Silent Hope - Switch Review

Silent Hope by developer Marvelous Inc and publisher XSeed Games—Switch review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

 
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

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"...!"

"..."

"!!!"

"...?"

A land bereft of voices, where you cannot speak. An abyss filled with malice on the Kingdom's edge. Seven brave heroes arrive, ready to aid a princess in returning the voices back to the people. Oh, there's a lot of monsters down in that Abyss by the way. Have fun traversing it in Silent Hope!

Long ago a kingdom experienced a tragedy. After this tragedy, the citizens blamed their king, and turned their words against each other. The king, distressed by what his once-kind citizens had become, sealed away their voices and threw himself into the Abyss. Three hundred years later, seven heroes arrive at the mouth of the pit leading to the abyss. Meeting a princess trapped in a crystal tear, the seven heroes who have gathered are tasked with clearing the layers of the abyss, reaching the bottom, and recovering the voices of the kingdom from the king.

Your seven heroes, yes they're all you, now have to venture through the abyss after setting up an encampment near the princess's crystal. The only problem is they haven't exactly brought much along with them. No worries though! The abyss is chock full of interesting creatures, plants, and minerals to help you out! The standard gameplay loop for Silent Hope will have you making a delve into the abyss, returning to collect completed materials and start production on new ones, crafting gear and food, then heading back into the abyss.

So, while six of the heroes are setting up the hub area for your return, let's take a trip into the "only one person at a time" abyss. The abyss is essentially a roguelite type dungeon, where every time you enter there is a new layout, albeit with some exceptions. Your goal is to keep moving down floors until you reach the bottom. This can be done either by killing all the monsters in your way on the way down, running by as many things as possible and avoiding combat when an option, or a combination of the two. If you do go about beating up the things in your way, you'll earn exp, as well as maybe items, runes (which are the currency used in Silent Hope), or equipment blueprints and food recipes. Some floors have gates barring entry to the route downwards, some require you to fight through rooms that will spawn a number of enemies while you are trapped in a room, and some are boss or miniboss fights.

So, the abyss comes in layers, with each layer having a set number of floors, with some of those floors indicated to you if they are a special or normal floor. Don't worry by the way, there are plenty of return crystals you can use, as well as the occasional checkpoint that you can choose to go back to when you return to the abyss. Dying in the abyss isn't super awful either, as while you do lose some items you've collected, you are returned to your camp area with all your equipment and levels intact, although you will have to start again from the nearest checkpoint.

Now that you've made a trip into the abyss and brought some spoils, it's time to take a look at what the other six have been up to in your absence! First up on the left side of base, they've set up an Atelier and Workshop. These two facilities allow you to turn minerals and wood based items into crafting materials, respectively. These crafting materials can then be used at the Forge in order to craft gear such as weapons, rings, and earrings, one of each can be equipped by characters. Something to note is that it takes time for the materials to be turned into crafting materials, while equipment is an instant completion item. On the right side of the base we have the farm, the fields, and the kitchen. These are similar to the left side, only result in the creation of food items, up to three of which can be set that will give you a boost on your next run through the abyss.

In the back of the base you'll find the princess trapped in her crystal. You can talk with her, the only one to retain her voice, and she will help you appraise unknown blueprints you find in the abyss, change your characters' classes, as well as check and turn in missions for rewards. Classes are individual to each hero, along with specific weapon types that are unique to the individual heroes, and have different stat distributions and unlockable skills associated with them. Once skills are unlocked they can be used on any class.

Before we go back into the abyss to teach you some of the combat basics, I do want to emphasize that each of the seven heroes is very distinct. Their classes, weapons, as well as combat style and skills are all unique to that hero. For example, my personal favourite unit, the warrior, uses a greatsword, has buffing and sword spinning skills that tend to stun enemies, and has the classes: warrior, paladin, and berserker. The caster on the other hand uses a staff, uses skills that are based around magic, and has the classes: caster, sage, and summoner. All the classes, associated skills, and unlock conditions can be checked at the class change menu. 

While this means there are a lot of different characters with cool sets of playstyles, the heroes do have different weapons, as well as levels. So, building all seven heroes at once could be a little rough on you if you want them all to keep pace with each other. There are also other factors to consider, like different effects built into weapon blueprints, and synth stones you can attach to gear to add different effects and elemental attributes.

Well then, let's hop back into the abyss for a bit to talk a little more about the exploration and combat. As you travel through the layers of the abyss, you will come across plants and rocks to break for materials, chests to open for blueprints and runes, as well as monsters to battle for, well, all of the above really. Exploring the abyss is a 3D active action style, where you have full control of your character as you attack, dodge, chug one of your two potions to heal, and use skills. Good news by the way, skills don't consume any resource, and just require a period of waiting time before they're available for use again, something that took me a while to get used to at first. As you level you will get skill points that you can spend to upgrade your skills.

Now, you may be wondering "why use multiple units then if everything is individual?". First up, there are plenty of enemies and bosses that are kind of rough with certain units. Using the warrior as an example, one boss hits hard and fast, so you want to stay far away from them, but if you don't have a character with some ranged skills, you're in for either a long "hit and away" tactic fight or a really rough slog. Second, as the heroes are individual, sometimes you might get really good gear for a hero you don't use and not the one you are currently using. I managed to go almost three full layers without getting a decent weapon for either my warrior or archer, for example. Also, class unlock requirements have to be earned individually as well, so a hero you don't like could have a skill set you may like but will never see if you don't use them. Third, and maybe most important for the more casual player, is that you can actually swap heroes out mid run through the abyss anytime you find a crystal, earning stat boosts when you sub out as you explore.

I'll be honest, if you're only going for a single run on the easiest difficulty, or even a little higher, you can certainly get away with only using one character, but you'll be missing out. Thankfully, since there are six heroes remaining at base at all times, any production requests you have will still be ongoing while you're out! Also, there is a post game and harder difficulties, so swapping out and keeping your heroes all leveled does have its share of benefits.

Silent Hope is wrapped in a neat package that any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory fans will probably recognize pretty fast. Yup, the farming game has an action RPG spin-off, so expect a lot of the same sort of colourful and chibi artstyle that you've come to love. Each layer has its own theme that is reflected in the terrain style and enemies you encounter, and while there is some repetition and palette swapping of enemies, they normally have at least one or two aspects that set them apart from their earlier counterparts.

