Having a deadline creates a tension often lacking in newer farming sims, particularly now that most of them don’t have in-game deadlines for achieving goals or time-sensitive events. Generally the rival weddings are spread out, so you have a couple of in-game years to woo your love interest… or change direction if they do end up marrying the love rival. Love rivals give you a deadline to compete against, because the rival has a set date for their wedding regardless of whatever you’re up to. Gives a Set Goal and Timelineįarming sims are primarily time management games, but once you get the hang of when to plant crops and when to brush your cows (or in Rune Factory’s case, Buffamoos), they become pretty freeform experiences. What better way to show up the village jerkwad than to steal his girl? Nobody will ever talk about it again… but you know they’ll all be thinking about it while they’re ‘miring your turnips at the harvest festival.įarmer Kyle, hoeing down the field in his crop top 4. While Rune Factory 4’s handling of romantic interests was fluffy and cute-and did allow the good people of Selphia to (politely) get up in your business as you date every eligible bachelor/ette in town-nothing compares to Rune Factory 2’s bride-stealing, where you can attend a wedding and ask the bride to run away with you instead. Why am I no longer allowed to stir the pot as the hot new farmer in town come to steal the local preacher’s daughter from the mayor’s son? Part of the charm of any farming sim is getting involved in the day-to-day happenings of all the local townsfolk, and a good eighty percent of small-town life is the juicy, unnecessary drama.
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Common to older SoS/HM games was a mechanic where each love interest available to the player also had an NPC vying for their virtual affections, known in fandom spaces as “love rivals.” So, in honor of Rune Factory 5’s upcoming release, here’s 5 reasons why love rivals should be a thing again. with the arrival of the remaster Rune Factory 4 Special and the announcement of Rune Factory 5, expected in Japan in May 2021 and sometime in later 2021 for the rest of us.ĭetails are coming out slowly-a trailer has been released and the love interests announced-but there is one thing I hope to see in the new RF that’s been missing from the last couple of generations: love rivals. The franchise was only recently revived by Marvelous subsidiary Hakama, inc. Rune Factory is a fantasy-themed spinoff of Story of Seasons (formerly known in the States as Harvest Moon, which is now a different franchise) that combines farming with dungeon crawling: you split your time between tending your crops, befriending local townsfolk, and then inviting said townsfolk to come kill monsters with you (or taming the monsters so they can tend your crops and you can get back to killing their brethren). Rune Factory is probably the best farming sim you’ve never heard of… mostly because it’s been assumed dead for the almost eight years, since its original developer Neverland filed for bankruptcy.