Great to hear the review for Rune Factory.  Pretty much in line with what I expected.  Still wondering how the hell I'm going to pay for this game. . .

You wouldn't be too far off if you called Rune Factory: "Animal Crossing with a Sword."

It's VERY open ended this time and ABSOLUTELY beautiful!

If Marvelous takes the hint and makes the next one online, a-la AC... They will trump Nintendo at their own game!

[That is, until Nintendo decides to give Link a farm and a town of people to get to know and protect and then re-trumps Marvelous!]

gamingeek said:

phantom_leo said:

You wouldn't be too far off if you called Rune Factory: "Animal Crossing with a Sword."

It's VERY open ended this time and ABSOLUTELY beautiful!

If Marvelous takes the hint and makes the next one online, a-la AC... They will trump Nintendo at their own game!

[That is, until Nintendo decides to give Link a farm and a town of people to get to know and protect and then re-trumps Marvelous!]

What? That's like a dream game. I dont get the beautiful visuals thing though. Character models are blocky and all. The camera is panned out. It almost looks PS2-ish depending on what screen you look at. I want to know if farming is easier than harvest moon and actually uses the pointer. I will read the review later.  

Not 100% sure, as the reviews don't really go into detail, but it does sound like motion control is supported for the farming.  But frankly if it's anything like the controls for HM: Tree of Tranquility you won't want to use them.  The motion control was horrible in that game, and frankly I just don't think it'd really work for a farming game.  The farming requires a lot of repitition and thank would just be exhausting with motion controls.

Yeah. The thing is, in this Rune Factory, you could be a blacksmith, chef, alchemist, artisan, etc...

Farming doesn't HAVE TO be your only source of income...

...not that I've gotten that far into it; it actually states that on the back of the case.

You can use the Classic Controller if you want, motion control is not used other than "waggle to dig" and such...

You have an onscreen cursor and whatever tool you are using is activated by simply shaking the wii-mote...

I seriously WOULD NOT want to plow a field or fight monsters by constantly waggling.

Just think of this as a very open rpg for the Wii and you'll appreciate it more!

phantom_leo said:

Whether this was a nod or just a way to get you to know the village and its inhabitants, I don't know --BUT-- the game starts with a Nun that asks you to deliver a bamboo shoot to the inn-keeper. The inn-keeper asks you to take a payment to the general store; the general store owner asks you to deliver something to a neighboring farm...

...I swear I was looking for a talking Raccoon to give me my next order...

...so I could grab my sword and kill the annoying little fucker...

Nahhh this has nothing to do with Animal Crossing.  Harvest Moon has had the player getting tours and delivering stuff to the neighbors as a "get to know the surrounding area" as a standard for many years.  

gamingeek said:

You guys should make a thread, I am interested in this game. So how does it work being a blacksmith for example? You collect ore? Make weapons and sell them?

So how do the dungeons and story come into this?

What are the visuals like Leo? As good as HM A wonderful life?

Once I pick up a copy I will, but until I have hands on experience with it I'm holding off.

To answer your other question I can only assume that smithing works like it did in the DS versions.  You first buy a recipe book with directions for making different swords/armor/etc.  Then you gather ingredients - ores, jewels, and other random ingreidents.  Then you try to construct the sword.  You have a blacksmith skill so depending on the difficulty level you will have a certain fail/success ratio so you never want to tackle a sword that's too difficult or you'll lose the ingredients.  BUt at the same time if you risk it you could build something that will annhilate the monsters you face in the dungeon.

It's good for making money, but towards the middle of the game the shop in town stops bringing in new equipment so if you want to stay tough as the dungeons get harder you have to create your own weapons and armor.  

Again this is how it was in the DS version, but it was a solid system and I don't see a reason why they would have changed it.  After all, even though it's Rune Factory it's still a Harvest Moon game and that means change is bad.  

Haven't been able to play too much yet; really just the introduction.

In the last week I have picked up:

Suikoden Tierkreis
Valkyrie Profile: CoP
Henry Hatsworth
Rune Factory: Frontier
Resident Evil 5
Avalon Code

and

Demon Souls...

I have been traveling extensively...

I have had Avalon Code with me, and have been alternating between Street Fighter IV and Demon Souls the short times I have been home lately, so...

No time for the Wii at the mo...

I want to post extensive impressions of all of these, but ST, VP and HH haven't even been opened yet!

Avalon is REALLY something worth playing, as is Demon Souls...

...I just haven't had much time to be online lately!

[Maybe this weekend!]

GG's ass is user friendly.
*giggles*

My ass has defensive spikes.

You say tomato.