Rune Factory

Prior to this week I had never played a Harvest Moon game. To Mr. Yasuhiro Wada, I apologize.

To be completely honest, my entire knowledge of Harvest Moon up until Monday morning was obtained from a brief article I had read about the games years ago, which described them as "farming simulators." For years I wondered how Harvest Moon games were continuing to be funded and made. Finally, I have figured it out. Was it a huge underground subculture of agronomic gamers buying these things up year after year? Unfortunately, no. Here is the secret: Harvest Moon games are not farming simulators. Calling a Harvest Moon game a farming simulator is a hilarious understatement and misinterpretation. It reminds me of when Cave Story was released, an independent homebrew game which surpasses most major production games in its genre on almost all accounts, created solely by Daisuke Amaya who, after five painstaking years of development, posted it for download with the description,

“Cave Story is a jumping-and-shooting action game.
Explore the caves until you reach the ending.
You can also save your game and continue from where you left off.”

I decided to give Harvest Moon a shot when I heard about Rune Factory on Monday. It came to me, calling itself a fantasy Harvest Moon, and seduced me with promises of swords, magic, and cave exploration with bosses. I haven’t put it down since, and here’s why: this game understands you. It gets to know you, and moreover, it knows.

It knows that mindless repetition is boring. Most games don’t know this. Think about that MMORPG you’re playing. See? I told you. Every time I started to get bored of doing something in Rune Factory, it was ready to provide me with a way to get the job done without having to grind play the same tedious details over and over again. This is true throughout the course of the entire game. It’s as if Neverland Co. developed Rune Factory under the philosophy of that party game, “Telephone.” By the time you’re exploring the final caves it’s like you’re not even playing the same game as you were when you started, and thanks to the smart pacing, all of the transitions feel very natural.

It knows the things you’d like to do, and it lets you do them. Having fun doing something? Do it as much as you like. There is no rush or time limit. Seasons and years pass, but there is never any obligation to do anything that you don’t want to do. You don’t even have to farm if you really don’t want to. Are you fond of an NPC? Give them some time and they will be fond of you, too. You want to marry her and have a kid together? The game isn’t going to stop you. It will make the arrangements.

It’s not a dating sim, though. It’s not an RPG. It’s not a fucking farming simulator. It’s just a game--a lovable game that is not without quirks, imbalances, or imperfections, but still knows how to have fun.