So, we're nearing the end, but let's talk about a few things that haven't really fit in anywhere else yet. First up, there's a sizeable post-game. By this I mean that there are more unlockable difficulties, as well as extra stages that are unlocked by clearing the game. While some may find it gets a little repetitive, that's what the multiple characters are for. If you're a fan of the roguelite action RPG style then you'll also be glad there's more to it. Exciting news as well, class respecs are completely free and at will. I was a little worried about this when I first started, but after my first class unlock I tried it and it let me completely refund all my skill points, right before a boss that my set-up wasn't particularly good for. This is great, especially since there are a lot of skills I like, but might be situational or not good against large amounts of enemies, or vice-versa.

Now for the two really cool points. First up, your base camp will change to reflect your clearing of the abyss. As you continue to go through new floors, you'll start accruing items in the back near the princess's crystal. Also, your 3rd class will net you a cool wooden figure that gets a shelf you can view, which is really neat. My other really cool point is that the credit sequence is one of the neatest I've seen in quite some time. You'll have to see it for yourself, but I was a fan of it.

Now obviously, as a Roguelite action RPG, this won't fit in everyone's wheelhouse, especially if you consider it can get somewhat repetitive if you don't change classes or try different characters. While #MarvelousEurope didn't really break any molds with Silent Hope, that's not to say it doesn't have its fair share of charm and unique twists and takes on the genre. I thoroughly enjoyed even some of the rougher points while playing through Silent Hope until now, and will continue my harder difficulty runs after this for sure. Definitely take a look at this cool title for either your action RPG or roguelite needs, and I doubt you'd be disappointed.

Score: 8.5 / 10

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Rune Factory 3 Special - Switch Review

Rune Factory 3 Special by developer Marvelous Inc. and publisher Marvelous, XSEED Games—Nintendo Switch review written by Jim with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

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We here at Chalgyr really like the Rune Factory games. Just go check out Pierre-Yves's Switch review of Rune Factory 5, Natasha's PC review, and Nick's Rune Factory 4 Special Xbox One review. I haven't actually played a Rune Factory game since Tides of Destiny on the PS3 but being a fan of Story of Seasons and other such games, I was really excited to try this remake out.

When starting the game like most of these games I have to pick a name for the character, I went with the default Micah. There is no option to play as a female in this game, so for some that may be a bummer. After picking a name I had to put a birthday in for Micah and away I went. Micah is an amnesiac who also happens to be half monster. One of the villagers named Shara finds Micah while he is in monster form and hurt outside. Micah is part Wooly, a sheep-type monster, who is one of the cutest monsters in the games. Shara decided to bring Micah inside and nurse him back to health. Micah wakes up shortly after as a human while no one is around and leaves Shara's house. Shara ends up seeing human Micah and asks if he is a traveler. After explaining he can't remember anything other than his name she and the village elder, Shara's grandfather let Micah stay in the village.

Micah is given a home inside the Sharance Tree and under the tree is a field for farming. After the game goes through all the tutorials on how to farm Micah will have his first fight using a hoe to attack. After beating the first few monsters who attack Micah will be given a choice of a few different kinds of weapons. I went for the two-handed sword but found out it wasn't for me as it was just too slow. I later switched to dual swords and they are much faster and stuck with them for the rest of the game.

There are four different dungeons in the game. One for each season and each with its own boss who after beating Micah gets some of his memories back. After beating the first boss Micah will be able to switch back and forth from his human and wooly forms. Micah must still keep the fact that he is a half-monster a secret so he must make sure he doesn't transform in front of anyone.

While trying to get his memories back Micah also can farm. Micah will be given the tools needed to start farming and from there he can buy seeds from the store in the village or find a few hidden under grasses and weeds that grow in the fields. Micah can grow veggies, fruits, and flowers. Micah can keep, sell, or craft with these. Everything you grow will have a level. The higher the level the better the crop is. There are items Micah can buy or craft to help raise the levels of crops. Micah can eventually buy a kitchen and kitchen tools to cook, a furnace to make and upgrade weapons and farming tools, an apothecary set to make potions and healing items, and a crafting table to make accessories that Micah can wear to boost stats. Micah will need items he finds from defeating monsters, farming, and mining to use for these.

Once Micah has a barn he can become friends with monsters by giving them food. A home-cooked meal works best and by doing this Micah can get byproducts from them like milk, eggs, wool, and other things needed for crafting. Micah can also find these by fighting monsters and they will sometimes drop the item but raising them himself can give you a better quality item.

The rate Micah can get money from selling things seemed to be just right as the pacing of the game seemed just right for me. It is an RPG so there was enough to do as Micah will get requests from the villagers through a bulletin board, Micah's mailbox, and later an owl. Finishing these quests will get you closer to the villagers and Micah will sometimes get a reward from items to money. It's a good idea to take on quests for the girl you like best as there are eleven bachelorettes. All of the characters are charming, even the non-bachelorettes. I enjoyed each one's story from the secrets one might have to just the silly moments you can have with them.

Everything Micah does in the game has a level and as his levels go up the better he will be at things or the more health or RP he will have. Lots of things cost RP: using tools, weapons, and magic. It all takes RP so leveling up lots of things is a good idea. It is easy enough to do though as there really is a level for everything in this game such as sleeping, eating, using tools, crafting, cooking, fishing, you name it there is probably a way to raise the level of it by doing it.

Every in-game month is a season and each lasts thirty days. In that season there will be birthdays that Micah will learn as he speaks and becomes friends with the villagers. Giving someone a gift that they like on their birthday will greatly raise the level of friendship with that person. There are also multiple festivals in a season from fishing, and harvest festivals, to ones with mini-games. These give a nice break from normal farming and adventuring. Winning one of the festivals will reward Micah with items though it always seemed to be cooking bread. Buying or earning recipe bread is how Micah learns new crafting or cooking recipes if his level is high enough.

Once Micah picks the woman he loves he can propose to her and then Micah will be on his last quest. Even after this quest and the credits roll the game doesn't end. There will just be no more story content after. Micah will have a wife living with him and can continue to farm, adventure, and finish any requests from the villagers. The quest on the bulletin board will be random daily. Micah can only do one request at a time and only one type of each request. So, Micah can do one bulletin, one mailbox, and one owl request per day.

One of the things Micah can do is go on what the game calls adventures. There will be a list to pick where Micah should go and each with a recommended level. Micah can get some decent loot from doing these but they can be challenging as the level layouts are always random and if Micah isn't at a high enough level he can get beat easily. Every adventure ends with a tough boss fight. These adventures do nothing to advance a story but they are fun to try out.

Micah can bring along a monster friend or a human friend to help out when you go out. They will level up as you and they defeat enemies. I got around to beating the game without them but you can also invite one of the ladies you like on a date and bring them to one of four romantic locations.

