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Boring...Just no fun at all.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 56
Date: September 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My son ordered this game, even saved his own allowance to get it. He is very unhappy. He found the game boring, and hard to do. Plus he could not find any cheats or help online to see if he was missing something. Considering he LOVED harvest moon this game was a real disappointment

Old School Harvest Moon Fans Beware!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: December 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I recieved this game as an early Christmas present from my fiance as he knows Im a fan of the Harvest Moon games... I must admit, personally, Im far from impressed and plan to bring the game back.

I've played thru the first 2 season and have gotten to the 3rd cave, I think Ive given the game a decent chance.

The basic "farm life" aspect is still there however to progress in the game you have to venture into the cave and fight monsters. Which wouldnt be an issue but just think about it for a minute, Harvest Moon + Fighting = Really bad combo. Its nearly imposible to tell if your going to be hitting the monster in front of you, and after you damage them they become immune for a short amount of time in which they can still hit you, but you cant hit them. Which leaves, aside from the fact your just button mashing in the first place, a type of "hit and run" game play. You hit them, run away and hope they dont hit you, then run up to them and hit them again. Repeat until dead. Very boring, not to mention annoying.

I was also very disapointed that the only way to get "Livestock" is to tame like monsters. IE Monster cows and Monster sheep.

Another "problem" I found with the game was that by farming your energy went down, as normal in Harvest Moon games. However, if your energy went down, you couldn't do much in the caves, because after your energy wears out, your Hit Points start to go down when you perform actions, and even if your good at the tag style battle system and never get hit, your losing HP any way. Unless you level up in the caves frequently (Fills your HP bar) and never get damaged, I found often times my days were over energy and health point wise by about noon.

The idea is, you farm inside the caves, and when your plants are ready to be harvested, you get a little orb of energy. Idealy youd plant crops thru out the cave and hope theyd all ripen at the same time, as when you zone out, the energy orb disapears if you get it or not.

I'll be fair and say that I havent givin much "tactical" thought to when I want to fight monsters in the cave and how long it takes for my crops to ripen etc. so I can get the most out of ONE day in the caves... However dispite all that, Id find it hard to imagine that it would make it much more enjoyable, accept for that ONE day when I knew all my crops would be ripe.

The "Town Life" isnt much better than beating your head against the walls in the cave.

The characters have yet to give me any hints as to the types of presents they like, and I was forced to look online to gain some information as to what to do to begin courting my future wife. During this I learned their is no baby scene, your wife never moves from the spot she starts in once your married, and your baby will NEVER grow up. Doesnt really seem like much to look forward to, or much of a reason to keep playing after the 2 year story line, which is normally a thing I do in Harvest Moon games.

The only tools you start out with are the hoe and watering can, the rest you recive by triggering obscure events such as tilling 50 plots of soil inside a cave. Again, I was forced to go online to learn how to start most of these events, when it has never been a problem for me before in any other of the Harvest Moon games Ive played.

All and all, I like the Harvest Moon saga because I find them to be a relaxing yet engaging game to counter the more popular violent and or scary games like Resident Evil or Mass Effect etc. (Which I am a fan of however I can really only kill so many Zombie's and Aliens in one day. Hehe)

I didnt find this game relaxing at all as I was constantly watching my heath bar... and it was only engaging to the extent that it was impossible to progress. Very annoying game and a far cry from what Harvest Moon is supposed to be. Sorry, Running for my life and fighting monsters isnt what I think of when I hear "Farming RPG".

So unless what I've mentioned in this review sounds to be what your looking for, Id avoid this game. My only regret is he bought it new, instead of used. Its being returned tomorrow.

Save the swordplay for The Legend of Zelda...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I feel that the fighting in this game takes out the very "soul" of this beloved simulation game series. Harvest Moon is about living the quiet life (befriending the neighbors, marrying, building up your farm, raising your child that actually grows up). The fact that the original series is relaxing and a break from fighting games in general is what makes it so appealing in the first place. It's uniqueness in lack of violence is what makes it a jewel. If you have an itch to fight in dungeons, play the Legend of Zelda games! The way the stamina bars are set up makes it very limiting to how much you can do in a day. I also didn't like the whole catching your monsters (livestock) in the caves. It just makes it more work than it's worth. The only good thing about this game really are the graphics, which are indeed eye candy. For those who find the original Harvest Moon series boring, then maybe this game is your cup-of-tea. But if you're like me and fighting isn't vital to your gaming, and if you're also a huge fan of the original Harvest Moon series, then I advise against getting this game.

Guts of a Harvest Moon but not much heart.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Having put a lot of time into playing Friends of Mineral Town on the GBA I was looking forward to Rune Factory as my first DS Harvest Moon, even though I'd heard negative things about the first DS title. It has all the themes you'd expect, farming, fishing, cooking, romance, etc., but the characters/storyline and mechanics of it all felt neglected.

The dialog for each character is one or two sentences which only changes after you clear a cave or on holidays. There are hints of deeper connections between the townspeople but they never go into detail about it, I'm not sure if I had to be higher friendship for this to happen or not but I finished the main storyline with a lot of unanswered questions.

