relationships, your town, your job, your individual stats... You can marry, you can have a kid. Unlike Rune Factory 2 though, your child does NOT grow and start adventuring on his own. A cool feature of that game, but not a huge loss. There's STILL a lot to do!
Farming is seasonal. There are 30 days in each season. Different crops take different times to grow, so crop management is there IF you want to focus on Farming. You can grow the quick route and grow Turnips to turn a quick profit, but they are a one shot deal. Plant some Strawberries and you can continue to harvest them after you pick them. They grow back after 2 or 3 days, I believe. The turnips earn you faster money and take little maintenance; the strawberries require a bit more time and attention, but they yield more money over time. There are specialty plants that take months of planning in advance to grow, but yield MUCH higher value. There are plants that take 100 days to grow for example; you have to plant them 3 seasons ahead, if you want to grow then. If you do it wrong, they bloom in the wrong season and wither! Again, if this is too complicated, do a different job. Focus on producing potions and accessories and sell them for a profit, if you want. You HAVE TO start with farming to earn your first bit of income, but you don't have to do that indefinitely.
gamingeek said:phantom_leo said:gamingeek said:Sounds good. Tell me about farming, can you keep animals? What are your upgrades like? Barns? Churners? Bigger house? Kids?Ummm... To answer your questions: Yes.
All of the above, plus a butt-load more!
What about breeding cows and selling milk. Harvest moon type stuff. Is there grass to cut with a scytche?
Is there any kind of story in this game? What is the point of that boat? There is fishing? Are there islands? How do you mine? Is there a cave? Is it laborious?
I have a cow-creature; I don't know if I can produce milk with her though. I have not come across any milking equipment yet. Yes, you cut fodder with a sickle. Your monsters aren't going to work for you very long if you don't feed them! By the way, when's the last time you fed Iga?
Other questions: Yes. Don't know. Yes. Yes. With a giant hammer. Yes. No.
gamingeek said:Sounds good. How do you find the fixed camera? That looks annoying to me, running towards the screen.
The fixed camera is fine. It works as well as that crappy, Nintendo-made City game they put out last year with all the animals in it... What was that called again?
...but seriously, as you upgrade your equipment to be able to do your chores more quickly with super moves, the camera actually pans automatically to give you a better view of what you are doing. There was never a time when I could not see my character or where it was an issue. The ONLY time you have an obstructed view is when you stand behind a closed door... and that lasts for a tenth of a second.
I've got both the Rune Factory games for the DS and have not opened them yet. They are too much like my real life to feel like fun.
I'm of course still playing the game. First of all I'd like to congratulate Marvelous for including the first ever fat chick as a woman you can court. I'm not sure why you'd want to go after her as she's not aesthetically pleasing and frankly she doesn't even have a nice personality. Most wives offer some kind of bonus at the beginning of the day so maybe she offers up a huge one... who knows?
As for my progress, I've yet to get to the boss of the Green Dungeon (the first one that Leo mentioned earlier), but I've had a lot of adventures there so far. I've been focusing a little more on the farming side of things. I'm also about to discover the first great secret of Whale Island so that should be pretty cool.
I've got a couple women on the line already (neither of which are the fat chick) but I'm not committing myself yet. There's still a few that haven't come to town yet so I want to make sure I'm not missing out on anything.
On the whole I will say that the Wii version is a step up from the DS versions, but they still have a long way to go. Combat is much better and that's the most notable improvement. But the crafting and smithing got dumbed down in this game to make it way too easy by eliminating the penalties for a failed attempt. The town still feels kind of lifeless with the absense of people ever walking around. And the story still take forever to ramp up.
Technical flaws aside, I think I still prefer Tree of Tranquility on the Wii over Frontier. Still, it's a good game and I won't be putting it down for a while.
gamingeek said:The RPG aspects, are they numbers based, upgrades and such. Complicated at all?
There are 2 kinds of RPG aspects to pay attention to and both are number based or at least sort of. Your combat specific stats - attack, defense, weapon strength - have a number attributed them. But then there are also your daily skills also have a level attached to them which goes up as you use them.
To be a little more specific, as your level increases you get a small stat increase and when you forge a stronger weapon you'll see that weapon's strength also go up. And in battle when you attack you'll see a number for power of the hit you dealt the monster. The weapons may also have other stat bonuses such as a chance to stun or an elemental attribute to it.
Aside from combat your other abilities (farming, smithing, lab, etc.) get skill points every time you practice the particular skill. The reason that's important is every time you engage in an action you drain what you might call your "stamina meter." The better you are at the skill, the less it drains the stamina meter. So whether you swing a sword or sow crops your stamina meter points go down.
Once the stamina meter is depleted then you'll start draining your health points. That's not such a big deal when you're working the farm because it's very easy to manage for the most part, particularly because once your health starts to drain your character will be slumped over. But when you're in a dungeon it can be extremely dangerous. It's very easy to get caught up in combat and not pay attention to your meters. You can be doing extremely well, not getting touched by a single enemy and suddenly realize you're near death simply because you've exhausted yourself.
So overall the system is a little different than anything you've probably played before. I wouldn't say it's complicated but getting used to monitoring stamina can be a little tricky and at times a little frustrating particularly when you're out of stamina but there's still daylight left to do work. There's a couple ways to regain stamina (food, potions, and hot springs), but sometimes those aren't available and the only thing you can do is go to sleep and call it a day.
gamingeek said:Oh yeah is there day and night with a clock system like HM? So you have to go to bed or get tired and pass out?
Yes. You won't pass out unless you overwork yourself. A day will keep going until 5 AM, but then it automatically starts the next day with you waking up. But if you push yourself to that hour you'll wake up later in the day, without full energy, and possible a cold or other ailment. And if you're wondering a cold will cause any action to take up 3 times the amount of your stamina bar that it normally does.
gamingeek said:Do you have to make yourself meals?
No, you don't have to eat anything, but cooking is important. Cooked meals give you certain temporary bonuses to your stats. More importantly they can refill your health and stamina meters. In the dungeons you won't last long unless you bring yourself a few snacks for the trip. And the more difficult the recipe the more it will refill.
That's the interesting thing about all the little side things you do at home. The smithing, cooking, lab work, and crafting is all optional but if you don't learn it it makes the dungeons much harder.
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.