The gameplay is smooth but there are some frame rate drops in certain areas mostly in the fields. For me, there were a few spots that did it and since this is a remake of a Nintendo DS game I think the Switch would be strong enough to handle the game. Other than that one issue I really enjoyed the rest of the game. The music was good, the graphics were good when there were no frame rate issues, the real-time fighting was fun, and the characters were all unique. I loved learning about each one and then had a hard time picking a girl for Micah.

Once the game is beaten, the newlywed mode will be unlocked. This gives you a short story with each one of the bachelorettes after Micah gets married to them. They are short but fun little side stories but they end way too fast. I beat one of them in less than an hour though there are eleven of them and they all unlock no matter who Micah married in the main game. I also thought it was funny when in newlywed mode I picked the wife Micah married in my main game and some of the other female characters were asking if she and Micah had done anything 'kinky.' I wasn't expecting that from this game!

Overall I loved Rune Factory 3 Special and I am not sure how I missed out on it on the DS. I am glad it was remade on the Switch and even though I beat the story I will keep playing. It was a truly charming story with good pacing and fun to play. It felt like the length of the game was just right, long enough to feel like an RPG but not so long that it takes a lifetime to beat. The frame rate issue was the only annoyance but even with that I really liked this game.

Score: 8.75 / 10

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Akiba's Trip: Undead and Undressed Director's Cut - Switch Review

Akiba's Trip: Undead and Undressed Director's Cut by developer Acquire and publishers Marvelous, XSEED Games—Nintendo Switch review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

 
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Well now, here I sit again in front of my TV, screaming "GODAMNIT, GIVE ME YOUR PANTS" and "HELL YEAH, ALL THE PANTIES" making my neighbours question what the heck I'm doing. Spoiler, it's playing Akiba's Trip: Undead and Undressed Director's Cut. 

Akiba's Trip Undead and Undressed is an action strip-'em-up released in North America back in 2014. Now coming to a more up to date system with all the DLCs and some bonus content included in the form of the Director's Cut on Switch! Both handheld and console type playability allowed!

Akiba's Trip is the tale of a young man living in Akihabara, the electronics mecca of Japan. After deciding to take part in an extremely sketchy drug trial in exchange for limited edition anime figurines, the main character is kidnapped and turned into a sort of vampire thrall called a Synthester. Lucky for our MC, he gets saved by a girl who turns him into a familiar instead of a common thrall. So, what are you going to do now? Why, defeat the evil "not-a-vampires" that are plaguing Akihabara! And how are you going to do this? By stripping them and exposing them to that dastardly sunlight of course!

Alright, now I know what you're thinking: "what the heck is this game", and that's perfectly reasonable. But seriously, it's actually ridiculously fun. Pretty much what drives the game is you walking around Akihabara getting into fights with people where you need to beat them up enough for you to be able to remove your enemies clothes. Combat is a 3D action brawler type deal, where both you and your opponents can have three defensive equipment slots: Headgear, upper body, and lower body. Each piece has its own defensive value, and by reducing it to a certain point, you, or your enemies, can strip the clothes off. When someone is out of clothes, they are defeated and may drop their weapon or other accessories for you to equip.

Guess what? Any clothes you strip intact you get to keep! While you might be tearing a lot of clothes to begin with, the more you strip the better you get at stripping without tearing clothes. You can collect these to equip or sell as you need to. You can also unlock an upgrade function where you can get your little sister to enhance your gear by using other gear. Something to note is that every piece of equipment, whether it provides a defensive rating or not, updates your character appearance. You can also equip different methods of stripping people as well as walking styles.

Other than fighting off civilians and manmade vampires? Well, you'll be walking around Akihabara visiting shops to buy pants, or items, or weapons to beat people with, or you could be taking on sidequests in order to earn some money or perhaps clothing. You can also take a trip to the battle arena to test your mettle. Overall, the game is rather simplistic in its approach, which means it's a lot easier to get into the fun.

So, let's talk a bit about some more of the nitty gritty of the beat-'em-up style. As mentioned, there are three defensive clothings, and you can push a different button to attack each piece. The more hits you get within a time frame, you start building a combo which increases your damage rating. You also have a guard which will let you dodge attacks, and you can unleash counter attacks if you attack right after dodging. Now, if you happen to weaken multiple articles of clothing, you can chain strip. Essentially, whenever you strip an article of clothing, you can hit a button prompt to move onto the next clothing item as long as the durability is low enough. Not only do you get bonus exp for this, but if you get a high enough chain, you can even strip the opponent of their underwear! Muahahahaha! You do need to be careful however, as enemies tend to gang up on you, and you can be combo'd in a corner if you aren't careful.

As you are walking around Akihabara there is a lot to take in, from the various characters in weird or interesting outfits, the cosplayers, the stores and locations based on actual real world places, and even flyers that are actually from stores in real life! Well, as of 2013, but it's still cool to see it based so closely off a real place and real shops. There are colourful locales and LOTS of clothing items to...liberate the residents of. 

Good news though, you get a camera function that allows you to scan what people are carrying, letting you know if you've mastered the skill to assure getting their clothing, whether you have that clothing, or whether you have had it at some point so it got registered in the encyclopedia. Taking a picture in scan mode will also let you know if a dude is a Synthester or not. You can then talk to them to start a fight. Alternatively, you can shove people and hope they fight you instead of running away.

The graphic quality is... well, it originally also released on the Vita, so it's nothing too fancy, but you also have a ridiculous amount of control over a lot of game aspects under the Visual Editor. The soundtrack is also pretty good, although I wouldn't say it would win any rewards. Really, what you're here for is campy beat'em up fun, and Akiba's Trip offers that in droves. The game doesn't usually take itself seriously, and neither should you. 

There are a few issues, such as getting boxed in by random NPCs while walking, getting absolutely bodied by large groups of enemies, and if you aren't upgrading equipment, chances are some of the later fights are going to be down right nasty. There are certain mitigations to all this, such as the fact you push NPCs out of the way, a more conservative fighting style, and repeatable side-quests to build money for buying equipment and fusing, or the option to start a new game plus just by leaving Akihabara, but sometimes it can still feel a little rough. 

Now, I'd like to give an extra special mention to Akiba's Trip's New Game Plus feature. Yeah, I know, lots of games have these, what's so special about Akiba's Trip? Well, in addition to bringing over all your items and Encyclopedia entries, you can also freely select your character model, even from the random NPCs. A cool feature to be sure, but the most important? The ability to see what dialogue options are associated with what a character's true ending is. Seriously, this is a feature that more games need to include.