Farming/caring for animals is mostly just to get items for cooking/pharmacy, mining nets a ridiculous amount of money even in the low level caves so I never bothered trying to grow and sell high level crops since I had more money than I could spend. All the crafting options in the game were nice but require a large variety of different items and the inventory management is a pain. Mined materials come in different qualities and those can't be stored together in the same slot, so if I have 4 pieces of gold, unless they're all the same level (and there at least 18 levels) they'll take up 4 slots. Even with upgraded storage capabilities I was constantly having to throw things I needed away to make room.

The weapons, magic, and accessories are a nice base for the fighting system but the actual combat is frustrating. Every monster and generator has one small square for hit detection no matter how large it is so you spend a lot of time swinging through things and doing no damage. I didn't find much use for most of the magic spells I bought, also there's no way to get rid of them further adding to your inventory problems.

Taming monsters is a cool idea, and I love not having to water my crops. Unfortunately you can't have them water or harvest your crops in caves which make up the majority of farmable land so you still have to do that yourself. They also can't graze outside like in the GBA game so you have to keep them inside and buy or grow feed for them year-round. Unless you take a monster from a later cave into an easier one they're generally useless in combat, it would be nice to be able to bring multiple monsters with you then you could try to compliment their attack abilities like short/long range or kinds of magic to each other.

All that said I still wanted to at least to finish the storyline and I put a decent amount of time leveling each of the skills. There's plenty left to do after but unlike the GBA version it just seems repetitive and pointless to make the effort. Hopefully the next version can polish up the basics a little more even if it means taking some less important things out.

great game overall, but little replay value

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've played other Harvest Moon games, including those versions for N64, Gamecube, and GBA. This game is one of the best, with lots of items, shops, townsfolk, and seeds you can plant. The caves are fun, too, and it's easy to get addicted to the game as you go through the linear storyline. I had a lot of fun with the game and it took me a while to get to the "end." Overall I prefer the more traditional farming setup (with cows/sheep/chickens instead of monsters), but I enjoyed this new spin on one of my favorite games. The art (both character and screen) and music were very good.

However, here are my main gripes which are why I'm selling the game instead of saving it to play in the future:
-the townsfolk are BORING--they say pretty much the same phrase over and over, only saying something new if you beat a boss monster or gain access to a new cave. Once I got married, my wife says the exact same thing and gives me the exact same lunch of cookies every single morning, and doesn't seem to EVER move from her one spot in the house.
-most festivals are also boring--they consist of the townsfolk standing around town for you to talk to, with no special decorations, award ceremonies, cut-scenes, etc. (Well, there is a very brief sequence for one "date" night.) Even the "contest" based festivals aren't very interesting, or have very good prizes.
-Gathering various items to use in your kitchen and forge is tedious. Occasionally you get lucky and come across items while fighting in the caves, but when you want something specific you have to figure out which monster supplies it, and then battle that type over and over until a treasure chest shows up. I spent entire days collecting bird wings to make a new sword, for example.
-Fighting the monsters in general was pretty tedious, and only challenging if you rush through it without leveling up first. If you have one of the best swords, and are at a high level, not even the final boss monster is any challenge whatsoever.
-there is a lot of down time in the game where you've run out of energy, and can't do anything until the bath house opens, or if you're in a cave, you might have to just go to bed super early. At first I was grateful for the extra time to get everything done, but in the end it just slows the game down.
-there are so many possible food items, gifts, etc. that it's near impossible to figure out what to give townsfolk. Most times they will just blankly accept your gift, and it's rare to find anything they actually like. If you give them a crop, all they will say is "I wish I got this at the harvest festival." It makes gift-giving pretty pointless, and it's far more productive to just talk to everyone between caves and at festivals to boost their friend/love levels.

In general, after getting through the fantasy/cave-crawling part of the game, I found there just wasn't anything to keep my interest. It was great while it lasted but there were too many tedious/boring things about it to make me want to play it again.

Okay

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: December 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I got this game for Christmas and I was a little disappointed with it. The instrution booklet didn't tell you how to do anything! I'm the kind of person who likes just to scan through when a person is talking and you can't do this on this game. I missed the part where it told you to plant seeds and all that stuff. So this game would probably be fun if I knew how to do things.

It's okay

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: February 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

for first time Harvest moon players I wouldn't recommend this game. It is harvest moon with dungeons. it is good to start but once you get to misty bloom. it gets annoying because that cave is ONLY available in winter. if you like me you have to wait 3 seasons to get in (i defeated the boss on mt. gigant at 28 winter and they say don't go into misty bloom on new years because it will corrupt your saved game). i have everyone up to 10 on love and friendship and I chose my wife already. so i am now bored out of my mind with this game. i heard there is a sequel. i do hope it is better. over all though this game is okay but not what i expected from a harvest moon game.

My Rune Factory Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: September 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This review is by my eight-year-old. He plays it all the time.

"It's like Harvest Moon but better. You get to get a spear, ax, and sword.You get a fishing pole for free when you go to this beach. There are lesser demonds. It's good. It's good that there's monsters. Sometime they're smart enough to do your chores for you. Some of them aren't smart. I like to battle the ones that are green and carry long swords. You get to catch a ton of different kinds of fish. You get to cook them. You can catch squid, lobster, shrimp, rainbow trout."

Did I mention he plays it ALL the time.

kids keep fighting over it

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: September 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My 13 yr old boy and my 9 yr old girl have to keep records of who has this game and when so it is "even". They both love it. I wish it was a 2 player where I don't have to buy another game for them both to play!

cool

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

fast delivery. The game is fun...it's very much like harvest moon meets final fantisy

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