Overall, I have to say that Akiba's Trip Undead and Undressed Director's Cut is a really great title. Now available on more modern platforms, with additional story content and the DLC from the base game included, Akiba's Trip Undead and Undressed will strip the boredom right out of you.

Score: 9 / 10

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Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life - Switch Review

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life by developer Marvelous Inc. and publisher Marvelous Inc. & XSEED Games—Nintendo Switch review written by Jim with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes.

Ever since I bought Harvest Moon: Back to Nature on sale at a Target years ago I have been hooked. I loved the game back then so much I had played, if I had to guess, over a hundred hours in it. Now when I see any game named Story of Seasons or even Harvest Moon or anything like it, even like Stardew Valley, I just have to try them. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life that originally came out for the Nintendo GameCube and was another one that I enjoyed back then. I remember playing it with the window open in my room with a cool spring breeze coming in and I would play for hours. That was back in 2004 now nearly twenty years later we get a fresh take on the game.

For those that have never played a Story of Seasons game, it is a life/farm sim. Some of the changes from the original are in this one where you can pick your pronouns from he/him, she/her, and they/them. This doesn't affect the game much as no matter what you pick you can romance one of four men or four women. There is also some character customization you can do before the game starts and during the game. You start with a small farm with two fields, a barn, a coop, and a pasture. One field isn't very fertile while the second is a bit more fertile and will give you better crops. You start the game with a cow that Takakura your father's best friend and who lives in a cottage on your farm gifts you. You will also be given a dog who you can pick from two different looks. 

The game gives you plenty of tips on what to do like watering your crops twice a day, feeding animals, and using the tools you need to farm. For me, the game started a little slower than I remember. I had two fields full of crops, a chicken, a cow, and a horse that you get shortly after you start. Even with all that I found I still had a lot of time in the in-game day to do other things. You can fish once you get a fishing pole, talk to the villagers, get a daily recipe from the nature spirits, go dig in the mine for artifacts that you can sell, or gather flowers and wild herbs. But these artifacts can not be put in the shipping bin for Takakura to sell for you, however one of my favorite parts of this game is it lets you open your own shop stall in town. Also in town, you will find a bulletin board where you can find requests from the villagers for anything from crops, eggs, milk, fish, or even a cooked dish. I'm sure there will be other things too later. You will get rewards for completing these, but you only have so many days. The rewards can vary from seeds to wild herbs among other things.

Oddly enough the game never told me how to do this but by memory luckily I found the spot. Here you can pick a few items to sell and villagers will come and stand in front or to the side of your little stall. You talk to them and they will ask about an item that you can sell for full price or give a discount. Every villager will only buy a certain number of items. Three for most so talk to them more than once. Some will only buy one or two items and some will only buy if you discount it. You can sell just about anything this way but takes it takes time and sometimes villagers won't walk by for some time. There is another way to sell your unwanted items. Every four days a man named Van will stop by the village and set up his stall where you can sell just about anything. Also you can buy special items from him like upgraded tools. The only things you can buy at any time in town are seeds and food to eat right away at the cafe. 

There are three different kinds of crops: tree crops that can grow any time but will only bear fruit at certain seasons, flowering crops that grow above ground, and root that grow below ground. The only ones I see that made a difference are tree crops as they take up more space and don't need to be watered. Each crop takes different amounts of time to grow so best to keep an eye on what seasons they grow or they may wither away on you.

When a villager's happiness is high enough there will be small events that will play out sometimes giving you the option to pick what to say and sometimes you just read what they say in little cut-scenes that tell you more about that village and who they are. There is also a festival once every month. By doing these you can get closer to the person you are trying to hook up with or if you're already married you can go to the events as a family. Again these are just little cut-scenes other than them asking you to bring food to one and an ingredient to another other I do wish they were a bit more interactive. Even Back to Nature had interactive events every month and more of them than just four.

The game is played in chapters and in the first chapter where you just get started the story wants you to get married by the end of the first year. This is pretty easy by giving gifts to your favorite and then giving them a blue feather that you will get after a bit in the game. There are four seasons in the game and each one counts as a month and is ten days long. These short months help push the story of the game along, but can also come as a surprise to anyone who has played a story of seasons before as months are usually longer. 

Once you get married at the start of your second year you will get a child who starts as a toddler. You can pick if it's a boy, a girl, or either for a random choice. I picked either and got a son who I named Aiden. You can interact with your child and carry them, snuggle, toss and catch them, or sing them a lullaby. You will also be able to buy some toys for your child from Van once he has them in stock. Your wife will also help out with watering the crops a few times and this does come in handy as the second year picks up a bit where you can buy a third and even better field. 

By this time you might have more than one type of cow on the farm each with their own milk type, ducks, chickens, sheep, and goats. So even though things started slowly you may be having more to do once the second year comes up. You will have to watch your stamina, energy, and fullness. By doing things like watering crops your stamina will lower at first. The only way to make this go back up is to eat which will also raise your fullness. Run out and you will pass out for a few hours. After the first year however your home will have a shower and that will restore your stamina. I couldn't figure out what energy was, but it did lower and I could raise it by buying an item from Van.

I was also surprised to find some mini-games thrown into the mix like a strange line game where you try to make triangles and block your opponent from making ones of their own. I was really bad at this! There were a few others too that were easier. It just seems like most of this comes after the first year including new villagers. Also, starting later in the game, you can start to mix seeds and crops with other crops and certain flowers from an interesting NPC. Now you can make new kinds of crops by mixing them with others!

I have played a lot of this game and I can't wait to see even more of what will happen and how my son and family may grow over time. Even though things started slow I was quickly reminded why I loved the GameCube game all those years ago! Story of Seasons is a relaxing, and clean, game that I still love to this day, and it was only made even better by the additions and fixes this updated version made.

Score: 8.5 / 10

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Loop8: Summer of Gods - PS4 Review

Loop8: Summer of Gods by developer Marvelous and publisher XSEED Games—PS4 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

 
Estimated reading time: 9 minut

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Have you ever been doing something and thought "hey, haven't I done this before"? Have you had this feeling of Deja Vu for an entire month? Have you also felt like you've been fighting evil spirits that want to destroy the world? Well, Loop8: Summer of Gods will give you that feeling, for better and for worse.

In Loop8 you control the character "Nini", a boy who has come down to the Japanese town of Ashihara in the 1980s. In this alternate version of the world, creatures called Kegai have been running rampant across the world. Thankfully, the town of Ashihara has seen a distinct lack of Kegai activity. Well, it's lucky that Nini's been forced to show up, as the Kegai are beginning to stir in Ashihara.

Loop8 takes a very interesting stance on gameplay, having a sort of persona-esque vibe, just more of a focus on the social networking, less on the turn-based fighting. Well, let's start at the top and you'll see how things go. After you're new roommate and distant relative gets you situated and registered at the local highschool, you'll start having free time after the tutorial has run its course. During your free time you can explore the town, interact with other characters, and increase your stats. Normally I like to start broader and then get into some of the specifics, but today we're doing the opposite!

First let's talk about interactions with other characters. All the characters you can interact with have three different social values: Friendship, Affection, and Hate. Whenever you interact with someone, there are a number of options to choose from depending on their social stats. For instance, if you build enough friendship or affection with someone, you can ask them to hang out. In addition, every character will have their own mood and feeling, which will affect the success rate of your interactions. The general area you're in will also have a general mood depending on who is there at the time and their moods.

As you can probably guess, failing at an interaction usually increases hate and reduces friendship or affection. What I haven't mentioned yet is that interacting with other characters require health and stamina from Nini. As you move about the town and interact with people, your health and stamina will decrease. If it runs too low, or it gets too late in the day, you'll need to return to your room and sleep, starting the new day. Yup, that's right, it's one of those timed things. On the plus side, you can get a lot done in a day, as well as increase your health and stamina through your character stats (not the social ones).

Your character stats include such examples as Strength, Agility, and Divine Power. These determine battle effectiveness as well as increases in health and stamina. Your character stats can be improved either by interacting with specific locations around town and spending an hour and a half of in-game time or certain interactions with characters will increase both of your stats. An important note here is that even characters that won't necessarily fight alongside you still have status values. Pro tip, if you invite a character to walk around with you, they enter your party and you can check if they have any battle skills, which is a good way to check if you can have them fight with you in the combat segments.

So then, here's a question before we get into the combat type elements. Why is the game called Loop8? Well, anytime you either lose or make a request to a certain character, you will repeat the game from the beginning of August, continuing to loop until you reach an ending. Each time you do though, your stats and relationships will get reset, with two caveats. The first is blessings. As you meet certain criteria, you and your friends will earn blessings from the Gods. These blessings will permanently increase your stats between loops, giving you a higher starting value. The second is that your stats will increase at twice the rate until they reach their previous value, making future loops progressively easier as you increase your stats faster.

Alright, so now that we talked about what the bulk of the game involves, let's talk a bit about the combat portions. Basically, the world will end because an evil spirit possesses someone in town after a day or two. You have a 5 day countdown after beating a boss where that new evil spirit possesses someone. In order to start the foray into the world of the dead where the kegai reside, you actually need to figure out who is possessed and probably talk to them a few times. A portal then appears at the shrine, and you and up to two other members can venture forth to defeat the Kegai. This is where your affinity with other characters comes in, as you need a certain level of friendship and affection in order to ask others to fight with you.

Exploring the realm of the kegai is a little different than exploring the town. There are barriers around the mirror town you find yourself in, requiring magatama to unlock. You can interact with orbs in the mirror world and there are status checks to see if you get a magatama. Get enough for the barrier you want to unlock,, and you can challenge the boss. Alternatively you can talk to the shadow beings walking around to get some info on why the person who's being possessed is possessed to begin with. Or you could get into a fight.

Combat is...an interesting affair. Your party members will take action on their own initiative, while you can actually select what type of move you make yourself. You can attack with any of your social stats: Friendship, Affection, or Hate, which will have different impacts on the enemies, and bosses. If you attack with too much hate, or let it build too much from the boss, the bosses can increase in strength. Attacking with affection will lower this, but hate tends to be a stronger value, so use that wisely. In battle any moves you make will generally require stamina, except the option to restore stamina. If you get too low you will need to recover it. So you also have a health gauge, but you need to be careful. If Nini loses all his health, it's game over, and if your teammates lose all their health? They die. Like, OG Fire Emblem, they're gone for good.

Now, here is where I have to make the obligatory statement that I have no idea behind the exact mechanics of what determines the difficulty of a boss. They're also kind of randomized. For example, the first boss I fought during my first non-tutorial loop was the last one, before the final boss, during my first successful completion of the game. Now, for whatever reason, the second boss on my first loop, and the third last on my first success, were the hardest. Disgustingly so. That's where I learned your party members can permanently die. But I soloed the last three bosses no problem? Even the last boss was a bit of a pushover compared to that one specific one? It's probably related to your social stats, but I still don't fully understand just how the mechanics work. Maybe that's some science I can do later though.

Loop8 has a pretty wide variety of characters, all with  their own personalities and quirks, and it's really neat to see them all interacting with each other. That being said, you'll see that a lot, as each subsequent loop means you need to watch the same scenes over and over again while building up characters Friendship and Affection. To add to this, time passes really fast. Like, one in-game minute is one second in real time. While you'll generally be given a lot of time to deal with all the characters and increase your stats accordingly, the speed at which time moves, even in the mirror world, can seem quite pressuring.

Another bit of complaint I have is that there is a lot that is...rather under explained. While a bunch you can get from hints dropped by the divine flying squirrel that gives you your blessings, there's a certain amount of info that would've been really helpful to know a lot earlier than when I figured it out on my own. There's no real "check in here for different tips" deal either, so you have to basically just hope any non-blessing squirrel will give you actually helpful tips instead of random trivia.

Overall, I had a really good time with Loop8, despite some of the absolutely frustrating moments it gave me. I like the breadth of characters each with their own unique events, the backstories are generally either really relatable or make you feel for the characters. Well, at least some of them, yeah? The slow walking speed, the recurring scenes you have to go through every loop, and the necessity to build up relationships and stats again can feel quite off-putting at first, but it was nice to find out it just becomes easier the more loops you do.

Loop8: Summer of Gods is a rather rough game. It has some issues with pacing due to the looping nature of the game. Combat feels a bit like a slog to get through half the time, and frustrations can arise if you screw something up and find out you need to start a new loop because you aren't happy with the outcome. That being said, Loop8 is one of the most uniquely endearing games I've played in quite a while. Honestly, what you get out of Loop8 is roughly what you put into it. If you're shallow on your relationships, the game feels shallow, whereas if you ignore personal improvements, combat can become difficult. It's a very interesting JRPG take on balancing a personal and social life, more or less.

Score: 7.5 / 10

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Enjoy Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life Cosy New Trailer!

XSEED Games, the independent-minded publishing brand of Marvelous USA, Inc., alongside sister publisher Marvelous Europe, today released a brand-new trailer for RPG/Life Sim STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life. The gameplay-focused trailer highlights each season, showcasing the various characters and activities players will encounter as the years pass in game. From tending crops to riding horses, from attending town festivals to fostering budding friendships and romances, there’s something exciting to do every season.

Watch the new STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life trailer

An unforgettable tale of friendship, family, and farming blooms back to life for a new generation. Originally released for the Nintendo GameCube (and later the PlayStation 2), the STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life remake introduces a plethora of new events, enhanced festivals, a cornucopia of never-before-seen crops, and even more recipes to cook. Returning fans will find plenty of exciting updates to Forgotten Valley, while newcomers to the series will discover the joys of cozy farm life and the extraordinary characters that make this series shine.

STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life is scheduled for release on Windows PC via Steam, PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, and the Nintendo Switch™ system on June 27, 2023 and will be published in North America by XSEED Games and in Europe by Marvelous Europe. It is currently available for physical pre-order for consoles on the XSEED Games Store and participating retailers for a MSRP of $49.99 for the standard edition, and a premium bundle including a 3.5” x 4” goat pocket plushie and large cloth poster within a custom outer box for a MSRP of $59.99. This title has been rated “E for Everyone” by the ESRB.

More information about XSEED Games’ products can be found at www.xseedgames.com. Fans can also follow STORY OF SEASONS on Twitter, and XSEED Games on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, get in depth info from their developer blog, and join the discussion on their Discord server at: http://discord.gg/XSEEDGames.

Article by: Susan N.

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No More Heroes 3 Review

No More Heroes 3 by developer Grasshopper Manufacture and publishers XSEED Games and Marvelous—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

No More Heroes 3 is a wholesome tale by Grasshopper Manufacture, XSEED Games and Marvelous about a man who cares about his community. Going around and taking care of odd jobs to make it cleaner and safer for everyone, such as mowing grass,  picking up trash or unclogging toilets, Santa Destroy is a place where everyone would want to live. Kidding!

Having released last year for the Nintendo Switch, foul mouthed and hilarious fourth wall breaking legendary Assassin Travis Touchdown is back again for more over the top nonsense. With aliens having invaded earth, a new Galactic Superhero Ranking has been put into place and while Travis is not a hero, per say, Travis will need to reach the top of these new rankings to both prove he's still the biggest badass around, and save the Earth while he's at it. Just make sure to visit a washroom to save your game whenever you can!

If there's one thing that you can expect from No More Heroes, it's to not make assumptions in your expectations. Mostly? Because something else completely random is going to happen and you're just going to have to go with it. This, other than the writing, is part of the charm as No More Heroes 3 often had me thinking, alright, here we go again…? Wait what? Huh? How in the hell did… fine! Let's do this!!

Before getting to these points however, let's start at the beginning. Sitting around in his boxers and being all scruffy in his motel room, our protag Travis is contemplating how an older video game title ended as he doesn't remember and hopes to find out how with a revamped version. It just so happens that the plotline kind of follows this one. Aliens have invaded and it's up to one person to "save the day". Coincidence? Most likely, but why finish that game when you can play this one!

So with the aliens having invaded and the stakes set, there's only one thing left to do. Go make money in order to pay for your entry fees. Yup. Thought it would be easy huh? Nope. There are rules to these kinds of engagements and no money means no fight. So, to get this money, you'll have to go through both a few designated matches to prove that you can actually pull it off as well as pull off odd jobs like mowing lawns, picking up garbage, blasting giant alligators with cannons and chase down some fast and furious hooligans on a highway with your motorcycle. 

That said, making money is easy enough and won't ever feel like a slog. Can it be repetitive? Yes. There's no denying that. Where things are fun is that you can do the events that you want to do and ignore the rest if they are not your thing or they take too long for how much money you can accumulate. Furthermore these side jobs come in their own levels of difficulty so if level 3 is too much? Drop it down to level 2, rinse, repeat, and then honestly? After a good few rounds of the mentioned highway destruction, once I finished one chapter all I really needed to generally do were the designated matches in order to move on in the story. Travis was rich!

Designated matches in No More Heroes 3 are fairly standard in that you fight normal to ‘midboss’ level enemies and then get rewarded for it. This is also where you'll pretty much master the art of combat. Moving around is fairly easy and from there Travis can swing his beam katana around in normal or heavy blows as well as use the death glove for some more powerful moves. If the beam katana runs out of energy, you just need to shake it in a very suggestive fashion, as is par for the course since the original Nintendo Wii motes, and then you're good to go again!

In game nonsense aside, it works really well. As you use your beam katana and its energy depletes, odds are that you may have stunned an enemy. Stunning an enemy lets you perform a wrestling move in the form of a "throw" which both causes heavy damage and restores your beam katana's energy keeping a good flow. More than this, to keep the pressure on, as you eliminate enemies you get a slot machine spin. Known as the slash reel, as it spins it can grant you nothing, invincibility, your awesome armor to blast the crap out of everything that if can target (more on that later), or my favorite, mustang mode which allows for unlimited high speed attacks with no worry about energy depletion!

 If this was all though, it would have gotten pretty repetitive and boring as you’re basically starting off at rank 10 and have to pay for every ranked fight. So with that, and the minigames to earn enough money for a match fight? This is truly where No More Heroes 3 shines! Ranked fights are honestly like nothing you’re expecting. Will there be fighting? Yes. Will there be nonsense? Definitely. Will Travis emerge victorious in a game of, no wait, that would be too many spoilers, yes! Yes he will! As long as you’ve kept yourself on your toes of course.

Boss fights were the reason that I absolutely loved No More Heroes 3. Over the top, the mechanics are blended between the normal combat routine and other completely different styles which is something that I have to applaud Grasshopper Manufacture on. They didn’t just make “one” gameplay system, they made many and some of these elements will show up over the course of the rest of the gameplay while others will remain unique making you wonder, did I really just sit through a game of musical chairs? That makes sense… doesn’t it? There are several others all the way up to the final credits but those, those will be yours to discover as that’s not something that I want to spoil.

What’s really cool, and made me happy, is that there are some of these once cutscene or boss grade gameplay elements that will bleed over into the normal gameplay. Travis has a powered “mech” suit reminding me more of Zone of the Enders or Daemon X Machina (Digitally Downloaded) than Armored Core. In these sequences, you’ll be flying around in space dodging enemy attacks and firing off your own in either guided lasers or a full-on beam attack if the gauge is completely filled. Interestingly enough, the gauge for the beam attack is also the gauge for your thrusters so be sure you’re ready to use it or you may take a hit.

Aside from flying around in space, you’ll also get your hands on a modified mech suit for ground combat. While at first in specific sequences, it can be unlocked through the slash reel rewards for use when you really need it, or really just want to go crazy and finish a fight in seconds! The mechanics are similar to that of Travis with just his beam katana however you’re tougher, faster, and have a few select special abilities to really stick it to the enemy.

If there’s maybe one element that doesn’t work as well as the rest, it’s the space of Santa Destroy that you can drive your motorcycle around. Too big to really move around on foot, this space often just feels empty. Sure, it contains all the locations for the side jobs that you’ll need to earn money, it contains the locations for the designated matches, but otherwise? Short of a few smaller side quests and sushi shops which sell, well sushi, that can be used to heal or buff yourself in battle, there isn’t much else that the space is used for. And when you consider that you can just order sushi from your motel’s underground lab. That’s about the only part that feels long to go through.

Finally, in order to help with all of the above, Travis has access to said underground lab where he can both level himself up and make new chips for his death glove. Leveling up costs a different currency but one that can still be earned by doing side jobs, designated matches and ranked matches. You can increase attack power, your beam katana’s energy reserve and learn new moves like a running slash or improve on some others. The death glove’s chips are interesting as they are often double edge swords. Granting you more of one thing but at the cost of something else, such as taking 5% more damage for dealing 10% more attack or taking 15% less damage while dealing 10% less damage, the give and take can take some work but the results, if done right, are worth it if you offset the negatives.

Grasshopper Manufacture, XSEED Games and Marvelous’s No More Heroes 3 was awesome. From the epic voice acting, the craziness of, well everything, into the gameplay and presentation, Travis’ adventure was solid all around. Lasting anywhere between a dozen or so hours depending on how invested you are in the side content, there’s a NG+ just ready and waiting for you to go back for more!

Score: 8.5 / 10

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Rune Factory 5 Review

Rune Factory 5 by developer Marvelous Interactive Inc. and publishers XSEED Games, Marvelous—PC (Steam) review written by Natasha with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes.

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Whoever thought that combining two of my favourite genres of gaming, farming simulator and RPG, *chef kiss* Bravo! Give that person a recipe bread. You, my friend, are a genius for creating something that's part Harvest Moon and Monster Hunter Quest.

What? Never have I ever played this kind of game, you say? Well, my fellow gamers, grab that hoe and shield, strap on your best overalls and chain mail, because this game is about to teach you some life lessons.

Which is somewhere between crop managing an array of vegetables and taming monsters...

The Story

If you've ever played a Rune Factory game before, you'll know the classic tale of how the protagonist is an amnesiac with the mysterious power of the Earth beneath his dirty fingernails. You wake up (either man or women, depending on your gender choice) in a forest to the sound of someone's plea. Driven to help them you jolt to your feet and hurry to their aid. Upon a rescue attempt you are brought to the sleepy town of Rigbarth, a quiet country living neighbourhood with strange happenings going on.

As the newbie in town you are introduced and thanked from a Ranger called Livia, who is in charge of keeping the peace. Any newcomers to the village will have to prove their loyalty by drawing energy from a strange orb called the soulsphere. However, as you stand before the sphere a strong blinding light covers the whole room. Shocking to everyone, Livia mentions how you have been chosen as an Earthmate, one who brings prosperity to the land, and hires you as one of the resident Rangers. Together with the townspeople it is your job to bring bountiful harvests and discover what has been threatening the land.

The Farming Life

Ever get that itch to go and harvest the best produce you can? Well look no further, because Rune Factory 5 does a splendid job of making sure you put hours and hours into digital manual labour.

There are many aspects to farming in this game, but I'll start you off with the basics. As you begin your farmer life you'll be given basic farming tools to start off: A hoe, axe, hammer, sickle and a watering can. You're given a small plot of land to start experimenting with what you're given. Simple vegetable seeds are easily bought at the local store and each veggie has a description on how long it takes to grow and which season it thrives in. You can plant out of season, but once winter hits all your crops will wither and die.

In order to make sure everything grows properly you'll have to follow the formula of tilling the soil, planting, and watering. Once you've tilled and planted you'll have to continue watering for the next few days in order for your plant to grow.

Once your produce is ready you'll be able to harvest it from the ground and place it in your inventory, which you are free to choose what you'd like to do with it. The best choice would be to sell it by dropping it into your shipping container, which is routinely checked at 8am everyday. But you can save your produce to use in recipes or give them away as gifts.

Each time you ship an item you can view the value of that item with the info screen while holding it in your hands. Each item has a level, the higher the level the more valuable it'll become. If you continue to harvest the same vegetable long enough it's value will slowly increase.

You can also help your vegetation grow by giving it special soil, fertilizer, and liquid that could either strengthen it in stormy weather, stop it from withering, or help it grow faster by skipping a few days.

Weather plays a huge role in the game and you can always tell what it's going to be each morning you wake up. At the top right hand side of your screen, it'll display the weather conditions for the day, however, as the hours pass in mostly real time your forecast could also change. Rainy days are your best friend, considering it lets you avoid having to waste precious energy on watering.

Don't Forget to Farm the Dragon

Later, as you play through the main story of Rune Factory 5, you'll befriend a couple of the elemental land dragons that each reign over a part of region. You can look at these dragons as an expansion towards your growing farm. They'll be equipped with extra plots of tillable soil and barns where you can begin to raise livestock.

What makes the dragons different from your regular farm lands? Well, they can be persuaded to elevate the level of your fields by feeding them delicious crystals. Crystals can be found randomly during your explorations either as a whole gem or in individual shards. If you happen to collect 5 shards that represent the same elemental density you can visit the local jeweler to help craft a full crystal.

Once you have those crystals the dragon will happily help give your crops a boost. They can even change the weather with the right crystal. How glorious would that be?

Rune Points and Health Points

Considering that Rune Factory 5 is half an RPG your character will also have health and stamina.

Stamina or Rune Points (RP) is the life source to your farming. Every single swing of your tools will drain your RP, which means you aren't built like a machine and will require rest to regain any lost RP. You can do this by either sleeping in your bed or visiting the local hot springs. The hot springs are great for regaining lost RP or Health Points (HP) if you wish to continue exploring the world, but you can only use it once a day.

Another way to regain lost energy is by eating food. You can either find it, buy it, or cook it. Sometimes the food you consume will have an added status effect, which will be listed next to the item before you eat it. This could help you if you find yourself in a sticky situation.

A warning! If you run out of RP your character will start taking their energy source from your HP, which drains rapidly and can knock you unconscious quickly if you're not careful. Your HP will also drop if you are hit by enemies so it's always a good idea to keep a couple bottles of healing potion in your back pocket, just in case.

Upgrading to Better Stuff

As you work hard to collect lumber, stones, and all sorts of other goodies you can use those materials to upgrade the town or even your own home. You can also perform upgrades on your equipment, like weapons or armour. You'll have to apply for specific licenses in order to use certain work stations, gain the recipe and voila! You are now a junior blacksmith. Nothing screams blacksmith like installing an anvil next to your bed.

For each item you ship, monster you fight, or citizen you aid, you'll start to collect Directive Points (DP), which act like charity points. These points can help in further upgrading your town, equipment or even scheduling town events, but you'll have to talk to Eliza, your friendly neighbourhood wooden statue that sits downstairs in your office... you heard me!

Time to Fight

Not only are you a forget-me-not farmer (seriously, don't forget to maintain your garden), you'll also be the resident monster buster. As a Ranger it's your job to take on tasks and explore new territory outside the town.

You'll mostly travel to new locations as you progress the main story, which will unlock new areas that are otherwise blocked off until further notice, but the areas you do have access to are full of monsters, treasure, and materials.

Your field Captain can also give you some monster quests that either entail you defeating or capturing your target. Defeating a monster is pretty straight forward, but capturing them is a whole other issue. You'll be gifted a seal spell that allows you to capture monsters on the field. It will consume RP and does have a recharge limit. You can perform it in two ways. One: you can lash out and momentarily stun the enemies or two: you can capture them. Capturing them will require you to weaken them first and a little bit of luck on your side. The weaker the monster, the higher the capture rate.

Offence is only as good as your weapon and luckily for us the game has a variety of weapon styles to help you annihilate a plethora of enemies. You can be quick and nimble with swords, daggers and lances, or you can hit hard and heavy with claymores, hammers and scythes. Magic rods are also available if you're more of a distant fighter, just remember that magic will eat away at your RP. Each weapon you wield will level up, granting you access to unlock hidden abilities like a dash attack or ultimate moves.

You can also equip abilities that are related to your weapon type. These attack abilities allows you to perform a flashy move set or magic spells that can aid you in battle, but what's flashy and strong takes up more RP.

Did you know? You can fast travel in the game? That's right! You can quickly get somewhere faster by opening your map. You are limited to certain locations, but you can warp anywhere at anytime. When it comes to fast travelling in dungeons, you'll have to completely make it to the next floor in order to travel to that floor's location. Most fast travel points are always near the entrance to areas.

It's a Fashion Statement

Armour, accessories, boots, hats and gloves are equipable and available in-game. You can either find them in chests, buy, or craft them. Each equipable is different and will display its stats in the menu screen. They can also have resistances added onto them for extra durability.

You can also buy outfits that are more for a visual preference, but cost a fortune, and if you're itching to fight monsters off and greet your neighbours in your bathing suit, by all means.

Taming the Beast

Remember the sealing spell I mentioned earlier? Well, not only does it help rally monsters to your side, you can also attempt to form a bond. That bond will allow the monster you befriend to join your farm. You'll need to upgrade your Dragon Farm to have barns, but once you do you can catch and tame any monster in the game (other than the bosses).

Once you house your new monster mates you'll notice that they'll drop items. Depending on the monster you tamed, they'll drop specific items (Chicken = eggs, Goats = fur, Cow = milk, Wolves = claws, etc).

Make sure to spend time grooming, feeding and travelling together to raise their relationship levels. The higher the level the more likely they'll help you around the farm and drop higher quality items.

Levelling up those Skills

Everything you do in Rune Factory 5, and I mean EVERYTHING, is a skill. From farming, selling, fighting, magic, cooking, crafting, sleeping and walking. Everything gains exp towards leveling up your skills. The higher the skill the better at it you become... I can sleep better? Huh? You may not notice it right away, but the more you work at something, the less amount of energy you consume. Which is extremely helpful for farming.

Relationship Goals

If you've played a Rune Factory game before, or even Harvest Moon, then you'll be familiar with the dating sim aspect of this game. Continuing this, Rune Factory 5 allows you to build relationship levels with the townspeople and sometimes some of those individuals can even become your future spouse. When you open your menu and scroll over to your friendship chart you'll be able to see who is romanceable and who are neutral companions.

You can raise anyone's relationship meter by talking to them or giving them gifts. Talking will always increase the meter by a little. The best way to woo someone's heart is by presenting them with, well... a present. Each character has their own likes and dislikes, so you'll have to make notes on what that is. You can even receive hints if you pay close attention to the conversations you have with them.

Eventually, once you've reached the top level of the friendship, you'll have the option to court the partner of your choice. The bonus? You can romance either male or female, regardless of which gender you choose at the start of the game. So enjoy the married life if you choose. Having a spouse means extra hands on the farm.

What's that? We can have children too? More workers--- I mean more love to spread throughout the community.

Fighting Together

Later on, once you've raised your friendship level to a higher point, you'll be able to invite either your monster friends or town friends to join you in battle. Any monster you tame will fight by your side if you ask it to, but the towns people, specifically the bachelor/bachelorette, will only fight by your side with high friendship.

The Pros and Cons

Rune Factory 5 does an amazing job in showing you how much they have improved since the last release going from handheld to console. The graphics are more realistic, the colour is sharp and bright, the music continues to set the mood and the overall character designs and interactions are never boring.

I'm also happy to say that I like the option to marry either gender in the game. While playing older Rune Factory games where you were given either a male or female protagonist was a nice touch to the series, since older instalments only had you as male and it got boring fast only having to marry the girls, but Rune Factory 5 went above and beyond to tear down that barrier again and allow the players to have free reign over who they choose to be their partner. Well done RF!

However, the game is not without it's flaws. I found most of the flaws in the game to be small annoying details, but when there are multiple small details it tends to gather into a bigger problem.

Things like how your main character will ALWAYS shout something if you water. each. individual. plant. or seeds, or wood you chop, or stones you mine. Speaking of mining and logging, the hit box for stumps and boulders is so small that 8 out of 10 times I'll miss... even though I'm standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT.

I also noticed that if you're surrounded by too many monsters the frame rate drops and everything tends to move at a snails pace. You either have to run away just so the game can catch back up or kill a few in slow motion.

There was even a moment that some of the character portraits won't show up in chat scenes, making it seem like the text box is pointing to no one.

Conclusion

To conclude, Rune Factory 5 does a great job of delivering a great story and farming experience. If you find that combat isn't your style you can always turn the difficulty down to focus more on the farm life sim. Having a wide variety of events and characters you can interact with will never make a dull moment in the game.

If they had spent a bit more time polishing and fixing some of those minor bugs the game would be smooth sailing from start to finish. I'm giving this game an 8 out of 10 for it's spectacular visuals, compatibility and easy to pick up combat.

Score: 8 / 10

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